Anglo-Danish Empire - A Companion to the Reign of King Cnut the Great

["Chapter 13 Behold the Front Page: Cnut and the Scyldings in Beowulf 279 by the leader of a band of foreigners. A third is that the requirement to foster hope against the invader is not easily met by a poem which ends with a mass desertion, the king\u2019s death and likely damnation, and the prospect of invasion and civil war. A fourth problem with Neidorf\u2019s argument is that he has nothing to say about what the other texts in this codex might have done for the cause. In this way, we have at least four reasons to doubt the importance of King \u00c6thel- red\u2019s war effort to the scriptorium that copied Beowulf after texts on eastern mon- sters and marvels and the correspondence of Alexander the Great. The reason for this misalignment is all too obvious, that the manuscript was copied when the war was over. Let us try for a reading which aligns Beowulf with the post-war start of Cnut\u2019s reign. Scribe A\u2019s hand, an example of English vernacular minuscule, is related to Anglo-Caroline hands of Winchester.11 Where Scribe B\u2019s style is con- cerned, there is a type of Late Old English Square Minuscule in two Devon di- plomas of Cnut as late as 1031.12 The persistence of this and other older styles in scriptoria removed from the old centres of government allows for Scribe B\u2019s hand, if provincial, to have continued into the 1020s.13 Attempts so far to claim 1016 as his later limit refer to royal-related centres in southern regions, and might as well come with the time of day in which Cnut was crowned king. Of course, no claim that the poem was meant for entertainment rather than admo- nition would of itself preclude the copying of the codex in the Danish zone be- fore Cnut\u2019s father won England in early 1014, or Cnut again in late 1016. But perhaps Cotton Vitellius A.XV was copied later and combines such young and old hands because the scribes in between had been killed in the war.14 Even with some money for illustrations, the ambition of this manuscript exceeds its resources. If we assume that its intended recipient lived in central Mercia and was either Danish, Anglo-Danish, or an English ally of Danes, it may at first be argued more broadly that the two great texts of this codex, on non-Christian warlords who explore new lands (more in Alexander\u2019s case), and fight with monsters (in his and Beowulf\u2019s), were copied with the same hopeful purpose as that assigned to the pagan monsters and marvels in St. Christopher and Won- ders of the East \u2013 to amuse a Danish earl, or his ally, or even the king. 11 Stokes, English Vernacular Minuscule, 95 (Table 8). 12 Kiernan, Kevin. \u201cLate Square Old English Minuscule,\u201d 51\u201354 (figures 8 and 9: Exeter Cathe- dral Library, Dean and Chapter, MS 2525). These charters are discussed in Bolton, Empire of Cnut, 57, 59\u201360. 13 Kiernan, Kevin. \u201cLate Square Old English Minuscule\u201d 55\u201371. 14 Suggestion of Vicky Symons (pers. comm.).","280 Richard North By 1016 the Danes had been Christian for half a century; Cnut\u2019s skalds from Iceland, nominally Christian for a generation. Despite signs of English influ- ence, most of Cnut\u2019s skalds retain the macho swagger of heathendom. Some poems from his entourage have kennings as monstrous as any in the eulogies for the arch-heathen Earl H\u00e1kon Sigur\u00f0arson of Hla\u00f0ir (Lade) in Tr\u00f8ndelag (ca. 975\u2013995).15 Foremost is a poem from ca. 1029, the Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa (Eulogy on Cnut) of Hallvar\u00f0r h\u00e1reksblesi (high-achievement blower), who says that his patron has weakened \u201chaukum odda Leiknar hungr\u201d (hunger in hawks of the Leikn of barbs): Leikn is a troll-wife; one of these with spears is a valkyrie, whose \u201chawks\u201d are ravens, whose \u201chunger,\u201d when sated, means that thousands are dead.16 Cnut here is also called \u201cb\u01ebrr h\u00f3lmfj\u01ebturs lei\u00f0ar\u201d (pinetree of the island- chain\u2019s path), which is to say that the \u201cchain around the island\u201d is the World Serpent; whose \u201cpath,\u201d like the serpent F\u00e1fnir\u2019s, is gold; whose \u201cpinetree\u201d is a tall (and generous) king.17 At the same time Hallvar\u00f0r\u2019s word \u201ch\u00f3lmr\u201d (island) for Cnut\u2019s dominion shows that he probably performed his eulogy in England, Christian for four centuries.18 There are also monsters in, or rather all over, Cot- ton Vitellius A.XV, both in and near Beowulf and especially in Wonders of the East, which has a brace of serpents painted across the top half of folio 99 (95) verso (BL 102 verso).19 If these monsters serve a purpose, it is not that of VII \u00c6thelred.20 In the light of this common interest, the Nowell Codex looks more suitable for Cnut or his earls in the early post-war period than it does for their victims a decade earlier. Beowulf of the Scyldings More narrowly, there is also evidence internal to Beowulf of an alignment with eleventh-century Danish concerns. The first words, \u201cHw\u00e6t, we Gar-Dena\u201d might be taken as \u201cListen, we [who are] of the Spear-Danes,\u201d as Kevin Kiernan has 15 Frank, \u201cCnut in the Verse of his Skalds,\u201d 119\u201322. Jesch, \u201cScandinavians and \u2018Cultural Pa- ganism,\u2019\u201d 57\u201367. Longman Anthology, ed. and trans. North, Allard and Gillies, 558\u201363 (Einarr\u2019s Vellekla (Gold-Shortage)), 573\u201382 (Eil\u00edfr\u2019s \u00de\u00f3rsdr\u00e1pa (Eulogy on \u00de\u00f3rr)), 588\u201390 (Hallfre\u00f0r\u2019s H\u00e1- konardr\u00e1pa (Eulogy on H\u00e1kon)). 16 Jesch, \u201cKn\u00fatr in Poetry and History,\u201d 247 (stanza 6b). 17 Sk\u00e1ldskaparm\u00e1l, ed. Faulkes, 86 (no. 311); Jesch, \u201cKn\u00fatr in Poetry and History,\u201d 246 (stanza 4). 18 Jesch, \u201cScandinavians and \u2018Cultural Paganism,\u2019\u201d 59. 19 Orchard, Pride and Prodigies, 1\u201357; Kevin Kiernan, Electronic Beowulf: http:\/\/ebeowulf. uky.edu\/ebeo4.0\/CD\/main.html. 20 See also Sisam, Studies, 65\u201367, 96 (\u201cLiber de diversis monstris, anglice\u201d).","Chapter 13 Behold the Front Page: Cnut and the Scyldings in Beowulf 281 supposed, like an appeal to Danes in an English audience.21 Not long after, \u201cBeo- wulf\u201d is twice written for *Beow, son of Scyld Scefing, in lines 18 and 53. In the first case we are told that Scyld gets a son in the far east of Denmark: \u201cBeowulf w\u00e6s breme . . . Scedelandum in\u201d (lines 18\u201319; Beowulf was renowned . . . in Sca- nian lands). By cross-reference with \u201cBeaw\u201d in the annal for 855 in versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and in the derived genealogy in Asser\u2019s Life of Alfred (ca. 893), it has long been accepted that the poet\u2019s form was probably \u201cBeow.\u201d22 The same annal, in its genealogy for King \u00c6thelwulf, who died in 858, includes Beaw\u2019s father as Scealdwa and, in some versions, Scealdwa\u2019s father as Sceaf. In the earliest version, \u00c6thelweard\u2019s Chronicon of ca. 978 (which is based on an Old English text before the writing in 891 which gave rise to the Chronicle in versions A\u2013F), the names resemble Beowulf\u2019s more closely in that they are spelt \u201cBeo,\u201d \u201cScyld,\u201d and \u201cScef\u201d in line with later West Saxon.23 These names are in older spelling in the Abingdon texts: \u201cScyldwa\u201d (B) or \u201cScealdwa\u201d (C), as well as \u201cBeaw\u201d and \u201cScef\u201d for annal 856; \u201cScealdwa\u201d and \u201cScealdhwa\u201d in the Worcester text (D); and \u201cBeauu\u201d and \u201cSceldwea\u201d in Asser\u2019s Life of King Alfred (ca. 893, chap. 1).24 On this basis it may be deduced, firstly, that the annal\u2019s genealogical names were quarried in 855 from a text of Beowulf, probably on \u00c6thelwulf\u2019s in- struction;25 and secondly, that a name *Beow, son of Scyld, was written as \u201cBeo- wulf\u201d in the text that survives. In respect of the latter deduction, this change may not be a mistake.26 There appear to be many scribal errors in Beowulf, but what if \u201cBeowulf the Dane\u201d was the scribe\u2019s contrivance?27 The second occurrence is metrically out of place,28 and yet to enter Scyld\u2019s son as \u201cBeowulf\u201d after 1016 might be appro- priate in a different way: it claims the hero of the greater poem as a Dane by insinuating his kinship with Danes, whether through a sibling of the Danish 21 All quotations from Beowulf, ed. Mitchell and Robinson. Kevin Kiernan (pers. comm.) 22 Chambers, Beowulf, 42; Orchard, Critical Companion, 100\u2013103. 23 Chronicle of \u00c6thelweard, ed. Campbell, 33; Meaney, \u201cScyld Scefing,\u201d 13. 24 ASC (C), ed. O\u2019Brien O\u2019Keeffe, 57 (s.a. 856); Asser\u2019s Life of Alfred, ed. Stevenson, 3 (chap. 1); Sisam, \u201cAnglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies,\u201d 314\u201322; Klaeber\u2019s \u201cBeowulf,\u201d ed. Fulk, Bjork, and Niles, 291\u201392. 25 North, Origins of \u201cBeowulf\u201d, 316\u201317, and n. 73 (\u201cde cuius prosapia ordinem trahit \u00c6\u00f0ulf rex\u201d). 26 Neidorf, \u201cScribal Errors of Proper Names,\u201d 252, 268. The MS form is defended, however, in Earl, Thinking about Beowulf, 22\u201325. 27 On the scribal errors, Orchard, Critical Companion, 49\u201356; see also Klaeber\u2019s \u201cBeowulf,\u201d ed. Fulk, Bjork, and Niles, 117: \u201cThat the name B\u0113ow should have been altered to B\u0113owulf by a scribe familiar with the substance of the poem is plausible enough.\u201d 28 Klaeber\u2019s \u201cBeowulf,\u201d ed. Fulk, Bjork, and Niles, 117.","282 Richard North Beowulf, or through a child of the latter other than Healfdene. If the two open- ing Beowulf-forms are errors, they are ingrained, in that the second appears de- claratively at the head of the poem\u2019s second (though first-numbered) fitt: I \u00d0a w\u00e6s on burgum Beowulf Scyldinga leof leodcyning longe \u00ferage folcum gefr\u00e6ge. (lines 53\u201355) [Then in the townships was Beowulf of the Scyldings, king beloved to his tribe, for long duration renowned among peoples.] This fitt numeration (as if the first fitt, not being numbered, was intended to be a preface) gives a license to read this poem in a way which aligns it with a con- temporary Danish empire \u2013 and not only in the opening pages. The Danes are the poet\u2019s leading subject for the first two thirds of Beowulf, up to verse line 2200. Later on in the poem, having been advised of his Danish connection, we may see the Geatish Beowulf going to Heorot to make good on an older associa- tion with Denmark. We may also put new meaning into Hrothgar\u2019s words that Ecgtheow took his boy Beowulf there earlier in order to win the king\u2019s protec- tion for both of them (lines 372\u201373, 463). Hrothgar says that Ecgtheow gave him his oath (line 472). Later still, Hrothgar\u2019s offer to love Beowulf as a father, and his command to Beowulf to keep a new kinship (lines 946\u201349), are both rein- forced by this grand opening insinuation of a shared family background. The tension about whether Beowulf or Hrothulf should be the next king of Den- mark, in Beowulf\u2019s case by marriage to Freawaru, becomes more substantial if he is taken to be kin to the Scyldings already. Even outside the poem\u2019s long Danish preamble to King Beowulf\u2019s reign, we have another scribal oddity to- wards the end of the Geatish messenger\u2019s speech about Geatland\u2019s future: \u201c\u00de\u00e6t ys sio f\u00e6h\u00f0o ond se feondscipe, w\u00e6lni\u00f0 wera, \u00f0\u00e6s \u00f0e ic <wen> hafo, \u00fee us secea\u00f0 to Sweona leoda, sy\u00f0\u00f0an hie gefricgea\u00f0 frean userne ealdorleasne, \u00feone \u00f0e \u00e6r geheold wi\u00f0 hettendum hord ond rice \u00e6fter h\u00e6le\u00f0a hryre, hwate Scildingas, folcred fremede o\u00f0\u00f0e fur\u00f0ur gen eorlscipe efnde.\u201d (lines 2999\u20133007a)","Chapter 13 Behold the Front Page: Cnut and the Scyldings in Beowulf 283 [\u201cThis is the feud and this the enmity, the murderous hostility of men for which I <expect> Sweden\u2019s tribesmen will seek us out, once they find out that our lord is lifeless, he who in former times kept hoard and kingdom against attackers after the fall of heroes, keen Scyldings, advanced people\u2019s good or yet further performed nobility.\u201d] Neidorf seems right to suggest that \u201cScildingas\u201d in line 3005 was miscopied from *Scilfingas.29 The poet would have produced \u201chwate Scilfingas\u201d (keen Scylfings; that is, Swedes) in delayed apposition to the invading \u201cSweona leoda\u201d (Sweden\u2019s tribesmen), as the subject of the verb \u201cgefricgea\u00f0\u201d (line 3001; find out) three lines earlier. Indeed, line 3005 has a match further back in line 2052, when Beo- wulf, hoping for the failure of Freawaru\u2019s marriage to Ingeld, enacts the part of a stirrer at her wedding (lines 2047\u201352). In each case the line is written by Scribe B (who takes over from Scribe A, before \u201cmoste,\u201d in Beowulf line 1939).30 The edi- tors of Klaeber\u2019s \u201cBeowulf\u201d find it not unlikely \u201cthat a scribe should thoughtlessly have written scildingas for scilfingas in a poem in which the former are men- tioned so often and the latter, by comparison, so rarely.