spelling is cited in either the Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names or the newer Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names for the years nearest or contained within Alfred’s reign, AD 871–899, but even that solution is not foolproof. Hayling Island, in 956, was written as both Heilincigae and Hæglingaiggæ. Nor have I been consistent myself; I have preferred the modern form Northumbria to Nor hymbralond to avoid the suggestion that the boundaries of the ancient kingdom coincide with those of the modern county. So this list, like the spellings themselves, is capricious.
| Æsc’s Hill | Ashdown, Berkshire |
| Æscengum | Eashing, Surrey |
| Æthelingæg | Athelney, Somerset |
| Beamfleot | Benfleet, Essex |
| Bebbanburg | Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland |
| Caninga | Canvey Island, Essex |
| Cent | Kent |
| Defnascir | Devonshire |
| Dumnoc | Dunwich, Suffolk (now mostly vanished beneath the sea) |
| Dunholm | Durham, County Durham |
| East Sexe | Essex |
| Eoferwic | York |
| Ethandun | Edington, Wiltshire |
| Exanceaster | Exeter, Devon |
| Farnea Islands | Farne Islands, Northumberland |
| Fearnhamme | Farnham, Surrey |
| Fughelness | Foulness Island, Essex |
| Grantaceaster | Cambridge, Cambridgeshire |
| Gleawecestre | Gloucester, Gloucestershire |
| Godelmingum | Godalming, Surrey |
| Hæthlegh | Hadleigh, Essex |
| Haithabu | Hedeby, southern Denmark |
| Hocheleia | Hockley, Essex |
| Hothlege | Hadleigh Ray, Essex |
| Humbre | River Humber |
| Hwealf | River Crouch, Essex |
| Lecelad | Lechlade, Gloucestershire |
| Liccelfeld | Lichfield, Staffordshire |
| Lindisfarena | Lindisfarne (Holy Island), Northumberland |
| Lundene | London |
| Sæfern | River Severn |
| Scaepege | Isle of Sheppey, Kent |
| Silcestre | Silchester, Hampshire |
| Sumorsæte | Somerset |
| Suthriganaweorc | Southwark, Greater London |
| Temes | River Thames |
| Thunresleam | Thundersley, Essex |
| Tinan | River Tyne |
| Torneie | Thorney Island, an island that has disappeared – it lay close to the West Drayton station near Heathrow Airport |
| Tuede | River Tweed |
| Uisc | River Exe, Devonshire |
| Wiltunscir | Wiltshire |
| Wintanceaster | Winchester, Hampshire |
| Yppe | Epping, Essex |
| Zegge | Fictional Frisian island |
Not long ago I was in some monastery. I forget where except that it was in the lands that were once Mercia. I was travelling home with a dozen men, it was a wet winter’s day, and all we needed was shelter, food and warmth, but the monks behaved as though a band of Norsemen had arrived at their gate. Uhtred of Bebbanburg was within their walls and such is my reputation that they expected me to start slaughtering them. ‘I just want bread,’ I finally made them understand, ‘cheese if you have it, and some ale.’ I threw money on the hall floor. ‘Bread, cheese, ale, and a warm bed. Nothing more!’
Next morning it was raining like the world was ending and so I waited until the wind and weather had done their worst. I roamed the monastery and eventually found myself in a dank corridor where three miserable-looking monks were copying manuscripts. An older monk, white-haired, sour-faced and resentful, supervised them. He wore a fur stole over his habit, and had a leather quirt with which he doubtless encouraged the industry of the three copyists. ‘They should not be disturbed, lord,’ he dared to chide me. He sat on a stool beside a brazier, the warmth of which did not reach the three scribblers.
‘The latrines haven’t been licked clean,’ I told him, ‘and you look idle.’
So the older monk went quiet and I looked over the shoulders of the ink-stained copyists. One, a slack-faced youth with fat lips and a fatter goitre on his neck, was transcribing a life of Saint Ciaran, which told how a wolf, a badger and a fox had helped build a church in Ireland, and if the young monk believed that nonsense then he was as big a fool as he looked. The second
