We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 September 2008
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle's well-known reference to King Alfred's plan for a new design of war-ships is problematic both in general and in detail. In the account of the year 897 (recte 896), we are told how, after the raids made along the coast of Wessex by Danish gangs based in East Anglia and Northumbria, and in particular with raiding-vessels (OE œscas, ON askar) which they had built ‘many years before’, Alfred ordered ships of a new type to be constructed to meet the Danish menace. In the near-contemporary Winchester manuscript (A) the critical passage reads:
Þa het Ælfred cyng timbran langscipu ongen ða æscas. Þa wæron fulneah tu swa lange swa Þa oðru. Sume hæfdon lx ara, sume ma. Þa wæron ægðer ge swiftran ge unwealtran ge eac hieran Þonne pa oðru; næron nawðer ne on fresisc gescæpene ne on denisc, bute swa him selfum ðuhte Þæt hie nytwyrðoste beon meahten.
1 ‘Then King Alfred ordered “long-ships” to be built to oppose the askar. They were well-nigh twice as long as the others, some had sixty oars, some more; they were both swifter and less “walty”, and also hieran than the others; they were neither of Frisian design nor of Danish, but as it seemed to himself that they might be most useful’: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle MS A, ed. Bately, J. M. The AS Chronicle: a Collaborative Edition, ed. Dumville, D. and Keynes, S. 3 (Cambridge, 1986), 60Google Scholar; cf. Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1990), pp. 57–9Google Scholar; The Parker Chronicle and Laws, ed. Flower, R. and Smith, H., EETS os 208 (London, 1941), 19a.Google Scholar
2 Thus in all the later versions of the Chronicle, although in the early Winchester version (A), in common with Asser and the Annals of St Neots, they are said merely to have fought ‘at Sandwich’: Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ed. Plummer, C., 2 vols. (Oxford, 1892–1899) I, 64–5Google Scholar; Asser's Life of King Alfred, ed. Stevenson, W. H. (Oxford, 1904, repr. 1959), p. 6Google Scholar; The Annals of St Neots with Vita Prima Sancti Neoti, ed. Dumville, D. and Lapidge, M., The AS Chronicle: a Collaborative Edition, ed. Dumville, D. and Keynes, S. 17 (Cambridge, 1985), 44.Google Scholar
3 Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer, I, 74–9.Google Scholar The term sciphere was not used of the second occasion, but this is presumably incidental.
4 Smyth, A. P., King Alfred the Great (Oxford, 1995), p. 109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 For general contacts of Frisians with England and with Denmark, see Jellema, D., ‘Frisian Trade in the Dark Ages’, Speculum 30 (1955), 15–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also Lebecq, S., ‘On the Use of the Word “Frisian” in the 6th-10th Centuries Written Sources: Some Interpretations’, Maritime Celts, Frisians and Saxons, ed. McGrail, S., Council for British Archaeol. Research Reports 71 (London, 1990), 85–90Google Scholar; Ellmers, D., ‘The Frisian Monopoly of Coastal Transport in the 6th-8th Centuries AD’Google Scholar, ibid. pp. 91–2, and references there cited; and Whitbread, L., ‘The “Frisian Sailor” Passage in the Old English Gnomic Verses’, RES 22 (1946), 215–19.Google Scholar
6 See Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer, I, 91Google Scholar, for the names of, presumably prominent, Frisian seamen who died in Alfred's service; cf. Asser's Life of King Alfred, ed. Stevenson, , p. 60Google Scholar. Frisians fought together with Old Saxons in a ship-borne onslaught against the Franks, according to Æthelweard, The Chronicle of Æthelweard, ed. Campbell, A. (London, 1962), p. 45.Google Scholar
