A strange eleventh-century will and Scandinavians in Hertfordshire in the Reign of Cnut and after
The records of the Benedictine abbey of St Albans are a primary source for the history of Hertfordshire in the late Anglo-Saxon period. This abbey was probably originally a Mercian foundation, but it appears to have fallen into decline possibly as a consequence of the Danish invasions of the late ninth century (see Crick 2007, pp. 14–18). Its refoundation ca. 970 was certainly in connection with the Benedictine reform movement of King Edgar՚s reign, its first abbot, Ælfric, having been a monk at Abingdon in the 960s under Abbot Æthelwold who later, as bishop of Winchester, was the moving force behind the Benedictine reform movement (see Crick 2007, pp. 18, 20–23). The period of the Anglo-Danish monarchy under Cnut and his sons (1016–1042) was marked by the establishment of Scandinavian landowners in areas outside the Danelaw and, as we shall see, the lands of the abbey of St Albans did not escape this process of disruption. At the time of Domesday Book (1086), the core area of the landed endowment of the abbey of St Albans straddled Watling Street in Hertfordshire with outliers in Bedfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire (see Crick 2007, pp. 76 [map]–80). In the pre-Conquest period, the abbey also had property in Oxfordshire including the estate at ʻChurch՚ Tew leased by Abbot Leofstan to a woman with the Danish name Tōva and her son (Crick 2007, pp. 80–82 [map], 215–216 [no. 16], and see below, p. 163). The treaty made by King Alfred and the Danish king Guthrum setting out their respective spheres of influence bisected Hertfordshire following a line which passed closely to the east of the abbey and its estates, but all these areas in the southeast Midlands lay well outside the regions settled extensively by the Viking invaders of the ninth century (see Crick 2007, pp. 16–17). However, the twelfth-century Leges Edwardi Confessoris state that eight shires south and west of Watling Street were subject to Danish law (and thus part of the Danelaw) (see Liebermann 1903–1916, I, p. 652 [§ 30] and superscript notes d and e; Hill 1981, p. 98 [map 174]). Liebermann (1903–1916, I, p. 652 superscript note d) explicitly names Hertfordshire as one of these eight shires. As Liebermann noted (1903–1916, II.2, p. 347), Anglo-Scandinavian -laʒu in Denalaʒu ʻDanelaw՚ denotes a legal district and is comparable with the use of ON lǫg in the Norwegian fylke name Trøndelag < ON Þrœndalǫg ʻthe legal district of the Þrœndr, the people of the region of Trondheim՚ (cf. NSL, s.vv. Trondheim, Trøndelag). Early spellings of the most westerly hundred in Hertfordshire, Dacorum Hundred (Danais, Daneis 1086, Daneishdr 1160, 1176, 1188, 1190, 1240, Daneshdr 1161, Daneys 1255 Gover, Mawer & Stenton 1938, p. 25) imply some sort of putative Danish influence, though it is not clear how this manifested itself. The editors of the English Place-Name Society՚s survey of Hertfordshire list medieval field names containing the Scandinavian personal names Ásgautr, Ásketill, Gunnarr, Gunnhildr (fem.), Gunni, Ketill, Tōki (ODan), Þóraldr and Þorbiǫrn, but suggest that it is probable that none of these field names is earlier than the eleventh or twelfth centuries (Gover, Mawer & Stenton 1938, p. xx). The name Ásgautr appears here in its Anglo-Scandinavian form Ōsgod (in Hosgodeshamstall 13th century), while we are possibly concerned here with the Norman reflex of ON Þóraldr, Torold(us), Turold(us), etc., (in Thoraldesheth 1258 and Tureldeswik 1377–1399). The absence of Scandinavian settlement names in Hertfordshire speaks against Scandinavian settlement, but we can rather postulate the presence of Scandinavian notables controlling local courts and exercising seigniorial authority (see Gover, Mawer & Stenton 1938, p. xix). I would argue that the establishment of a Scandinavian presence in the south-east Midlands was not a result of the Danish invasions of the ninth century, but was a consequence of the Cnutian settlement of the eleventh century.
