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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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The Great Heathen Army, also referred to as the Great Army, or Great Viking Army, is so called because of its size, some previous Viking incursions are characterised more as coastal raiders, much more hit and sail efforts.
The Army lands in East Anglia in AD 865 (whatever). There the invaders quickly acquired horses, (yikes, it's a bit like the moment the Daleks learnt to fly) transforming it into a highly mobile overland force. The so-called Anglo Saxon kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, and Wessex are portrayed as divided not just between each other but internally within. As we climb through our dark time tunnel, torch in hand, we can see that they need a strong king to unify and protect them (of course) but they need to learn this bitter lesson for the narrative to work. They need the Great Heathen Army to cause Death and Mayhem for the next decade, they need the destruction to reach every corner of this proto England so it can later be unified.
And the Heathen destroyers do just this......
The heathens grab York, in 867, and then they besiege Mercia. The Heathen then head south to take on Wessex. Just when you think this story can't get sorrier or scarier, the Great Heathen Army is reinforced by what the Anglo Saxon Chronicle describes as a ‘summer army’ in 871. It's an even bigger Greater Heathen Army.......!
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I hope it's something more than a spat between Winchester and London as to which was going to be the capital of the newly unified country. Such clement Danes. Or between Canterbury and York as to which was to be the ecclesiastical capital.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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| Hatty wrote: | | In fairness, it is sometimes hard to distinguish between Viking, Saxon and, er, Norman. |
Let's take a look, we go back through the time tunnel, we start off in light and head our way to the darkness, eventually we are engulfed in black. We stumble around unsure of time and space, we come across a heathen boat, it looks remarkably like a craft sailing around the Aegean 2000 years BC, on the craft we find a wooden staff, it contains a script, it looks like Linear B, there are some silver coins on board, along with bars and ingots, the coins have islamic inscriptions on them
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Where was the 'heathen boat' found, Wiles?
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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A Great Heathen Army should have left some archaeological trace. Not much was found until the late '70s and '80s when Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle started excavating in Repton. They discovered a D-shaped enclosure with a V shaped ditch, 4m wide and 4m deep, the enclosure so it is believed reused the Mercian royal shrine of St Wigstan (now the church of St Wystan) as a gatehouse to create a strongly fortified camp.
Picture that: a fortified enclosure with a gatehouse. The gatehouse was once a royal shrine and is now a church. (!)
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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There is a revisionist school of thought that thinks that a Viking leader called Ãmar (or Imhar, pronounced like Ivar), who wreaked havoc across the country and got tangled up in the northern Irish Sea region’s politics from 853 CE until his death in 873 CE, is none other than Ivar the Boneless, the leader of the Great Heathen Army. The evidence in favour of this consists firstly of the similarity of the names; secondly of the fact that Ãmar is not mentioned in the Irish annals between 864-870 CE (so perhaps he was elsewhere – in England?); and thirdly of the fact that after this time, the dynasties of Dublin and of York became closely connected.
There is now an even more revisionist school (Wiley) that believes both Imhar and Ivar are part of the Offa legend.......
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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According to Wiki Ivar the Boneless was written as Hyngwar, in 'Middle English' anyway
| "Hyngwar", Ivar's name as it appears in Harley MS 2278, a fifteenth-century Middle English manuscript. |
Details of his early life "are largely unknown" but there are plenty of (oral) traditions, not written down until much later.
The fifteenth century manuscript, Harley MS 2278, was written for Henry VI according to the British Library
| Commissioned by William Curteys, abbot of the Benedictine abbey of St Edmund, Bury St Edmunds, as a gift for Henry VI: the royal arms in an initial; a portrait of the king; later royal pressmark 'No 467' | |
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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| There is a revisionist school of thought that thinks that a Viking leader called Ãmar (or Imhar, pronounced like Ivar), who wreaked havoc across the country and got tangled up in the northern Irish Sea region’s politics from 853 CE until his death in 873 CE, is none other than Ivar the Boneless, the leader of the Great Heathen Army. |
The source for Ãmar is also a fifteenth century manuscript, the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland, but determining the provenance of fragments is even more iffy than for manuscripts and these 'Fragments' are iffier than most.
