Two Communities

2.2.1 The Dubgaill

Most literary detail we have about the politics of ‘Middle Britain’ in the later 800s and early 900s comes, surprisingly perhaps, from Irish annals. A point to emerge from these annals is the clear distinction between two ‘Northumbrian’ political communities. One of these communities, the Dubgaill, was of particular interest because of its importance in Ireland. In Irish sources, the Dubgaill are distinguished from Finngaill, Scandinavians who had already been present in Ireland and over whom the Dubgaill eventually ruled.85 In the 860s, Dubgaill

is used for the ‘Great Army’ of England. It is the Dubgaill who battle Ælla at York in 867, and who attack the Picts in 875.86 This usage is mirrored in Wales, Annales Cambriae noting ‘Dark Gentiles’ (Dub gint) at York s.a. 867, with another entry s.a. 853 describing the wasting of Mon by ‘Dark Gentiles’ (Gentilibus Nigris).87 Irish sources note four rulers of the Dubgaill after 867, ‘Halfdan leader of the Dubgaill’ (Albann, dux na n-Dubgenti),88 ‘Rognvald

grandson of Ivar king of the Finngaill and Dubgaill’ (Ragnall h. Imair ri Finngall & Dubgall),89 ‘Sigtrygg grandson of Ivar, king of the Dubgaill and Finngaill’ (Sitriuc h. Imair, ri Dubgall & Finngall),90 and ‘Olaf son of Guthfrith king of the Finngaill and Dubgaill’ (Amlaibh mac Gotfrit ri Finngall et Dubgall).91 Today we know that these rulers were primarily associated with the Great Army’s successors in England, the ‘kingdom of York’, despite nominal overlordship over Dublin and the Finngaill of Ireland.

2.2.2 The ‘Northern English’

The Dubgaill are both the Great Army and the successors of the Great Army, who in 876 under Halfdan settled in Northumbria. Yet Irish sources name at least one other leadership group otherwise known to have been located in Northumbria during this era. Among events

85

For the two groups (and their previous identification as ‘Danes’ and ‘Norwegians’), see A. Smyth, ‘The Black Foreigners of York and the White Foreigners of Dublin’, Saga-Book 19 (1974–77), 101–17; D. N. Dumville, ‘Old Dubliners and New Dubliners in Ireland and Britain’, in Celtic Essays, I, 103–22; and C. Downham, ‘“Hiberno- Norwegians” and “Anglo-Danes”’, Mediaeval Scandinavia 19 (2009), 139–69; it is possible that by the eleventh century the Finngaill as a territory was reanlyzed in Irish as Fine Gall, hence County Fingal (e.g. AT, s.a. 1053; Hudson, VPCP, 226, n. 17).

86

E.g. AU, s.a. 867, 875.

87 _{Annales Cambriae, A.D. 682–954, ed. and trans. D. N. Dumville (Cambridge, 2002), 12–13; Dumville, ‘Old}

Dubliners’, 120. 88 AU, s.a. 877. 89 _{AU, s.a. 921.} 90 AU, s.a. 927. 91 CS, s.a. 941.

relating to 934, AClon records the death of one Adulf mcEtulfe, King of the North Saxons. The father’s death was logged in AU, s.a. 913, Etulbb ri Saxan Tuaiscirt, ‘Eadwulf King of the Northern English’.92 Eadwulf is known from other sources as a ruler with specific links to Bamburgh (see below 2.4.7). Elsewhere in Irish annals, ‘Northern England’ is mentioned relation to the battle of Corbridge of 918, when Rognvald, King of the Dubgaill, and two of his earls marched to battle the Scots ‘on the bank of the Tyne in Northern England’ (Ragnall rí Dubgall, & na da iarla, .i. Ottir & Graggabai … Fir Alban dono a cenn-somh co

comairnechtar for bru Tine la Saxanu Tuaiscirt ).93 It is possible that ‘Northern England’ was a Northumbrian break-away ‘successor state’, but the earliest entry for this political

community includes York and names a known king of Northumbria: ‘The Dubgaill won a battle over the Northern English at York, in which died Ælla King of the Northern English’ (Bellum for Saxanu Tuaisceirt i Cair Ebhroc re n-Dubghallaib, in quo cecidit Alli, rex Saxan Aquilonalium).94 Usage of this terminology and the continuity of Adulf mcEdulfe’s kingdom as far back as that of the Northumbrian monarch Ælla would suggest that the term is actually the period’s Irish name for the Kingdom of Northumbria. If only, perhaps, as a rump, the annals nonetheless indicate that the Northumbrian realm survived the Great Army’s settlement of 876 and long after, as far as 934.