S 1532 is a will dated by its latest editor, Julia Crick, to 1025–1046 (Crick 2007, p. 198) and is one of the Anglo-Saxon records of the abbey of St Albans (Keynes 1993a, p. 267, 1993b, Crick 2007, pp. 198–204 [nos. 13, 13A]). It is an important source for a Scandinavian presence in the south-east Midlands as a consequence of the Cnutian monarchy. This document is preserved in an Old English version (Keynes 1993b, pp. 16, 18–19, Crick 2007, pp. 198–200 [no. 13]) and in two Latin versions which have the character of an abstract of the primary Old English text (see Keynes 1993b, p. 17, Crick 2007, pp. 200–202 [no. 13A]). The Old English text and one of the Latin versions are preserved in the manuscript Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, 7965–73 (3723) [Crick 2007 Ms. G] at folio 164rv. This is a composite paper manuscript containing transcripts of medieval records from nine English monasteries and appears to have been made by a group of Bollandist scholars in the second quarter of the seventeenth century (Crick 2007, p. 52; Keynes 1993a, p. 255, suggests a date in ‘the late 1630s’). The Bollandists were a group of Jesuit scholars in the Spanish Netherlands named after one of their number, Jean Bolland (1596–1665), a native of the modern Belgian province of Liège and the first editor of their major historical project, the Acta Sanctorum published from 1643 onwards (see Knowles 1963, pp. 3–14, Keynes 1993a, p. 254 and n. 7). The Bollandists and their immediate precursor Héribert Rosweyde (1569–1629) were energetic copyists of manuscripts (see Knowles 1963, pp. 4–7). Their interests evidently spread to England for the library of the Bollandists in Antwerp contained at least three Anglo-Saxon manuscripts (Ker 1957, pp. 6–10, nos. 8 [glosses to Aldhelm’s de laude virginitatis], 9 [glosses], 10 [glosses to Chrodegang of Metz, penitential collections]; see also Keynes 1993a, p. 254 n. 9), though we have no idea when or how these manuscripts reached the Spanish Netherlands.
The present arrangement of the entries relating to the various religious houses in Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, 7965–73 (3723) was made by a compiler working at least seventy years after the date when they were originally written (see Crick 2007, pp. 52–54, esp. p. 53). The manuscript had the catalogue number ‘┼ MS. 157’ in the library of the Bollandists in Antwerp and the part relating to the abbey of St Albans is at folios 151r–216v (see Keynes 1993a, pp. 254–258, esp. p. 257; for a detailed list of the contents of the manuscript, see Keynes 1993a, pp. 263–271). This part of the manuscript is a transcript of a lost cartulary of St Albans abbey consisting of a series of Anglo-Saxon and post-Conquest charters relating to the abbey and its endowment (fols. 153r–178v) and of a collection of papal privileges for the abbey and its dependencies (fols. 178v–216v) (Keynes 1993a, p. 257). The original cartulary, dating from after 1156 and probably before the second quarter of the thirteenth century (Crick 2007, pp. 39, 42–43), was catalogued as ‘┼ MS. 73’ in the library of the Bollandists in Antwerp (Keynes 1993a, p. 257). This St Albans cartulary was lost, probably in connection with the papal suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 and the subsequent dispersal of the Bollandists’ library (see Keynes 1993a, pp. 262–263). Crick (2007, p. 40 and notes 8 and 9) points out that the Bollandist scholar(s) who produced the copy of the cartulary must have been initially ignorant of Old English, but that he/they attained some degree of familiarity with the language in the course of transcribing the texts. To some extent, this may have been facilitated by his/their knowledge of the Brabants variety of Dutch spoken in Antwerp. The second example of the Latin text, that in the Liber Additamentorum of Matthew Paris (London, British Library, Cotton Nero D. i [Crick 2007, pp. 49–51(Ms. D)]), also goes back to the lost cartulary and has been known for a considerable time, being the source of Kemble’s edition (Kemble 1839–1848, no. 954). Crick (2007, p. 51) suggests that the Anglo-Saxon charters in the Liber Additamentorum were copied in the second quarter of the thirteenth century and that they constitute a copy of the lost cartulary, possibly by way of an intermediate source.