7 For the background, see Crumlin-Pedersen, O., ‘The Boats and Ships of the Angles and Jutes’, in Maritime Celts, ed. McGrail, , pp. 98–116Google Scholar; Carver, M. O. H., ‘Pre-Viking Traffic in the North Sea’Google Scholar, ibid. pp. 117–25; Evans, A. C. and Bruce-Mitford, R., ‘The Ship’, The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial, ed. Bruce-Mitford, R., 3 vols. (London, 1975–1983) I, 345–435Google Scholar; Fenwick, V., ne Graveney Boat: a Tenth-Century Find from Kent, BAR Brit. ser. 53 (Oxford, 1978).Google Scholar
8 For the background generally, see Haywood, J., Dark Age Naval Power: a Re-Assessment of Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Seafaring Activity (London, 1991), pp. 59–61.Google Scholar
9 Against Danish East Anglia ASC885; Scotland 933 A, 934 DEF: Two Chronicles, ed. , Plummer I, 78–9 and 106–7.Google Scholar
10 Thus Bede, Historia ecclesiastica II.3: Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. Colgrave, B. and Mynors, R. A. B. (Oxford, 1969), pp. 14–15Google Scholar, following Pliny, , Historia naturalis IV. 16 (30), ed. Jan, L. v. (Leipzig, 1865–1878) I, 178Google Scholar. The conception is well represented in early medieval maps such as the Isidore T-O diagram map: Harvey, P. D. A., Mappa Mundi, The Hereford World Map (London, 1996), p. 25.Google Scholar
11 Bede describes London as ‘an emporium for many nations who come to it by land and sea’, Historia ecclesiastica II. 3: Bede's Ecclesiastical History, ed. Colgrave, and Mynors, , pp. 142–3.Google Scholar
12 Fenwick, , The Graveney Boat, p. 193Google Scholar. See also generally Sources and Techniques in Boat Archaeology, ed. McGrail, S. (Oxford, 1977), pp. 137–256passim.Google Scholar
13 For the occurrence of ash-wood bowls in early ‘pagan’ Saxon contexts I am grateful for a personal communication from Jacqui Watson; and for later Saxon contexts, see Aspects of Saxo-Norman London, ed. Vince, A., 3 vols. (London, 1988–1992) II, 242 and 275–6.Google Scholar
14 Swanton, M. J., ‘The Spear in Anglo-Saxon Times’ (unpubl. PhD dissertation, Durham Univ., 1966) I, 453–5.Google Scholar
15 Pokorny, J., Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2 vols. (Bern, 1959–1969) I, 782passim;Google Scholarde Vries, J., Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (Leiden, 1962), p. 15.Google Scholar
16 Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies, ed. Wright, T. and Wülcker, R. P., 2 vols. (London, 1884) I, cols. 181.29, 287.31 and 363.34Google Scholar; The Corpus Glossary, ed. Lindsay, W. M. (Cambridge, 1921), p. 36.281Google Scholar; Old English Glosses (A Collection), ed. Merritt, H. D. (London, 1945), p. 60.18Google Scholar; Old English Glosses in the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, ed. Pheifer, J. D. (Oxford, 1974), p. 11.180.Google Scholar
17 March, E. J., Inshore Craft of Great Britain, 2 vols. (London, 1970) II, 221–46.Google Scholar
18 For simple listings, see Schnepper, H., Die Namen der Schiffe und Schiffsteile im Altenglischen: eine kulturgeschichtlich-etymologische Untersuchung (Kiel, 1908).Google Scholar
19 Nicolaysen, N., The Viking-Ship Discovered at Gokstadin Norway (Oslo, 1882), p. 54et passim.Google Scholar
20 Smith, A. H., English Place-Name Elements, 2 vols., EPNS 25–6 (Cambridge, 1956) I, 194 and II, 99.Google Scholar
21 In parallel with the numeri banani (heavy barge-men): Notitia Dignitatum, ed. Seeck, O. (Berlin, 1876), pp. 122, 138, 210 and 215Google Scholar; Hoffmann, D., Das spätrömische Bewegungsheer und die Notitia Dignitatum, Epigraphische Studien 7 (Düsseldorf, 1969–1970)Google Scholar, passim. Much, R., ‘Ascarii’. ZDA 41 (1897), 94–5Google Scholar, preferred to associate them with the word œsc, 'spear’.
