It is remarkable that the site of this great battle, the effects of
which were so important to the Anglo-Saxon power, remains to this day
undetermined.
The several chroniclers who describe it give various names to the
locality, though modern authors generally adopt the name of Brunanburgh
or "Town of the Fountains." Not however to insist on such variations in
the name as Brunandune, Bruneberik, Bruneford, and Brumby, Simeon of
Durham describes the battle as occurring at a place named Wendune,
otherwise Weondune, to which moreover he assigns the further name of
Ethrunnanwerch. The locality has been sought for in most improbable
places,--in Northumberland and Cheshire. There can, however, be little
or no doubt that this Waterloo of the Anglo-Saxons, as it has been
called, is really to be found in the immediate neighbourhood of the
Humber; though, whether on the northern or southern bank of that river
seems quite uncertain: so far at least as the evidence hitherto adduced
affords us the means of judging. In the Winchester volume of the British
Archæological Association, MR. HESLEDEN states his belief that he has
traced the site of this battle on the south of the Humber, near Barton
in Lincolnshire; but the evidence on which he grounds this opinion,
whilst demanding for this locality further consideration, seems to me
far from conclusive. MR. HESLEDEN describes some curious earth-works in
this situation, and thinks he has discovered the site of Anlaff's camp
at Barrow, and that of Athelstan at Burnham (formerly, as he informs us,
written "Brunnum"), where is an eminence called "Black Hold," which he
thinks was the actual seat of the battle. At Barrow are places called
"_Barrow Bogs_" and "_Blow Wells_." Does MR. HESLEDEN think we have here
any reference to the "fountains" giving their name to Brunanburgh?
It is very desirable, in a topographical and historical point of view,
that the site of this remarkable contest between the Anglo-Saxons and
the allied Scandinavians and British _reguli_ under Anlaff, should be
determined on satisfactory data; and the allusion to it by MR. HESLEDEN,
in a recent communication to "NOTES AND QUERIES" (Vol. iv., p. 180.),
induces me to call the attention of your readers, and of that gentleman
in particular, to some mention of this battle, topographically not
unimportant, which is to be found in Egil's _Saga_; the hero of which
was himself a combatant at Brunanburgh, under the standard of Athelstan,
and which appears to have escaped the observation of those who have
discussed the probable site of this deadly encounter. The circumstantial
account to be found in the _Saga_, chap. lii. and liii., has not been
overlooked by Sharon Turner, who however does not quote the passages
having a special topographical interest. It is remarkable that the name
of Wendune, for which among Anglo-Saxon writers there appears the single
authority of Simeon of Durham, is confirmed by the testimony of the
_Saga_: at least there can be little doubt, that the _Vinheida_ of the
_Saga_ is but a Norse form for the Wendun or Weondune of the Anglo-Saxon
chronicler. The natural and other features of the locality are not
neglected by the author of the _Saga_, who describes it as a wild and
uncultivated spot, surrounded by woods, having the town of _Vinheida_
not far distant on the north. These particulars I take from the Latin of
the _Saga_; but the reader of the Icelandic would possibly find more
minute characteristics, which may have been lost in the process of
translation. As, by his residence in the neighbourhood, MR. HESLEDEN is
favourably situated for the further prosecution of this inquiry, I
should be glad to find whether his conclusion as to the site of the
battle received confirmation, or otherwise, from the passages of the
_Saga_ to which I have now ventured to direct attention.
I may here observe, that if we consider the situation of _Jorvik_, or
York, the capital of the then Norse kingdom of Northumbria, we shall
perhaps conclude that it was on the Yorkshire rather than on the
Lincolnshire side of the Humber, that--
"Athelstan, king,
of earls the Lord,
of heroes the bracelet-giver,
And his brother eke,
Edmund etheling,
life-long-glory
in battle won
with edges of swords
near Brumby."
This conclusion is to some extent confirmed, when we connect with the
above the tradition or historical fact, whichever we regard it, that it
was after this battle that Athelstan, in redemption of a previous vow,
made various costly offerings on the altar of St. John of Beverley, and
endowed that church with great privileges, the memory of which exists to
the present day. It must however be admitted, that such a presumption is
anything but conclusive in regard to a topographical question of this
description. In conclusion, I would suggest that the Domesday Book for
Yorkshire and Lincolnshire should be carefully examined, in order to
ascertain whether the place in question, under any of the names assigned
to it, is there to be found.