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Erik Blood-axe
Eric Haraldsson ( , ; c.930−954), nicknamed Bloodaxe ( , ) and Brother-Slayer (), was a Norwegian king. He ruled as King of Norway from 932 to 934, and twice as King of Northumbria: from 947 to 948, and again from 952 to 954. Sources Historians have reconstructed a narrative of Eric's life and career from the scant available historical data. There is a distinction between contemporary or near contemporary sources for Eric's period as ruler of Northumbria and the entirely saga-based sources that detail the life of Eric of Norway, a chieftain who ruled the Norwegian Westland in the 930s. Norse sources have identified the two as the same since the late 12th century, and while the subject is controversial, most historians have identified the two figures as the same since W. G. Collingwood's article in 1901. This identification was rejected early in the 21st century by the historian Clare Downham, who has argued that later Norse writers synthesized the two Erics, possibly us ...
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Penny (English Coin)
The English penny (plural "pence"), originally a coin of pure silver, was introduced by King Offa of Mercia. These coins were similar in size and weight to the continental ''denier (coin), deniers'' of the period and to the Anglo-Saxon sceats which had preceded it. Throughout the period of the Kingdom of England, from its beginnings in the 9th century, the penny was produced in silver. Pennies of the same nominal value, of a pound sterling, were in circulation continuously until the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Etymology The name "penny" comes from the Old English ''pennige'' (), sharing the same root as the German language, German ''Pfennig''. Its abbreviation d. comes from the Roman ''denarius'' and was used until Decimal Day, decimalisation in 1971. Idioms Due to their ubiquity pennies have accumulated a great number of idioms to their name usually recognizing them for their commonality and minuscule value. These might include: *cut (one) off with ...
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List Of Norwegian Monarchs
The list of Norwegian monarchs ( or ''kongerekka'') begins in 872: the traditional dating of the Battle of Hafrsfjord, after which victorious King Harald Fairhair Unification of Norway, merged several Petty kingdoms of Norway, petty kingdoms into that of his father. Named after the Norway#Etymology, homonymous geographical region, Harald's realm was later to be known as the Norway, Kingdom of Norway. Traditionally established in 872 and existing continuously for over 1,100 years, the Kingdom of Norway is one of the oldest states of Europe: King Harald V of Norway, Harald V, who has reigned since 1991, is the 64th monarch according to the official list. During interregnum, interregna, Norway has been ruled by variously titled regents. Several royal Dynasty, dynasties have possessed the Throne of the Kingdom of Norway: the more prominent include the Fairhair dynasty (872–970), the House of Sverre (1184–1319), the House of Oldenburg (1450–1481, 1483–1533, 1537–1818, and f ...
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Ágrip Af Nóregskonungasögum
( Icelandic for "''Summary of the Norwegian Kings' Sagas''"), often shortened to ''Ágrip'', is a history of the kings of Norway. Written in Old Norse, it is, along with the '' Historia Norvegiæ'', one of the Norwegian synoptic histories. The preserved text starts with the death of Hálfdan svarti (c. 860) and ends with the accession of Ingi krókhryggr (1136) but the original is thought to have covered a longer period, probably up to the reign of Sverrir (1184–1202). The work was composed by an unknown Norwegian writer around 1190. The only surviving manuscript is Icelandic from the first half of the thirteenth century. The preserved parchment book consists of four quires, a fifth quire has been lost. The first leaf is also missing, therefore the original title of the book, if it had any, is unknown. The name ("A Synopsis of the Sagas of the Kings of Norway") was first used in an edition in 1835. ''Ágrip'' is often compared with the two other Norwegian synoptic hist ...
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Theodoricus Monachus
Theodoric the Monk (; also ''Tjodrik munk''; in Old Norse his name was most likely ''Þórir'') was a 12th-century Norwegian Benedictine monk, perhaps at the Nidarholm Abbey. He may be identical with either Bishop Tore of the Diocese of Hamar or Archbishop Tore Gudmundsson, of the Archdiocese of Nidaros who both went under the Latin name ''Theodoricus'' in the Abbey of St. Victor, Paris. Theodoric wrote a brief history of the kings of Norway in Latin, ''Historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium'' sometime between 1177 and 1188. The work covers Norwegian history from the reign of the 9th century King Haraldr hárfagri up to the death of King Sigurðr Jórsalafari in 1130. His work, which was dedicated to Archbishop Eystein Erlendsson of Nidaros (1161-1188), remains an important source to the oldest parts of Norway's modern-time history. In his work, Theodoricus left out the most recent period of Norwegian history. Theodoric states that he considered it "utterly unfitting ...