A decisive question is that of the name and identity of the testator of S 1532. Crucial to the establishment of the etymology of the name is whether its initial consonant is the runic ʻthornʼ [<þ> = /θ/] or the runic ʻwynnʼ [<ƿ> = /w/] of Anglo-Saxon scribal practice. The Latin text in the Brussels manuscript (Keynes 1993b, p. 18, Crick 2007, p. 200 [no. 13A]) has the rubric: Hec carta loquitur de terris quas Thulf dedit sancto Albano. Æstun et Oxaƿica in the Additamenta of Matthew Paris (Ms. D) and Hæc carta loquitur de terris quas Thulf dedit Sancto Albano. Eastun et Oxaƿica in the Brussels transcript (Ms. G). Keynes (1993b, p. 17) identifies Æstun/Eastun with Aston in Hertfordshire, while Crick (2007, p. 204) mentions that the Hertfordshire Aston belonged to the bishop of Bayeux in Domesday Book and prefers to identify the Aston of our text with Aston Abbots in Buckinghamshire. The lost Oxwick was assessed with Codicote in Hertfordshire in Domesday Book (Crick 2007, p. 204, and cf. Gover, Mawer & Stenton 1938, p. 110). In his version of the body of the Latin text itself, Keynes, like Kemble (1839–1848, no. 954), renders the name of the testator as Wulf. Crick (2007, p. 200 [no. 13A]) renders his name as Ƿulf (from her Ms. D, the Additamenta of Matthew Paris) and as Hulf (from her Ms. G, the Brussels transcript). Here, it should be noted, Keynes (1993a, p. 275) has pointed out that <þ> appears frequently as <h> in the English text in the Brussels transcript, so that we can plausibly emend Hulf to Þulf. Keynes (1993b, p. 16) provides a good facsimile of the Brussels transcript which shows <ƿ> and <þ> to have been clearly distinct in the Old English text. Crick has clearly recognized this, for she correctly transcribes the genitival form of the name of the testator in a note to the Old English version of the will as þulfes (Crick 2007, p. 199 [no. 13, superscript note a]), though she emends this to Ƿulfes in her version of the text itself. The Old English text is more comprehensive than the Latin text which diverges from it in several respects, most notably in its omission of the first four beneficiaries and the last two persons named in the will and its inclusion of a clause indicating the consent of King Edward the Confessor (see Crick 2007, pp. 201–202). Keynes (1993b, p. 19) took the name Wulf to be «presumably» an anglicized form of ON Úlfr, ODan, OSwed Ulf. If we were concerned with ON Úlfr here, Wulf would be best described as a loan-translation. Crick (2007, p. 203) also includes the possibility that Wulf could be a short form of an Old English name in Wulf-, such as Wulfsiġe or Wulfstān, but we could object that a usual hypocoristic form of a name in Wulf- would be either the weakly inflected Wulfa or a form Wuffa with regressive assimilation of the type found in OE Æffa and OE Odda, hypocoristic forms of names in Ælf- and Ord-, respectively. Keynes (1993b, p. 20) debated whether the testator could be identified with the Norman priest Ulf, who had been appointed to the bishopric of Dorchester in 1049 and had been expelled from England in the wake of Earl Godwine’s restoration in 1052, but concluded that this identification was «no more than a wishful thought» and Crick (2007, pp. 202–203) has shown that there are serious chronological obstacles to this explanation. Keynes (1993b, pp. 20 and 21 n. 17) is equally sure that it is not possible to clearly identify the testator among the several thegns named Ulf who attest charters during the reigns of Cnut and Edward the Confessor (see also Crick 2007, p. 203). The ubiquity of ON Úlfr, ODan, OSwed Ulf in eleventh-century English records can be illustrated by the fact that PASE has no less than 38 separate entries for persons named Ulf (including Bishop Ulf of Dorchester at no. 13). Under such circumstances speculation about individual identities is a futile enterprise. This is implicitly recognized by Crick (2007, p. 202) when she remarks that the Ramsey chronicle «records that the will of Thurgunt (A.D. 1062–5) was witnessed by one Ulf de Glatton (CR, p. 176) but there is nothing to connect him with the benefactor of St Albans». The name Thurgunt is a reflex of ODan Thorgun, Thrugun (fem.).
It is now necessary to turn to other references to the testator in order to attempt to ascertain his name/identity. In the Papal bull Pie postulatio uoluntatis of 1147, Pope Eugenius III enumerated the benefactions presented to him for confirmation and the part relevant to the testator reads: «Estuna et Exawicha ex dono Tolf» (Crick 2007, p. 227 [Appendix 1]). In Matthew Paris’s list of pre-Conquest estates returned and lost in the Liber Additamentorum (fols. 63r, 167v), we have «Tholf [Tolf, fol. 63r] quidam Danus dedit Estunam [Eastunę, fol. 63r] et Oxawikę [Oxauuiam, fol. 167v]» (Crick 2007, p. 231 [Appendix 2] with superscript variants d₂, e₂ and f₂). In his edition of the Latin text of S 1532 in the Additamenta, Luard (1872–1883, VI, p. 32 [no. 14] n. 2) stated that Tholf in the rubric was the result of a scribe’s error in mistaking <ƿ> for <þ>. In fact, it is rather the opposite which is true and it is preferable to take the name of the testator to be ODan, OSwed Thōlf, Thūlf (Runic Swedish þolfr, þulfʀ, [Þōlfʀ] NRL, p. 227).
