Celtic Scotland

by W. F. Skene

Britain sought

Proud war smiths,

The Welsh o’ercame,

Men for glory eager,

The country gained.[^[505]]

The site of this great battle is one of the problems in English history which has not yet been solved. It has been generally placed at Brumby or Brough on the Humber, from the statement that Anlaf entered the Humber with his ships; but if a large part of his force came from the north by land, it is unlikely that they would be allowed to penetrate as far as the Humber before they were met by Aethelstan. Others have looked for it in Lancashire, from the statement that Anlaf fled in his ships to Dublin; but the Anlaf who returned to Dublin was Anlaf, son of Godfrey, king of the Danes of Dublin, who had come to support his brethren in Northumbria, and he probably landed in Cumberland and made his way with the Cumbrians from thence to Northumbria and returned as he came. Anlaf, the son-in-law of Constantin, was Anlaf, son of Sitriuc, and he appears to have escaped with his father-in-law in the ships from the Humber, and returned to Scotland.

The poem in the Saxon Chronicle terms the field of battle the trysting-place, and the Egills Saga likewise implies that the battle had been fought at the place fixed by Anlaf for the assembling of his forces. We must therefore look for it at some point suitable for bringing these forces together. They may be said, in the main, to have come from three directions. First, a part under Constantin and possibly his son-in-law Anlaf came in ships up the Humber. Another part, consisting of the Scotch army, came by land from Scotland; and a third, consisting of the Cumbrians and the Danes from Dublin, came from the west, while Aethelstan in his march from the south met them and gave them battle at a place called Brunanburh in the Saxon Chronicle, and Vinheidi by the Egills Saga. Simeon of Durham says, in his history of the kings, that ‘Aethelstan fought at Wendune, and put King Onlaf with six hundred and fifteen ships, Constantin king of the Scots, and the king of the Cumbrians, with all their forces, to flight.’ And in his history of the Church of Durham, he says ‘Aethelstan fought at Weondune, which is also called Ætbrunnanmere or Brunnanbyrig, against Onlaf, the son of Guthred, the late king, who had arrived with a fleet of six hundred and fifteen ships, supported by the auxiliaries of the kings recently spoken of, that is to say, of the Scots and Cumbrians.’

The Wendune of Simeon is evidently the Vinheidi of the Egills Saga, and Brunnanbyrig, the Duinbrunde of the Pictish Chronicle, and the Borg on the river at the northern extremity of the heath occupied by Anlaf and his army. Now the Humber, with the Ouse which falls into it, is navigable for vessels as far as Boroughbridge, anciently called Ponte Burgi, about sixteen miles from York. A little lower down the river was the important Roman station of Isurium, the ramparts of which still remain, and here four Roman roads met, two from the south and two from the north. The Roman road from York passed along the left bank of the Ouse, until it crossed at a ferry near Aldwark, not far above the present bridge. Another road from the south passed through Knaresborough, and joined the former road at this point. From it two ‘Itinera’ went, one direct to the north, and the other to Cataracton or Catterick on the Swale, whence it proceeded by Stanmore into Cumberland. The Roman station of Isurium was called by the Angles the ‘Ealdburg,’ or Old Burgh. It appears in the time of Edward the Confessor as the manor of Burc, and it is now Aldborough. About a quarter of a mile to the west of Boroughbridge are three large monoliths, varying from eighteen to twenty-three feet high. They are now called the Devil’s Arrows; and east of Aldborough, at a place called Dunsforth, was a tumulus called the Devil’s Cross; it was broken into many years ago for road materials, and in it were found human remains.

Aldborough unites almost all the conditions required for the site of Brunanburgh. The ships which entered the Humber could make their way thus far. This burg, called by the Angles the old Burg, may have been the Borg on the river occupied by Anlaf. The Borg, south of the heath, occupied by Aethelstan, could hardly have been York, as it was too well known not to be mentioned by name, but may have been the strong position of Knaresborough, from whence an ancient way led to Aldborough. The Scots would advance by one of the northern routes, and the Danes of Dublin and the Cumbrians by the great highway which led from Cumberland by Catterick. The only authority which gives any indication of its situation are the Annals of Clonmacnoise, which say that the battle was fought on the plains of Othlyn. Othlyn is probably Gethlyn, now Getling, which gives its name to two Wapentakes in the vale of the Swale, which unites with the Ure close to Aldborough, and forms the river Ouse, which flows past York into the Humber, and the monuments called the Devil’s Cross and the Devil’s Arrows may be memorials of the battle.

Soon after Aethelstan had gained this great victory, he was to receive an unexpected auxiliary in curbing the Danes of Northumberland. In one of the Norse sagas we are told that Eric, called Bloody Axe, the son of the Norwegian king Harald Harfagr, sailed with a fleet to the west. He went first to Orkney, where he recruited his force, and then sailed south to England, plundering the coasts of Scotland and Northumberland as he went. On which King Aethelstan offered him a settlement in Northumberland, if he would defend it against the Danes and other Vikings and be baptized. Eric accepted their offers, received lands in Northumberland, where he settled his followers, was baptized, and had his residence at York.[^[506]]