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Excerpt from Transcript of “The History Boys”


Series 4, Episode 3


Host Wulfric Baeker is walking across a field. Diggers and other construction equipment can be seen in the background. He is wearing a thick padded plastic coat and rubberised boots

WB: Day Two here at Stowburn in South Deira and Athelstan has found a find that seems out of place. Athelstan, I understand this threw you off your path a bit?

Baker walks over to a trench, a man stands up, he’s wearing durafabric shorts, a vest and a wide brimmed hat. Compared to Baker’s national pronunciation, his voice is distinctly Westian.

CAPTION: Professor Athelstan Hardin, University of Bricstow

Prof. Athelstan Hardin: That’s right Wulf, we’re obviously looking for Northumbrian finds of the early eigth century and we’ve found several finds but this was something different.

He holds up a small pendant. Its lettering its quite different and style distinct from other finds seen on the show although it has familiar elements like a cross and a figure with a halo, either a saint or Christ.

AH: This pendant has actually found its way all the way from Norway. Which I wouldn’t give a second thought if this were century or two later but this was found with other items dating from the late seventh century long before any significant Viking contact. Its even several decades before the first major Viking raids.

WB: Do you think there’s a chance Viking raids started earlier than we thought?

AH: Well, Morwenna’s got a theory on that.

Another person walks into camera, a woman in a fleeced jacket with wavey brown hair.

CAPTION: MORWENNA BRIGG, FINDS EXPERT

Morwenna Brigg: We did wonder that at first, Wulf. However short of the odd killed raider, early Viking attacks didn’t leave much in the way of physical evidence other than arrow heads and property damage. Besides, this is clearly a Christian religious icon when the Vikings were almost entirely pagan. We have a theory. Although its less common today, the Anglish church for many centuries practiced penance by exile, that is, they would repent their sins by leaving their homeland and in a lot of cases, spread the word of god. It is very possible that someone living in Stowburn had previously been in exile for a fixed number of years, fixed by a monk or perhaps even an abbot or bishop and had travelled to Scandinavia. While he was there he might’ve encountered or maybe even established a Christian community, that is however mere conjecture. So when his penance was spent he returned to Stowburn with this icon of a saint, or more likely Christ as a memento of his journey and a reminder of the exile he served.,



WB: And we can date that to the end of the 7th, start of the 8th centuries?

AH: We found with several coins.

AH shows WB several coins of different sizes and markings. AH points out two figures visible on a coin

AH: This first one is a Scilling which is similar to several found across both Northumbria and Mercia. The two figures on the coin are Athelfrith and Cynedryth, the king and Queen of Northumbria and

MB: Aethelfrith was technically the last king of Northumbria, with the unification of Northumbria and Mercia brought about by their marriage it was declared that their son would be dubbed king of the Anglish,

AH shows another coin, with a head in profile on, there is faint writing around the side.

AH: In fact, we can see that king here. It reads in Latin “Eanfrith, king of the Anglish”

WB: Brilliant, so its probably around the start of Eanfrith’s reign?

AH: Probably, though possibly a bit later

WB: Fantastic.