22 Ammien Marcelim, Histoire, ed. Galletier, E. et al. , 5 vols. (Paris, 1968–1996) V, 106.Google Scholar
23 MGH, Leges Nationum Germanicarum IV, ed. Eckhardt, K. A. 2 vols. (Hanover, 1962–1969) I, 86; II, 68–9 and 226.Google Scholar
24 Gesta Hammaburgensis ecciesiae pontificam, ed. Pertz, G. H. MGH SS 7 (Hanover, 1846), 317 and 370.Google Scholar
25 Fell, C., ‘Old English wicing: a Question of Semantics’, PBA 72 (1986), 295–316, at 313.Google Scholar
26 Cf. Needham, G. I., Ælfric: Lives of Three English Saints, 2nd ed. (Exeter, 1976), p. 45.Google Scholar
27 Claudii Claudiani Carmina, ed. Hall, J. B. (Leipzig, 1985), p. 215.Google Scholar
28 Apollinaris, Sidonius, Epistelae at Carmina, ed. Lütjohann, C., MGH, Auct. antiq. 8 (Berlin, 1887), 136.Google Scholar
29 ‘in whose every oarsman you might detect so many pirate-chiefs, inasmuch as they all issue commands at once, instruct in brigandage … [he] attacks unforeseen, and when foreseen slips away; he scorns opposition, destroys the careless. If he pursues he overtakes; if he flees he escapes. Moreover, shipwreck, far from terrifying them, is their business; with the perils of the sea they are not merely acquainted, they are familiar;… they gladly face any danger of surf and jagged rocks in the hope of achieving a surprise’: ibid. p. 132. For the background, see Wood, I., ‘The Channel from the 4th to the 7th Centuries AD’, Maritime Celts, ed. McGrail, , pp. 93–7.Google Scholar
30 Cf. Crumlin-Pedersen, O., ‘The Ships of the Vikings’, The Vikings: Proceedings of the Symposium of the Faculty of Arts of Uppsala University, June 6–9, 1977, ed. Andersson, T. and Sandred, K. I. (Uppsala, 1978), pp. 32–41, at 40.Google Scholar
31 Æthelweard, , Chronicle, ed. Campbell, , pp. 26–7.Google Scholar
32 As related by a monk of St Gallen (pseudo-Notker): MGH, SS 2, ed. Pertz, G. H. (Hanover, 1829), p. 757;Google Scholar whether or not the circumstances were actual, the emperor's discriminating eye is already part of the romantic cult of the personality.
33 The expression is from Jones, G., A History of the Vikings (Oxford, 1968), p. 199.Google Scholar
34 Vogel, W., ‘Wik-Orte und Wikinger: eine Studie zu Anfängen des germanischen Städtewesens’, Hansische Geschichtsblätter 60 (1935), 5–48Google Scholar; Boyer, R., ‘Les Vikings, des guerriers ou des commerçants?’, Les Vikings et leur civilisation, problèmes actuels, ed. Boyer, R. (Paris, 1976), pp. 211–40Google Scholar; Sawyer, P. H., ‘Wics, Kings and Vikings’, The Vikings, ed. Andersson, and Sandred, , pp. 23–31, at 29. For what the word meant to the Anglo-Saxons, see generally Fell, Old English wicing.Google Scholar
35 Corpus Glossary, ed. Lindsay, , p. 138.391Google Scholar; Épinai–Erfurt Glossary, ed. Pheifer, , p. 39.736.Google Scholar
36 Unger, R. W., The Ship in the Medieval Economy, 600–1600 (London, 1980), pp. 95, 109, 136et passim.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
