This is the book's glossary, which explains some of the more obscure vocabulary. I hope that you find it tantalising enough to want to read on!
***
A partial glossary
ABBODRICE – monastery
AC – oak
ALOR – alder
BLOTMONTH – November (lit. ‘blood month’, when livestock were killed for winter)
BLUD EARN – (lit. ‘blood eagle.’) Mythical Viking sacrifice in which the victim’s lungs were cut from his body and pulled up through his back to look like the wings of an eagle. Historians still argue about whether it was ever used outside the sagas.
CARUCATE – measurement of land; 8 oxgangs make up a carucate
CEAP – market
CENEP – moustache
CICEL – cake
CISERAEPPEL – dried fig
COTTAR – free tenant farmer owing obligation to a thegn. At least one step below a sokeman on the social ladder
CROCC - cauldron
DANELAUGH – Danelaw; area of northern and eastern England under Danish settlement and law from the 9th to 11th century
EA – river
EARN – eagle
ECED – vinegar
ELE – oil
ENT – giant
EOSTURMONTH – April (Easter month)
ESOL – ass
FLOTA – fleet
FNAERETTAN – snoring
FORHEAWAN – cut down
FUGOL – bird
FYRD – conscript army
GAR – lance
GEBUR – landless peasant farmer who owed labour services to a thegn or sokeman
GEREFA – local official, later known as a reeve, representing the king or thegn at village level
GLAIF – three-pronged fishing tool used in the fens
GLEOMAN – travelling storyteller, poet and news-bringer
GREOTAN – crying
HARA – hare
HAFOC – hawk
HEAFODPANNE – skull (lit. ‘headpan’)
HRAGA – heron
HRETHMONTH – February
HRIFTEUNG – stomach ache
HUSCARL – royal bodyguard and elite fighting force
INGENGA – foreigner
LEA – meadow, open field
LEAC - onion
LESCH – reeds
LITHA – May and June
MELU – flour
MICEL – much
NEBB – face
NIGHTGENGA – demon of the night (lit. ‘night-traveller’)
NITHING – nothing, outcast, villain
OXGANG – measurement of land, equivalent to around 20 acres, said to be the amount a single ox could plough in a season
PETERSILIE – parsley
RUE –
SCEOMU – shame
SCRAMASAX – dagger
SCUCCA – demon
SENEP – mustard
SIGE - victory
SIGIL – brooch
SLEGE - slaughter
SOCMAN – free tenant farmer. Sokemen were found only in the eastern counties of the Danelaw. They owed alliegance to the king rather than the thegn, owned their land, and seem to have been a high class of independent landed farmer
SOLMONTH – January
STOCC – trunk
STRAEL – arrow
STUNT – stupid or stubborn
SWAMM – mushroom
SWEALWE – swallow
THEGN – lord, squire
THRALL – slave
THRIMILCI –April (when cows were milked three times)
TREEN – woodenware
WAPENTAC – Wapentake, the Danelaw’s equivalent of a shire court, the basis of local justice in England
WEALSC – the Old English word for both foreigner and slave was applied to the pre-English (‘Bryttisc’) population. It became the modern word ‘Welsh’
WELIG – willow
WEODMONTH – July (month of weeds)
WERGILD – blood price. A monetary measure of a life, the wergild was a price put on someone’s head. If you killed them, you had to pay it. A king cost a lot more than a cottar
WEROD – war band
WIHT – living being, creature, animal
WITAN – gathering of the highest men in the land – earls, powerful thegns and bishops. Before the Normans introduced hereditary monarchy, English kings were elected by the Witan
WITHIG – wreath
WYRD – fate, destiny
WYRMFLEAGE – dragonfly
WYRT – herb