\u201d31 The change seems de- liberate, however, if we consider how the poem might then be read, especially in the the context of Cnut\u2019s victory in 1016. The unwarranted repetition of \u201cScyldin- gas\u201d in the Geatish part of Beowulf, nearly a thousand lines later, speaks for Scribe B maintaining a preoccupation with Denmark. A pro-Danish reading could have made \u201chwate Scildingas\u201d into the accusative object of Beowulf\u2019s ac- tion: the king who \u201c\u00e6r geheold\u201d (line 3003; in former times kept) hoard, king- dom, and all the Scyldings safe \u201cwi\u00f0 hettendum\u201d (line 3004; against attackers). That is, King Beowulf of the Geats may be represented not only as kin to the Danes, but also as a vassal of Denmark who keeps Sk\u00e5ne safe from the Swedes. These reinterpretations, willful though they may seem and with nothing to say for Beowulf as it was first composed, fit nonetheless with the notion that the Nowell text (bar Judith) was copied within a few years of 1016.32 Let us now turn 29 Neidorf, \u201cScribal Errors of Proper Names,\u201d 256, 269. 30 On folio MS. 172 verso (BL 175 verso). See Kiernan, Electronic Beowulf: http:\/\/ebeowulf.uky. edu\/ebeo4.0\/CD\/main.html. 31 Klaeber\u2019s \u201cBeowulf,\u201d ed. Fulk, Bjork, and Niles, 262. 32 On the case for Judith\u2019s provenance in another codex: Kiernan, Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript, 150\u201368; and Kiernan, \u201cReformed Nowell Codex and Beowulf Manuscript.\u201d","284 Richard North from seeing the manuscript as compiled in order to appease the new regime, to an argument that Cnut saw another copy of Beowulf and used it as propaganda. Cnut and the \u201cSkj\u01ebldungar\u201d Roberta Frank was the first to draw attention to the special use of ON skj\u01ebldungr (shield-man, king) and skj\u01ebldr (shield) in the royal eulogies composed for King Cnut and associates in the first third of the eleventh century.33 This first epithet appears to work there as a substitute for konungr (king), a word which is rare in extant Cnut-related poems.34 Frank\u2019s observation matters for Beowulf because OE Scylding, cognate of skj\u01ebldungr, appears only in this poem, in which it denotes only Danes. After the arrival of Scyld Scefing, the Danes\u2019 dynastic founder, in the first four lines, the ensuing first two thirds of Beowulf call the kings, their thegns, and by extension all Danes \u201cScyldingas\u201d from Scyld\u2019s epithet \u201cwine Scyldinga\u201d (Scyldings\u2019 associate) on line 30 onwards. If we look more closely, it seems that the usage predates the poem. The poet calls Danes \u201cScyldingas\u201d before \u201cScyld\u201d arrives to name them: his summary of a bard\u2019s panegyric on Beowulf allows him to call the kingdom of Here- mod, Scyld\u2019s forerunner, \u201ce\u00feel Scyldinga\u201d (line 913; Scyldings\u2019 homeland); and King Hrothgar refers similarly to Heremod\u2019s abused subjects as \u201ceaforum Ecgwelan, ar-Scyldingum\u201d (line 1710; the heirs of Ecgwela, favor-giving Scyldings). In this light it appears to have been the poet of Beowulf who back-formed Scyld from \u201cScylding,\u201d a tribal name, in order to create a myth for the leading dynasty.35 In Norse poems, ON skj\u01ebldungr is usually found without marked meaning, whether in the Poetic Edda or the skaldic corpus.36 The Brot af Sigur\u00f0arkvi\u00f0u 14, probably of the tenth century, has \u201cVacna\u00f0i Brynhildr, Bu\u00f0lad\u00f3ttir, \/ d\u00eds sci\u01ebl- dunga, fyr dag l\u00edtlo\u201d (Brynhildr wakened, Bu\u00f0li\u2019s daughter, \/ lady of kings, a little before day). Here Brynhildr is a Hun, sister of King Atli. Doubtless in the eleventh century, her lover Sigur\u00f0r is called \u201csci\u01ebldunga ni\u00f0r\u201d (kinsman of kings) in F\u00e1fnism\u00e1l 44; he is probably Frankish. Likewise, without being Dan- ish, in the same century Sigr\u00fan the valkyrie is another \u201cd\u00eds sci\u01ebldunga,\u201d in Hel- gakvi\u00f0a Hundingsbana II, 51. The \u201csc\u01ebp sci\u01ebldunga\u201d (destiny of kings) in stanza 33 Frank, \u201cSkaldic Verse and the Date of Beowulf,\u201d 126\u201328; \u201cCnut in the Verse of his Skalds,\u201d 110\u201312. In the following I shall translate \u201cskj\u01ebldungr\u201d as \u201cshielding,\u201d its direct cognate. 34 \u00d3ttarr svarti uses the word in the fragment surviving from a longer praise poem on Cnut, in \u201c\u00d3ttarr svarti: Lausav\u00edsur,\u201d ed. Townend, 786 (v. 2); see Prologue in this volume, p. 1. 35 Perhaps on Vergilian lines: North, Origins of \u201cBeowulf\u201d, 36\u201339. 36 Edda, ed. Neckel, 161 (Helgakvi\u00f0a Hundingsbana II), 188 (F\u00e1fnism\u00e1l), 200 (Brot), 248 (Atlam\u00e1l).","Chapter 13 Behold the Front Page: Cnut and the Scyldings in Beowulf 285 2 of the Greenlandic Atlam\u00e1l of the thirteenth century refers to Burgundians. Nowhere in the Niflung poems, in this way, does \u201cskj\u01ebldungr\u201d refer to Danes. As for its roles in skaldic verse, skj\u01ebldungr is potentially so general there that it may be used for God, as in Einarr Sk\u00falason\u2019s Geisli (ray) of ca. 1153: \u201ch\u00e6str Skj\u01ebldungr b\u00fd\u00f0r hauldum \/ himinvistar til\u201d (stanza 6; the highest Prince invites captains \/ to banquet in heaven).37 Nonetheless, this term can be found marked. A certain \u201cH\u00e1lfdan fyrri\u201d (Half- Dane the first) is listed as \u201ch\u00e6str Sci\u01ebldunga\u201d (highest of the Skj\u01ebldungs) in Hy- ndlulj\u00f3\u00f0 14, whose extant text is in Flateyjarb\u00f3k (ca. 1390); this poem may be as old as the eleventh or twelfth century and its H\u00e1lfdan may correspond to Healf- dene in Beowulf.38 Moreover, in Skj\u01ebldunga saga (history of the Skj\u01ebldungs), the meaning of the titular name is fixed as \u201ckings of Denmark.\u201d This saga is thought to have been compiled in Oddi, Iceland, in the 1180s or 1190s by Bishop P\u00e1ll J\u00f3nsson of Sk\u00e1lholt (1195\u20131211). Founder of the line is a certain Skj\u01ebldr, whose name was prob- ably back-formed from the stem by P\u00e1ll\u2019s great-grandfather, the scholar-priest and chieftain S\u00e6mundr Sigf\u00fasson, for his own genealogy before ca. 1120.39 S\u00e6mundr doubtless got his license for the name from a poetic text before him, such as the Eir\u00edksdr\u00e1pa (Eulogy on Erik), which had been composed in 1104 by Lawspeaker Mar- k\u00fas Skeggjason in memory of King Erik Ejegod of Denmark (d. 1103).40 In this poem Mark\u00fas calls Erik \u201cbr\u00f3\u00f0ir h\u01ebfu\u00f0-Skj\u01ebldunga fimm\u201d (brother of five top-Shieldings), calling him also the \u201cSkj\u01ebldungr\u201d whose word created the archdiocese of Lund (in 1104).41 Erik and his brothers were sons of Cnut\u2019s sister\u2019s son, King Sveinn \u00c1str\u00ed\u00f0ar- son (or Svend Estridsen). Thus, it seems likely that Mark\u00fas marked his skj\u01ebldung- meaning as Danish in imitation of Cnut\u2019s skalds three generations earlier. Before we take up \u201cSkj\u01ebldungr\u201d with Cnut\u2019s skalds, whose words and meter have revealed Anglo-Saxon influence,42 let us note that each case for Danish mean- ing there must be made individually. Our first case is datable to a few years after 1016, probably in the time of Cotton Vitellius A.XV, when the Icelander \u00de\u00f3r\u00f0r Kol- beinsson performed his own Eir\u00edksdr\u00e1pa before Eir\u00edkr of Norway, son of Earl H\u00e1kon Sigur\u00f0arson. Eir\u00edkr, now earl of Northumbria, was Cnut\u2019s older brother-in-law who had joined him in reinvading England in 1015, having sailed from Norway for a 37 Einarr\u2019s Geisli, ed. Chase, 56 (text only). 38 Edda, ed. Neckel, 290 (Hyndlulj\u00f3\u00f0). 39 Bjarni Gu\u00f0nason, Um Skj\u00f6ldungas\u00f6gu, 158\u201361. 40 Foote, \u201cAachen, Lund, H\u00f3lar,\u201d 113\u201314. 41 Skjaldedigtning B.I, ed. Finnur J\u00f3nsson, 416 (stanzas 11 and 13); Danakonunga s\u01ebgur, ed. Bjarni Gu\u00f0nason, 218\u201319 (vv. 38 and 40). 42 Hofmann, Lehnbeziehungen, 71\u2013103 (\u00a7\u00a7 62\u2013113); Townend, \u201cContextualising the Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1- pur,\u201d 155\u201356. See further Poole in this volume, pp. 260\u201361, 264\u201367, 269\u201376.","286 Richard North meeting probably near the Humber. In the stanza which describes their meeting, all four manuscripts have the reading \u201cskj\u01ebldungum\u201d:43 Enn at eyrar grunni endr skj\u01ebldungum renndi s\u00e1s kj\u01eblsl\u00f3\u00f0ir kn\u00ed\u00f0i Kn\u00fatr langskipum \u00fatan. Var\u00f0 \u00fears vildu fyr\u00f0ar varrl\u00e1\u00f0 koma b\u00e1\u00f0ir hjalma\u00f0s jarls ok hilmis h\u0153gr fundr \u00e1 \u00fev\u00ed d\u0153gri. [And back again on to land-spit shallows did he pour Shieldings, Did Kn\u00fatr, who pressed the keel-tracks, pour longships from the sea. Where both campaigners would cross oar-puddle meadow, there passed Between helmeted Earl and Protector propitious meeting on that day.] If we emend this form, as Jayne Carroll does, to \u201cSkj\u01ebldung<r>\u201d with \u201cum\u201d or \u201cof\u201d as a particle, the noun means properly \u201cking\u201d and also distinguishes Cnut as Danish. However, there is better reason to leave it as an unemended plural, as a term for the nobility of all Danes unloaded on English beaches. Another plural for this term is found in the H\u01ebfu\u00f0lausn (Head-ransom) which was performed by the Icelander \u00d3ttarr svarti for his new patron, King \u00d3l\u00e1fr Har- aldsson of Norway, probably in the early 1020s. Back in 1015, before Cnut\u2019s vic- tory and taking advantage of Eir\u00edkr\u2019s presence in England, \u00d3l\u00e1fr is said to have steered two cargo vessels to Norway, where he defeated Earl Sveinn, Eir\u00edkr\u2019s brother, in the battle of Nesjar. His initial gamble is given as follows: Valfasta bj\u00f3ttu vestan ve\u00f0r\u01ebrr tv\u00e1a kn\u01ebrru; h\u00e6tt hafi\u00f0 \u00e9r \u00ed \u00f3tta opt Skj\u01ebldunga \u00feopti. N\u00e6\u00f0i straumr (ef st\u0153\u00f0i) strangr kaupskipum angra (innan bor\u00f0s \u00e1 unnum erringar li\u00f0 verra).44 [From west you readied, quick in storm of death-fire, two merchantmen; Ventured into danger have you often, bench-mate of Shieldings. Strong current might have grieved the cargo-ships (if the boat\u2019s Crew on board upon the waves had turned out worse in vigour).] Whereas the \u201cdeath-fire\u201d is the patron\u2019s sword, whose \u201cstorm\u201d is battle, the \u201cShielding\u201d designation, which cannot refer to mercenaries in his crew, begs a less formulaic question about \u00d3l\u00e1fr\u2019s employers in the 1009\u20131012 invasion of England. Initially \u00d3l\u00e1fr had joined Earl Thorkell the Tall, whose own country, Sk\u00e5ne, was vassal to Denmark, but in 1012 Thorkell hired himself out to King 43 \u201c\u00de\u00f3r\u00f0r: Eir\u00edksdr\u00e1pa,\u201d ed. Carroll, 507. My convention in the following quotations is to pres- ent skaldic verses in long-line format. 44 \u201c\u00d3ttarr: H\u01ebfu\u00f0lausn,\u201d ed. Townend, 759 (v. 14).","Chapter 13 Behold the Front Page: Cnut and the Scyldings in Beowulf 287 \u00c6thelred. At the end of 1013, the invasion of King Sveinn Forkbeard, Cnut\u2019s fa- ther, forced \u00c6thelred into a year\u2019s exile in Normandy, whence \u00d3l\u00e1fr (says \u00d3t- tarr) helped to restore him.45 In this way it has been suggested that \u00d3l\u00e1fr\u2019s \u201cskj\u01ebldung\u201d allies in this poem were \u00c6thelred and his son Edmund Ironside.46 In short, the designation of skj\u01ebldungar in this kenning is marked, but ambigu- ous: the meaning covers kings of either Wessex or Denmark or both. Later in his H\u01ebfu\u00f0lausn, however, \u00d3ttarr uses this heroic plural to peculiarly Danish effect. In this part of the poem, \u00d3l\u00e1fr, now established as king of Norway, has just made peace between two warring earls of the Orkney-Shetland domain, whom he summoned to Norway:47 Gegn (eru \u00fe\u00e9r at \u00feegnum) \u00fej\u00f3\u00f0-Skj\u01ebldunga g\u00f3\u00f0ra haldi\u00f0 h\u0153ft \u00e1 veldi (Hjaltlendingar kenndir). Engi var\u00f0 \u00e1 j\u01ebr\u00f0u \u00f3gnbr\u00e1\u00f0r, \u00e1\u00f0r \u00fe\u00e9r n\u00e1\u00f0um, austr s\u00e1s eyjum vestan Ynglingr und sik \u00feryngvi.48 [O honest one, fittingly you wield the empire (as thegns to you) Of worthy nation-Shieldings (Shetlanders are known). No man threat-sudden was born on earth, before we got you, No eastern Ingvi-prince to crush beneath him western isles.] Because \u00d3l\u00e1fr is now king over the Norwegians, it might seem unlikely that \u201c\u00fej\u00f3\u00f0- Skj\u01ebldungar\u201d refers to Danes. And yet it does, because when \u00d3l\u00e1fr took over in 1015 the kings of Denmark had been overlords of Norway for nearly seventy years: \u00d3ttarr links the \u201cSkj\u01ebldungar\u201d with Norwegians, not with their new king. He also exalts \u00d3l\u00e1fr over the Swedes, for whom the term \u201cYnglingr,\u201d normally \u201cking,\u201d is made to connote \u201cSwedish king\u201d by \u201caustr\u201d (east). So, with \u201c\u00fej\u00f3\u00f0-Skj\u01ebldungar\u201d \u00d3t- tarr refers to the Danes. As for a correlation with Beowulf, this unique Norse epithet recalls an ironic hapax for King Hrothgar and his nephew Hrothulf at their revels in Heorot: \u201cnalles facenstafas \/ \u00feeod-Scyldingas \u00feenden fremedon\u201d (lines 1018\u201319; not at all were criminal acts as yet practised by great Scyldings).49 Had \u00d3ttarr heard or heard tell of Beowulf?50 45 \u201c\u00d3ttarr: H\u01ebfu\u00f0lausn,\u201d ed. Townend, 766\u201367 (v. 13); Encomium Emmae, ed. Campbell, 77\u201382. 