37 Albeit on an artificially supplemented ‘hard’, cf. Hobley, B., ‘The London Waterfront – the Exception or the Rule?’, Waterfront Archaeology in Britain and Northern Europe, ed. Milne, G. and Hobley, B. (London, 1981), pp. 1–9, at 2–4Google Scholar, with fig. 3. For much of the period mooring took place upstream of the City in the Aldwych (eald wic) area on a wide, naturally shelving beach: Haslam, J., Anglo-Saxon Towns in Southern England (Chichester, 1984), pp. 297–9.Google Scholar
38 Lines 1914, 1917, cf. 1896, and 212–15: Beowulf, ed. and trans. Swanton, M., 2nd ed. (Manchester, 1997), pp. 124–7, and cf. pp. 44–5.Google Scholar
39 Cf. Andreas 253–4Google Scholar, ed. Brooks, K. R.Andreas and the Fates of the Apostles (Oxford, 1961), pp. 8 and 70 (note to line 236).Google Scholar
40 Contrast the modes of embarking from the foreshore at Bosham, Sussex, as described in ASC 1046 E (= 1049): Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer, I, 169Google Scholar, with that depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry: The Bayeux Tapestry, ed. Wilson, D. M. (London, 1985), pl. 5.Google Scholar
41 Cf. Binns, A., ‘The Ships of the Vikings, were they “Viking Ships”?’, Proceedings of the Eighth Viking Congress, ed. Bekker-Nielsen, H. et al. (Odense, 1981), pp. 287–94.Google Scholar
42 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. and trans. Swanton, M. J. (London, 1996), p. 54, n. 4.Google Scholar
43 See generally the early survey by Ekwall, E., ‘The Scandinavian Settlement’, An Historical Geography of England before 1800, ed. Darby, H. C.2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1951), pp. 132–64Google Scholar, and subsequently Jensen, G. Fellows, ‘The Vikings in England: a Review’, ASE 4 (1975), 181–206, and references there cited.Google Scholar
44 Olsen, O. and Crumlin-Pedersen, O., ‘The Skuldelev Ships (II)’, Acta Archaealogica 38 (1967), 73–174, at 132–45.Google Scholar
45 Evans and Bruce-Mitford, ‘The Ship’.
46 Evidence for this part of the boat is rarely found, but for side rudders in general, see McGrail, S., Ancient Boats in N. W. Europe: the Archaeology of Water Transport to AD 1500 (London, 1987), pp. 244–51Google Scholar, and Goodburn, D., ‘A Side Rudder from the London Waterfront’, A Spirit of Enquiry, ed. Coles, J. et al. (Exeter, 1993), pp. 56–60passimGoogle Scholar. The fact that in manuscript illustrations the steering-oar is sometimes seen on the larboard stern is presumably a question of artistic licence, since it is easier to depict what is happening if the oar is seen on the side viewed.
47 See generally Almgren, B., ‘Vikingatågens höjdpunkt och slut’, Tor 9 (1963), 215–50.Google Scholar
48 Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer, I, 74–9; C and D say it was as a result of fog, mycel myst, rather than tempest, micel yst.Google Scholar
49 Olsen, and Crumlin-Pedersen, , ‘The Skuldelev Ships’, p. 163.Google Scholar
50 March, Inshore Craft, and personal communication from David Knight, archivist of The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships.
