Glossary

Beardestapol – Barnstaple

Beck- a stream

Blót – a blood sacrifice made by a jarl

Bondi- Viking farmers who fight

Bjorr – Beaver

Byrnie- a mail or leather shirt reaching down to the knees

Cantwareburh- Canterbury

Chape- the tip of a scabbard

Drekar- a Dragon ship (a Viking warship) pl. drekar

Dun Holm Durham

Dyflin- Old Norse for Dublin

Eoforwic- Saxon for York

Føroyar- Faroe Islands

Fey- having second sight

Firkin- a barrel containing eight gallons (usually beer)

Fret-a sea mist

Fyrd-the Saxon levy

Galdramenn- wizard

Gighesbore – Guisborough

Gippeswic- Ipswich

Heiða-býr – Hedeby in Schleswig- destroyed in 1066

Hersir- a Viking landowner and minor noble. It ranks below a jarl

Herterpol – Hartlepool

Hoggs or Hogging- when the pressure of the wind causes the stern or the bow to droop

Hrofescester- Rochester, Kent

Hundred- Saxon military organization. (One hundred men from an area-led by a thegn or gesith)

Isle of Greon- Isle of Grain (Thames Estuary)

Jarl- Norse earl or lord

Joro-goddess of the earth

kjerringa - Old Woman- the solid block in which the mast rested

Knarr- a merchant ship or a coastal vessel

Kyrtle-woven top

Mast fish- two large racks on a ship designed to store the mast when not required

Midden- a place where they dumped human waste

Miklagård - Constantinople

Njörðr- God of the sea

Nithing- A man without honour (Saxon)

Ocmundtune- Oakhampton

Odin- The ‘All Father’ God of war, also associated with wisdom, poetry, and magic (The Ruler of the gods).

Østersøen – The Baltic Sea

Ran- Goddess of the sea

Roof rock- slate

Saami- the people who live in what is now Northern Norway/Sweden

Sabrina- The River Severn

Scree- loose rocks in a glacial valley

Seax – short sword

Sennight- seven nights- a week

Sheerstrake- the uppermost strake in the hull

Sheet- a rope fastened to the lower corner of a sail

Shroud- a rope from the masthead to the hull amidships

Skald- a Viking poet and singer of songs

Skeggox – an axe with a shorter beard on one side of the blade

Skreið- stockfish (any fish which is preserved)

Skjalborg- shield wall

Snekke- a small warship

Stad- Norse settlement

Stays- ropes running from the masthead to the bow

Strake- the wood on the side of a drekar

Tarn- small lake (Norse)

The Norns- The three sisters who weave webs of intrigue for men

Thing-Norse for a parliament or a debate (Tynwald in the Isle of Man)

Thor’s day- Thursday

Threttanessa- a drekar with 13 oars on each side.

Thrall- slave

Trenail- a round wooden peg used to secure strakes

Úlfarrberg- Helvellyn

Ullr-Norse God of Hunting

Ulfheonar-an elite Norse warrior who wore a wolf skin over his armour

Verðandi -the Norn who sees the future

Volva- a witch or healing woman in Norse culture

Walhaz -Norse for the Welsh (foreigners)

Waite- a Viking word for farm

Withy- the mechanism connecting the steering board to the ship

Wintan-ceastre -Winchester

Woden’s day- Wednesday

Wyrd- Fate

Wyrme- Norse for Dragon

Yard- a timber from which the sail is suspended