46 \u00d3l\u00e1fs saga helga, ed. Bjarni A\u00f0albjarnarson, 35 (chap. 29) and n. (for v. 30). 47 \u00d3l\u00e1fs saga helga, ed. Bjarni A\u00f0albjarnarson, 172\u201373 (chap. 102). 48 \u201c\u00d3ttarr: H\u01ebfu\u00f0lausn,\u201d ed. Townend, 766 (v. 20). 49 Frank, \u201cSkaldic Verse and the Date of Beowulf,\u201d 127. Note, however, that \u201cynglingr\u201d is marked for Swedish kings in the name Ynglingatal (Tally of the Ynglings) for the dynastic poem attributed to \u00dej\u00f3\u00f0\u00f3lfr of Hvinir (ca. 890): Heimskringla I, ed. Bjarni A\u00f0albjarnarson, 4 (Prologus). 50 However, Townend (\u201c\u00d3ttarr: H\u01ebfu\u00f0lausn,\u201d ed., p. 767) takes this word to be a variant of \u201c\u00fej\u00f3\u00f0konungr\u201d (king of the people; mighty king), \u201ca particular favourite of Sigvatr.\u201d","288 Richard North With a complexity like \u00d3ttarr\u2019s some thirty years later, Arn\u00f3rr jarlask\u00e1ld (\u201cEarls\u2019-Poet\u201d) compares, but does not identify, \u00d3l\u00e1fr\u2019s departed son Magn\u00fas with a singular \u201cskj\u01ebldungr\u201d at the end of his Magn\u00fasdr\u00e1pa (Eulogy on Magn\u00fas): Ungr Skj\u01ebldungr st\u00edgr aldri jafnmildr \u00e1 vi\u00f0 skjaldar (\u00feess var grams) und g\u01ebmlum (gn\u00f3g rausn) Ymis hausi.51 [No young Shielding will ever climb so generous on wood of shield (That prince\u2019s liberality was enough) beneath Ymir\u2019s old skull.] This poem was performed shortly after Magn\u00fas\u2019s death in 1047. If we look more closely, Arn\u00f3rr uses \u201cSkj\u01ebldungr\u201d to advise Magn\u00fas\u2019s family and supporters that no Danish king in the future will equal him in steering ships (the \u201cwood of shield\u201d) under the sky (\u201cYmir\u2019s skull\u201d). A Danish skj\u01ebldung-meaning is inevita- ble, because the greater of Magn\u00fas\u2019s two rivals was still Sveinn \u00c1str\u00ed\u00f0arson (1042\u20131076), Cnut\u2019s sister\u2019s son (also known as Svend Estridsen or Sven Estrith- son).52 If it is thought that this \u201cSkj\u01ebldungr\u201d refers to Magn\u00fas\u2019s other rival, his uncle Haraldr Sigur\u00f0arson, we might recall that Haraldr was now sole king of Norway (1047\u20131066) and a risk for Arn\u00f3rr if he made him appear weaker than his nephew in this lay. From here we move to Cnut\u2019s reign a decade after his victory in England in October 1016. Following his campaigns in Denmark and Pomerania in 1023\u20131024 and Holy River in Sk\u00e5ne in late 1026, Cnut\u2019s court in England filled up with skalds.53 These included \u00d3ttarr, who had joined him from Norway. \u00d3ttarr would have per- formed his Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa (Eulogy on King Kn\u00fatr) in ca. 1027. Reliving the old glories, he reserves skj\u01ebldungr for Cnut\u2019s defeat of Edmund Ironside (in 1016): Skj\u01ebldungr vannt und skildi sk\u0153ru verk inn sterki, fekk bl\u00f3\u00f0trani br\u00e1\u00f0ir br\u00fanar Assat\u00fanum. V\u00e1tt, en valfall \u00fe\u00f3tti ver\u00f0ung, j\u01ebfurr sver\u00f0i n\u00e6r fyr nor\u00f0an st\u00f3ru nafn gn\u00f3gt Danask\u00f3ga.54 [Shielding the Strong, under shield you did deeds of conflict, The blood-crane got dark-red morsels at Asses\u2019 Homefields. By slaying, Prince, and slaughter the troops thought it, with big Sword, you won name enough near north of Forest of Danes.] 51 Poetry of Arn\u00f3rr, ed. Whaley, 118\u201323, esp. 123 (stanza 19: with variant reading \u00e1 vi\u00f0 skildan (aboard a shield-hung bark), however, for \u00e1 vi\u00f0 skjaldar); and 219 (note to 19\/2). 52 Sonne, \u201cSvend Estridsens Politiske Liv,\u201d 19\u201326. 53 Townend, \u201cContextualising the Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pur,\u201d 162\u201363. 54 \u201cSigvatr: Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa,\u201d ed. Townend, 779 (v. 10).","Chapter 13 Behold the Front Page: Cnut and the Scyldings in Beowulf 289 And now this name seems to come with a program. \u00d3ttarr Danicizes two En- glish place-names, so that OE Assandun (Ashingdon in NW Essex or Ashdon in SE Essex), now \u201cAssat\u00fanum\u201d (Asses\u2019 Homefields), mocks the English as asnar (ON \u201cdonkeys\u201d), while OE Dene or Dena (the Forest of Dean, possibly from Old Welsh din [\u201cfort\u201d]), becomes \u201cForest of Danes.\u201d55 The latter name at the stanza\u2019s end, a tribute not only to Cnut\u2019s conquest but also to his tribe, shows that \u201cSkj\u01ebldungr,\u201d at the head of this stanza, refers to Cnut as \u201cking of the Danes.\u201d At the same time, in ca. 1027, \u00d3ttarr enlarges on the root of \u201cSkj\u01ebldungr\u201d with the words \u201cundir skildi\u201d (under shield). Cnut has other skalds who show that there is more to this other word than the finding of an alliterative half- rhyme. Hallvar\u00f0r h\u00e1reksblesi, in ca. 1029, likewise draws attention to a shield in his Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa, in which he first addresses Cnut by name: Kn\u00fatr, l\u00e9zt framm til Flj\u00f3ta (fr\u00e6gr lei\u00f0 v\u01ebr\u00f0r of \u00e6gi heiptsnarr hildar leiptra) har\u00f0brynju\u00f0 skip dynja. Ullar l\u00e9zt vi\u00f0 Ellu \u00e6ttleif\u00f0 ok m\u00e1 reif\u00f0ir sver\u00f0mans snyrtiher\u00f0ir sundviggs flota bundit.56 [Kn\u00fatr, you let onwards to the Fleets (famed guardian crossed the ocean, Quick to wrath of war-lightnings) the hard-mailed ships resound. Of Ullr\u2019s strait-steed the elegant hardener, you had a fleet moored To \u00c6lle\u2019s patrimony and the sword-mistress\u2019s gulls you delighted.] As in its thirteenth-century context in Kn\u00fdtlinga saga, this scene may describe the first year of Cnut\u2019s invasion in 1015, when, after raiding Wessex, his ships sailed north to the \u201cflj\u00f3t\u201d (\u201cFleets,\u201d i.e., \u201crivers\u201d), possibly Humber, Trent, and Ouse.57 The diction is more characteristically skaldic than that of the relatively untangled verses of Hallvar\u00f0r\u2019s contemporaries, \u00de\u00f3r\u00f0r and \u00d3ttarr. Aside from de- picting swords as \u201cwar-lightnings,\u201d he delivers two non-Christian kennings, one for a valkyrie and another for a king. The readings are disputed: the manuscripts have \u201cUllar,\u201d which has been emended to nominative \u201cUllr\u201d with the addition of a syllable to \u201cl\u00e9zt\u201d to make \u201cl\u00e9ztu\u201d; they have also \u201cger\u00f0ar\u201d (of Ger\u00f0r); one text has \u201csver\u00f0mans\u201d (of the sword-mistress), another \u201csver\u00f0manns\u201d (of the swords- man).58 If we take the last form, we end up with ravens as \u201ca valkyrie\u2019s gulls,\u201d in the elaborate kenning \u201cm\u00e1 sver\u00f0manns snyrti-Ger\u00f0ar\u201d (gulls of the swordsman\u2019s 55 Poole, \u201cSkaldic Verse and Anglo-Saxon History,\u201d 275\u201376. 56 Frank, \u201cCnut in the Verse of his Skalds,\u201d 120 (v. 2); Skjaldedigtning B.I, ed. Finnur J\u00f3nsson (v. 3). 57 Kn\u00fdtlinga saga, ed. Bjarni Gu\u00f0nason, 100\u2013106 (chap. 8). 58 Kn\u00fdtlinga saga, ed. Bjarni Gu\u00f0nason, 104 (v. 4); Jesch, \u201cKn\u00fatr in Poetry and History,\u201d 246 (v. 3b).","290 Richard North elegant Ger\u00f0r); and with Cnut as \u201cship\u2019s god\u201d or \u201ccaptain,\u201d more simply in the emended \u201cUllr sundviggs\u201d (Ullr of the strait-steed). However, if we follow Finnur J\u00f3nsson in keeping \u201cUllar\u201d and \u201cm\u00e1 sver\u00f0mans\u201d (of the sword-mistress\u2019s gulls) for \u201cravens\u201d and emending \u201cger\u00f0ar\u201d to \u201cher\u00f0ir,\u201d Cnut gets the longer kenning, appropriately enough for the king. Addressing Cnut, in this case, as \u201cUllar sund- viggs snyrtiher\u00f0ir\u201d (of Ullr\u2019s strait-steed the elegant hardener), for \u201chardener of Ullr\u2019s ship\u201d or \u201cupholder of a shield in battle,\u201d would have been Hallvar\u00f0r\u2019s way of calling him a skj\u01ebldungr (shield-man) inside a riddle for \u201cshield.\u201d His kenning may thus be read as a baroque version of \u00d3ttarr\u2019s line from a year or two earlier, \u201cSkj\u01ebldungr vannt und skildi.\u201d King Cnut as \u201cSkj\u01ebldr\u201d In this way Cnut\u2019s skalds make his skj\u01ebldr (shield) into a symbol of power. \u00d3t- tarr does this himself not long after the start of his Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa, when he cele- brates Cnut\u2019s English beachhead of 1015, saying \u201cHerskj\u01ebld bart ok heldu\u00f0 \/ hilmir, r\u00edkr af sl\u00edku\u201d (A raiding-shield you bore and upheld, Protector, by such means mighty).59 Although shield-raising is a topos for a challenge in battle (as in The Battle of Maldon, lines 130\u201331, ca. 991 or Helgakvi\u00f0a Hundingsbana I, 33, probably of the eleventh century), \u00d3ttarr\u2019s opening draws attention to the stem of Skj\u01ebldungr. His \u201cher-skj\u01ebldr\u201d is no kenning, because the elements converge: a \u201cshield\u201d is part of \u201cwar.\u201d If his compound is not a poor tautology, its skj\u01ebld- element may be counted as a name, like \u201cScealdwa\u201d from whom King \u00c6thelred traced his line.60 \u00c6thelred\u2019s father Edgar, cited as \u201cJ\u00e1tgeirr\u201d in the stanza by \u00d3ttarr, was the grandson of Edward the Elder, grandson of \u00c6thelwulf whose line goes back to Sceaf, Scealdwa, and Beaw. King \u00c6thelred kept the Chronicle in Winchester (version A) and minsters elsewhere as the title deed of power. A convergence between skj\u01ebldr and Scealdwa may have started in 1017, when Cnut married Emma, the king\u2019s still young widow, and reissued Edgar\u2019s laws with the help of Wulfstan. At this time it seems that he took not only King \u00c6thelred\u2019s queen and mantle but also his ancestors.61 The conclusions reached earlier by Lavelle, that Cnut assimilated the West Saxon royal ideology in the south of England 59 \u201c\u00d3ttarr: Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa,\u201d ed. Townend, 771 (v. 3). 60 ASC (C), ed. O\u2019Brien O\u2019Keeffe, 57 (s.a. 855). 61 Lawson, Cnut: England\u2019s Viking King, 59\u201365, 83\u201386; Bolton, Empire of Cnut, 94\u201398; Cnut the Great, 100\u2013101; Wormald, Making of English Law, 345\u201366.","Chapter 13 Behold the Front Page: Cnut and the Scyldings in Beowulf 291 before being crowned in 1017 (pp. 177\u201381), and by Yorke, that his first interac- tion with Winchester culminated with a council there in 1020 or 1021 (pp. 217\u201318), support the possibility that Cnut\u2019s descent from Scealdwa started life in Winches- ter in the years 1017\u20131020. That is, he and his entourage could have been shown Scealdwa\u2019s name in the opening folio of a manuscript of Beowulf on the same occasion they saw it in another manuscript (perhaps Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS. 173) that contained \u00c6thelred\u2019s genealogy in the A-text of the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle (s.a. 855). Composed no earlier than ca. 1029 are two skaldic verses that make a skaldic knowledge of Scealdwa even more likely. Both poems, Sigvatr \u00de\u00f3r\u00f0ar- son\u2019s Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa and the T\u00f8gdr\u00e1pa (\u201cKnot-lay\u201d) of \u00de\u00f3rarinn loftunga (\u201cPraise- Tongue\u201d), are in an English-influenced meter. In his eulogy, Sigvatr goes so far as to cite a Skj\u01ebldr by name. The date of his poem is disputed: possibly within Cnut\u2019s lifetime, by virtue of its Anglo-Saxon influences, which are greater than those of other Cnutonian poems;62 possibly after Cnut\u2019s death, by dint of a \u201cvar\u201d (was) varying \u201cer\u201d (is) in the refrain.63 At any rate, Sigvatr\u2019s meter in his Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa is t\u00f8glag, which is syllabically a stricter form of kvi\u00f0uh\u00e1ttr but with elements of dr\u00f3ttkv\u00e6tt. Because t\u00f8glag can also be relatively lucid, it is thought to have been devised as a concession to Cnut\u2019s English followers, for whom skaldic kennings would have been alien.64 Sigvatr here refers to Cnut\u2019s cam- paign by Holy River, probably in late 1026 on the north-eastern border of Sk\u00e5ne, against Kings \u00d3l\u00e1fr of Norway and \u01eanundr Jakob of Sweden.65 Of Cnut\u2019s role there he says that \u201cvildi foldar \/ f\u00e6st r\u00e1n Dana hl\u00edfskj\u01ebldr hafa\u201d (the Shield who protects Danes would have the least robbery of their earth).66 Sigvatr\u2019s compound \u201chl\u00edfskj\u01ebldr\u201d might be read as tautologous, like his nephew\u2019s \u201chersk- j\u01ebldr,\u201d but his \u201cSkj\u01ebldr\u201d is more obviously a name: he identifies it with Cnut. This name is concealed within a kenning in \u00de\u00f3rarinn\u2019s T\u00f8gdr\u00e1pa, which is datable to 1029, after Cnut took power over Norway but probably before the death in that year of his sister\u2019s son, the young H\u00e1kon Eir\u00edksson, whom he had left in charge there.67 In the first half of one stanza, \u00de\u00f3rarinn relates this trans- fer of command; in the second, Cnut\u2019s gift of Denmark to Harthacnut (in 1023), his little son by Emma: 62 Hofmann, Lehnbeziehungen, 91 (\u00a7 95). 