2.2.3 Rægnald, 7 Eadulfes suna

The Irish view is clearer, or at least less ambiguous, than that transmitted by West Saxon annalists. The author behind ASC, s.a. 893, uses ‘Northumbrians’ and ‘East Angles’ to refer to the Great Army settlers from these territories, and the specification by the continuator made s.a. 900 that Æthelwold was accepted as king by the here of Northumbria (gesohte

þone here on Norðhymbrum, 7 hi hine underfengon hym to cinge 7 him to bugon) implies

that Northumbria’s Scandinavian settlers had continued to form a political community distinct from their compatriots elsewhere in England. The most detail we get from

Southumbrian sources of the period is from an aside in ASC MS A. This notes that Edward the Elder constructed a burh at Bakewell (on the Mercian-Northumbrian border). Following this, it claims that Edward was acknowledged as ‘father and overlord’ (7 hine geces þa to fæder 7 to hlaforde) by ‘the king of the Scots and all the Scotta þeod, and Ragnald, and the

92 _{AClon, 149: s.a. 928 (recte 934).} 93

AU, s.a. 918.

94

sons of Eadwulf and all who live in Northumbria both English and Danish, Norsemen and others’ (Scotta cyning 7 eall Scotta þeod; 7 Rægnald, 7 Eadulfes suna, 7 ealle þa þe on

Norþhymbrum bugeaþ, ægþer ge Englisce, ge Denisce, ge Norþmen, ge oþre).95 The entry’s

claim about overlordship might be dubious, but its recognition of these distinct political communities is important, and is in line with the Irish sources.96

2.2.4 Place-name Regionality

Place-name evidence can provide something of an outline of the new Scandinavian political communities in Britain, despite some limitations. Debates about the size of Scandinavian settlement have been extensive but inconclusive. There is no decisive way to link place- name evidence with settlement numbers, and even using place-name evidence to

demonstrate prevalence of Norse speech in England has itself become controversial, since both languages were mutually comprehensible and since the grammar and vocabulary of English in this era were systematically transformed by contact with Norse.97 Nonetheless, as Townend has emphasized, the use and distribution of Scandinavian place-name elements is unambiguously regional, which means geographical distribution maps can be used as evidence of areas subjected to settlement or cultural dominance; perhaps being able, even, to distinguish peripheries and cores within larger Norse-dominated regions.

For example, known place-names containing the element –by, when mapped, show a regional distribution corresponding remarkably to areas known to have been subject to ‘Danish rule’ or settlement in the late ninth and early tenth centuries; by extension such ‘regionality’ might be taken to illuminate less well-documented regions. The element is most intensely preserved in Cumbria, Yorkshire, southern County Durham, and the

95

See translation in ASC, 67.

96

This picture is not at odds with Anglo-Latin annals. Rognvald is titled in the annal preserved by Roger of Wendover as Reginaldus rex Northanhumbrorum ex natione Danorum, not a title that suggests he was ruler of both communities; RW, I, 384; HR2, 123, simply has Regnaldus rex Danorum.

97

D. M. Hadley, ‘And They Proceeded to Plough and to Support Themselves’, ANS 19 (1996), 69–96, at 70–71, n. 6 for a bibliographic summary; see Hadley, Vikings in England, 92–104 (also ead.,The Northern Danelaw (London, 2000), 17–22) for a recent discussion, and C. Downham, ‘Anachronistic Ethnicities’, 157–60. For the similarity of English (particularly Northumbrian English) and Norse, see P.Bibire, ‘North Sea Language Contacts in the Early Middle Ages’, in T. R. Liszka and L. E. M. Walker (eds), The North Sea World in the Middle Ages (Dublin, 2001), 88–107; for mutual comprehensibility, see also M. Townend, Language and History in Viking age England (Turnhout, 2002), passim.