51 ‘Then King Alfred commanded cymbas and galleys, that is long ships, to be built throughout the kingdom, in order that he might offer naval battle to the enemy as they were coming, and on board these he placed adventurers (piratis) and appointed them guardians of the seaways’: Asser's Life of King Alfred, ed. Stevenson, , p. 39Google Scholar. Whether the term cymbas is used in any specialist sense is unclear; classically it should mean ‘small ships’, but that sense would be relative. In dealing with the same incident, later historians prefer to use the word cylas. Matthew Paris, longas naues, quas cyulas sine goleias appellant, Chronica Majora, ed. Luard, H. R. 7 vols., RS 57 (London, 1872–1874) I, 433Google Scholar; cf. Roger of Wendover, Chronica, ed. Coxe, H. O., 3 vols. (London, 1841–1844) I, 363.Google Scholar Both use very much the same words in dealing with the earlier events of 877: cyulas et galeias, id est longas naues (ibid. pp. 409 and 327 respectively). Possibly the ‘adventurers’ in question were the Frisian mercenaries we hear of in ASC 897 (= 896): Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer, I, 91.Google Scholar
52 Cf. McGrail, S. and McKee, E., The Building and Trials of the Replica of an Ancient Boat: the Cokstad Faering, 2 vols. (Greenwich, 1974), vol. II.Google Scholar
53 ‘against which, at King Alfred's command, ships were built, twice as long, higher, swifter and less “nodding”, by the violence of which the aforementioned enemy (ships) might be overcome’ (my translation): The Chronicle of John of Worcester II, ed. Darlington, R. R. and McGurk, P., with trans, by Bray, J. and McGurk, P. (Oxford, 1995), p. 350.Google Scholar
54 ‘Brutus was aware that the naval battle would be very unequal because the ships of the barbarians had been joined with beams of solid oak and, enduring like rock, their powerful hulls weakened the force of blows struck by rams’: Orose, Histoires (contre les Païens), ed. Arnaud-Lindet, M-P., 3 vols. (Paris, 1990–1991) II, 185.Google Scholar
55 See conveniently the parallel text edited by Sweet, H., King Alfred's Orosius, EETS os 79 (London, 1883), 80–1, 246–7.Google Scholar
56 Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, ed. Pheifer, , p. 45.862Google Scholar; Corpus Glossary, ed. Lindsay, , p. 155.204.Google Scholar
57 Bruce-Mitford, R., ‘Ships' Figure-Heads of the Migration Period’, Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology: Sutton Hoo and other Discoveries (London, 1974), pp. 175–87.Google Scholar
58 Andreas 274; The Metres of Boethius 26.25.
59 Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, ed. Pheifer, , p. 46Google Scholar; Corpus Glossary, ed. Lindsay, , p. 155.208.Google Scholar
60 Anglo-Saxon Vocabularies, ed. Wright, and Wülcker, , col. 203.30Google Scholar. Cf. Middle English Dictionary, ed. Kurath, H. et al. (Ann Arbor, MI, 1952–; in progress), s.v. stampne (a) Naut.Google Scholar
61 Brussels, , Bibliothèque Royale, 1828–1830Google Scholar: Anglo-Saxon Vocabularies, ed. Wright, and Wülcker, , col. 289.12.Google Scholar
62 ‘Jarl Eric had a particularly large barði which he used to have on his Viking raids; there was a ‘beard’ uppermost on each of the two stems (fore and aft), and below it a stout iron plate which was as broad as the stem and went right down to the waterline’: Sturluson, Snorri, Heimskringla, ed. Aðalbjarnarson, B., 3 vols., Íslenzk Fornrít 26–8 (Reykjavik, 1941–1951) I, 355Google Scholar; cf. An Icelandic Dictionary, ed. Cleasby, R. and Vigfusson, G., 2 vols. (Oxford, 1874), s.v. barð, and de Vries, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, s.v. barð.Google Scholar
63 For estimations of the size of invading fleets, small or large, cf. Brooks, N. P., ‘England in the Ninth Century: the Crucible of Defeat’, TRHS 5th ser. 29 (1979), 1–20, at 1–11Google Scholar. Marwick, H. convincingly estimated the full strength of the Orkney fleet as sixteen or seventeen vessels: ‘Naval Defence in Norse Scotland’, Scottish Hist. Rev. 28 (1949), 1–11.Google Scholar
64 We are not told the precise date of its institution, or even that it was more than temporary — but it seems to have been more or less effective during daylight hours in 917 (= 918 A, 915 D), Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer, I, 98–9.Google Scholar
65 Lines 240–7, ed. Swanton, , pp. 44–7.Google Scholar
66 For a comparative account of what might be found among the skalds, see Hallberg, P., ‘The Ship – Reality and Image in Old Norse Poetry’, The Vikings, ed. Andersson, and Sandred, , pp. 42–56Google Scholar; P. Foote, ‘Wrecks and Rhymes’, ibid. pp. 57–66.
