Locations

A register of historical place names and peoples as they feature in The Song of Hild, their present-day location and/or name, and a brief explanation as necessary.

Aberffraw—the same; royal settlement of the Gwynedd kings, on Anglesey

Ad-Gefrin—Yeavering

Anatolia—Asia Minor

Ancyra—Ankara

Angeln—probably an area of Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) + Southern Jutland (Denmark)

Armorica—Brittany

Bancornaburh—Bangor-is-Coed

Bathum—Bath

Bebbanburh—Bamburgh

Beddcelert—Beddgelert

Benchoer—Bangor

Beodericsworth—Bury St Edmunds

Bernicia—Anglo-Saxon kingdom, covering an area of southern Scotland and northern England; by the later part of the 7th century had joined with Deira to form Northumbria

Britons—the Celtic people inhabiting Great Britain at the time of the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ immigration; according to Bede, the incomers came from three tribes: the Angles (from Angeln), the Saxons (from what is now Lower Saxony, Germany), the Jutes (from Jutland, now part of Denmark)

Burh—Brough, on the Humber estuary

Byzantium—Istanbul

Caer-Segeint—Caernarfon

Cale—Chelles, a monastery near Paris

Cantwaraburh—Canterbury

Carlegion—Chester

Cetreht—Catterick

Cill Dara—Kildare, monastery in Ireland

Clynnog Fawr—the same, no old form found

Colneceaster—Colchester

Coludesburh—Coldingham

Compendium—Compiègne, France

Cornwalum—Cornwall

dale of the trout beck—Troutdale

Dalriada—Gaelic kingdom covering part of western Scotland; originally also covering part of the north of Ireland; immigrants from Ireland were called Scoti/Scotti

Deira—Anglo-Saxon kingdom stretching from the Humber to the River Tees; by the later part of the 7th century had joined with Bernicia to form Northumbria

Deope—River Deben

Deorwent—River Derwent

Dolwyddelan—the same, no old form found

Driffeld—Driffield

Dyfed—petty kingdom in southwest Wales

East Angles / East Anglia—much the same as East Anglians / East Anglia today

East Saxons—lived in an area similar to present-day Essex and Middlesex

Ediscum—Escomb, on the River Wear

Eidor—River Eider

Elge—Ely

Elmet—Brittonic kingdom in the north of England

Eoforwik—York

Esca—River Esk

Francland—Normandy

Glene—River Glen

Godmundingaham—Goodmanham

Gwynedd—petty kingdom in northwest Wales

Hacanos—Hackness

Hæafuddene—Howden

Hæselertun—West Heslerton

Hagustaldesea—Hexham

Heruteu—Hartlepool; stones found with inscriptions using Latin and runic alphabets

Hræfenclif—Ravenscar

Hrofesceaster—Rochester

Hrypum—Ripon

Humbre—River Humber

Hwicce—kingdom and people, east of the lower River Severn

Idle—River Idle

In-Getlingum—Gilling

Iona—small island off the southwest coast of Mull

Irish / Scottish—Gaelic-speakers from Ireland migrated to (present-day) northwest England and western Scotland; during the Roman period, known as Scoti/Scotti; Scotland named after these Irish settlers

Isara—River Aire

Kælcacæstir—possibly Tadcaster

Kent—kingdom in the southeast corner of England; at the time, inhabited by the Jutes: Germanic migrants thought possibly to have come from the Jutland peninsula, which now includes a Danish territory plus German Schleswig-Holstein

Læstingaeu—Lastingham

Legaceaster—Chester

Liccidfeld—Lichfield

Liminiae—Lyminge, Kent

Lindcylene—Lincoln

Lindisfarena—Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island; the Lindisfarne Gospels, an illuminated Christian manuscript, were written and decorated here around 698

Lindsey—northwest area of Lincolnshire

Loidis—Leeds

Lugdunum—Lyon, France

Lundun—London

Mædeltun—Malton

Mǽres—River Mersey

Magilros—Melrose

Magonsætan—tribal kingdom in parts of what are now Herefordshire and Shropshire

Mercia—Anglo-Saxon kingdom, territory in the Midlands of present-day England; meaning: people of the boundaries/marshes

Middle Angles—a people living in the Midland region between the Mercians and East Angles

Môn—the island of Anglesey, off the northwest corner of Wales

Neapolis—Naples, Italy

Neustria—western Frankish kingdom, covering approx. present-day north and northwest France

Northumbria—kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia under the same king

Noviomagus—Noyon, France

Peaclond—Peak District, Derbyshire

Pictavis—Poitiers, France

Picts—a tribal people who lived in parts of Scotland

Piceringas—Pickering

Rendlæsham—Rendelsham, a royal settlement for the East Anglian kings; close to the excavated Sutton Hoo ship burial site

Rheged—Brittonic kingdom covering modern northwest England

Rotanland—Rutland

Sæfern—River Severn

South Saxons—Germanic tribe settlers between Kent and the West Saxons, in what is today Sussex

Southern Girvij—a people living between the Wash and the Middle Angles; fen-dwellers

Streonæshalch—Whitby, site of Abbess Hild’s double monastery, now known as Whitby Abbey; burnt down by Danish Vikings in the mid-9th century; remains of an Anglo-Saxon monastery excavated where the ruins of a Norman monastery stand today; writing implements, stones and articles with inscriptions in Latin and runes have been found, suggesting a creative and intellectual setting—according to Bede, for example, four or five bishops had studied there

Swalwa—River Swale

Tamoworthig—Tamworth; King Penda’s royal settlement

Tese—River Tees

Tina—River Tyne

Tinanmude—Tynemouth

Treante—River Trent

Tuidi—River Tweed

Ure dale—Wensleydale

Use—River Ouse

Vinovia—Roman fort at Binchester

Viroconium—Wroxeter

Visigoths, land of the—nearly the entire Iberian Peninsula