Anlaf Guthfrithsson, The Battle of Brunanburh, and a celebrated Viking Penny

Anlaf (Olaf) Guthfrithsson is mainly known for his rule of the Dublin Vikings (934-939), his role in the Battle of Brunanburh (937), and also for an iconic silver penny issued in York in about 939-941 (shown below). The image is widely used to represent the Vikings, including in the 2025 "Vikings in the North" exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum in York.




Anlaf (Olaf) Guthfrithsson was the son of Gofraid ua Ímair (Guthfrith) and great-grandson of Ímar (Ivar), making him one of the Uí Ímair. Olaf succeeded his father as King of Hiberno-Scandinavian (Irish-Viking) Dubliners in 934 and established dominance over the Vikings of Limerick, capturing their king, Amlaíb Cenncairech, in 937. That same year he allied with Constantine II of Scotland in an attempt to reclaim the Kingdom of Northumbria which his father had ruled briefly in 927. The forces of Olaf and Constantine were defeated by the English led by Æthelstan at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937, after which Anlaf retired to Ireland.

Following Æthelstan's death in 939, Olaf established himself as king in York, with his brother Blácaire mac Gofraid being left to rule in Dublin. Olaf and Æthelstan's successor Eadmund (18 years old at the time) met in 939 at Leicester where they reached an agreement on the division of England between them. Within a few years, Vikings had reoccupied the Five Boroughs of Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford. Olaf died in 941 and was succeeded in Northumbria by his cousin Olaf Cuaran (Anlaf Sihtricsson). At the time of his death, the Irish annals give him the title "king of Danes" and "king of the Fair Foreigners and the Dark Foreigners"

According to the Chronicle of 957 (chronicle of Northumbria and the Kingdom of York) for the year 941, Anlaf was active in the northern border region of Northumbria before his death:

"Onlaf, uastata ecclesia Sancti Balteri et incensa Tiningaham, mox periit. Unde Eboracenses Lindisfarnensem insulam depopulati sunt, et multos occiderunt. Filius uero Sihtrici, nomine Onlaf, regnauit super Northanhymrbos."

"Olaf, having laid waste the church of Saint Balthere and having burned Tyningham [East Lothian, Scotland today], soon afterwards perished. Whence the Yorkmen depopulated the island of Lindisfarne, and many died. The son of Sigtrygg, Olaf by name, reigned over the Northumbrians."

Shortly after the death of Olaf, Eadmund with a large army attacked and re-conquered the "Five Burhs." The Winchester version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recounts how Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Stamford and Derby were released by "the off-spring of Eadweard, Eadmund the King."

During his time at York, King Olaf issued a remarkable and original coin design, now commonly considered the most iconic of Viking coins.


A remarkable and Iconic Viking Coin of York

The entirely original obverse design of Anlaf's York penny has been thought to show a raven, a favourite Viking symbol which also appeared on a war-banner captured from the Danish raiders in 878 at the Battle of Edington (Ethandun). The regal title takes the form "Cununc" (Old Norse Konungr). The reverse, in contrast, is a close copy of contemporary English coins of Eadmund. Coins of typically English types were produced for Anlaf in the "Five Burhs" area, where one at least of Æthelstan's moneyers continued to work for the Viking leader.

The symbol could refer to the raven as a symbol of the king-god Odin, who often appears accompanied by two ravens in both texts and iconography. Naismith (2017, p. 299) points out that this bird in late Anglo-Saxon England also came to symbolise St Oswald, one of the paramount Anglo-Saxon warrior-king saints (Damon 2003, p. 42–56). The curvature of the beak could perhaps also be consistent with that of an eagle. The ambiguity of the meanings attributed to the image could have been conscious, satisfying both Christians and pagans, much as seems to be the case for the earlier St Peter coinage of York with its depictions of Thor's hammer.


 A 'raven' penny of Anlaf of York. The obverse reads "ANLAFCUNUNC7", the last letter being the "et" Tironian note (symbol for the conjunction "and"), perhaps simply used as a space filler here. The reverse reads "+AĐELFERDMINETREΓ", naming the moneyer AĐELFERD. This is one of more than 37 such coins known (Burström 2020), four of which have been found in Scandinavia.


A silver penny of Eadmund (939-946) for comparison with the reverse of Anlaf's York penny. North-western mints, Othelrices moneyer.

A similar flair for pictorial designs on pennies was later displayed on the Scandinavian coinage of Harthacnut, last House of Denmark king of England (1040-1042). Two illustrations of this can be seen below, one showing a triquetra from the Roskilde mint and the other a serpent on a coin from the Lund mint (both with a few typical peckmarks).







These Viking coin designs make a fascinating contrast with the largely standardised Anglo-Saxon coinage of the time.


References

Blunt, C. E. 1974. The coinage of Athelstan, 924-939: a survey, ‘British Numismatic Journal’, xlii, 35-138.

Burström, N.M. 2020. A Treasured Persona: Re-Interpreting the Eketorp Precious Metal Deposition. 

Damon, J.E. 2003. Soldier Saints and Holy Warriors: Warfare and Sanctity in the Literature of Early England. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Dolley, M. (1957): A note on the date of the so-called “Raven” pence of Anlaf Guthfrithsson, ‘Spink’s Numismatic Circular’ (May 1957), 189-94.

Dolley, M. (1958): The post-Brunanburh Viking coinage of York, ‘Nordisk Numismatisk Årsskrift’ 1957-8, esp. 67-75

Dolley, M. (1978a): The Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Norse coinages of York, in Hall, R. S. (ed.) (1978): ‘Viking Age York and the North’ (Council for British Archaeology Research Report, 27), London, 28.

Naismith, R. 2017. Medieval European Coinage, with a Catalogue of the Coins in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Volume 8, Britain and Ireland c. 400–1066. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.




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