212 



near the church of St. Mary Hill, London, in the year 1774,^ 

 contained two York coins of Harol<J II., with the following 

 reverses : — 



1. OUTHBEARN ON EOF 



2. VLFCETEL ON EOFE 



In the preceding lists of the York moneyers of ^thelred, 

 Cnut, Harold I., Edward the Confessor, and Harold II., the 

 letter d is prefixed to the names of those, who, according to 

 M. Worsaae, were persons of Danish-Norwegian origin. Some 

 of these names, he observes, " are so peculiarly Scandinavian 

 that we cannot without diificulty assume them to have been 

 borne at that time by Anglo-Saxons. Such are Othin (A.S. 

 Woden) and Thorr, names that did not sound well in the ears 

 of Christians. Ostman was an appellation commonly given by 

 the inhabitants of the British Isles in those times to the Scan- 

 dinavian tribes that dwelt to the east of them. Names of birds 

 appear to have been often assumed in the old Danish part of 

 England. Thus in York we find a Roefn (Raven), Soefvhel 

 (Sea-fowl), Swan (Swan), and Winterfvgl (Winterfowl). It is 

 remarkable that the names Sumerled and Winterled, answering 

 to those of Sumerfugl and Winterfugl, were also found at that 

 time in York."^ 



We may reasonably suppose that the moneyers or mint- 

 masters of these times were persons of property and intelligence. 

 Those of an inferior class would scarcely have been placed in an 

 office of so much responsibility and importance. The extensive 

 list of their names which we obtain from the coins struck at 

 York during the century preceding the Norman Conquest, if 

 judiciously applied to the illustration of our local nomenclature, 

 may afford valuable assistance in topographical investigations, 

 and may be especially useful in tracing the footsteps of the 

 Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Danish races as they gradually distri- 

 buted themselves among the " shady woods and sunny plains " 

 of antient Northumbria. 



» Archaeologia, Vol. IV. p. 356. « The Danes in England, p. 121. 



