The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1959, Blaðsíða 40

38
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Winter 1959
959—975, and the second oldest in Ex-
eter for his son Edward, who' was mur-
dered in 978 at the instigation of his
mother and is known as the Martyr.
He was succeeded by his half-brother
dathelred II, whom the Northmen
called Rede-less, and whose name ap-
pears on the remaining 178 English
coins in the hoard. .They were minted
in 38 English towns, the greatest num-
ber, 47, in London. Silver coins of Eng-
lish kings from the eighth, ninth and
tenth centuries have been found in
very great quantities in Scandinavia,
but more from the reign of /Ethelred
than that of any other English king.
This flood of English silver relates in
its own way the history of the relations
of the Northmen and the English dur-
ing the Viking Age—that age of heroic
and revengeful deeds. .It was in the
year 793 that the English caught their
first glimpse of those baleful ships
which for centuries conveyed pirates
and robbers to England—men whose
only object was to plunder and steal
wherever there was any hope of obtain-
ing silver or other forms of wealth.
These Viking bands grew ever more
aggressive, and ended by subjugating
entire districts and their inhabitants
The English, however, never gave up
the fight, and now and again defeated
the invaders with such effect that by
954 the power of the Vikings was
crushed through the expulsion of the
Norwegian king, Erik Bloodaxe, from
England. Silver, gathered as booty
prior to this time, is common in Scan-
dinavia. The years 954—978, however,
during the reigns of Edgar and Ed-
ward, were relatively free from Viking
incursions, and consequently coins of
■these kings are rarely found in Scan-
dinavia with the exception of some
found among coins or hoards of a later
date. There is one coin from each
reign in the hoard from Gaulverja-
baer. In 980, however, the Viking raids
on England commence again and now
on a much greater scale. It was Eng-
land’s misfortune to have as its king
at that time the “redeless” TBthelred
II, who had neither the spirit nor
strength to defend his kingdom. .In 991
England was attacked by the Viking
leader, Olafur Tryggvason, later king
of Norway, and three years later by
him and Sveinn Fork-beard together.
TEthelred then resorted to the desperate
measure of bribing the Vikings, paying
them enormous sums which were call-
ed the Danegeld. As might be expected
this only led to greater and greater at-
tacks which entailed the payment of
larger and larger sums each year until
finally in 1013 TEthelred sought refuge
abroad. Contemporary chronicles de-
tail the sums paid during some of these
years. In 991 the amount was 10,000
pounds, in 1007, 36,000, and the
amounts are similar in other years . . .
The innumerable English silver coins
found in Scandinavia are the result
of this tremendous extortion. More
than half the coins in the hoard from
Gaulverjabasr date from the reign of
Thhelred. .They are an infinitesimal
part of the bloody booty gathered in
England by the Northmen.
When the Viking raids began the
Scandinavian peoples had not reached
the stage of using minted money for
commercial transactions. When, how-
ever, they became acquainted with the
silver coins of more economically ad-
vanced peoples, they inevitably at-
tempted to follow their example..
Norse chieftains, who became rulers
abroad, as e.g. in the British Isles, very
early adopted their own coinage, but
these coins are not very -common. In
the hoard from Gaulverjabasr there are
only two silver coins of King Sigtrygg-