The will covers three distinct areas of activity. The first part consists of bequests made by the testator for the salvation of his soul. So, he left an estate at Eastun, which he had leased, complete with produce and dependent peasantry and an estate at Oxawic to the abbey of St Albans where he wished to have his final resting place. He also bequeathed mass-vestments and other ecclesiastical accoutrements, including a liturgical codex (mæ<s>seboc), so that every week two masses be celebrated for his soul. In addition, he left two cloaks, one which had been owned by a woman with the Old English name Ʒodʒyua (OE Godġifu) and which he left to the abbey of St Albans, and one which he bequeathed to the abbey of Ramsey in Huntingdonshire. Finally, he bequeathed four marks of weighed silver to St Peter’s in Rome for the procuring of masses for his soul and left the same sum to the most important minster churches in the land. His secular bequests included gifts of gold and land to his ‘associates’ (minon feolaʒan) and a horse to each of his followers (ælc minra hiredcnihta) who was without land. Other legatees are named and we have the following dative forms: Oþine, Sihtrice eorle, Ofʒode, Dagfinne, Æfine, Æþelrice Sƿeʒne, Eadƿearde and Þorode þam lytlan. A certain Saxa was entrusted with managing the affairs of an unnamed child. The will concludes with the proviso that thirty men (of servile status) were to be freed for the good of the testator’s soul.
The personal names in the Brussels manuscript of the Old English text have been commented on by Keynes (1993b, p. 19) and I have the following remarks: Æfine (dat.): Keynes (1993b, p. 19) is rightly unsure of the etymology of this form, but tentatively suggests «(?) Auðfinnr or Eyvindr». I would rather suggest an Anglo-Norse *Æi-, *Eyfinnr, formed by analogy with such Norse formations as ON Arnfinnr, Dagfinnr, Steinfinnr, Þorfinnr, etc., and in which OE [æ:] had been substituted for the unfamiliar Scandinavian initial diphthong. The view of Hudson (2005, p. 123) that we are probably concerned with a misspelling of OE Ælfwine can be dismissed; Æþelrice Sƿeʒne (dat.): OE Æðelrīċ. Keynes (1993b, pp. 19–20) includes the possibility that Sƿeʒn is here a byname belonging to the Scandinavian loan-word ON sveinn m. ‘young man, servant, retainer’ or that we are alternatively concerned with a double name. The second option would involve a Scandinavian named Sveinn taking the Old English name Æðelrīċ as part of the act of baptism as an adult, the Old English name then being the name of his godfather; Daʒfinne (dat.): ON Dagfinnr (Lind, col. 190). This is a characteristically Norwegian name and the rare Icelandic examples are probably the names of Norwegians (Lind, cols. 190–192, Lind Suppl., col. 196). The examples of Daghfin given by SMP I, cols. 562–563, are confined to the provinces of Bohuslän, Dalarna, and Jämtland and in Swedish the name is almost certainly a loan from Norwegian. An English example is dahfin, the name of a York moneyer of Æthelred II and Cnut (Smart 1981, p. 26, Smart 1987, p. 250); Eadƿearde (dat.): OE Ēadweard; Ofʒode (dat.): Anglo-Scandinavian Ōsgod < ON Ásgautr, ODan, OSwed Āsgut, Āsgot. In this form, insular <s> has been confused with <f>; Keynes (1993b, p. 21 n. 10, includes the possibility that this Osʒod could be identified with Osgod Clapa, a prominent Anglo-Scandinavian notable of the period between 1026 and 1046; Oþine (dat.): Anglo-Scandinavian Ōðin < Old East Scandinavian Auþin (cf. Runic Swedish auþin [Auþin], ODan Othin, Øthin, OSwed Ødhin [NRL, p. 36]). Initial O- in Oþine is the result of the Old English substitution of [ɔ:] or [o:] for the unfamiliar Scandinavian diphthong [ɔʊ] (< Germanic [au]), but note also the Anglo-Scandinavian variant Ouðen [cf. Fellows Jensen 1968, pp. 41‒42]); Saxa (nom.): ON, ODan Saxi, OSwed Saxe. Final -a is the result of anglicization by analogy with Old English monothematic names of the n-declension, such as Abba, Dudda, Wada, etc. Keynes (1993b, p. 21 n. 10) regards it as an open question whether or not this Saxa is identical with the huscarl of King Edward, Sexi, who is recorded by Domesday Book as holding land in Hertfordshire. The bull of Eugenius III of 1147, Pie postulatio uoluntatis, confirms a grant of land at Hexton, Hertfordshire, made by a certain Sexi (Crick 2007, p. 227); Sihtrice eorle (dat.): ON