The Ornithology of Anglo-Saxon England

A list of the bird names appearing in and the sources used in the compilation of this article this article is available for separate reading

he variety and numbers of birds which bred or occurred in Anglo-Saxon England depended on the environment which on the whole was highly favourable. The contemporary interest in birds is shown by their mention in a wide variety of sources and subjects and in an extensive collection of Old English names. The systematic list of bird names and the sources are given later in this paper which is concerned with genuinely wild species and not with non-specific poetic names or with domestic fowl.

Birds and the Environment

The natural history was influenced by changes to the environment which consisted mainly of the continuation of forest felling, coppicing and pollarding for building timber and fuel and the spread of cultivated and grazing land. These activities would be exceeded on an increasing scale in later centuries which, with other changes, had a proportional effect on the natural history, including the birds.

Most of Anglo-Saxon England must have been a beautiful place for wild life with extensive wooded regions, much undrained fenland, a population of only two million in 1086 and no mechanised farming, a land free of pesticides and industrial effluent and the seas free of oil pollution and indiscriminate over fishing.

Few species of Anglo-Saxon birds have been completely lost to England, but the population and breeding status of many species was seriously affected later.

The majority of species which bred or occurred in England after the last ice age, c 10,000 years BP, continued on through the following periods, including Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England to the present, so the ornithology of Anglo-Saxon England is not considered in isolation, and attention is given to the species present before and after Anglo-Saxon times.

Anglo-Saxon Species Not on the Present List

• Bone finds indicate that the Dalmatian Pelican, Pelecanus crispus, formerly bred near the Iron Age lake village at what is now Glastonbury and on up to Roman times in Western Germany and Holland. It may still have occurred as a winter vagrant in early Anglo-Saxon England.
• The Griffon Vulture, Gyps fulvus, last observed in England in 1927 or the Egyptian Vulture, Neophron percnopterus, 1868, are possible Anglo-Saxon species although some references are scriptural, from psalters and philosophies.
• The Eagle Owl, Bubo bubo, recorded in England prior to 1930, and named in Old Latin to Old English glossaries from the 8th century could have occurred in the extensive Anglo-Saxon forests.
• The freshwater Pygmy Cormorant, Phalacrocorax pygmeus, is alleged to have occurred in England, at least as a migrant or vagrant, with bone finds at Abingdon dated as recently as the 15th-16th century.

Finally in this section, the Anglo-Saxons could certainly have known the Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, extinct in Britain by 1840 and world wide by 1844. Some evidence exists for their presence in England in the Isle of Man, Lundy, the Fame Islands and Durham. A former name was Gare or Gair fowl, possibly Norse or derived from the Old English gar, meaning a cape or promontory and also tempest or cold.

Modern Species Which Also Occurred in Anglo-Saxon England

Many of the other 240 or so species on the present list as uncommon to extremely rare vagrants from many countries could have also occurred in Anglo-Saxon England in varying numbers. The westerly Atlantic gales which assist rare North American vagrants to England now were also blowing in the Anglo-Saxon centuries.

Modern species which did not occur in Anglo-Saxon England

In addition there are the species which have spread naturally to Britain in the last 50 to 100 years.

The status of the Little Ringed Plover, Charadrius dubius, is uncertain before the 19th century, breeding from 1938 or early 19th century at Shoreham, Sussex.

Changes to the environment following the Anglo-Saxon period

One controlling factor of the environment is the size of the human population and the scale and nature of its activities. The two million people in England at the end of the 11th century rose at an increasing rate to about forty-six million in England and Wales in 1991.

The increase in forest felling and fenland drainage, the farming methods, persecution and pollution all affected bird life and fragmentation of habitats could be as serious as complete loss.

Just one of the extensive wooded areas was the Anglo-Saxon Andredesweald, the remaining fragments comprising the present Weald and which covered over 2500 square miles, given as 3500 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and would have supported an enormous population of woodland birds.

Such areas had been eroded by felling from long before Roman times and the demands on them increased up to the 18th and 19th century, ranging from agriculture and fuel production to the use of timber for ships.

Rackham gives figures for woodland as a percentage of the total land area, 30% at the end of Roman times, 15% by the Domesday Survey in 1086 and about 5% by 1895. The latest survey gives about 1.5% deciduous woodland in 1992. A once more common woodland species, the Golden Oriole, Oriolus oriolus has declined to less than 100 pairs, discouraged by the cooler wetter summers as well as reduced habitat. It was recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis as Latin Aureolus in 1188 and was called the Wuduwale in Middle English and possibly so before. The name Aureolus is used from 1150.

The other habitat totals in 11th century Anglo-Saxon England consisted of 35% arable land, 30% grazed pasture (1% mown meadows) and 20% settlements, heath, moorland, mountains and fens.

Information for earlier centuries can be gained from Anglo-Saxon estate charters where the boundary perambulations record many physical features and a wide variety of ornithological habitats including unenclosed heath, downland, meadows, quarries, water mills and fish weirs with the associated dykes, waterways and lakes.

An 18th century view of the natural history of the former Andredesweald and adjacent areas is given by Gilbert White who describes many species, probably more common in Anglo-Saxon times and certainly less common or absent now, such as Black Grouse, Tetrao tetrix; Corncrake, Crex crex; Stone Curlew, Burhinus oedicnemus; and Raven, Corvus corax.

At the time of the Domesday survey, settlements were still sparsely distributed in the Andredesweald and the fens (Hill 1981).

In the case of the natural fens and extensive reed beds, the Marsh Harrier, Circus æruginosus was common in past centuries and even nested near London with other species of harriers up to the end of the 18th century.

