A version of the same place-name is found on the Isle of Man in Tynwald where the legal, political, and cultural functions are still evident. The Isle of Man is an interesting example in contrast with north-west England (Fell et al. 1983; Wilson 2008). It, too, had a major influx of Scandinavian settlers, but into a community where a Celtic language rather than English was spoken. There is contemporary evidence for the use of the Old Norse language in the form of runic memorials. The memorials also provide important evidence for the maintenance of cultural traditions in the diasporic community.
The Isle of Man has some 30 carved stones with crosses, both abstract and figural decorations, and runic inscriptions. It also has a number of other stones with crosses and decoration but without runes. These date on the whole to the 10th century. The runic inscriptions are very important for our understanding of the use of Old Norse then as they represent a cultural phenomenon imported from Norway. Runes constitute an alphabet used for inscriptions but not books. Runes were the only forms of literacy in Scandinavia during the Viking Age. Inscriptions in this alphabet are very important contemporary records of the language of that period. There are many interesting aspects of the Manx inscriptions but the focus here will be on what they reveal about language and gender.
The inscriptions are memorial texts on monuments erected by family members to commemorate their dead. Both men and women are commemorated, and the inscriptions mention one or more members of the family commemorating them. Both the runes and the language of the inscriptions are Scandinavian, but they show signs of contact with Celtic. First, the forms of the monuments (most of which are crosses) and some of their decoration are obviously insular. Second, a number of the names in the inscriptions are Celtic. Third, some of the inscriptions contain grammatical mistakes that suggest that some of the users of Old Norse either had another first language or that the Norse language in the Isle of Man had developed certain peculiarities that differentiated it from the language of the Norwegian homeland— peculiarities that may have arisen in a bilingual context.
The range of possibilities is revealed in the contrast between two inscriptions, one from Andreas and one from Kirk Michael.* In the inscription on Andreas II (‘Sandulf the Black raised this cross in memory of his wife Arinbjorg’), both personal names are Old Norse and there are no grammatical errors. This
Translations of these two inscriptions are my own. The inscriptions have not yet been given a full scholarly edition, but provisional texts and linguistic discussion can be found in Page 1983. A number of the monuments are depicted in Fell et al. (1983) and Wilson (2008).
FIGURE 3.1 Part of the runic inscription on the Kirk Michael III cross, Isle of Man (MM 130) showing the name ‘Malmury.’ (Copyright Judith Jesch.)
Suggests an emigrant family of Norse speakers and probable Norwegian origin on both sides. The Kirk Michael III inscription, by contrast, is linguistically more complex (‘Mallymkun [?] raised this cross in memory of Malmury [?], his foster mother (?), daughter of Dufgal [and] the wife to whom Adisl was married. It is better to leave a good foster son than a bad son.’); see Figure 3.1.
Despite some uncertainties in reading this inscription, it is clear that three of the four names are Celtic, yet the text is still in the Old Norse language, albeit with some grammatical peculiarities, and in Scandinavian runes. The people mentioned are a woman with a Celtic name, her father with a Celtic name, her husband with a Norse name, and her foster son with a Celtic name. If it were the husband commemorating his wife, as in the example from Andreas, then it would be no surprise that the inscription is in Old Norse, as he would have decided this matter. But the commissioner of the monument in this case is the foster son with a Celtic name. Did he choose Norse in honour of the language spoken by his adoptive family or because it was the only option for this kind of monument? Did he even speak or understand Old Norse? Are at least some of these people in fact Norse speakers who adopted new fashionable names from their Celtic environment?
The latter seems less likely because both the names and the bad grammar of the inscription are more suggestive of a mixed family. Despite this, the family chose to continue cultural traditions from the Scandinavian homeland. The social custom of fostering someone else’s child was very strong in the Viking world, and of course both the erection of a stone monument and the use of runes conform to longstanding Scandinavian traditions. Another cultural tradition from the homelands maintained by the dia-sporic community on the Isle of Man is that of telling old stories of gods and heroes. Several of the carved stones of the island are decorated with motifs that correspond to legends and stories that were written down much later, in medieval Iceland. One of these is about a hero known as Sigurd Fafnisbani.* The story involves a great treasure guarded by a serpent, Fafnir. The serpent’s brother is a blacksmith who feels that the treasure should be his. He persuades the young hero Sigurd to try to kill Fafnir on his behalf, and provides Sigurd with a sword to kill Fafnir. Sigurd does indeed kill the serpent and get the treasure, without at first realising that the smith hopes to kill him and claim the treasure.
Luckily, in his moment of victory, Sigurd roasts the heart of the serpent on a fire. Before eating it, he tests it with his thumb to see if it is done, burns his thumb slightly and therefore licks it. As a result of tasting the serpent’s blood, he can understand the speech of birds, and hears from two birds in a tree that the smith intends to kill him. Sigurd acts first, kills the smith, and takes the treasure away on the back of his faithful horse Grani. This story is widespread in the Viking world and Wagner fans will recognise a version of it from his Ring cycle of operas. The story was very popular in both England and the Isle of Man in the Viking Age, and allusions to it are found on a large number of sculptures (Margeson 1980).
The story is succinctly told in Faulkes (1987, pp. 99-102).
FIGURE 3.2 Face C of the Halton 1 cross, Lancashire, showing scenes from the story of Sigurd Fafnisbani. (Photograph courtesy of Ross Trench-Jellicoe.)
FIGURE 3.3 Face D of the Halton 1 cross, Lancashire, showing scenes from the story of Sigurd Fafnisbani. (Photograph courtesy of Ross Trench-Jellicoe.)
One of these sculptures is found at Halton, near Lancaster (Bailey 2010, pp. 177-183). Two panels of this cross are shown in Figures 3.2 and 3.3. The panels show clearly identifiable scenes from this story: the smith forging the sword for Sigurd, with all his tools around him, the serpent looking a little bit dead, Sigurd roasting the heart of the dragon on a spit and putting his thumb in his mouth, above him two birds sitting on some branches, and finally Sigurd’s horse Grani. This sculpture actually includes all the main elements of the story as we know it from Old Icelandic literature, demonstrating the diasporic connections between the homeland and two areas of migration, the Irish Sea region and Iceland, across several centuries.
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