Sigtryggr, ODan, OSwed Sightrygg. The Anglo-Scandinavian Sihtric shows remodelling of the name through a false interpretation of the morpheme boundary between the first and second elements of the name and the consequent assumption that the second element is OE -rīċ. Sihtric eorl is possibly identical with the Sihtric dux who attested S 962 of 1026 and a charter issued between c. 1027 and 1030 which underlies two charters dated to 1031, S 963 and S 971 (Keynes 1994, p. 65). Hudson (2005, p. 123) suggests that Earl Sihtric is «probably» to be identified with Sihtric Silkenbeard, the Hiberno-Norse king of Dublin, but provides no evidence to substantiate this claim; Þorode þamlitlan (dat.) ‘Þorod the small’: ON Þóroddr, a West Scandinavian name which was well attested in Iceland, but less so in Norway (Lind, cols. 1202–1204). Hudson (2005, p. 123) incorrectly emended the Þorod of the Old English text to the more familiar Þored (‘Thored’ [< ON *Þorrøðr]) and without any justification identified this person with the Þored who granted an estate at East Horsley in Surrey to Christ Church, Canterbury, in S 1222.
The interpretation of the status of the testator of S 1532 is difficult. Keynes (1993b, p. 20) remarked that the testator՚s ownership of various items of ecclesiastical significance and his bequests to St Peter in Rome and to the principal minsters of the kingdom might suggest that he was in holy orders but that it is perhaps more likely that he was a prosperous layman with a priest in his household. Crick (2007, pp. 203–204) also includes the possibility that the testator may have been a layman who had retired from the world to live in a monastery. As Keynes (1993b, p. 19) indicates, S 1532 belongs to a milieu subject to Scandinavian influence manifested in the use of the term feolaʒan (dat.) ‘(business) partners, associates, comrades՚ and in the use of ‘marks՚ and ‘ores՚ to denote weights of gold and silver. Late OE fēolaga m. is an Anglo-Scandinavian formation corresponding to ON félagi, Runic Swedish fēlagi in which Scandinavian fé n. ‘property, livestock, money՚ has been replaced by its English cognate, OE feoh (see Pons-Sanz 2013, pp. 4–5, 95). OE marc appears to be a Scandinavian loan and denotes a denomination of weight and money of account, cf. OIcel mǫrk ‘by weight or value, = eight ounces՚ (Pons-Sanz 2013, p. 52). However, as Pons-Sanz (ibid.) notes, the term was common throughout western Europe from the eleventh century onwards and she compares OFris merk, MHG, MLG mark and MLat marca, marcus. She goes on to suggest (ibid.) that it spread from England to the Continent by way of trade and (2013, pp. 52–53) cites Steenstrup՚s view that it was a Danish loan-word in Old English. Late OE ȳre/ōra was a unit of account of Danish origin comparable with OIcel aurar, plural of eyrir ‘ounce of silver, the eighth part of a mark՚ (Pons-Sanz 2013, p. 34). Though linguistically Norse, these monetary units acquired a more general currency after the Cnutian reform of weights and measures (Pons-Sanz 2013, pp. 200–201) and for this reason they cannot be taken alone as a marker of Scandinavian influence in S 1532 given the relatively late dating span of this record. The beneficiary Dagfinn was left a mark of gold or «mare ʒif he mare ʒeearnaþ» (‘more if he should deserve more’) [Keynes 1993b, pp. 18, 19, Crick 2007, p. 199]. Hudson (2005, p. 123) suggests that this refers to the Scandinavian legal practice of sjálfdœmi by which an aggrieved party defined what would satisfy him in a legal dispute in order to reach a settlement, cf. OIcel selja sjálfdœmi ‘to give (someone) right to judge in one՚s own terms՚ (see Pons-Sanz 2013, p. 419). This is reading too much into the text. It is rather the case that the testator leaves it to the discretion of the executor(s) of his will whether the bequest to Dagfinn should be increased. The emphasis placed by the testator on bequests to the abbey of St Albans and other ecclesiastical institutions strongly suggests that he was especially concerned about the redemption of his soul perhaps in the context of atonement for previous sins or offences against the church. It may well be the case that some of the properties or movables bequeathed in the will had been appropriated by the testator and were being restored by testament to their previous owners as an act of Christian atonement.
