An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and IrelandWorsaae, Jens Jacob Asmussen
History
An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland
Worsaae, Jens Jacob Asmussen
Great Britain -- Civilization -- Scandinavian influences; Northmen -- Great Britain; Northmen -- Ireland
By the kindness of Mr. C. F. Herbst, of Copenhagen, I have been enabled
to give a woodcut of this silver coin, the only one of its kind, and
never before copied. The drawing was made from a cast taken in Dresden.
If the preceding explanation, which is certainly by no means
far-fetched, be the right one, we shall consequently have a proof that
other Scandinavian kings, besides Olaf the White, the first-mentioned in
the Sagas, reigned at a very early period in Dublin, if only for a short
time. But all the rest of the Norwegian coins minted in Ireland are of
the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries. They are of silver, and
undoubtedly coined in various towns of Ireland besides Dublin, as in
Limerick, Cork, Waterford, and several other towns where the Ostmen had
settled.
The most remarkable of all are the Dublin coins, especially those with
the legend “Sihtric rex Dyfl,” or, Sigtryg king of Dublin. It is true
that there were several kings of Dublin of this name in the ninth,
tenth, and eleventh centuries; but the coins alluded to, to judge from
the impressions, all of which are imitations of contemporary Anglo-Saxon
dies, and especially of those of King Ethelred the Second, must for the
most part have belonged to Sigtryg, surnamed “Silkbeard,” who reigned in
Dublin at the close of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh century,
and who was one of those who fought the battle of Clontarf against Brian
Boru. It is very remarkable that on Sigtryg’s coins, as well as on
several of the Danish coins minted in the north of England, we find not
only the Latin title “Rex,” but also the Scandinavian “Cununc” (king),
as, for instance, on the annexed coin (in Mr. C. F. Herbst’s
collection), which has never before been copied:—
[Illustration: [++] Coin: Sigtryg King of Dublin]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland — John Shaqi
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