63 Hofmann, Lehnbeziehungen, 87\u201393 (\u00a7\u00a7 86\u201397); Townend, \u201cContextualising the Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1- pur,\u201d 155\u201357. 64 Frank, \u201cCnut in the Verse of his Skalds,\u201d 109. 65 \u201cSigvatr: Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa,\u201d ed. Townend, 650\u201351 (\u201cca. 1027\u201d). 66 \u201cSigvatr: Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa,\u201d ed. Townend, 660\u201361 (v. 9\/5\u20137). 67 \u201c\u00de\u00f3rarinn loftunga,\u201d ed. Townend, 851; Bolton, Cnut the Great, 153\u201354.","292 Richard North \u00de\u00e1 gaf s\u00ednum snjallr g\u01ebrvallan N\u00f3reg nefa nj\u00f3tr veg-J\u00f3ta, ok gaf s\u00ednum (segik \u00feat) megi (dals d\u00f8kk- salar) Danm\u01ebrk (-svana).68 [Then, bold beneficiary of road-Jutes, He gave his nephew the entirety of Norway, And gave to his own (this I say) boy Denmark (of the hall of a bow\u2019s dark-swans).] \u00de\u00f3rarinn makes us strain harder at the t\u00f8g (knot) than Sigvatr does within the new meter they have in common. The four syllables of its half-line offer less room for internal rhymes and kennings than the six in a half-line of dr\u00f3ttk- v\u00e6tt.69 \u00de\u00f3rarinn meets the challenge partly by imitating such Old English con- structions as \u201csu\u00f0-Dene\u201d (south-Danes) in his \u201cveg-J\u00f3ta\u201d compound. He also extends the meaning with puns, so that \u201celoquent\u201d is also suitable for \u201csnjallr\u201d (bold) and \u201chonor\u201d for \u201cveg\u201d in Cnut\u2019s epithet \u201csnjallr nj\u00f3tr veg-J\u00f3ta,\u201d as in \u201cel- oquent beneficiary of honored-Jutes.\u201d With \u201croad\u201d for vegr, \u00de\u00f3rarinn\u2019s tribal compound may allude to the Limfjord channel near Viborg, but \u201chonor\u201d is also part of this, with Cnut\u2019s family being from Jutland: most of his tribal epithets reflect this.70 In the second half of this stanza, \u00de\u00f3rarinn offers a more rewarding tangle in the long genitive \u201cdals d\u00f8kksalar svana.\u201d This form of the kenning prevails over the less frequent variants \u201cdags,\u201d \u201cd\u00f8ggsala,\u201d and \u201cdj\u00fapsvala,\u201d but its ob- scurity stands in contrast to the clarity of \u00de\u00f3rarinn\u2019s main clause. Although the words in his kenning are simple, their meanings are not, either individually or together. The difficulties are which element comes first; whether \u201cdal-\u201d means \u201cdale\u201d or \u201cbow\u201d; and whether it is the \u201csal\u201d (hall) which is \u201cd\u00f8kk\u201d (dark), as the compound recommends, or, by transferred epithet, the \u201csvana\u201d (swans), or even the \u201cdalr\u201d (dale, bow). Matthew Townend reads \u201cdals d\u00f8kksali svana\u201d \u201cthe dark halls of the dale of swans,\u201d in which the \u201cswans\u2019 dale\u201d is the sea, whose \u201cdark halls\u201d are the islands of Denmark. A complication in this, how- ever, is the fact that Denmark is cited by name in the same line. Another read- ing is more rewarding. If we take the kenning\u2019s second element first, read \u201cdalr\u201d as \u201cbow\u201d and transfer \u201cd\u00f8kk-\u201d to \u201csvana,\u201d we end up with \u201cof the hall of a bow\u2019s dark-swans,\u201d in which \u201cdark-swans\u201d are ravens and a \u201cbow\u2019s ravens\u201d 68 \u201c\u00de\u00f3rarinn loftunga,\u201d ed. Townend, 860\u201361, n. 3 (T\u00f8gdr\u00e1pa, stanza 6: textual discussion based on these pages). 69 Hofmann, Lehnbeziehungen, 93 (\u00a7 97): \u201cbesonders schwierig, fast zu schwierig.\u201d 70 Frank, \u201cCnut in the Verse of his Skalds,\u201d 112\u201313.","Chapter 13 Behold the Front Page: Cnut and the Scyldings in Beowulf 293 are arrows, whose \u201chall\u201d is a shield. So \u00de\u00f3rarinn calls his king a \u201cshield.\u201d And the last line of his stanza may be opened up further, if we confine the parenthe- sis to \u201csegik \u00feat\u201d (this I say). In this case \u00de\u00f3rarinn calls the old homeland \u201cDan- m\u01ebrk dals d\u00f8kksalar svana,\u201d \u201cthe Denmark of Shield,\u201d in order to say that the land belongs to Skj\u01ebldr, Cnut\u2019s ancestor. So far we have seen that Cnut\u2019s skalds found it in their interest to allude to Danish kings and their followers as \u201cSkj\u01ebldungar,\u201d and referred at least twice to Cnut as a descendant and hypostasis of \u201cSkj\u01ebldr.\u201d It has already been argued that this ideology came from England in 1017\u20131020, where, long before, Scealdwa or Scyld had been back-formed from Scylding.71 What I now propose is that Cnut got this name from Beowulf. Cnut and the First Folio of Beowulf Beowulf is the only surviving Old English text to refer to \u201cScyldingas,\u201d to iden- tify them with \u201cDanes,\u201d royal or otherwise, and to trace their descent from \u201cScyld.\u201d At first it might be thought that Cnut would need no source other than the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Its earliest text, one which predated the Chronicle\u2019s versions all of 891, survives in the form of a Latin translation by Ealdorman \u00c6thelweard in ca. 978. This text expands King \u00c6thelwulf\u2019s genealogy in the annal for 855 with a narrative that is probably indebted to the first fitt of Beo- wulf. This is because \u00c6thelweard, after naming Beo, son of Scyld, son of Scef, says that Scef cum uno dromone advectus est in insulam oceani qui dicitur Scani, armis circundatis, eratque valde recens puer, et ab incolis illius terrae ignotus. Attamen abeis suscipitur, et ut familiarem diligenti animo eum custodierunt, et post in regem eligunt; de cuius prosa- pia ordinem trahit Athulf rex.72 [was carried in a ship to an ocean island which is called Scani, with weapons put about him, and he was a boy awfully young, and unknown by the inhabitants of this land. But then he is raised by them, and they took care of him with loving intention as one of their household, and afterwards chose him for a king, from whose stock King \u00c6thelwulf takes his line.] Because \u00c6thelweard\u2019s subject is Scef (the missing father), not his son Scyld (the one to arrive in Sk\u00e5ne as a baby with a future as a warrior dynast in 71 See note 29 above. Anderson, \u201cScyld Scyldinga,\u201d 470\u201372. 72 Chronicle of \u00c6thelweard, ed. Campbell, 33.","294 Richard North Beowulf), it appears that Beowulf is the source of the genealogy which was ra- tionalized before it entered \u00c6thelwulf\u2019s annal for 855; and because Scylding is not found elsewhere, it seems likely that Beowulf, together with the Chronicle, was the source of the Skj\u01ebldung-ideology we have seen. The ultimate expression of this ideology survives in the aforesaid \u201chl\u00edfsk- j\u01ebldr\u201d stanza in Sigvatr\u2019s Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa. As Sigvatr reels off a list of victories in England and Scandinavia, this most English of Cnut\u2019s skalds gives his king the Shield-name at the climax of his Holy River campaign. This is just as Cnut is said to rout Kings \u00d3l\u00e1fr and \u01eanundr Jakob as they invade Sk\u00e5ne: L\u00e9tat af j\u01ebfurr (\u00e6tt manna fannsk) J\u00f3tlands etask \u00edlendr (at \u00fev\u00ed). Vildi foldar f\u00e6st r\u00e1n Dana hl\u00edf-Skj\u01ebldr hafa, h\u01ebfu\u00f0fremstr j\u01ebfurr.73 [The prince of Jutland (a lineage of men was found), Let not himself, come to land, be eaten up (in this). The least robbery of Danes\u2019 earth would their Towering-Skj\u01ebldr have, head-foremost prince.] In an earlier stanza the endangered part of Denmark is named as \u201cSk\u00e1ney\u201d (Sk\u00e5ne).74 From the Norwegian side, moreover, Cnut is called \u201cSk\u00e1nunga gramr\u201d (lord of Scanians) in a stanza about Holy River which \u00de\u00f3r\u00f0r S\u00e6reksson composed in memory of King \u00d3l\u00e1fr in the early 1030s.75 Sigvatr, with \u201c\u00e6tt manna\u201d as \u201cline- age of men\u201d rather than \u201cmankind,\u201d says that Cnut shows the power of his kin- dred in thus saving Sk\u00e5ne. It seems better to read \u201cfannsk\u201d as \u201cwas found\u201d in his stanza, comparable to the passive use of the verb in \u201cmeirr fannsk \u00feinn an \u00feeira \/ \u00ferekr\u201d (your strength was found greater than theirs) in \u00d3ttarr\u2019s H\u01ebfu\u00f0- lausn.76 Primarily the word \u201c\u00edlendr\u201d means \u201cindigenous,\u201d in contrast with \u201c\u00fat- lagi\u201d (outlaw); its use may derive from, or allude to, OE \u201cinlende\u201d which glosses Latin \u201cincola\u201d (inhabitant).77 Its literal meaning here, \u201cin land\u201d or \u201ccoming to land,\u201d gives \u201cSkj\u01ebldr\u201d as an early type of plantagenet, whereby Cnut plants him- self in Sk\u00e5ne as if he were Scyld the seedling in the first folio of Beowulf. On Sigvatr\u2019s last line, which is also a refrain, the element \u201ch\u01ebfu\u00f0\u201d (head) may be transferred to \u201cj\u01ebfurr\u201d (prince), as in \u201ctop-prince,\u201d in order to avoid a tautology in \u201ch\u01ebfu\u00f0fremstr.\u201d As with \u201chl\u00edfskj\u01ebldr,\u201d however, the tautology is an 73 \u201cSigvatr: Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa,\u201d ed. Townend, 660\u201361 (v. 9). 74 \u201cSigvatr: Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa,\u201d ed. Townend, 657 (v. 6). 75 Fagrskinna, ed. Bjarni Einarsson, 187 (chap. 32). 76 \u201c\u00d3ttarr: H\u01ebfu\u00f0lausn,\u201d ed. Townend, 763 (v. 18). 77 Hofmann, Lehnbeziehungen, 103 (\u00a7 113).","Chapter 13 Behold the Front Page: Cnut and the Scyldings in Beowulf 295 invitation to dig deeper. With the image \u201caf etask\u201d (to be eaten up), we see Skj\u01ebldr identified with the harvest, whose theft he will not tolerate. If \u201ch\u01ebfu\u00f0- fremstr\u201d is read intact as \u201chead-foremost\u201d and \u201chl\u00edf\u201d as \u201ctowering,\u201d as in OE hl\u012bfian (\u201cto loom\u201d; also in Beowulf, lines 1799, 1898, and 2805), Sigvatr turns Skj\u01ebldr into full-grown wheat. This image resembles that of the barley which, on the level of monastic my- thology, is personified at the start of Beowulf,78 where it is said that Scyld grew up to terrorize the other tribes sy\u00f0\u00f0an \u00e6rest wear\u00f0 feasceaft funden; he \u00fe\u00e6s frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum, weor\u00f0myndum \u00feah. (lines 6\u20138) [since first he was found small of shaft; he experienced solace for that, grew under the clouds, received honors.] In this literal translation, the seedling, head of a new dynasty, is \u201cfunden\u201d (found), as with Cnut\u2019s dynasty in \u201c\u00e6tt manna fannsk.\u201d All tribes round about pay tribute to Scyld, a good king, whom the Lord, having pitied the Danes for their anarchy earlier, rewards with an heir: Him \u00fe\u00e6s lif-Frea, wuldres wealdend, woroldare forgeaf; Beow w\u00e6s breme (bl\u00e6d wide sprang), Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in. (lines 16\u201319) [To them for that did life-Lord, Wielder of Glory, give worldly bounty; Barley was renowned (the leaf sprang wide), offspring of Shield within Scanian lands.] It is worth noting that the word \u201cj\u01ebfurr\u201d for \u201chl\u00edf-Skj\u01ebldr\u201d echoes \u201ceafera\u201d in \u201cScyldes eafera\u201d on line 19. Sigvatr\u2019s crop imagery suggests that he knew or heard (of) this passage from a copy of Beowulf, from one whose reference to beow (barley), with its pun on bl\u00e6d (blade, i.e., leaf) and bl\u01e3d (glory), would define it as other than Cotton Vitellius A.XV.79 78 Two centuries earlier; see North, Heathen Gods, 189\u201395, and Origins of \u201cBeowulf,\u201d 38\u201339. 79 On the pun, see North, Heathen Gods, 194.","296 Richard North Having excelled in war, at the end of his life Scyld is carried, as if he were now full-grown barley, \u201cfelahror\u201d (line 27; very vigorous), to the shore to be shoved on the deep, destination unknown: Nal\u00e6s hi hine l\u00e6ssan lacum teodan \u00feeodgestreonum \u00feon \u00fea dydon \u00fee hine \u00e6t frumsceafte for\u00f0 onsendon \u00e6nne ofer y\u00f0e umborwesende. (lines 43\u201346) [In no way with lesser offerings, lesser tribal treasures, did they adorn him than those did who sent him forth in the first shaft of his creation alone over waves as an infant child.] An image of crops, such as in \u201cScefing,\u201d was still obvious a century after the writing of the manuscript: William of Malmesbury, expanding the name Sceaf in the West Saxon regnal list in De gestis Anglorum (ca. 1125), says that Sceaf, when he arrived, was \u201cposito ad caput frumenti manipulo, dormiens, ideoque Sceaf nuncupatus\u201d (sleeping with a maniple of corn placed by his head and thus named Sheaf).80 In these ways, Sigvatr\u2019s praise of Cnut as Skj\u01ebldr appears to allude deliberately to the genealogy in the opening page of Beowulf, in which \u201cScyld Scefing\u201d (shield of the sheaf) grows up to engender \u201cBeow\u201d (bar- ley) in \u201cScedeland\u201d (Scanian lands). As we have seen, the battle of Holy River was fought to keep the Swedes out of Sk\u00e5ne, which was furthest out from Cnut\u2019s base in Jutland and least friendly to his rule.81 Finally, when Sigvatr makes Skj\u01ebldr one with the Scanian harvest which he also protects, he alludes also to Cnut\u2019s genealogy. Right at the beginning of his Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa, he portrays this from an English point of view: Ok Ellu bak at l\u00e9t hinns sat \u00cdvarr ara J\u00f3rv\u00edk skorit.82 [And \u00cdvarr let the back of King \u00c6lle, Who sat at York, be cut by the eagle.] 