On the other hand, the bequests of money, treasure and horses to his associates (feolaʒan), subordinates (hiredcnihtas) and a group of named persons with largely Scandinavian names place him firmly in (? pre-Christian) Scandinavian traditions of association, lordship and allegiance. The personal names borne by the beneficiaries of S 1532 suggest a heterogeneous body of Scandinavians, Anglo-Scandinavians and Englishmen. The name of the testator, Thūlf, is East Scandinavian, probably Danish. The names of two of the legatees, Dagfinnr and Þóroddr are West Scandinavian, as is possibly the otherwise unattested *Æi-, *Eyfinnr. Two names, Ōðin and Ōsgod, are Anglo-Scandinavian formations. The name of Earl Sihtric has also been anglicized through a false interpretation of its morphological structure (see above, p. 161). A further two, Æðelrīċ and Ēadweard, are English, though the former could have been an English name taken by a Scandinavian named Sveinn at baptism in adult life.
The Scandinavian names in S 1532 are not the only Scandinavian personal names found in the St Albans cartulary and related texts. Another charter from the St Albans cartulary, S 1425, which is preserved in the Brussels transcript in Old English and Latin and in Cotton Nero D. i in Latin (Crick 2007, pp. 215–220 [nos. 16, 16A]), records a lease made by Abbot Leofstan of St Albans in the period 1049–1052 of land at ‘Church’ Tew in Oxfordshire to a widow named Toua and her son. Toua is the characteristically Danish name Tōva (DGP, cols. 1473–1475), but her deceased husband was quite clearly English from his name (OE Wihtrīċ or OE Wihtsiġe) and her son bore the quintessentially late Old English name Godwine. In the witness clause of another record in the Brussels transcript, S 1228 Ms. 1, the Old English text of a charter of 1042–1049 in which one Æʒelwine the Black granted land at Granborough in Buckinghamshire and at Redbourn, Langley and the lost Fawn Wood in Hertfordshire to St Albans (Crick 2007, p. 205 [no. 14]), we find a certain Þurʒisel Sƿeʒa. In her English translation of the text, Julia Crick (2007, p. 205), prefers to interpret this as two names, ‘Thurgisl՚ and ‘Swegn՚. This would appear to be supported by the Latin version of the charter in Cotton Nero D. i and in the Brussels manuscript in which Sƿeʒn follows Þurʒiselus in the witness clause, though the list in the inferior text in the late-fourteenth-century manuscript London, British Library, Cotton Otho D. iii has a disrupted order of witnesses in which ‘Swegn՚ is preceded by ‘Thuri՚, ‘Ælfwold՚ and ‘Thurgisl՚ in that order (Crick 2007, pp. 206–207 [no. 14A]). However, the Old English version of the text is primary (Crick 2007, p. 207), and Sƿeʒa could be plausibly interpreted as a byname from a nomen agentis OE *swēġa ‘one with a resounding voice, one who moves in a noisy fashion՚ from OE swēġan (weak verb, class 1) ‘to make a noise, (re)sound, move with a noise՚. The personal name form Þurʒisel(us) is a reflex of ON Þorgils [< Þorgísl], ODan, OSwed Thorgīsl.