67 Cf. Homer, , The Odyssey, ed. Murray, A. T. rev. Dimock, G. E., 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA, 1995) I, 366–9, etc.Google Scholar
68 Lines 17–23 and 1905–13. It is technically possible that what is normally considered simply a swimming-contest between the two boys Beowulf and Breca (lines 506–81, ed. Swanton, pp. 58–61 and 192) also involved rowing: ef. Wentersdorf, K. P., ‘Beowulf's Adventure with Breca’, SP 72 (1975), 140–66, at 155–62.Google Scholar
69 The Wanderer, 4, ed.Gollancz, I., The Exeter Book I, EETS os 104 (London, 1895), 286–7.Google Scholar
70 Historia ecclesiastica I.15: Bede's Ecclesiastical History, ed. Colgrave, and Mynors, , pp. 50–1.Google Scholar
71 Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer, I, 12–13;Google ScholarAn Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. Classen, E. and Harmer, F. E. (Manchester, 1926), p. 6.Google Scholar
72 Gildas, , De excidio et conquestu Britanniae, ed. Winterbottom, M., The Ruin of Britain and Other Works (Chichester, 1978), pp. 26 and 97.Google Scholar
73 For general information I am indebted to Professor Julian Evans of The Forestry Commission Research Division.
74 McGrail, , Ancient Boats, p. 117, table 8.2.Google Scholar
75 The Old English Orosius, ed. Bately, J., EETS ss 6 (London, 1980), 54 and 129Google Scholar; King Alfred's Old English Version of Boethius De Consolatione Philosophiae, ed. Sedgefield, W. J. (Oxford, 1899), pp. 115 and 194.Google Scholar
76 Asser's Life of King Alfred, ed. Stevenson, , pp. 7 and 9Google Scholar; and see generally Bréhier, L., ‘La Marine de Byzance du VIIIe au XIe siècle’, Byzantion 19 (1949), 1–16, at 11–12Google Scholar; Lewis, A. R., Naval Power and Trade in the Mediterranean, A. D. 500–1 WO (Princeton, NJ, 1951)Google Scholar, chs. 4–5 and references there cited. For a convenient summary, see Pryor, J. H., Geography, Technology and War: Studies in the Maritime History of the Mediterranean, 649–1571 (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 57–8, and also references there cited.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
77 Anderson, R. C., Oared Fighting Ships from Classical Times to the Coming of Steam, 2nd ed. (Kings Langley, 1976), pp. 42–51.Google Scholar
78 Nicolaysen, , Gokstad, pp. 62–3.Google Scholar
79 See generally Anderson, R. C., ‘The Oars of Northern Long-Ships’, The Mariner's Mirror 29 (1943), 190–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar; J. T. Tinniswood, ‘English Galleys, 1272–1377’, ibid. 35 (1949), 276–315, at 292–6. For general oar-propulsion data, see McGrail, , Ancient Boats, pp. 207–16.Google Scholar
80 But see below, p. 16.
81 Cf. Nicolaysen, , Gokstad, p. 29.Google Scholar
82 If we are to credit Snorrri's account: Heimskringla, ed. Aðalbjarnarson, II, 273.Google Scholar
83 Ælfredi magni Anglorum regis invietissimi vita tribus libris comprehensa (Oxford, 1678), pp. 110–11.Google Scholar
84 See generally Marchaj, C. A., Sailing Theory and Practice (London, 1964), pp. 231–92 passimGoogle Scholar; McGrail, , Ancient Boats, pp. 195–8.Google Scholar
85 ‘We say a ship is walt when shee is not stiffe’, Smith, Captaine John, A Sea Grammar, with the plaine exposition of Smiths accidence for young sea-men enlarged (London, 1627), p. 55Google Scholar; The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 20 vols. (Oxford, 1989) XIX, s.v. walt, walty, and XX, s.v. welt v 2Google Scholar; The English Dialect Dictionary, ed. Wright, J., 6 vols. (London, 1898–1905) VI, s.v. walt, welt v 2; and personal communication from Robin Ward, Esq.Google Scholar
86 See above, p. 10.
87 Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, ed. Vollmer, F. et al. (Leipzig, 1900-, in progress) IX, 1, s.v.Google Scholar
88 Thus both Garmonsway, G. N., The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (London, 1953), p. 90Google Scholar, and Whitelock, D., English Historical Documents, c. 500–1042, Eng. Hist. Documents 1, 2nd ed. (London, 1979), p. 206, render unwealt ‘steadier’.Google Scholar
89 Unfortunately at Sutton Hoo and Snape little more than sand-stain profiles remained; see generally Evans and Bruce-Mitford, ‘The Ship’; Bruce-Mitford, ‘The Snape Boat-Grave’, Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, pp. 114–40. But wood grain preserved on oxidized plank-rivets from Sutton Hoo is thought to have a density similar to that of oak (Evans and Bruce-Mitford, ‘The Ship’, p. 354).