80 Gesta Regum Anglorum, ed. and trans. Mynors, Thomson, and Winterbottom, I, 176\u201377; II, 88\u201390. 81 Bolton, Empire of Cnut, 201\u201310; Cnut the Great, 144\u201351. 82 \u201cSigvatr: Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa,\u201d ed. Townend, 651 (v. 1: punctuated as \u201cat, l\u00e9t, hinns sat\u201d).","Chapter 13 Behold the Front Page: Cnut and the Scyldings in Beowulf 297 Ok senn sonu sl\u00f3, hvern ok \u00fe\u00f3, A\u00f0alr\u00e1\u00f0s e\u00f0a \u00fat fl\u00e6m\u00f0i Kn\u00fatr.83 [And at once Kn\u00fatr slew the sons of \u00c6thelred, Or drove them out, and that was each one of them.] Thus he compares Cnut with \u00cdvarr the Boneless, who here is said to have killed King \u00c6lle of Northumbria (whether or not this is in revenge for the death of his father, Ragnarr Lo\u00f0br\u00f3k, we cannot tell).84 To English readers of the Life of St. Edmund (ca. 992, which \u00c6lfric translated from the Passio Beati Eadmundi of Abbo of Fleury), \u00cdvarr was already known as the cruel Dane Hinguar; he and his associate Hubba, \u201cgeanl\u00e6hte \u00feurh deofol\u201d (united by the devil), campaign in England until Hubba invades Northumbria, while Hinguar turns east to East Anglia.85 Sigvatr appears to open his Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa with \u00cdvarr in order to present Cnut\u2019s conquest of England as a recovery of what the Danes had won earlier. The tale of \u00cdvarr lay behind other Norse references to England as the kingdom of Ella, or \u00c6lle of Northumbria.86 Hallvar\u00f0r alludes to (northern) England as \u201cEllu \u00e6ttleif\u00f0\u201d (\u00c6lle\u2019s patrimony) in his Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa (ca. 1029). Eil\u00edfr Go\u00f0r\u00fanarson, at the end of his \u00de\u00f3rsdr\u00e1pa (Eulogy on \u00de\u00f3rr, ca. 990), a paean for Earl H\u00e1kon, reinforces the idea that \u00de\u00f3rr has killed all giants in Geirr\u00f8\u00f0r\u2019s cave by calling them \u201c\u01ebld Ellu steins\u201d (stanza 20; men of the rock-\u00c6lle, i.e., giants), as if \u00de\u00f3rr were sacking York. Even Egill Skallagr\u00edmsson, in what remains of his A\u00f0alsteinsdr\u00e1pa (Eulogy on \u00c6thelstan, ca. 940), if this is truly from nearly a century earlier, names \u00c6thelred\u2019s great-uncle (wrongly) \u201cni\u00f0 Ellu\u201d (kinsman of \u00c6lle): after the Battle of Brunanburh (probably Bromborough on the Wirral) in 937, his kenning would have referred to York as the failed objective of Norse-Irish invaders. Back in Sigvatr\u2019s Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa (ca. 1030 \u00d7 1035) of nearly a century later, the second half of his Ella-stanza, if these halves go together, turns \u00c6thelred into a latter-day \u00c6lle, adding in his sons, whom Cnut has killed (i.e., Edmund, of wounds) or exiled (i.e., Edward and Alfred, to Normandy). These lines by Sigvatr recall one by his nephew \u00d3ttarr, near the 83 \u201cSigvatr: Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa,\u201d ed. Townend, 652\u201353 (v. 2). 84 For a more detailed discussion of this complex of stories in Anglo-Scandinavian England, see Thomson elsewhere in this volume, pp. 236\u201344, as well as Elisabeth van Houts, \u201cScandina- vian Influences,\u201d 116\u201318. 85 \u00c6lfric\u2019s Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, II, 314\u201335: XXXII, \u201cSt. Edmund, King and Martyr,\u201d esp. 316 (line 30). 86 Frank, \u201cCnut in the Verse of his Skalds,\u201d 110\u201311, 120 (v. 2); Longman Anthology, ed. North and Allard, 478, 580 (v. 20).","298 Richard North start of his Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa (ca. 1027), \u201c\u00e6tt drap J\u00f3ta dr\u00f3ttinn J\u00e1tgeirs\u201d (the lord of Jutes whacked Edgar\u2019s kin).87 An English version of Cnut\u2019s Ivar-precedent may be read in the Historia de sancto Cuthberto, datable to the mid- to late eleventh century in Northumbria.88 The charter-augmented story in this Saint\u2019s Life shows Cuthbert influencing the ninth-century Danish invasions well after his death. Sometime after York has fallen to Ivar (in 866), Cuthbert appears in a vision to Abbot Eadred of Carlisle, announcing that a slave, of noble birth, \u201cnomine Guthred filium Hardacnut\u201d (chap. 13; Guthred by name, son of Harthacnut), will become king of the Danes if only they turn to Christianity. In due course a certain Guthred appears and when King Halfdan (another Dane) leaves with part of the army, Guthred is elected king of Northumbria. \u201cHardacnut,\u201d Guthred\u2019s father\u2019s name, has been identified as the birth-name of Gormr the Old, Cnut\u2019s great-grandfather, on the basis of names in the Gesta Hammburgensis of Adam of Bremen of the later eleventh century.89 Sigvatr calls Cnut \u201cGorms \u00e1ttungr\u201d (scion of Gormr\u2019s kin) in his Vestrfararv\u00edsur (verses on the western journey), when knocking on the door of Cnut\u2019s palace in England (possibly in Winchester).90 Cnut gave Gormr\u2019s more official name to his son by Emma, to whom, as we have seen, he gives Denmark later in Sigvatr\u2019s Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa. The etymology of ON H\u01ebr\u00f0a-Kn\u00fatr, apparently \u201cHordalander-Cnut,\u201d identifies Cnut\u2019s family as immigrants to Jutland from that part of western Norway, some sixty years before he was born; Adam says they come from \u201cNortmannia,\u201d probably \u201cNorway.\u201d91 Although the English legend, like Sigvatr, assigns the invasion to \u00cdvarr (and possibly to Ragnarr\u2019s family), its allu- sion to Guthred, son of Harthacnut, shares the rule of England with Cnut\u2019s Norwe- gian ancestors. This legend also embodies a conflation of two ideas, the river Scalda (Scheldt) and the Skj\u01ebldungar, when it also refers to the \u201cDani\u201d (Danes) three times as \u201cScal- dingi.\u201d92 The first reference comes apropos of King Ecgfrith\u2019s grants to Cuthbert in the eighth century, \u201cdonec eo defuncto uenerunt Scaldingi et Eboracam fregerunt et terram uastauerunt\u201d (chap. 7; until after his death the Scaldings came and 87 \u201c\u00d3ttarr svarti: Kn\u00fatsdr\u00e1pa,\u201d ed. Townend, 771 (v. 3). 88 Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, ed. South, 25\u201336, esp. 35\u201336. 89 Bolton, Empire of Cnut, 187\u201388; Cnut the Great, 41\u201344. 90 \u201cSigvatr: Vestrfararv\u00edsur,\u201d ed. Jesch, 618 (v. 2). 91 The readings for Haraldr\u2019s father\u2019s name are \u201cHardecnudth Vurm,\u201d \u201cHardewigh Gorm,\u201d \u201cHardewigh Gorem,\u201d and \u201cHardewich Gwrm.\u201d See Bolton, Cnut the Great, 44\u201345; Adam Bre- mensis Gesta, ed. Schmeidler, 52 (I.lii); Adam of Bremen: History, trans. Tschan, 47 (\u201cNor- mandy\u201d). The explanation har\u00f0r (hard), given as an etymon in the Encomium, is opportunistic; see Encomium, ed. Campbell, 34 (II.18). 92 Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, ed. South, 48, 50, 52.","Chapter 13 Behold the Front Page: Cnut and the Scyldings in Beowulf 299 crushed York and devastated the land). The second starts with God\u2019s dispatch of Ubba, \u201cdux Fresciorum\u201d (duke of the Frisians), to sack York with an army of Danes against whom \u00c6lle falls in battle (chap. 10); after which we learn of further land-grants to St. Cuthbert\u2019s \u201cpriusquam Scaldingi uenirent in Anglicam terram\u201d (chap. 11; before the Scaldings came to England). The third reference claims that Cuthbert succeeded in persuading God to end \u00c6lle\u2019s line, \u201cquia Scaldingi omnes prope Anglos in meridiana et aquilonari parte occiderunt, ecclesias fregerunt et spoliauerunt\u201d (chap. 12; for the Scaldings slew nearly all the English in the south- ern and northern part, demolished and despoiled the churches). This term has been derived from Low German *skalda (punt), or read more persuasively as \u201cmen of the Scheldt\u201d (OE Scald) in the far south of Frisia in keeping with Ubba\u2019s title.93 The late ninth century saw Danish pirates hiding out in Frisia, some of whose at- tacks, according to sources which include the Lindisfarne Annals and Adam of Bre- men, came from the Scheldt.94 In the Historia de sancto Cuthberto, in this way, the form Scaldingi appears to be a blend of two words, a neologism for \u2018men of the Scalda\u2019 formed under the influence of Cnut\u2019s Skj\u01ebldungar.95 Ultimately, the name would have come from the skalds, who got it from Cnut, who built it on Beowulf. Conclusion: Cnut and Beowulf This discussion deduces that Cnut, taking Beowulf for his genealogy, had estab- lished an ideology of Skj\u01ebldr at his court by the late 1020s. While the king\u2019s skalds seem to use Skj\u01ebldungar for his Danish forebears, kin and followers, \u00de\u00f3rar- inn and Sigvatr appear to go further in identifying Cnut with Skj\u01ebldr, personified stem of this term. Sigvatr, in particular, gives Cnut a \u201chl\u00edf-Skj\u01ebldr\u201d incarnation which comes to land in Sk\u00e5ne and becomes one with the wheat, keeping both it and himself safe from devourers. For each of these poetic liberties the only extant analogue is Beowulf, for whose sole surviving witness, Cotton Vitellius A.XV, a copying in Cnut\u2019s early reign may not be excluded and indeed looks like the best solution. Only in Beowulf do we find \u201cScyldingas,\u201d who are Danes; and only on the opening folio of Beowulf does \u201cScyld\u201d arrive in \u201cScedeland\u201d to become father 93 ASC (C), ed. O\u2019Brien O\u2019Keeffe, 63 (s.a. 884); Anderson, \u201cScyld Scyldinga,\u201d 470 (for Scheldt). 94 Lund, \u201cFrisia \u2013 a Viking Nest?\u201d Annales Lindisfarnenses, ed. Pertz, 506 (s.a. 911: \u201cScaldi,\u201d for \u201cmen of the Scheldt\u201d). Adam Bremensis Gesta, ed. Schmeidler, 43 (I.xxxix(41): \u201cScaldam\u201d); Adam of Bremen: History, trans. Tschan, 39. 95 So Townend, though without the influence of Scalda, in Language and History, 141 (Skj\u01ebldun- gar); see also, in his p. 81, the placename Skellingthorpe (Lincs.), spelt Scheldinghop (1141), Skel- dinghop (1238) and Scheldinchope (Domesday Book).","300 Richard North of the barley and kings of Denmark. Although there is some correlation between these skalds and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, no version of the latter has either a Scylding or Scealdwa as the foundling or any clear alignment between Scealdwa and the Danes. From this it may be inferred that in 1017\u20131020 King Cnut, perhaps through the royal archive in Winchester, was shown a different, older and no lon- ger extant manuscript of Beowulf, in whose first folio \u201cBeow\u201d was copied where the Nowell Codex has (deliberately) \u201cBeowulf\u201d (in verse lines 18 and 53). As we shall see in the following chapters, King Cnut sailed to Denmark with nine ships in the winter of 1019, upon the death of King Haraldr, his prob- ably older brother with whom he shared the rule.96 Although he received his family\u2019s royal title probably in Viborg and also on Fyn, further east his position was less secure. Not until the middle of the century would Cnut\u2019s family hold full power in Sj\u00e6lland, despite the fact that King Sveinn, as suggested by Bol- ton, probably in order \u201cto maintain a visible presence,\u201d is said to have been interred in Roskilde \u201cin monasterio in honore Sanctae Trinitatis ab eodem rege constructo, in sepulchro quod sibi parauerat\u201d (in the monastery which the same king had built in honour of the Holy Trinity, in the sepulchre which he had prepared for himself).97 For Cnut there may also have been the matter of a conflict among Western Slavs, which, if we accept Gazzoli\u2019s conclusions later in this volume (pp. 411\u201313), posed a threat to his southern borders. At any rate, starting with his homecoming in 1019\u20131020, Cnut aimed to consolidate his power over Denmark east of Jutland. He settled English clergy, craftsmen and moneyers in Viborg and then in Roskilde, as well as even further east in the new ecclesiastical province of Lund, in Sk\u00e5ne, where his influence was weak- est.98 It is also clear from the letter to the English which he sent from Denmark in 1020 that he took English priests with him on this long trip east. That is, Cnut dictated a message which one priest wrote down and another in England, and then Archbishop Wulfstan, polished up on arrival.99 So it might be imag- ined that King Cnut of England, shield of the Danes, had a copy of Beowulf car- ried with him to Roskilde and Sk\u00e5ne, seats of Hrothgar and Scyld, like a charter that fixed his right to rule there on the opening page. Whether or not the poem was with him in this way, its ideology of Scyld, father of the Scyldings, would define the royal house of Denmark. 