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Early historic period - the Vikings c.1600 – 950 years ago
The other evidence of Scandinavian presence comes – surprisingly – right at the very end of this period. In fact it may more correctly belong to the subsequent period of Norman church construction; but is included here for a specific reason. In 1902 an unusual semi-circular stone bearing a crude depiction of an angel and an inscription was found built into a farm outbuilding near Pennington. Its date is often given as 12th century due to Norman decorative features at its base, and it ended up over an outhouse door presumably because it was discarded during the ‘restoration’ of the nearby Church of St Michael and The Holy Angels in 1826. This stone turned out to be a tympanum; a specifically cut feature designed to fill the gap between the top of a church door and the arch above it. One reading of the Pennington tympanum inscription gives us; ‘KML : ET : ThES : KIRK : HUBIRT : MASUN : UAN : M’, i.e: ‘Gamal [ ] this church. Hubert the mason carved…’ (although some letters in the first and second words of the inscription have been lost, thus making these elements hard to read). We are drawn to this stone because its inscription is not quite in English, but a mixture of English and Old Norse runes. It shows that the Old Norse language had threaded into Old or Middle English in this beautiful rural parish where Low Furness runs into the moors of its counterpart; although scholarly opinion is divided over which was the more influential language, or which the more corrupt in its inscribed form. The Vikings had a lasting influence way beyond the stereotype of their seafaring, trading and raiding days. * Click here to download a summary of all the history of Low Furness |
For
many people the true villains of this ‘dark’ age were
the Vikings; and we are fortunate in Low Furness to have evidence
for both warlike and peaceable Scandinavian activity. Whilst digging
a grave in the churchyard at Rampside in 1909, the pommel, grip,
guard and 40cm of the blade of a Viking sword were unearthed. Visitors
to the churchyard today will see how windswept and (apparently)
isolated this place is – yet with excellent views out over
the coast of south-eastern Furness. This surely gives us the main
reason why an important Viking was buried here over one thousand
years ago. 