90 Goodburn, D. M., ‘Anglo-Saxon Boat Finds from London, are they English?’, Crossroads in Ancient Shipbuilding, Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology, Roskilde 1991, ed. Westerdahl, C. (Oxford, 1994), pp. 97–104 (summary table at p. 98).Google Scholar
91 The method of preparation is well explained in McGrail, and McKee, , Building and Trials I, 42–4.Google Scholar
92 In reconstruction trials, the keel was reported to move 2 cm and the sides to writhe by as much as 15 cm: Andersen, M., Vikingejœrden (Oslo, 1895), p. 190Google Scholar. For a general caveat on the scientific value of reconstruction trials, see McGrail, , AncientSoats, p. 193.Google Scholar
93 See above, p. 10.
94 Andreas 266 and 273;Google ScholarBeowulf 238;Google ScholarElene 238;Google ScholarThe Whale 13.Google Scholar
95 Cf. the capture of Gruffydd's figure-head and its bone (ornatura) described in ASC1063 D: Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer, I, 191 and II, 251.Google Scholar
96 ‘þá mælti Sveinn konungr: “Hræddr er Óláfr Tryggvason nú, eigi þorir hann at sigla með hgfuðin á skipi sinu”’ (‘Then King Swein said: “Now Olaf Tryggvason is afraid; he has not the courage to sail with a figure-head on his ship”’): Sturluson, Snorri, Heimskringla, ed. Aöalbjarnarson, I, 353Google Scholar. For a survey of references to ships' figure-heads in Old Norse literature, see Campbell, A., Encomium Emmae Reginae, Camden 3rd ser. 72 (1949; Camden Classic Reprints 4 (Cambridge, 1998)), 94–5.Google Scholar
97 Herteig, A. E., ‘The Excavation of “Bryggen”, the Old Hanseatic Wharf in Bergen’, MA 3 (1959), 177–86, at 185Google Scholar, fig. 68; cf. Christensen, A.-E., ‘Ship Graffiti and Models’, Miscellanea 1: Medieval Dublin Excavations 1962–81, Series B 2, ed. Wallace, P. F. (Dublin, 1988), pp. 13–26.Google Scholar
98 As Bray and McGurk recognize, translating John of Worcester's altiores as ‘with a bigger draught’, pp. 350–1.Google Scholar
99 ‘Antony's fleet had a hundred and seventy ships, which were fewer in number (than Octavianus' ships) but greater in size, inasmuch as they rose ten feet above the sea.’
100 ‘Antony had eighty ships, in which travelled ten legions; but by so much as he had fewer (than Octavianus) by so much were they better and larger, because they were so built that they could not be overladen with men, in that they were not ten feet high above the water’: The Old English Orosius, ed. Bately, , pp. 129 and 317.Google Scholar
101 Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer, I, 78–9.Google Scholar
102 Asser's Life of King Alfred, ed. Stevenson, , p. 51Google Scholar; EConybeare, ., Alfred in the Chroniclers (London, 1900), p. 101Google Scholar; Keynes, S. and Lapidge, M., Alfred the Great: Asser's ‘Life of King Alfred’ and Other Contemporary Sources (Harmondsworth, 1983), p. 87.Google Scholar