96 ASC (C), ed. O\u2019Brien O\u2019Keeffe, 104 (s.a. 1019; also in versions D and E); Bolton, Cnut the Great, 130\u201331. 97 Encomium, ed. Campbell, 18 (II.3); Bolton, Empire of Cnut, 156\u201359, esp. 157. 98 Bolton, Empire of Cnut, 159\u201375, 220\u201332. 99 Lawson, \u201cWulfstan and the Homiletic Element,\u201d 162; Lawson, England\u2019s Viking King, 88\u201389; Wormald, Making of English Law, 347.","Part III: Cnut\u2019s Empire","","Map A: The empire of Cnut the Great (1016\u20131035).","","Jesper Hjermind Chapter 14 \u201cVuiberg Hic Coronatur Rex Dacie\u201d: The Crowning of King Cnut in Viborg, 1019 The material evidence shows a connection between Cnut and Viborg in Jutland. Archaeologists from Viborg Museum have carried out excavations along the northern bank of Viborg\u2019s Lake S\u00f8nders\u00f8 on a number of occasions: in 1981; in 1984\u20131985, when test trenches were dug in the context of the planned construc- tion of a hotel; and in 2001, when the museum excavated a 100 sq m area that was essential to a major interdisciplinary research project. The location is ex- ceptional, as both the structures and the finds found in the waterlogged depos- its are extremely well preserved. Not only are the conditions for preservation here among the very best compared to sites in northern Europe, the quality of some of the finds is also very fine. For these reasons, the excavators were eager to know what kind of site this was, and who lived there. The first excavations in the 1980s (published in 1998) resulted in a clear interpretation: this was an artisan quarter where shoemakers, blacksmiths, and founders lived and pro- duced wares for the town of Viborg. However, since the last excavation in 2001 (published in 2005), this has been replaced by a new interpretation, based on a detailed, multidisciplinary investigation in which every context, sample, and artefact has been closely scrutinised. The site did indeed contain various work- shops. They were producing goods and equipment not for the town, however, but for the king, his housecarls, and their peers. Archaeologists see this lively activity, which can be dated precisely to 1018, as directly linked to Cnut the Great, who probably came to Viborg the following year to be crowned king of Denmark. We must say \u201cprobably\u201d because no existing written sources mention this coronation. The earliest written reference to a coronation in Denmark is to 1027, when Harthacnut was crowned at Viborg.1 Instead, we must rely on the archaeological record and the finds which indicate the existence of a seasonal warrior and magnate milieu that surrounded itself with luxury. Craftsmen, both local and of English origin, manufactured everything from shoes to steel for swords to magnificent gold ornaments. Their workshops stood close to a small mound called 1 1027 is the only year in which, on Cnut\u2019s last visit, his son by this name could have been crowned in Denmark. See Suhm, Historier af Danmark, 143; Fagrskinna, ed. Finnur J\u00f3nsson, 184 (chap. 36); Fagrskinna, ed. Bjarni Einarsson, 202 (chap. 36). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1515\/9781501513336-015","306 Jesper Hjermind Borgvold, at the foot of which was a marked boundary in the form of some kind of fence, enclosing what was possibly the Thingstead and coronation area.2 Topography of Viborg Viborg differs from most Danish medieval towns in having an inland location, without direct access to a waterway. The southernmost branch of the Limfjord lies 10 km away, where what is now Hjarb\u00e6k was named as the port of Viborg in 1499.3 The extensive network of roads that fanned out from Viborg compensated for the lack of access to waterborne transportation. The Army Road or Ox Road, the great road running north to south through the Jutland peninsula, begins at Viborg (Map 14.1a\u2013b).4 Viborg itself is situated on the western side of a tunnel valley and is bordered to the east by the two lakes Viborg S\u00f8nders\u00f8 (southern lake) and Viborg N\u00f8rres\u00f8 (northern lake). Erosion gullies and valleys traverse the high-lying plateau on which the modern city stands. The oldest streets follow these natural routes, con- necting the lakeside area with the upper town, running up and over the steep slope.5 The town plateau is divided into several smaller, independent, plateaus (Map 14.2). On one of these, at Store Sct. Peder Str\u00e6de (Great St. Peter Lane), we find the oldest traces of settlement. On the flat foreland below the slopes leading up to the plateau lies the S\u00f8nders\u00f8 area, and close by stands the 12 m high earthen Borgvold mound just mentioned, which rises from an island on the west- ern side of the tunnel valley containing the two lakes. The Borgvold mound plays a central part in the oldest history of the city.6 2 The article is based on, and in places reproduces material from, my earlier articles: \u201cThea- trum Urbis Vibergensis\u201d; \u201cWith a Hawk on the Hand\u201d; and \u201cKeramik.\u201d 3 Krongaard Kristensen, Middelalderbyen Viborg, 19, 32. 4 Krongaard Kristensen, Middelalderbyen Viborg, 30. 5 Krongaard Kristensen, Middelalderbyen Viborg, 23\u201326. 6 Hjermind, \u201cWith a Hawk on the Hand.\u201d","Chapter 14 \u201cVuiberg Hic Coronatur Rex Dacie\u201d 307 Map 14.1a: The great North\u2013South route running down through the Jutland peninsula \u2013 the Military Road or Ox Road begins in Viborg. After Matthiessen, H\u00e6rvejen, 1930.","308 Jesper Hjermind Map 14.1b: All roads lead to Viborg, meeting in a fan-shape north and south of the town. After Matthiessen, Viborg-Veje, 1933. Drawing Svend Kaae 2004. Map 14.2: On the flat foreland below the slopes leading up to the plateau lies the S\u00f8nders\u00f8 area, and close by stands a pronounced 12 m high earthen bank, Borgvold, which rises up from an island in the tunnel valley. Drawing Lars Agersnap Larsen 2016.","Chapter 14 \u201cVuiberg Hic Coronatur Rex Dacie\u201d 309 The Store Sct. Peder Str\u00e6de Settlement The oldest area of activity in Viborg for which we have evidence is in the present- day Store Sct. Peder Str\u00e6de part of the city. Here Viborg Museum has excavated a number of phases of a village-like farm site of late tenth-century date. Most of the buildings at Store Sct. Peder Str\u00e6de are simple storage buildings, with wattle walls, without daub or fireplaces; they could well have been related to the eco- nomic management of a farm.7 The best-built structure, house V, was a 90 sq m structure with wooden wall planks and curved outer walls (Figure 14.1).8 The un- covered remains of the farm were right on the northernmost edge of the farm site, as there were clear traces of plowing just 10 m to the north, which continued right up to the modern day town square, Hjultorvet. In the medieval period this square was the churchyard of the parish church of St. Mathias.9 The oldest dates for these settlement traces are uncertain. There is a single find of a ninth-century plate fibula brooch,10 but otherwise the general impression from both the buildings and the limited number of finds is that of a late Viking Age site. Some of the finds are older than those from the S\u00f8nders\u00f8 excavation, including the semi-circular vessels,11 which were not present at all in the finds from S\u00f8nders\u00f8 and so must be older than 1018.12 A rough overview of the total number of finds made in 2006 shows no other indicators of a ninth-century date (there are for in- stance no examples of stamped ceramics or spindles, except the fibula which might be interpreted as an heirloom from an earlier date). This means that some the build- ings along Store Sct. Peder Str\u00e6de must be older than the lakeside activities, which are dated to around 1018, but these buildings hardly go back as far as the ninth century.13 The end of the dating sequence at this site lies at around 1050.14 7 Levin Nielsen, \u201cPederstr\u00e6de i Viborg,\u201d 28\u201330. 8 Levin Nielsen, \u201cPederstr\u00e6de i Viborg,\u201d 39. 9 Krongaard Kristensen, Middelalderbyen Viborg, 39\u201340; Hjermind, \u201cP\u00e5 sporet af Viborgs mid- delalderlige sognekirker.\u201d 10 Levin Nielsen, \u201cPederstr\u00e6de i Viborg,\u201d 44. 11 Levin Nielsen, \u201cPederstr\u00e6de i Viborg,\u201d figs. 13.1 and 13.3. 12 Hjermind, \u201cKeramik,\u201d 421. 13 Hjermind, \u201cTheatrum Urbis Vibergensis,\u201d 187\u201388. 14 Dendrochronological dating of posts from the oldest street facing house in Store Sct. Pederstr\u00e6de (VSM 990C) was carried out in 2002 by the dating laboratory Wormianum\u2013 Moesg\u00e5rd Museum.","310 Jesper Hjermind Figure 14.1: Overview of the excavated house structures at the Sct. Peder Str\u00e6de settlement 1966\u20131967. Notice house V, the most well-built house with wooden wall planks and curved outer walls. After Levin Nielsen, \u201cPederstr\u00e6de i Viborg,\u201d 25, Figure 2.","Chapter 14 \u201cVuiberg Hic Coronatur Rex Dacie\u201d 311 The Settlement at Viborg S\u00f8nders\u00f8 In 1016 the area between Viborg S\u00f8nders\u00f8 and the steep slopes to the west con- sisted of damp, marshy meadows, with patches of more solid ground where tongues of sand broke through the surface, and with flushes where water fanned out from springs in the slopes. Dendrochronological analyses of timber recovered from the excavations in the 1980s gave felling dates predating 1018 by a few years. Similarly, there is a small amount of craft waste consisting of antler, leather, and slag, suggesting that some form of minor activity had ex- isted in 1018, and that during the winter of 1018\u20131019 oak trees had been felled to provide timber for building work in the area along the edge of the lake.15 The earliest building, excavated in 2001, dates from this time. This is a workshop measuring 3 m by 5 m, with oak posts and wattle walls of hazel (Figure 14.2a\u2013b). About the same time, a drainage ditch was dug and then filled with branches and marked with a fence. The following year a latrine was built to the west of the ditch and the workshop building was equipped with a hearth, bellows, and anvil. The workshop was apparently in use in the autumn, winter, and possibly spring of the years 1020\u20131021, 1021\u20131022, and 1022\u20131023,16 standing unused dur- ing summer, with the result that seeds germinated and plants grew on the sur- face of its floor.17 However, the presence in the latrine-fill of bones from smelt, a fish which can only be caught at the end of April,18 along with strawberry pips and other plant remains, shows that people were also present at the site in some of the spring and summer months.19 The botanical, entomological, and, not least, parasitological analyses show the presence of both animal dung and human feces. However, it seems that no animals were kept at the site on a long-term basis. There may just have been the occasional presence of livestock from the hinterland, or perhaps this material represents the gut contents of slaughtered animals, which, judging by the nature 15 From the previous excavations there are several dendrochronological dates prior to 1030: 1981 excavation, Trench B 1018\u00b11 and 1018; 1984\u20131945 excavation, Trench B 1015, Trench L 1020 and 1028, Trench S 1018 (two dates), Trench U 1015 and 1017. Re-excavation of area 881D Trench B in 1998: 1010 (1 date) and 1018 (3 dates) from the same context. 16 There are no dendrochronological dates to confirm use in 1022\u20131023, but this seems very likely on the basis of the archaeobotanical and stratigraphical evidence. 17 Daly, \u201cDendrochronological Dating,\u201d 153\u201355; Jouttij\u00e4rvi, Thomsen, and Moltsen, \u201cV\u00e6rkste- dets function,\u201d 300\u2013301; Moltsen, \u201cLag- og makrofossilanalyser,\u201d 175\u201376; Thomsen, \u201cV\u00e6rkste- det \u2013 en bygningsark\u00e6ologisk redeg\u00f8relse,\u201d 294. 18 Enghoff, \u201cDyreknogler fra vikingetidens Viborg,\u201d 245. 