alexharvv.bsky.social
Author, artist, early medieval archaeologist; I write about Vikings https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forgotten-Vikings-New-Approaches-Viking/dp/1398122092?crid=BAU05AM2CB3E&keywords=forgotten+vikings&qid=1704124313&s=books&sprefix=forgotten+vikings%2Cstripbook
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Wouldn’t be surprised if thats a headline somewhere
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Generally I think dear old Yngvar gets the short end of the stick compared to Hardrada. In my opinion, he’s much cooler, and flew further from the nest too
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Great move by YSJ - do we know which departments will be located there? Would be hilarious if it ended up being History
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I suspected your paths had / are crossing given she was at Edge Hill!
Please pass on my praise and thanks to her for writing it
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I urge all those interested in post-Roman history to read Linda Brady’s The Origin Legends of Early Medieval Britain & Ireland (2022)
An unmissable read for those wishing to know how Gildas, Bede, ‘Nennius’, and 2 further Irish compilers were intertwined through artificial origin stories
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My history-avoidant wife (we’re going for our honeymoon) will be delighted…
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I’d like to have some of these average years please
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As I was reminded by my wife yesterday; only 5 months till release!
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I'd highly recommend 'Men of the North' too, its a refreshing take on many topics like Rheged, Elmet, and the poem Y Gododdin
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The Picts: A History (2008, repr. 2016) by Tim Clarkson
I’ve been an avid reader of Clarkson’s work for some years. Like me, he attacks the obscurer side of Early Medieval Britain, and I’m always fond of his well-reasoned arguments and the concise manner in which he introduces complex subjects
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Would love to read this Jeroen
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At the site of Goting, on the North Frisian Islands, there's ample evidence for clench nails and rivets used in the repair of cogs and longships, dated around the 8/9th century
Skippers, sailors, and sail-specialists a-plenty adorned the Frisian coast, I imagine
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(for those of you put off by dense academic tomes, of which there are many, I find the @frisiacoasttrail.bsky.social blog an excellent resource; frisiacoasttrail.blog)
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Indeed, they became so associated with the art of trading via rivers and waterways that some argue 'Frisian' was eventually a synonym for 'merchant'
I urge all interested in the Early Medieval Period to check out Frisia and the Frisians. I just wish I'd been told about them when I was a kid!
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But they were also 'fleecy' in a different sense; overcharging customers and making sure to grab the highest profit possible whenever the chance
The Frisians of the 7-8th c. started to imitate continental coinage, at places like Katwijk and Dorestad, and became renowned as canny traders by the 9th
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The 'Fleecy Frisians' exported their famous Frisian cloth (Fresum) from salt-grazing sheep along the Waadsee from the 5-6th c. if not earlier. It made for comfortable clothing and weatherproof sails
I used an early medieval tunic discovered near Bernuthsfeld as an inspiration here
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(What i’m saying quietly is that EDUCATION SHOULD NEVER BE LIMITED)
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At least they haven’t had anyone say ‘purple burglar alarm’…
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Long live the next generation of skalds and scops
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A visitor to the Yorkshire Museum once made the mistake of saying ‘Frisian’ out loud - they couldn’t shake me for the following 30 minute conversation about the Buttercrambe Hoard
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That’s if they’re not out raiding…
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I feel like a very mundane sort-of sleeper agent because trigger words like: “maritime landscape” “imagined landscape” and “North Atlantic” always set me off
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I’ve heard there’s some decent books in the gift shop on the subject too….
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Apparently so, and its a fact very few people know - they do yearly exchanges between students and people of all ages
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I attended a talk by the Münster-York Twinning Association in York the other day and they said the very same; I wasn’t even offered the choice to study German at my school, sadly
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I say its 'popularly regarded' but we're talking about a very small handful who are interested in Old Frisian enough to study it on objects and trace its contact-points across the North Sea. Its a fascinating subject, but of course very niche
There's a similar (though Merovingian) coin in Glasgow
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huge song - I remember when this album came out, we were on a school trip to Belgium for the centenary of WWI and the coachload of 13-15 year olds were belting this out over a phone speaker
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...whatever it means, and however it wants to be read, the SKANOMUDU coin is an insight into the early treatment of coined money in the post-Roman North Sea; it may have been treasured more as a symbol than as currency, ping-ponged by Frisians from the Waadsee to Kent, East Anglia, and beyond