103 Chronicle, ed. Campbell, , p. 45.Google Scholar
104 Sturluson, Snorri, Heims kringla, ed. Aðalbjarnarson, I, 335–6, 344–6, 356et passim.Google Scholar
105 Vries, de, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, p. 67, s.v.Google Scholar
106 See above, p. 15, n. 88.
107 Logan, F. D., The Vikings in History, 2nd ed. (London, 1991), p. 149, and cf. p. 178.Google Scholar
108 Cf. Wulfstan's Canons of Edgar, ed. Fowler, R., EETS os 266 (London, 1972), 2–3.Google Scholar
109 King Alfred's West Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care, ed. Sweet, H., 2 vols., EETS os 45 and 50 (London, 1871–1872), 29, 55, 128et passim.Google Scholar
110 See above, pp. 9–10, n. 51.
111 See above, p. 9.
112 Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer, I, 91.Google Scholar
113 Ibid. I, 90–1.
114 Alan Binns ingeniously supposes that the deliberately beached askar were using rollers (perhaps spare oars), unlike the accidentally grounded English ships: ‘The Navigation of Viking Ships round the British Isles in Old English and Old Norse Sources’, The Fifth Viking Congress, ed. Nicolasen, B. (Tórshavn, 1968), pp. 103–17, at 109–10.Google Scholar
115 See Bede, , De temporum ratione liber, c. xxix, ed. Jones, C. W. CCSL 123 B (Turnhout, 1977), 366–71Google Scholar, and generally Stevens, W. M., Bede's Scientific Achievement (Jarrow, 1985), pp. 13–18.Google Scholar
116 For a general account of what might have been happening, see Magoun, F. P., ‘King Alfred's Naval and Beach Battle with the Danes in 896’, MLR 37 (1942), 409–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Binns, , ‘The Navigation of Viking Ships’, pp. 108–10.Google Scholar
117 Smyth, , King Alfred, pp. 112–13.Google Scholar
118 ‘as it seemed to himself, see above, p. 1, n. 1.
119 ASC 911, 1008, Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer, I, 96–7 and 138.Google Scholar On the later Anglo-Saxon navy, see Hollister, C. W., Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions on the Eve of the Norman Conquest (Oxford, 1962), pp. 103–26Google Scholar, and Abels, R. P., Lordship and Military Obligation in Anglo-Saxon England (London, 1988), passim.Google Scholar
120 Chronicle, ed. Darlington, and McGurk, , pp. 424–7.Google Scholar
121 V Æthelred 27 and VI Æthelred 33: Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, ed. Liebermann, F., 3 vols. (Halle, 1903–1916) I, 242–3 and 254–5.Google Scholar
122 Two Chronicles, ed. Plummer, I, 194–7.Google Scholar
123 Cf. The Libelle of Englyshe Potlycye: apoem on the use of sea-power, 1436, ed. Warner, G. (Oxford, 1926), pp. 45–9Google Scholar; The Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. Latham, R. and Matthews, W., 11 vols. (London, 1970–1983) VI, 81, n.1.Google Scholar
124 Thus, for example, Abbott, J., History of King Alfred of England (London, 1850), p. 111Google Scholar; Giles, J. A., Memorials of King Alfred (London, 1861), pp. 310–11Google Scholar; Freeman, E. A., The History of the Norman Conquest of England, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1867–1879) I, 57Google Scholar; Green, J. R., The Conquest of England (London, 1883), pp. 137–8.Google Scholar
125 Written for Alfred: a Masque represented before their royal highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, at Cliffden, on the First of August, 1740 [Mallet, David and Thomson, James] (London, 1740), pp. 42–9Google Scholar; cf. Scott, A., ‘Arne's “Alfred”’, Music and Letters 55 (1974), 385–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The topic was obviously en vogue; shortly afterwards Haydn set to music Alexander Bicknell's drama The Patriot King: or Alfred and Elvida; cf. Landon, H. C. Robbins, Haydn: The Years of ‘The Creation’, 1796–1800 (London, 1977), pp. 107–8.Google Scholar
126 Cf. Bowker, A., The King Alfred Millenary (London, 1902), pp. 146–51.Google Scholar
127 For further discussion, see Keynes, S., ‘The Cult of King Alfred’, below, pp. 225–356.Google Scholar
