Olaf Haraldsson, the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and a Norse Penny in North America

Contemplating a Norwegian silver penny of Olaf Haraldsson (king of Norway 1067-1093, also known as Olav Kyrre), some vivid associations came to mind. The first was the 1066 Battle of Stamford Bridge near York and the end of the Viking Age (Olaf was there). The second was the presence of another silver penny of Olaf Haraldsson at a Native American archaeological site in Maine, USA.  Then there is the larger context of Norse colonies on Greenland and the voyages to the coast of eastern North America from around a thousand years ago to the 14th century. And finally, the medieval runestones and buildings encountered during a spell living in Stavanger at the end of the 1990s. Stavanger's cathedral is Norway's oldest, begun shortly after the death of Olaf (and there's also an Olav Kyrres Gate in Stavanger).

A handsome 11th century penny of Olaf Haraldsson (Olav Kyrre), in as-struck condition (author's collection). This is close to TabIII:19 in Schive (1865) and Plate I:11 in Stenersen (1881). It is very probably from the Græslid hoard, found in the autumn of 1878.

Stenersen (1881), Plate 1:11, his type C penny from the Græslid hoard

Olaf Haraldsson and the Battle of Stamford Bridge

Olaf Haraldsson accompanied his father, Harald Hardrada, in the attempted conquest of England in 1066. During the Battle of Stamford Bridge (in Yorkshire), on Monday 25th September, Olaf, age 16,  had remained guarding the ships at Riccall to the south of York. He later sailed back to Norway with the remnants of the Norse army after their devastating defeat and the death of Harald Hardrada. Manuscript 'D' of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives the following account of the aftermath of the battle:

"There was killed Harold Fairhair (Hardrada) and Earl Tosti, and the Norwegians who survived took to flight; and the English attacked them fiercely as they pursued them until some got to the ships. Some were drowned, and some burned, and some destroyed in various ways so that few survived and the English remained in command of the field. The king gave quarter to Olaf, son of the Norse king, and their bishop and the earl of Orkney and all those who survived on the ships, and they went up to our king and swore oaths that they would always keep peace and friendship with this country; and the king let them go home with twenty-four ships."

The monument to the battle at Stamford Bridge

To the east of Riccall, an area known as "Dane's Hills" on what is now Skipwith Common was once by local tradition thought to mark the place where the defeated Norwegian forces buried their dead. However, as John Phillips noted in 1853, "On Skipwith Common are many tumuli, old banks, and the slightly-marked foundations of ancient (turf or log?) houses or wigwams. These, by some error of tradition, are called 'Danes' Hills, but, on opening the tumuli, no confirmation of so modern a date appeared. The tumuli are set in square fossae ; the sides of the fossae range north and south and east and west ... Burnt ashes and bones occur in the mounds; facts which suffice to overthrow the supposition of these hills being funeral heaps of the Danes of the 11th century, for they then buried their dead. No instruments of metal, bone, or stone, or pottery were found."

An evening view of Skipwith Common to the east of Riccall where the Norse ships were moored in 1066

During his reign, King Olaf focussed on avoiding conflict, making peace with both Svend Estridsson in Denmark and William the Conquerer in England. An unusually peaceful quarter of a century resulted. Perhaps the magnitude of the defeat at Stamford Bridge had cured him of any appetite for war. He also ended earlier royal conflicts with the church, strengthened the power of the monarchy, and is said to have founded the city of Bergen in about 1070. 

Snorri Sturluson's "Saga of Olaf Kyrre" in the Heimskringla (c. 1225) provides the following descriptions:

"Olaf was a stout man, well grown in limbs; and every one said a handsomer man could not be seen, nor of a nobler appearance."

"His hair was yellow as silk, and became him well; his skin was white and fine over all his body; his eyes beautiful, and his limbs well proportioned. He was rather silent in general, and did not speak much even at Things; but he was merry in drinking parties. He loved drinking much, and was talkative enough then; but quite peaceful."

"He was cheerful in conversation, peacefully inclined during all his reign, and loving gentleness and moderation in all things."

In addition, the Morkinskinna (c. 1220) describes Olaf III as follows:

"He had blond hair, a light complexion, and pleasing eyes, and he was well proportioned. He was taciturn for the most part, and not much of a speechmaker, though he was good company after drink."

