Note to Sigv Víkv 7I
[5] Hringmaraheiði ‘Ringmere Heath’: The location of this battle is not known for certain, though there is a Ringmere Pit near Thetford in Norfolk which is a likely candidate (see also Note to Ótt Hfl 9/3, where the metre of the two lines is also discussed, and Townend 1998, 38-42). The battle is referred to in the ASC (s. a. 1010), though its location is not named in English sources before John of Worcester (Townend 1998, 41). These sources describe a battle between Ulfcytel’s forces and Viking invaders, which can be reconciled with Sigvatr’s stanza (which implies that Óláfr’s opponents were English) but not with Snorri’s prose. On the historical problems with the sources, and the possibility that Óláfr intially fought against the English but later for them, see Note to st. 6 [All].
References
- Bibliography
- ASC [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle] = Plummer, Charles and John Earle, eds. 1892-9. Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1952.
- Townend, Matthew. 1998. English Place-Names in Skaldic Verse. English Place-Name Society extra ser. 1. Nottingham: English Place-Name Society.
- Internal references
- Matthew Townend (ed.) 2012, ‘Óttarr svarti, Hǫfuðlausn 9’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 752.