Page 23 of Viking in Love

GLOSSARY

braies—slim pants worn by men, breeches.

brynja—a flexible chain-mail shirt.

companaticum—“That which goes with bread,” which usually meant whatever was in the stockpot of thick broth always simmering in the huge kitchen cauldron. Usually with chunks of meat. Unfortunately, not cleaned out for long periods of time.

Coppergate—a busy, prosperous section of tenth-century York (known then as Jorvik or Eoforwic) where merchants and craftsmen set up their stalls for trading.

drukkin (various spellings)—drunk, in Old Norse

Ealdormen—chief magistrates, or king’s deputies, in Anglo-Saxon England. Later referred to as earls. Appointed by the king; most often were noblemen.

ell—a linear measure, usually of cloth, equal to 45 inches.

encaustum—tenth-century type of ink made by crushing the galls from an oak tree (boil-like pimples on the bark), which contain an acid. Mixed with vinegar or rainwater, the substance was thickened with gum arabic. Iron salts added color to the ink.

Eoforwic—Roman (and later Saxon) name for early York.

fillet—band worn around the head.

hand—a measure equal to 4 inches.

handfast—betrothal sealed by joining hands in order to cohabitate before actual marriage.

hauberk—a long defensive shirt or coat, usually made of chain links or leather.

hectare—a unit of land measure equal to 2.471 acres.

hersir—military commander.

hide—a primitive measure of land that originally equaled the normal holding that would support a peasant and his family, roughly 120 arable acres, but could actually be as little as 40.

hird—a permanent troop that a chieftain or nobleman might have.

hirdsman—one of the hird.

housecarls—troops assigned to a king’s or lord’s household on a long-term, sometimes permanent basis.

Jorvik—Viking-age York, known by the Saxons as Eoforwic.

mancus—a weight of gold of about 70 grains, or equal to six shillings or thirty pennies/pence (one shilling = five pennies). A pound then and now equaled 240 pence. The Anglo-Saxon pence was made of silver and had high purchasing power. For example, thirty pence could buy an ox; four or five pence, a sheep.

Norsemandy—tenth-century name for Normandy.

Northumbria—one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, bordered by the English kingdoms to the south and in the north and northwest by the Scots, Cumbrians, and Strathclyde Welsh.

Odal rights—laws of heredity.

pace—a measure equal to 2.5 feet.

scutage—a sum paid to an overlord in lieu of military service.

seneschal—an agent or steward.

sennight—one week.

skald—poet.

skyr—a Norse cheese similar to cottage cheese.

steward—a man responsible for day-to-day running of the castle or keep.

sulung—the area that could be kept under cultivation by a single plough team of eight oxen, equal to two hides.

thane—a member of the noble class below earls but above freemen. Usually a landowner.

thrall—slave.

tun—252 gallons, as of ale.

vassal—a freeman who owns land.

wattle and daub—an early method of building.

wergild—a man’s worth.

Witan (or Witenagemot)—a king’s advisory council, made up of nobles and ecclesiatics.