The Maine penny

A single specimen of a Norse coin from the 11th century has been discovered in an archaeological context in North America. This was initially thought to have been a later English penny (Farmer 1978), but was subsequently recognised as a silver penny of Olaf Haraldsson (Olav Kyrre). Careful consideration of the numismatic evidence led Gullbekk (2017) to argue convincingly against the likelihood of the find being an elaborate hoax. 

An amateur archaeologist called Guy Mellgren reported that he found the coin on the 18th of August 1957 at an ancient Native American site on Naskeag Point near Blue Hill Bay, Brooklin, Hancock County, Maine, USA. This locality is also known as the Goddard site after the owner of the land. The penny is a unique variant as yet unknown from other sources (Stenersen’s 1881 class N with elements of classes V, X, and Y, see Skaare 1979, 1995) in a very poor state of preservation. Gullbekk (2017) established that the coin did not come from the sales of duplicates conducted by the University of Oslo in the late 19th century and was not connected with any of the registered finds made outside Norway. 

After the early 1960s, the presence of Norse people on the northeastern coast of mainland North America was no longer controversial, with archaeological evidence corroborating the presence of a base at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. Gullbekk (2017) concluded with, 

"That a Norse coin ended up in a Native American camp, a few hundred miles south of what is understood to have been the main Norse settlement, could be explained in numerous ways. To argue that coins were used as a means of exchange among the small Norse community in America is questionable. However, given that over a period of more than a century, contact was maintained between Norse and Native American peoples, it is plausible to imagine that, at times, people carried coins as part of their belongings. ... Coins may very well have followed settlers sailing to Vinland and been dispersed during contact with the native population and later lost or offered. That one such coin was found in America, beyond what is known of the geography of the Norse medieval communities, cannot simply be ruled out as a hoax."

A prime reason for such continued contact, even if occasional, would have been the need to procure timber for use in the Greenland settlements (Pinta 2018, Guðmundsdóttir 2021). The Icelandic Skálholt annals record that in 1347, a ship arrived from Greenland that had drifted off course while sailing to Markland (Labrador) for wood. This is the last known reference to the Americas before the voyages of Columbus and it indicates that the Greenlanders continued to use Markland as a timber source for several centuries.

Long-distance trade to the Goddard site in Maine is consistent with the diversity of Native American materials found there, representing sources "from the eastern Great Lakes up to Labrador" (in common with the much earlier Poverty Point Culture further south in Louisiana).

Google Earth image showing the sites of Brattahlíð in the Norse Eastern Settlement on Greenland; the L'Anse aux Meadows occupation site at the northern tip of Newfoundland; and the Naskeag Point findspot of the Olaf Haraldsson 11th century Norse penny.

Photographs of the Maine Penny showing poor preservation, but clearly visible highly stylised bust left on obverse, and cross on reverse. From Gullbekk (2017).

Type N Olaf Haraldsson penny (lower image, number 31) in Schive (1865)

L'Anse aux Meadows and the Norse presence in North America

I visited the one confirmed site of Norse occupation in North America at the northern point of Newfoundland, L'Anse aux Meadows, on the 27th August 2014. Several of the low coastal hillsides were spectacularly covered with carpets of red berries, evocative of Tyrker's happy discovery of "wine-berries" in the Greenland Saga. On a walk, I came across a wandering moose on boggy ground between rocky hills. The turf foundations of the Norse buildings reminded me of a late 9th century longhouse I had helped excavate as a teenager in North Yorkshire. Dates for the occupation of the site have been provided by analysis of tree rings in worked timber. 

a local moose near L'Anse aux Meadows

The hillsides are covered in a spectacular abundance of berries.

Remains of turf buildings at L'Anse aux Meadows

L'Anse aux Meadows Viking site, Hall F, with Great Sacred Island in the distance

Wallace (2019) wrote the following on L'Anse aux Meadows: 

"It is the Straumfjord of Eric's Saga. It is the same kind of settlement, with the same kind of occupants and type of activities, a winter base from where expeditions went south in the summer. Although artifacts and buildings are typically Norse, the layout, location, and artifacts are different from the sites we know elsewhere in the Norse world. Just such a site is described in the sagas: Straumsfjord." 

