Scandinavian-Britain

THE KINGDOM OF YORK 133about the Mersey or the Dee. It is true that Florenceof Worcester names the Hurnber as the estuaryentered by the fleet, but it ishardly conceivable that615 ships should have been taken all round byPentland Firth or Land's End when any of theestuaries on the west coast would serve as a port,and a landing in any one of them would further theobjects of the expedition better than the desolation ofthe Danelaw. After Vinheidi (perhaps Brunanburh, asdescribed in Egil's Saga), one Alfgeir rode in flightnight and day to " Jarlsnes," the Earl's Ness, mentionedalso in Orkncyinga Saga (chap. 72) as in Bretland(Wales), for which Mr. A. G. Moffat suggests a sitenear Swansea. This, so far as it has any weight, addsto the probability of the western site for Brunanburh.The various names of the battle-fields are :Brunandune (/Ethelwerd) ;Brunanburh (Chronicle) ;Wendune or Weondune quod alio nomine at Brunnanwere(-were) vel Brunnanbyrig appellatur (Symeon) ;Bruneford, or Brunefeld (William of Malmesbury) ;JE>runengafeId\n the British Museum facsimile Charter;Brumanburgh (R. de Hoveden) ; Brunanburgh approachedfrom the Humber (Florence of Worcester) ;Bruneswerce (Gaimar) ; Brunford in Northumbria(pseudo-Ingulf)the ; plains of Othlyn (Ann. Clonmacnois);Brune (Ann. Camb.); Dunbrunde perhapsmeans this site (Pictish Chronicle) and Vinketf&i vr;Vinuskbga is the name in Egil's Saga of the battlewhich corresponds in Icelandic tradition to Brunanburhin the English story. Egil's Saga also describes thebattlefield as a heath between a river and a wood,