Southumbrian Danelaw, with outlying use in Ayrshire, southern Galloway, and Lancashire.98 A significant feature in the distribution of –by place-names in the Northumbrian kingdom is an apparent absence in and around County Northumberland.99

There is some room for some distortion in the evidence. A survival condition of Scandinavian-influenced English place-names is that they are preserved in English: any parallel naming system would be lost with the death of spoken Norse in England, and thus surviving evidence provides only a reduced sample. The absence of diagnostically

Scandinavian place-names cannot alone disprove Norse settlement.100 Similar issues mean that place-name evidence cannot, by itself, distinguish between the settlements of the 870s and those of the 890s, or indeed any that may have happened later. In Celtic-speaking areas settled by English-speakers in and around the Anglo-Norman era, or in regions subject to new land use (particularly with –thveit names), Scandinavianised (i.e. post-1000 northern) English is a potential new source of coinings. Some of the –by names, especially in County Cumberland (but perhaps also some in south-eastern Scotland and County Durham) are certainly from the Norman era.101 Northumberland has numerous Scandinavian-derived

98 _{For England’s –by map, J. D. Richards, The English Heritage Book of Viking-Age England (London, 1991), 34;}

for Scotland, see Nicolaisen, SPN, p. 131, and S. Taylor, ‘Scandinavians in Central Scotland’, in G. Williams and P. Bibire (eds), Sagas, Saints and Settlements (Leiden, 2004), 125–45, at 128.

99 _{V. Watts, ‘Northumberland and Durham’, in B. E. Crawford (ed.), Scandinavian Settlement in Northern Britain}

(London, 1995), 206–13, at 206.

100

Townend, ‘Viking Age England as a Bilingual Society’, 96–98; see also D. Parsons and L. Abrams, ‘Place- Names and the History of Scandinavian Settlement in England’, in J. Hines, A. Lane, and M. Redknap (eds), Land, Sea and Home (Leeds, 2004), 379–431.

101

Barrow, ANE, 47–50, B. K. Roberts, ‘Late –bý Names in the Eden Valley’, Nomina 13 (1989–90), 25–40, G. Fellows-Jensen, Scandinavian Settlement Names in the North-West (Copenhagen, 1985), 288, 290 (also ead. ‘Scandinavians in Dumfriesshire and Galloway’, in GLL, 77–95, at 83–86). Watts, ‘Northumberland and Durham’, 210–11, believed the –by names of County Durham to be Norman-era formations. The contention that late –by names are at best exceptions is completely unverifiable; the use of Norse personal names with – by can hardly be taken as proof of early coining (e.g. G. Fellows-Jensen, ‘Scandinavian Settlement in

Yorkshire—Through the Rear-View Mirror’, in B. E., Crawford, Scandinavian Settlement in Northern Britain (London, 1995), 170–86, at 178–79) since Scandinavian given names were used extensively in Northumbria until replaced by Norman names in the twelfth century. For other contexts, see Hadley, ‘They Proceeded to Plough’, 71–72, Fellows-Jensen, ‘Scandinavian Settlement in Yorkshire’, 183–84; and also Downham, ‘Anachronistic Ethnicities’, 160.

place-names, particularly on the Aln and the Tyne, thought to be post-Scandinavian.102 A similar small group of these names in Lothian could also highlight such exceptionalism.103

Despite these considerations, the overall picture is overwhelming. The distribution of other Scandinavian elements confirm the picture that Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and rest of the ‘five borough’ region, are the most Scandinavian English regions of all, more so than even Norfolk.104 Davis saw the ‘five boroughs’ as a settlement core from which

Scandinavians dominated East Anglia; it could make sense to see Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (see below) in the same light with regard to Northumbria.105 Documented settlement in this region is attested only in a very small period in the late 800s, and occurs specifically because immigrant armies disable the high-political protections that would otherwise have made population expansion very difficult.

Most importantly, the regionality of Scandinavian place-names within Britain is another way of seeing the English–Scandinavian division of ‘Middle Britain’ that is highlighted by literary sources; i.e. limited distribution of such names in the Tyne-Forth region, (despite some post–Viking-Age borrowings) stands in contrast to southern and to some extent western Northumbria, and to the Southumbrian Danelaw.106