Norse Greenland

According to the Greenland Saga, after Erik the Red was outlawed from Iceland, "Erik told them that he intended to go in search of the land, which Ulf Krage's son Gunnbjorn saw, when he was driven out to the westward in the sea, the time when he found the rocks of Gunnbjorn. He said he would come back to his friends if he found the land. Erik sailed out from Snæfellsjokul; he found land, and came in from the sea to the place which he called Midjokul; it is now named Blaserkr. He then went southwards to see whether there was habitable land. The first winter he was at Eriksey, nearly in the middle of the eastern settlement; the spring after he repaired to Eriksfjord, and took up there his abode. He removed in summer to the western settlement, and gave many places names. He was the second winter at Holm in Hrafnsgnipa, but the third summer went he to Iceland, and came with his ship into Breidafjord. He called the land which he had found Greenland, because, quoth he, 'people will be attracted thither, if the land has a good name.' Erik was in Iceland for the winter, but the summer after, went he to colonize the land; he dwelt at Brattahlid in Eriksfjord. Informed people say that the same summer Erik the Red went to colonize Greenland, thirty-five ships sailed from Breidafjord and Borgafjord, but only fourteen arrived; some were driven back, and others were lost. This was fifteen winters before Christianity was established by law in Iceland." 

I visited the Norse sites of the Greenland Eastern Settlement in June 2023, focussing on Garðar (Igaliku), Narsaq and Brattahlíð (Qassiarsuk).

 

Statue of Leif Erikson at Qassiarsuk (Brattahlíð)

 

Church foundations at Brattahlíð 

Reconstruction of Tjodhilde's church at at Brattahlíð 

According to Guðmundsdóttir (2023), "The native trees of Greenland are unsuitable for larger construction projects or shipbuilding. Instead, the Norse colonists (AD 985–1450) relied on driftwood and imported timber. " Microscopic anatomical analyses to determine the taxa and provenance of wood from five Norse Greenlandic sites showed "that while the needs of most households were met by local woodlands and driftwood, elite farms had access to timber imports from Northern Europe and North America."

In conclusion

The Olaf Haraldsson penny is only a small piece of silver, but so very resonant of the late Viking Age. The Battle of Stamford Bridge, at which Olaf was a 16 year old, marks a time of endings (the Viking and Anglo-Saxon ages), and a time of beginnings (the High Middle Ages). The establishment of the Greenland settlements and the use of natural resources from Labrador and Newfoundland speak of the Norse energy to explore and adapt. The Maine penny is also strongly suggestive of Native American long-distance trade networks with occasional interaction with Greenland Norse groups visiting Labrador for wood between the 11th and 14th centuries. All of this is made more vivid for me by my personal experiences of visiting the Viking Age sites in Yorkshire, Greenland and Newfoundland.  

References

Andersson, T. M. and Gade. K. E. (trs.). Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings. 2000

Farmer, B.E. 1978. Were the English the first to discoverAmerica? Maine Archaeological Society Bulletin18:41–47

Guðmundsdóttir, 2023. Timber imports to Norse Greenland: lifeline or luxury? Antiquity, 97(392):454-471

Gullbekk, S.H., 2017. The Norse Penny Reconsidered: The Goddard Coin—Hoax or Genuine? Journal of the North Atlantic, No. 33:1–8 

Phillips, J. 1853, the Rivers, Mountains, and Sea-coast of Yorkshire. John Murray, London 

Elie Pinta (2018): Norse Management of Wooden Resources across the NorthAtlantic: Highlights from the Norse Greenlandic Settlements, Environmental Archaeology, DOI:10.1080/14614103.2018.1547510To 

Schive, C.A. 1865. Norges Mynter i Middelalderen. H. Tønsberg, Christiania, Norway.

Skaare, K. 1976. Coins and Coinage in Viking Age Norway. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo–Bergen–Tromsö,

Norway.

Skaare, K. 1979. En norsk penning fra 11. årh. funnet på kysten av Maine, USA. (An 11th-century Norwegian penny found on the coast of Maine). NNF-Nytt 2:4–17.

Skaare, K. 1981. Coins and coinage in Viking-Age Trondheim. Pp. 479–486, In M.A.S. Blackburn and D.M. Metcalf (Eds.). Viking-Age Coinage in the Northern Lands. The Sixth Oxford Symposium on Coinage and Monetary History. BAR 122:ii, Oxford, UK.

Skaare, K. 1995. Norges Mynthistorie, Mynter og utmyntning i 1000 år, pengesedler i 300 år, numismatikk i Norge. I–II. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, Norway. 347

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Stenersen, L.B. 1881. Myntfundet fra Græslid i Thydalen. Festprogram i anledning af Deres Kongelige Høiheder Kronprins Oscar Gustav Adolphs og Kronprinsesse Sophie Marie Victorias Formæling den 20 de September, Christiania, Norway. 75 pp.