According to University College, Cork, the Annals were written by Dubhaltach Mac Fir Bhisigh, a seventeenth-century scribe who, confusingly, appears to have been known by four other names
| Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh, also known as Dubhaltach Óg mac Giolla Ãosa Mór mac Dubhaltach Mór Mac Fhirbhisigh, Duald Mac Firbis, Dudly Ferbisie, and Dualdus Firbissius (fl. 1643 – January 1671) was an Irish scribe, translator, historian and genealogist. Active during the years c.1640 to 1671, he was one of the last traditionally trained Irish Gaelic scholars, and was a member of the Clan MacFhirbhisigh, a leading family of northern Connacht. His best-known work is the Leabhar na nGenealach, which was published in 2004 as The Great Book of Irish Genealogies, more than 300 years after it had been written. |
Imar, it seems, was invented. So, perhaps, was the scribe. Mac Fir Bhisigh's work may be well known but he isn't. Nothing is known either about the history of the Fragmentary Annals or about the history of the scribe said to have written them
| It is ironic that someone who has furnished us with so much information about others has left us very few details about his own life; for example, we know nothing of his personal appearance, his marital status, or, indeed, extensive portions of his life. |
No original manuscript exists.
| Mac Fir Bhisigh copied the text from a vellum MS, now lost, of Giolla na Naomh (alias Nehemias) Mac Aodhagáin, who may have died in 1443. This vellum MS was in poor condition, partly disbound, and illegible in places when Mac Fir Bhisigh copied it. The surviving text contains annals for the years 573–628, 662–704, 716–35, 851–73, 906–14. It may ultimately derive, at least in part, from annals kept at the monastery of Clonenagh. These annals are not known to have survived in any other manuscript. |
They're unique! There is only one copy of the Fragmentary Annals and it isn't in Ireland
Very little is known about the text from which the Fragmentary Annals in Brussels MS 5301–5320 survive. Most of the scanty evidence about the manuscript history of the text is contained in the annals themselves. The Brussels MS is the only copy of the text known to exist.
Its source, according to the headnote and to notes within the text, was a transcription (now lost) made by Dubhaltach Mac Fir Bhisigh in 1643 for Dr. John Lynch, from a vellum manuscript (also now lost) of Giolla na Naemh |
https://celt.ucc.ie//FA_MS.html
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Ubba is another legendary character, who is admitted to the Wiley Rewrite.
Ubba, who might be the brother of Ivar, was another commander of the Great Heathen Army.
Ãmar=Ivar=Ubba=Offa. They just mean Over as in Over Lord or Over King, according to Wiles.
Anyway, during the invasion, after the killing of Edmund, round about 870 (CC) Ivar dies or disappears, the Great Heathen Army splits. Most head back to Mercia Northumbria.....However a new surprise attack is made on the West Saxons 878 by Ubba, However, rather remarkably, against the form book Ubba lost.
Wiki notes:
Firstly, it was an important victory for the English won by someone other than Alfred the Great, the king of Wessex at the time who was spearheading the English resistance to the Viking invasions. The Chronicle, in addressing the year 878, makes the claim that "all but Alfred the King" had been subdued by the Vikings.[5]
Secondly, at the battle of Cynwit, Odda, Ealdorman of Devon and the English forces not only succeeded in killing Ubba,[6] but they also captured the Hrefn, the Raven banner. While the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle only briefly mentions the battle, it does draw attention to the capture of the banner, which is interesting considering that it does not single out any other trophy captured by the English in the many other victories they had against the Danes. |
The battle is quite interesting, the Vikings come along in their boats, the English occupy their hill fort, the Vikings (they obviously knew of Harper's theorem) expect the defenders to run out of water. The English, in a reversal of Hastings, then leave their defences and massacre the Vikings and kill Ubba.....