19 Fruergaard and Moltsen, \u201cLatrinen,\u201d 121\u201323.","312 Jesper Hjermind Figure 14.2a: The workshop seen from the south. In the background, the anvil pit and the forge. of the fodder, were killed in winter or early spring.20 The site also contains large numbers of bones of domesticated animals (cattle, pigs, and sheep) alongside fishbones \u2013 in other words, ordinary butchering and domestic waste. In addition to this, there are the more exotic remains of fur-bearing animals (cat, polecat, fox, hare, and even dog) as well as birds of prey (goshawk and kestrel) which 20 Kenward, \u201cInsect and Other Invertebrate Remains,\u201d 220\u201321; Moltsen, \u201cDyref\u00e6kalier,\u201d 201; Roepstorff and Pearman, \u201cParasitter,\u201d 208.","Chapter 14 \u201cVuiberg Hic Coronatur Rex Dacie\u201d 313 Figure 14.2b: Overview of the area excavated in 2001. were probably used for falconry or kept as status symbols.21 In short, there is clear evidence of some kind of settlement in the vicinity. The workshop was maintained throughout the period of its use, and in 1025 it was completely rebuilt from the ground up, but activity and waste layers relating to the new building are not preserved. Perhaps the rebuilt workshop stood ready in case it should be needed, but was never actually put to use (Figure 14.3a\u2013b). Crafts at Viborg Iron blooms were refined in the workshop and the specialized manufacturing of steel for sword production took place. Silver and bronze casting also occurred, but silver was not refined here, even though the waste layers were found to con- tain crucibles and large quantities of lead, both of which are used in the refining process. The refinement of silver is thought to have taken place in a workshop nearby.22 Goldsmiths also worked in the area and the finds include a lead patrix or die, in which some of the finest gold ornaments of the early eleventh century \u2013 namely the Hornelunde hoard \u2013 were formed. Goldsmiths\u2019 tools were also found in the form of a little anvil with traces of gold. This had been used to stamp out small gold discs, which were then melted to produce the gold beads that were 21 Enghoff, \u201cDyreknogler fra vikingetidens Viborg,\u201d 255\u201356. 22 Jouttij\u00e4rvi and Andersen, \u201cAffald fra metalforarbejdning,\u201d 361\u201362.","314 Jesper Hjermind Figure 14.3a: Reconstructions of the earliest smithy from 1018. soldered on to the ornaments (Figure 14.4a\u2013b).23 Production waste from a comb- maker and a shoemaker, together with both local and \u201cEnglish\u201d potsherds made of local clay, reveal that there were other workshops nearby.24 Insect remains, along with traces of oak bark, suggest that the shoemaker may also have tanned his own leather.25 At first glance, these remains resemble traces from an early urban centre, but there is something that does not quite fit. The craftsmen\u2019s products are few and select. The comb-maker produced only combs with a length of 20 cm, while the 23 Krongaard Kristensen, \u201cPatrice,\u201d 215\u201316. Christensen, \u201cGenstande af knogle og tak\u201d 141\u201342. 24 Linaa Larsen, \u201cTakmaterialet fra Viborg S\u00f8nders\u00f8\u201d; Petersen, \u201cL\u00e6der og pelsv\u00e6rk\u201d; Ras- mussen and Hjermind, \u201cBestemmelse af proveniens,\u201d 429. 25 Kenward, \u201cInsect and Other Invertebrate Remains,\u201d 224.","Chapter 14 \u201cVuiberg Hic Coronatur Rex Dacie\u201d 315 Figure 14.3b: The altered building from ca. 1020 from the S\u00f8nders\u00f8 area. Drawing Sara Heil Jensen (2001). Figure 14.4: (a) Gold brooch found near Hornelund. (b) Its lead patrice found at Viborg S\u00f8nders\u00f8. Photo: Lennart Larsen and Arne Vindum.","316 Jesper Hjermind shoemaker only produced shoes and not sword- or dagger-sheaths or other leath- erwork. The products from the metalworking workshop were steel and metal cast- ings. Additionally, if this had been a typical artisans\u2019 quarter, there would have been activity all year round. Analyses of the plant macro remains and, in particu- lar, of the insect remains, demonstrate the absence of many of the species typically associated with human activity, which usually occur in great numbers in urban layers of this date. This must therefore have been a seasonal site or a very special- ized form of settlement, one which was established around 1018 and existed only for a very few years.26 Similarly, the pattern of deposition does not correspond to that seen in contemporary Scandinavian urban sites such as Bergen, Lund, and Sigtuna,27 where the waste from each individual craftsman lies separately, and within its own lot or property. At S\u00f8nders\u00f8, the waste from at least three different crafts (and workshops) lies intermixed around the workshop building. If the fence acted a property boundary, it separated an activity area with several different workshops from the actual settlement area. There is remarkably little craft waste to the west of the fence. The same cannot be said of the domestic waste, which is present everywhere.28 This is not a picture of an organized and struc- tured artisans\u2019 quarter, where one would not, of course, mix one\u2019s own refuse with that of the neighbors. Luxury and High-Status Imports In addition to the items produced locally in the workshops, the S\u00f8nders\u00f8 area has also yielded a number of unique and rare imported finds, such as a frag- ment of painted Middle Eastern glass;29 a turned boxwood bowl;30 numerous sherds of green-glazed white ceramic of the Stamford type, possibly from a form of watering-can rare even in England (Figure 14.5);31 and gaming pieces either from hnefatafl (a board game) or chess and other games, which we tradi- tionally associate with the homes of magnates.32 26 Daly, \u201cDendrochronological Dating,\u201d 154; Kenward, \u201cInsect and Other Invertebrate Re- mains,\u201d 223; Moltsen, \u201cLag- og makrofossilanalyser,\u201d 175\u201376. 27 Hansen, \u201cKonger og byfolk\u201d; Bergen ca. 800\u2013ca. 1170; Roslund, \u201cP\u00e5 drift i tid och rum?\u201d. 28 Linaa Larsen and Hjermind, \u201cAnalyse af fundmaterialet.\u201d 29 N\u00e4sman, \u201cGlas,\u201d 282. 30 Callesen, Hjermind, and S\u00f8vs\u00f8, \u201cGenstande af tr\u00e6,\u201d 448\u201349. 31 Hjermind, \u201cKeramik,\u201d 420. 32 Iversen, \u201cPerler, rav og spillebrikker,\u201d 482; Carelli, \u201cSchack.\u201d","Chapter 14 \u201cVuiberg Hic Coronatur Rex Dacie\u201d 317 Figure 14.5: Sherds from a watering pot made in Stamford, England from the early eleventh century. The pot of whitish clay with a green glaze had holes in the bottom. It could have been used to water rush covered earthen floors \u2013 thus keeping down the dust. Photograph: Lars Guldager. With a Hawk on his Hand \u2013 On the Trail of Eleventh-Century Magnates A small handful of the finds from Viborg S\u00f8nders\u00f8 can be linked to a warriors\u2019 and magnates\u2019 milieu \u2013 a milieu that is illustrated repeatedly, for instance, on the Bayeux Tapestry. Weapons and related finds from Viborg S\u00f8nders\u00f8 include a lover hilt and a chape from a scabbard (Figure 14.6a\u2013b). The lover hilt is made of iron and arched slightly down towards the blade. The bottom side reveals a hol- low, which would have held the tang of the sword blade.33 From the sword itself, we have only found a possible fragment of the sword tip.34 The iron chape was attached to the sword scabbard by two rivets in order to strengthen the point of the scabbard.35 A small fragment of ring mail was uncovered, consisting of a total of seven rings riveted together (Figure 14.6a\u2013c).36 33 Jantzen, \u201cGenstande af metal,\u201d 208. 34 Jantzen, \u201cGenstande af metal,\u201d 208. 35 Jantzen, \u201cGenstande af metal,\u201d 208. 36 Jantzen, \u201cGenstande af metal,\u201d 202.","318 Jesper Hjermind (a) (b) (c) Figure 14.6a\u2013c: A cross-guard from a sword hilt, a chape from a scabbard together with a piece of ring mail. Drawing Mohan Subramaniam Arulanadam. From Viborg S\u00f8nders\u00f8, apart from the find of two complete horse skulls, we also found a nearly complete skeleton of a four-year-old stallion,37 the Har- ley Davidson of its time. There were also finds of horse tack in the form of a spur38 and a snaffle-bit (Figure 14.7).39 To read the finding of a metal spur as a link to a chivalrous lifestyle may seem something of an exaggeration, but it does indirectly identify a person with the means to own and keep a horse. 37 Hatting, \u201cDyreknogler,\u201d 304. 38 Jantzen, \u201cGenstande af metal,\u201d 207. 39 Jantzen, \u201cGenstande af metal,\u201d 185.","Chapter 14 \u201cVuiberg Hic Coronatur Rex Dacie\u201d 319 (a) (b) Figure 14.7a\u2013b: Spurs and bridle fittings from Viborg S\u00f8nders\u00f8. Drawing Mohan Subramaniam Arulanadam. In the course of the latest excavation in 2001, a number of bones identifi- able as goshawk and kestrel were recovered. These finds could, of course, be accidental, but the zoologist Inge B\u00f8dker Enghoff, who examined all the animal bones from the excavation, concludes with certainty that we are dealing with the remains of hawks used for hunting. This conclusion is based on the prefer- ence of falconers for goshawks, in particular, since these birds achieved the best results. It is said that goshawks were used primarily by high-status groups, lesser nobility, and the wealthy, while the kestrel was considered more appro- priate for young boys.40 A further indication that we are dealing with hunting birds is the fact that all the bones are from females. Being larger than the males, these were preferred for hunting (Figure 14.8).41 It is one thing to recover bones of a hunting bird, another to recover the bones of their prey, which are a more reliable indicator of a falconry environment. At S\u00f8nders\u00f8, bones from hares, partridges, and black grouse were recovered, though not in overwhelming numbers: these comprised six leg- and foot-bones from hares,42 and single bones from a partridge and a black grouse.43 A further indica- tion of falconry could be the recovery of dog bones, as dogs are an integral part of 40 Enghoff, \u201cDyreknogler fra vikingetidens Viborg,\u201d 245\u201346. 41 Enghoff, \u201cDyreknogler fra vikingetidens Viborg,\u201d 246. 42 Hatting, \u201cDyreknogler,\u201d 306; Enghoff, \u201cDyreknogler fra vikingetidens Viborg,\u201d 255. 43 Hatting, \u201cDyreknogler,\u201d 308; Enghoff, \u201cDyreknogler fra vikingetidens Viborg,\u201d 246.","320 Jesper Hjermind Figure 14.8: Bones of a goshawk and a kestrel, recovered from the excavations in 2001. Photograph: Geert Brovad. falconry. The dog-bone finds from Viborg S\u00f8nders\u00f8 are not very numerous and be- longed to dogs with a stature varying from that of a small modern-day spitz-type dog up to that of a large Irish setter.44 Unfortunately, no lance pennons have been unearthed in Viborg, but we do have the probable remains of the pennon lance or shaft. During the 1981 excavation of a site around a building, the remains of an ash pole 33 cm long were recovered.45 The end where the lance head would have been attached was sharpened. Further down the pole was a brass mount. Under the polished mount were two nails, which held the lance pennant in place. It seems likely that there would have been yet more fas- tening nails on the remaining part of the pole, which was not recovered (Figure 14.9). The English Connection There are several finds from S\u00f8nders\u00f8 of English origin, directly or indirectly. There are great similarities in the decoration on some of the small lead pieces to the design of the coins (Figure 14.10) minted in the reign of King Cnut. Per- haps the English moneyer produced cheap lead ornaments as a sideline.46 Some of the shoemakers were English, as is shown by the design on some of 44 Hatting, \u201cDyreknogler,\u201d 302; Enghoff, \u201cDyreknogler fra vikingetidens Viborg,\u201d 253. 45 Hjermind and Jantzen, \u201cGenstande af tr\u00e6,\u201d 238. 46 Hjermind, Iversen, and Roesdahl, \u201cGenstande af metal,\u201d 471\u201372; Iversen and Roesdahl, \u201cGenstande af knogle,\u201d 485\u201386.","Chapter 14 \u201cVuiberg Hic Coronatur Rex Dacie\u201d 321 Figure 14.9: The point of the lance pole found at Viborg S\u00f8nders\u00f8. Photograph: Viborg Museum. the half-boots (Figure 14.11).47 The finding of English imported pottery from Stamford is mentioned,48 but there is also evidence that an English potter worked in Viborg, producing pottery of the English Torksey type using the local clay.49 In addition to the potsherds of Stamford type, there is an even more direct connection between Stamford and Viborg. One of the moneyer\u2019s dies has been used in striking coins in both towns, as well as in the towns of Leicester and Southwark.50 One of the more curious examples of the possible English connec- tion is the multi-horned sheep, which may similarly have had links with Eng- land.51 Moreover, in the smith\u2019s workshop there was a stave from a wooden tub or vat made of English oak.52 Was the smith perhaps also an Englishman? The 47 Petersen, \u201cL\u00e6der og pelsv\u00e6rk,\u201d 404. 48 Hjermind, \u201cKeramik,\u201d 420. 49 Rasmussen and Hjermind, \u201cBestemmelse af proveniens.\u201d 50 Jensen, Tusindtallets Danske M\u00f8nter, 44. 51 Enghoff, \u201cDyreknogler fra vikingetidens Viborg,\u201d 252. 