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Historia Norwegiæ
''Historia Norwegiæ'' is a short history of Norway written in Latin by an anonymous monk. The only extant manuscript is in the private possession of the Earl of Dalhousie, and is now kept in the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh. The manuscript contains several other texts; the ''Historia'' itself is in folios 1r-12r. Recent dating efforts place it somewhere c. 1500-1510. The original text was written several centuries earlier than the manuscript itself; the text refers to both a volcanic eruption and an earthquake in 1211 as contemporary events, and Orkney is stated to be under Norwegian rule. Contents ''Historia Norwegiæ'' consists of three parts: # A short geographical survey of Norway and its dominions, followed by a brief history of Norway # Genealogy of the Earls of Orkney # Catalogue of the Kings of Norway Notable One of ''Historia Norwegiæ'''s important features is a Latin translation of an independent version of Þjóðólfr of Hvinir's skaldic poem ''Yn ...
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Haakon The Good
Haakon Haraldsson (c. 920–961), also Haakon the Good (Old Norse: ''Hákon góði'', Norwegian: ''Håkon den gode'') and Haakon Adalsteinfostre (Old Norse: ''Hákon Aðalsteinsfóstri'', Norwegian: ''Håkon Adalsteinsfostre''), was the king of Norway from 934 to 961. He was noted for his attempts to introduce Christianity into Norway. Early life Haakon is not mentioned in any narrative sources earlier than the late 12th century. According to this late saga tradition, Haakon was the youngest son of King Harald Fairhair and Thora Mosterstang. He was born on the Håkonshella peninsula in Hordaland. King Harald determined to remove his youngest son out of harm's way and accordingly sent him to the court of King Æthelstan. Haakon was fostered by King Athelstan, as part of an agreement made by his father, for which reason Haakon was nicknamed ''Adalsteinfostre''. According to the Sagas, Athelstan was tricked into fostering Haakon when Harald's envoy used the custom of knésetja, ...
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Anglo-Saxon England
Anglo-Saxon England or early medieval England covers the period from the end of Roman Empire, Roman imperial rule in Roman Britain, Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Compared to modern England, the territory of the Anglo-Saxons stretched north to present day Lothian in southeastern Scotland, whereas it did not initially include western areas of England such as Cornwall, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, and Cumbria. The 5th and 6th centuries involved the collapse of economic networks and political structures and also saw a radical change to a new Anglo-Saxon language and culture. This change was driven by movements of peoples as well as changes which were happening in both northern Gaul and the North Sea coast of what is now Germany and the Netherlands. The Anglo-Saxon language, also known as Old English, was a close relative of languages spoken in the latter regions, and genetic studies have confirmed that there was significant migrat ...
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Skaldic Poetry
A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally composed to honor kings, but were sometimes ex tempore. They include both extended works and single verses ('' lausavísur''). They are characteristically more ornate in form and diction than eddic poems, employing many kennings, which require some knowledge of Norse mythology, and heiti, which are formal nouns used in place of more prosaic synonyms. ''Dróttkvætt'' metre is a type of skaldic verse form that most often use internal rhyme and alliteration. More than 5,500 skaldic verses have survived, preserved in more than 700 manuscripts, including in several sagas and in Snorri Sturluson's ''Prose Edda'', a handbook of skaldic composition that led to a revival of the art. Many of these verses are fragments of originally longer works, and t ...
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Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of King Alfred the Great (r. 871–899). Its content, which incorporated sources now otherwise lost dating from as early as the seventh century, is known as the "Common Stock" of the ''Chronicle''.Hunter Blair, ''Roman Britain'', p. 11. Multiple copies were made of that one original and then distributed to monasteries across England, where they were updated, partly independently. These manuscripts collectively are known as the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. Almost all of the material in the ''Chronicle'' is in the form of annals, by year; the earliest is dated at 60 BC (the annals' date for Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain). In one case, the ''Chronicle'' was still being actively updated in 1154. Nine manuscripts of the ''Chronicle'', none of ...
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Recension
Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author. The term is derived from the Latin ("review, analysis"). In textual criticism (as is the case with Biblical scholarship), the count noun ''recension'' is a family of manuscripts sharing similar traits; for example, the Alexandrian text-type may be referred to as the "Alexandrian recension". The term ''recension'' may also refer to the process of collecting and analyzing source texts in order to establish a tree structure leading backward to a hypothetical original text. "An adequate method of recension has only been rendered possible by the growth of Palaeography, i.e. the scientific study of ancient documents – the hands in which they are written, the age to which they belong and generally speaking the purposes, methods and circumstances of the men who produced them." F. W. Hall (1913A Companion to Classical Texts chap ...
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Clare Downham
Clare Downham is an English academic, a medievalist and historian of Ireland and Britain and the Vikings, specialising in the era 400 to 1350. Career She studied for degrees in Medieval History at the University of St Andrews and in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge, completing a PhD at the latter in 2003. In 2002, she took up a John O'Donovan scholarship in Celtic Studies from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, before taking a lectureship in the Celtic department at the University of Aberdeen and then in Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool. Subsequently, at Liverpool, she became Professor of Medieval History with the Institute of Irish Studies. Downham was a elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned or professional s ...
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