So the victors were led by an Earl called Odda. It is very Odda.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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The name of Ubba is first recorded in a 12th century manuscript, The Passion of King Edmund, though according to Wiki Edmund's reign is untestified
| The earliest source to make specific note of Ubba is Passio sancti Eadmundi, which includes him in its account of the downfall of Edmund, King of East Anglia (died 869). Almost nothing is known of this king's career, and all that remains of his reign are a few coins. |
The manuscript, held by the British Library, includes The Life of St Neot and Bede's History of the English Peoples but the BL itself is uncertain about the authorship
| The manuscript, for example, may have been written by Norman monks who came to the Benedictine abbey of St Neots in the 12th century. |
The mansucript's provenance is surprisingly late
| Provenance:An unidentified ?19th-century owner: inscribed with his or her note: 'No.32' (inside upper board). Guglielmo Libri (b. 1803, d. 1869), Italian count, mathematician, and book collector: his sale at Sotheby's, London, 28 March 1859, lot 140 | |
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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| British Library wrote: | | Guglielmo Libri (b. 1803, d. 1869), Italian count, mathematician, and book collector: his sale at Sotheby's, London, 28 March 1859, lot 140 |
That would be the Libri (= books!) who "is thought to have stolen more than 30,000 books, manuscripts and letters". Libri used Parisian forgers to create bindings for the purloined books and manuscripts in his collection while he himself erased or forged their provenances (typically monastic).
| The notorious 19th century thief Guglielmo Libri, who stole tens of thousands of historic books, manuscripts and letters, many of which have never been found |
He was a nobleman and academic, professor of physics and mathematics, a respectable but perhaps not sufficiently lucrative career to support an aristocratic life style
His interest in manuscripts developed as a corollary of genuine scientific pursuits, but he also had an eye for the commercial value of the original documents he discovered and studied.
As the man responsible for cataloguing valuable books and precious manuscripts across the whole of France, Libri had privileged access to the official archives of many cities and was able to spend many hours in dusty vaults completely unhindered and unsupervised. ... it was not until 1848 that a warrant was issued in France for his arrest. Tipped off, Libri had already fled to London, taking with him about 18 trunks containing more than 30,000 documents. |
Libri had a friend, Antonio Panizzi, who'd trained as a lawyer at the University of Parma but whose membership of a subversive anti-Austrian society had made him choose exile in England where, thanks to letters of introduction from a like-minded Italian refugee in London, Ugo Foscolo, he gained useful contacts. Antonio Panizzi was appointed Extra-Assistant Librarian at the British Museum and would become Keeper of Printed Books, and Principal Librarian, of the British Museum from 1856 to 1866.
Panizzi and Sir Frederick Madden, Keeper of Manuscripts, had a mission to make the British Museum's library the best in the world and wanted the Museum to buy Libri's books for £10,000 despite the absence of documentation regarding provenances. Libri sent descriptions of his collection to the British Museum via the French diplomatic courier but no original listing of the manuscripts, stolen or otherwise, has survived; it is likely, though impossible to prove, that Madden and/or Panizzi had a hand in the 'catalogues'. The Trustees rejected the Keepers' advice and Libri sold his collection to Lord Ashburnham instead for £8,000
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Both the British Museum and (I think) Hatty has missed the true scale of what's going on. Consider the significance of this throwaway phrase
| Libri used Parisian forgers to create bindings for the purloined books and manuscripts in his collection | |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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No resonance there then.
Let's try a different tack. You are a chief librarian in France. You discover that a few of your more precious items have gone missing. This is puzzling since, as they are rare (and valuable) they are kept in a reasonably secure place and can't be walked off with by anybody short of a break-in. There has been no break-in. Could be an inside job except they are not that valuable. Not really worth anyone putting their job on the line and being a prime suspect over. That leaves professional researchers who are pretty rare themselves. In fact there's only been one in the last year. What was his name...
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Libri was made Chief Inspector of French Libraries, due, according to Wiki, to "his friendship with influential French Chief of Police, François Guizot".
He had eight uninterrupted years of access to French libraries before charges were brought but whether Libri's cache of 30,000 manuscripts and books were all stolen or his own creations isn't clear.
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