52 Callesen, Hjermind, and S\u00f8vs\u00f8, \u201cGenstande af tr\u00e6,\u201d 447\u201348.","322 Jesper Hjermind Figure 14.10: Two small lead pieces. The piece to the right shows great similarities with some of the coins minted in the reign of Cnut the Great. Photograph: Lars Guldager. Figure 14.11: An eleventh-century shoe from Viborg S\u00f8nders\u00f8 displaying possible English style influences, possibly of English origin or alternatively made by an English shoemaker in Viborg. Photograph: Lars Guldager. hearth was, at least, an extremely early example of a type that a Danish village smith is unlikely to have known at the time.53 Who Were the Inhabitants? Some features suggest that there must have been one person or organization responsible for both the workshops and the accommodation. For example, 53 Jouttij\u00e4rvi, Thomsen, and Moltsen, \u201cV\u00e6rkstedets funktion,\u201d 297.","Chapter 14 \u201cVuiberg Hic Coronatur Rex Dacie\u201d 323 the workshop was used by several different artisans during the course of the same season. The building must, therefore, have been part of a structure in which individual craftsmen did not own their workshops. The selective range of the products, the deposition pattern for the waste and the very nature of the waste itself are all remarkable. The comb-maker discarded large pieces of antler, which could easily have been exploited further in production. Similarly, there were great quantities of lead all around the silver-refining workshop, as shown by its presence in the reused floor sand. Could this be an indication that the craftsmen were not working with their own raw materials, but had them provided by some- one else and therefore did not care how much they wasted? It is clear that this was not \u201cdomestic production\u201d for personal consumption and was probably not \u201cproduction for sale\u201d in the usual sense. Similarly, the results of the scientific analyses exclude the possibility that these were settled craftsmen producing wares for an existing market.54 Perhaps an explanation should be sought in a very special combination of place, time, and person. The Historical Background The location of the workshop in such a damp area is astonishing, not least because the area on dry land directly to the west was probably not built upon at the time. The background for the location of the building at this very spot could lie in the political events which took place around 1018. In that year, King Cnut sent a large part of his army home from England, having distributed 82,500 pounds of silver among them. It was probably in the same year that Cnut\u2019s brother Haraldr died, and in the following winter, 1019\u20131020, that Cnut was in Denmark to secure the throne.55 One can imagine that allegiance was sworn to him at the Thing in Viborg, just as was the case with his successors.56 We know from other sources that Cnut had coins minted in Viborg and Lund from around 1018 (Figure 14.12).57 As yet, none of the S\u00f8nders\u00f8 excavations has provided direct evidence of this; the only finds of contem- poraneous coins comprise two German examples from the 2001 excavation58 and an \u00c6thelred II coin dating to the early 990s from the previous excavations.59 54 Christophersen, H\u00e5ndverket i forandring. 55 Bolton, \u201cAn Historical Perspective,\u201d 499\u2013501; Lund, \u201cCnut\u2019s Danish Kingdom.\u201d 56 Fenger, Notarius Publicus, 40. 57 Jensen, Tusindtallets Danske M\u00f8nter, 46. 58 Moesg\u00e5rd Museum, 2005. 59 Jensen, \u201cM\u00f8nter,\u201d 88.","324 Jesper Hjermind Figure 14.12: Coins of Cnut the Great, minted in Viborg. Photograph: Lennart Larsen. Why Viborg? Viborg was the main Thingstead in Northern Jutland in the Middle Ages and had perhaps been so for many centuries. No trace has ever been found, however, ei- ther in or around the town, of a \u201ccentral site\u201d from the Late Iron Age or Viking Age which could have been the first administrative, political, or religious center from which everything else developed, such as we see in Lejre near Roskilde and Upp\u00e4kra near Lund. Does this mean that the roots of the Viborg Assembly lie in a different kind of gathering-place that had cultic functions and also those associ- ated with a Thing, functions that would leave behind such slight material traces, lacking trade and crafts, that we are unable to recognize them? Or are there no roots? Was the site chosen because there was nothing there, because within the balance of power, Viborg was a locus vacui where all could meet as equals on neutral ground? Regardless of which of these scenarios approaches the truth, there seems little doubt that the Mammen grave and the rune stones at Skjern and Asmild (from the end of the tenth century) signify important individuals in","Chapter 14 \u201cVuiberg Hic Coronatur Rex Dacie\u201d 325 the landscape of power that framed Viborg in the preceding one to two genera- tions. In the Mammen grave was buried a magnate in the winter of 970\u2013971, clothed in an expensive costume and accompanied by a ceremonial axe with in- laid silver decoration and a large wax candle. It is not improbable that the Mam- men axe, with silver inlays showing the ash tree Yggdrasill, or the Christian Tree of Life, and the cock Gullinkambi, or the Phoenix, was produced in Haraldr Blue- tooth\u2019s workshop. These inlays suggest strong associations with a tenth-century court environment, in which the axe was most likely a badge of honor or sign of rank bestowed by the king (Figure 14.13).60 Figure 14.13: The Mammen axe with silver inlays is found in a grave dated to 970\/971. Photograph: Lennart Larsen. The Skjern 1 stone (incomplete) was erected concerning a certain \u201c . . . usbiaur . . . | . . . | . . . ur : si(n) | . . . harals : h . . . \u201d (Osbj\u00f8rn . . . ..his . . . . Harald\u2019s).61 On Skjern 2 the inscription reads, on Side A, \u201cs\u0105skiri\u00fer : ris\u00fei : stin : finulfs : tutiR : at : u\u00feinkaur : usbiarnaR : sun : \u00fe\u0105h : tura : uk : hin : turutin : fasta :\u201d and on Side B \u201csi\u00fei : sa : m\u0105nr : is:\u201d (Sasgerd, Finulv\u2019s daughter, set up the stone in memory of Odinkar Osbj\u00f8rn\u2019s son the eminent and lord-loyal. A warlock that man who this monument breaks).62 The stone is unusually finely ornamented and Sasgerd and Odinkar were clearly people of importance; it seems likely that Odi- nkar\u2019s lord was the king, and that the Haraldr mentioned on Osbj\u00f8rn\u2019s stone was Haraldr Bluetooth Gormsson, Cnut\u2019s grandfather. The Asmild stone was erected by a woman even more conscious of her family origins (Figure 14.14). 60 Iversen and N\u00e4sman, \u201cMammen gravens indhold,\u201d 61. 61 Moltke, Runerne i Danmark, 424. 62 Moltke, Runerne i Danmark, 191.","326 Jesper Hjermind Figure 14.14: The Asmild rune stone. Photograph: Lars Guldager. Here, three generations are named: \u201c\u00feurkutr : \u00feurkus : tutiR : \u00feku\u00feulfs : sunaR (:) sati : stin : \u00fe\u0105si : iftiR : busauir sin : ti\u00feita : m\u0105n : muaR : h- . . . : tutur:\u201d (Thorgund, Thorgot\u2019s daughter, Thjodulv\u2019s son, placed this stone in memory of Bose, her husband, \u201ctidings\u2019 man\u201d . . . daughter).63 We do not know what a \u201ctidings\u2019 man\u201d was, but once again a link to a royal office seems obvi- ous. Eriks Sj\u00e6llandske Lov (The law of Zealand), dated to the mid-thirteenth century, states three conditions for a lawful Thing: the place, the time and the people: Lij cap. Thett skall mandt wide att rett thing skall haffue thry wiilqour: Som er st\u00e6den, thymen og folck: Stheden er ther som koningen haffuer tiill giffuett og alle herritz mendt haffuer sagtt ia till oc thett maa icke anden stedtz fran thett stedt forskiudis wden alle herretz mendtzs welie och konings ja: Thumen er then dag som skal the haffue laaulige wedt tagett att s\u00f8ge thing som the haffue aff arylde tiidt s\u00f8gtt Oc then dag som thing skall settis Schall thett begyndis halff gangen myddag oc maa icke lenger holdis endt tiill med- aftfthen och icke maa thing holdis mett f\u00e6re endt mett xij mendt.64 [Ch. 48. On a lawful Thing. It should also be known that three Conditions must be fulfilled for a (legal) Thing: the Place, the Time and the People. The Place is lawful if determined by the King and all in the District have given their consent: neither may it be moved to 63 Moltke, Runerne i Danmark, 253. 64 Lebech, Danmarks Landskabslovgivning, 86.","Chapter 14 \u201cVuiberg Hic Coronatur Rex Dacie\u201d 327 another Place without the will of all the Lords and Consent of the King. The Time is their lawful Thing Day, such as they have had through all the Ages, and on this day, it shall be held from mid in the Morning and must not continue past mid in the Evening. And the Thing may not consist of less than twelve Men.]65 So a \u201ctidings\u2019 man,\u201d who was buried just opposite, on the other side of the Vi- borg lakes, could have been the man responsible for the Viborg Thing. Presum- ably, in this case, the assembly had been established prior to Cnut\u2019s time. In any case, Viborg lies at the center of Jutland and was easily accessible to travelers. When asked to point out the central place in the town, that which is indicated in the Vi-prefix (Old Norse v\u00e9 \u201ctemple sanctuary\u201d), as in \u201cviet\u201d (the temple or the High Place) or holy mound, scholars have tended to start with the cathedral plateau, making the direct or indirect suggestion that cults have con- tinued here in some form. There are not many traces of this, however, just an east\u2013west system of ditches with a handful of potsherds from semicircular pots,66 and with a single potsherd of Pingsdorf type which is perhaps from the eleventh century, but could be much more recent.67 There again, could the central focus not have been situated elsewhere? The oldest reference to the Thingstead is found within the Vita of Knud the Holy \u2013 that is, King Knud IV (1080\u20131086) \u2013 which was written in the 1120s by \u00c6lnoth, an English-born monk from the monastery of St. Knud in Odense. Along with it is a long passage about Viborg: Locus igitur celeberrimus medio fere Iuci\u0119 orbe consistit, qui seu ob sui eminentiam, siue ob antiquorum inibi sacrificiorum uel preliorum frequentiam uel ob idoli ibidem quon- dam opinatissimi, qui Wig dicebatur, memoriam Wigbergis (ueluti \u201cWigi excelsum\u201d aut \u201cbelli mons\u201d seu \u201csacrificationis\u201d) lingua Danica nuncupatur, ubi ex totis Iuci\u0119 partibus quamsepius non minima multitudo tam de causis communibus tractatura quam et de legum ueritate siue firmitate discutienda simul et stabilienda conuenit; et quod ibi com- muni consensu aggregat\u0119 multitudinis statutum fuerit, non impune uspiam in Iuci\u0119 parti- bus irritum fieri ualebit.68 [There, in what is nearly the middle of Jutland, is a place of renown which, partly due to its height and prominence, partly because, in times of old, sacrificial offerings were made here, or perhaps just as a remembrance of a highly held local deity named Vig, or because it marked the site of a battle, is called Viberg (as in \u201cViges mound\u201d or \u201cbattle hill\u201d or \u201csac- rifice hill\u201d) in the Danish tongue. Great hordes regularly gather there from the whole of Jutland, partly to negotiate common issues or to discuss the truth and validity of their 65 Kroman, Danmarks gamle love, 47\u201348. 66 Hjermind, \u201cBygninger og begivenheder,\u201d 149. 67 Krongaard Kristensen, Middelalderbyen Viborg, 78, fig. 65; Vellev, \u201cDomkirken, Vor Frue,\u201d 44\u201345. 68 Gertz, Vitae Sanctorum Danorum, 23.","328 Jesper Hjermind laws and give them substance. And that which has been put forward and agreed to by the assembled masses cannot be overruled or ignored in any part of Jutland without fear of punishment.]69 \u00c6lnoth uses the term \u201cthingstead\u201d in a singular form: \u201cVig mound,\u201d \u201cbattle hill,\u201d or \u201csacrifice hill.\u201d These terms could just as well be applied to the Borgvold mound as to the cathedral plateau. In such a case, it may well have been the loca- tion of Borgvold that governed the choice of marshy ground for the building site. The layout we find at S\u00f8nders\u00f8 would then have had its origins in relation to the Thing and to royal coronation. Its ongoing development after 1018 could be con- nected with King Cnut\u2019s need not only to promote himself, but also to stamp his authority on Viborg during his reign in Denmark. The craftsmen produced combs, shoes, furs, steel (perhaps for swords and other weapons), silver (presumably from the many coins paid out when the army was demobilized and which were refined to give silver of a particular quality), and jewelry, as evidenced by the patrix for the production of expensive gold jew- elry and the little anvil with traces of gold found during the excavations in the 1980s.70 These products are best understood in the context of a gift-based and self-sufficient economy for the king\u2019s housecarls and entourage, rather than as ordinary wares to be traded at a market or in an artisans\u2019 quarter. At times when those people were not gathered there, the workshops were closed, and from late spring, over summer, and until the beginning of autumn, the site was only occu- pied by a small staff of watchmen under the leadership of a royal officer \u2013 per- haps Bose\u2019s successor. Apparently the need for Cnut\u2019s presence in Viborg quickly disappeared. After 1023 there are no traces of craft activities in this building, and in the years around 1030 the workshop was abandoned and then demolished, and the site became overgrown. The assemblages of finds in the layers formed at the time are dominated by bones and a little domestic refuse. The sporadic craft waste which is present appears largely (but not exclusively) to belong to the pre- vious workshop activity.71 69 Olrik, Danske Helgeners Levned, 73. 70 Krongaard Kristensen, \u201cPatrice,\u201d 215\u201316; Christensen, \u201cKnogle og tak,\u201d 141\u201342. 71 Jouttij\u00e4rvi, Thomsen, and Moltsen, \u201cV\u00e6rkstedets funktion,\u201d 318; Linaa Larsen, \u201cTakmater- ialet fra Viborg,\u201d 387."]