We also have to reckon with lost charters (see Crick 2007, pp. 38–39). The bull of Pope Eugenius III of 1147 confirming the abbey’s charters (Crick 2007, pp. 227–228 [Appendix 1]) mentions three land grants in Hertfordshire for which no charters are extant. The first is the above-mentioned grant of land at Hexton made by Sexi. This is followed by estates at Newnham, Bendish and Bradewia «ex dono Hadde» and by those at Shenley and Bridelea «ex dono Flad». Bradewia is the lost Broadway in St Paul’s Walden, while Bridelea may be Bride Hall in Sandridge (Crick 2007, p. 255). Hadde (gen.) occurs as Haadh (sic, for Hadh), Had (nom.) in the lists of benefactions made by Matthew Paris in British Library Cotton Nero D. i (at fols. 63r, 167v) (Crick 2007, p. 231 [Appendix 2] and variants ͪ ² and ͥ ²). In the late–fourteenth–century Liber benefactorum of the abbey of St Albans compiled under the aegis of Thomas Walsingham, he appears as Had quidam homo nobilis (Crick 2007, p. 239 [Appendix 4]). Hadde, Had(h) stands for ON Haddr, a name which forms the first element of the place-names Haddiscoe and Hudeston in Bunwell (lost) in Norfolk and Haceby in Lincolnshire and which is sporadically attested in independent use in English sources (Insley 1994, p. 172). The grantor Flad occurs in Matthew Paris’s lists in Cotton Nero D. i as Therefeld quedam religiosa (fol. 167v) and Thurefled quedam religiosa (fol. 63r) (Crick 2007, pp. 39, 231 [Appendix 2] and variant k2). In the late–fourteenth–century Liber benefactorum of the abbey, she appears as Thurefleda, quædam religiosa matrona (Crick 2007, p. 239 [Appendix 4]). Thurefled(a) is an Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid formed from ODan Thūr- and the Old English feminine name element -flǣd, possibly through analogy with such Old English feminine names as Æðelflǣd, Beorhtflǣd, Wynflǣd. A parallel to Anglo-Scandinavian *Þūrflǣd is Anglo-Scandinavian *Þūrġi(e)fu, a compound of Scandinavian Þūr- with the Old English feminine name element -ġi(e)fu, which occurs in a form of ca. 1225–1240, [de terra Swani filii] Thurieue (in Farington, Lancashire) (Insley 2023, p. 129). Note also Þurƿif (a female slave at Ieceslea [possibly Yaxley, Huntingdonshire, see Robertson 1956, p. 336]) ca. 950‒968 (original/contemporary) S 1447 Ms. 1 (Robertson 1956, p. 90 [no. 44]), whose second element belongs to OE wīf n. ʻwomanʼ. As Crick points out (2007, p. 39), Flad is an acceptable hypocoristic form of *Þūrflǣd, though it must have undergone shortening of [æ:] > [æ] in -flæd < -flǣd as a result of weak stress and subsequent retraction of [æ] > [a].
There is evidence that a Scandinavian element in the ruling orders of the shire in Hertfordshire lasted until the Norman Conquest. In the Domesday Book returns for Hertfordshire, we find hūscarls of King Edward [the Confessor] named Anand (ON Ǫnundr, ODan, OSwed Anund), Brand (ON Brandr, ODan Brand) and Sexi (< Anglo-Scandinavian *Sæxi [ODan Saxi, OSwed Saxe]) (Feilitzen 1937, pp. 161, 207, 352), thegns of that king named Aschil (ON Áskell, ODan Ǣskil), Elaf (ODan Ēlēf [cf. Runic Swedish ilafr ‘Æilæifʀ, Æilafʀ’]) and Aldene (Anglo-Scandinavian H(e)alfdene < ODan, OSwed Hal(f)dan) and a man of that king named Turbernus (ON Þorbiǫrn, ODan, OSwed Thorbiorn) (Feilitzen 1937, pp. 167, 246, 283, 392). It should be noted that Aschil is probably a West Scandinavian form since secondary i-mutation resulting in the fronting of [ɑ:] > [æ:] had been completed in Old Danish before 1000 (cf. Hald 1971, p. 38, Christensen & Kousgård Sørensen 1972, p. 168). Similarly, Earl Harold Godwinesson, the later King Harold II, was the lord of two thegns, Achi (ODan Āki, OSwed Āke) and Gouti (ON Gauti, ODan Gøti, OSwed Gøte), and of a man named Suen (ON Sveinn, ODan Swēn, OSwed Svēn), with land in Hertfordshire (Feilitzen 1937, pp. 142, 258, 380). Achi is also described as a thegn of King Edward (Feilitzen 1937, p. 142). He appears to have been a first-generation Dane (see the discussion of Fellows-Jensen 2014, pp. 153–155) and must have been a person of some consequence, for, as Gillian Fellows-Jensen (2014, p. 154) has noted, he is recorded by Domesday Book as holding land in no less than nine shires between Hampshire and the Suffolk coast (for references, see Feilitzen 1937, p. 142). In Kings Langley in Hertfordshire, two men of Earl Harold’s brother Earl Leofwine, Thuri (ODan Thūri, OSwed Thūre) and Seric (OE *Sǣrīċ), are recorded in Domesday Book as having a manor assessed as one and a half hides with land for sixteen ploughs (Ragg 1902, p. 319, Morris 1976, 15:11). The presence here of a dependent landowner with the Danish name Thūri is an indication of a degree of Scandinavian penetration in the lesser echelons of the rural gentry on the fringes of the southern Danelaw in the eleventh century. We also have major landowners below the royal and comital level who had subordinate tenants with Scandinavian names. For example, among the Hertfordshire homines of Eddeva (OE Ēadġifu fem.) the Fair, a major landowner with extensive holdings in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk, were three men of relatively modest status with the Scandinavian names Osgot (Anglo-Scandinavian Ōsgot < ODan, OSwed Āsgot), Snerri (ON Snerrir), and Turbernus (ON Þorbiǫrn, ODan, OSwed Thorbiorn) (Ragg 1902, pp. 319, 320, Feilitzen 1937, pp. 166, 368, 392, Morris 1976, 16:3, 16:12, 16:6). We find a concentration of substantial landowners with Scandinavian names at Bengeo north of Hertford. Here, King Edward՚s hūscarls Brand and Anand held manors of six hides and six hides and one virgate, respectively (Morris 1976, 27:1, 34:15), while that king՚s thegn Elaf held a manor of six and a half hides (Morris 1976, 34:16). A certain Turchil (ODan Thorkil), a man of the great Anglo-Danish magnate Asgar the Staller, held a manor of three hides and one virgate in Bengeo (Ragg 1902, pp. 331–332, Morris 1976, 33: *15). A number of men in Hertfordshire were under the lordship of one Anschil of Ware [Ware in northern Hertfordshire]. Apart from one occasion on which his name is rendered as Aschi, this man invariably appears as Anschil (see Feilitzen 1937, pp. 167–168, and Morris 1976, Index of Persons s.v.Askell of Ware, for references). Anschil of Ware’s name shows the replacement of initial ON Ás-, ODan, OSwed Ǣs- by the etymologically identical [West] Frankish Ans- and it may well be the case that we are concerned with one of King Edward՚s Norman followers here (see Feilitzen 1937, pp. 164–165, Insley 1994, pp. 38–41, 59). It should be noted that the normal reflex of ON Ásk(et)ill in pre-Conquest Norman records is (non-Latinized) Anschetil, (Latinized) Anschetillus, Anschitillus, deriving from the conservative full form Ásketill, but that two examples of the later Danish variant *Āskil, Ǣskil are attested in the form Anschillus in Normandy in the second third of the eleventh century (Adigard des Gautries 1954, pp. 83, 294). Anschil of Ware’s name should be kept separate from that of King Edward՚s thegn Aschil who held a manor of eight hides and one virgate at Knebworth (Ragg 1902, pp. 328–329, Morris 1976, 31:1). In this case, there is no reason to doubt that the etymon of Aschil is ODan *Āskil, Ǣskil.
Hertfordshire had a position of considerable strategic importance since it covered the approaches to London from the north and was traversed by two major Roman roads, Ermine Street and Watling Street. In such an important region, it would have been imperative for the Anglo-Danish monarchy under Cnut and his sons to establish its agents and trusted followers in positions of seigniorial authority in a potentially hostile English environment. The primary evidence for this Scandinavian presence in Hertfordshire is that provided by the Scandinavian personal names found in late Anglo-Saxon records like those from St Albans discussed in the present paper and those in Domesday Book.
Abbreviations and Bibliography
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Fellows Jensen, Gillian, 1968: Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Copenhagen. (Navnestudier udgivet af Institut for Navneforskning 7.)
― 2014: Looking even more closely at the Nordic element in Easts Anglian place-names. In: Nomina 37. Pp. 143‒158.
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― 2023: Lox(h)am revisited. In: NoB 111. Pp. 125–136.
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MHG = Middle High German
MLat = Middle Latin
MLG = Middle Low German
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ODan = Old Danish
OE = Old English
OFris = Old Frisian
OIcel = Old Icelandic
ON = Old Norse
OSwed = Old Swedish
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