The largest fen bordered the Wash and covered from 1500 to 2000 square miles in Anglo-Saxon times. Drainage was commenced by the Romans and continued by the Anglo-Saxons, sometimes locally round monastery sites such as Peterborough (Medeshamstede), Ely, Crowland and Ramsey but also on flood defences. During these periods and on into the Middle Ages, many species of fenland birds were taken for food. Banquets were noted for swans, cranes, waders and members of the heron group. The increase in drainage work from the mid 17th century and persecution saw the demise of the Crane, Grus grus and Spoonbill, Platalea leucorodia, as breeding birds in the East Anglian fens.

Other probable breeding species would also have joined the category of increasingly rare vagrants, including the Night Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, and Little Egret, Egretta garzetta, the latter recorded in Archbishop Neville's banquet in 1465 and perhaps as Turner's "dwarf white herons" of 1544. Also, the Little Bittern, Ixobrychus minutus which still nested as recently as the late 19th century or 1947!

The more adaptable Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea, has survived centuries of change and persecution.

Bones of the White Stork, Ciconia ciconia, have been found at Roman Silchester and perhaps a last echo of former breeding was in Edinburgh in 1416.

Omission of species like the White Stork and Eagle Owl, Bubo bubo, from folklore and the sparse records do not necessarily indicate their absence from Anglo-Saxon England. The Red Kite, Milvus milvus, receives little mention but it was certainly common enough, so not surprisingly less common species receive even less mention. The Black Tern, Chlidonias niger, was extremely common in the fens up to the Middle Ages and on to the 18th century.

Once common species like the Avocet, Recurvirostra avosetta, Ruff, Philomachus pugnax and Black-tailed Godwit, Limosa limosa which stopped breeding in the late 19th century now of course breed again, with protection.

The hunters of Anglo-Saxon England could hardly be responsible for the elimination of any one species. A low population using bows and arrows, hawks, nets, snares and sticky bird lime, fugel-lim or mistel-lim probably did less damage to the less numerous species than the "sportsmen" and egg collectors of-the 19th century who intentionally exterminated specific birds, the rarer the better. Whitman commented on the state of the near extinction of the Osprey in England.

Red Kites, Milvus milvus were common town and village scavengers up to the 15th century and last recorded in London by White in 1777.

The presence of the Black Kite, Milvus migrans, in Anglo-Saxon England is possible but unproven. Several very different Old English kite names perhaps indicate more than one species.

Highly mechanised farming, "prairie" type agriculture and loss of hedgerows and hedgerow birds is well known. Hedgerows in Anglo-Saxon times were mainly boundary markers and the open field strip system was widely but not exclusively used. Their hedgerows were not so extensive as in the later enclosures of the Middle Ages to 19th century but they did exist and some still do, on the same sites.

Although the Meadow Pipit, Anthus pratensis, now numbers some three million it receives no mention in Old English and no evidence from Roman or Anglo-Saxon finds, although there is fossil evidence from the last ice age.

Species affected by changes in habitat or climate and probably common in Anglo-Saxon England include the Barn Owl, Tyto alba, the Wryneck, Jynx torquilla and Redbacked Shrike, Lanius collurio.

Archæological evidence for the birds of Anglo-Saxon England

The sites examined omit species from uncultivated areas including forests and fenlands, although some of the birds could have been captured some distance away from the find sites. Parker states that "the environment of Britain in the Roman period was, in many respects, quite similar to that of recent times". The term "recent times" is not defined but the changes to important aspects of the environment and the resulting status of many species since the 17th century and especially the 19th and early 20th century which I have described, apply equally to Roman Britain as to Anglo-Saxon England.

Anglo-Saxon sites at Thetford and North Elmham have yielded bird bones and the identifications are given by Juliet Clutton-Brock which represent some domestic fowl, but also 21 wild species, including geese, ducks, raptors, waders and others. At least ten of the species given had Old English names.

Falconry in Anglo-Saxon England

The leather tethers or jesses on a falcon's legs were the Old English wyrplas. Falcon bells were attached by soft leather thongs called bewits, derived rom the Old English verbs bewitan or bewitian meaning to care for, watch over or superintend. Repair of feathers, especially the primaries, is made with an imping needle, a name derived from Old English impian, to implant or graft. Incredibly, illustrations show that the falconers did not use gauntlet gloves.

In Anglo-Saxon falconry there are few names for definite species. Falcons or Old English hafoc, fealcen or fælca with their long, pointed wings and powerful dive were considered superior to hawks, also called hafoc, with their shorter, rounded wings and hunting lower down in cover.

"Norway-hawk" probably referred to the Gyrfalcon, Falco rusticolus, Wealh-havoc or "Welsh-hawk" was primarily the Peregrine, Falco peregrinus.

There was probably a relationship between the owner of a falcon or hawk and the species used and was based on wealth rather than the supposed social class allocations used later. The Bayeux tapestry depicts the mounted Earl Harold, proudly carrying his Peregrine or at least a Goshawk, and not a Sparrowhawk as has been feebly suggested. Surprisingly, the falcons in the Tapestry shown as being carried about are not wearing leather hoods, a normal ancient practice in falconry. This surely is not just an artistic error.

The earliest record of falconry in Anglo-Saxon England was the dispatch by St Boniface of a hawk and two falcons from the continent to King Æþelbald of Mercia in 745-6, while in c 750 King Æþelbert of Kent asked Boniface for two falcons to kill cranes. These were probably Gyrfalcons from the size of the prey and Æþelbert's comment that they were scarce in Kent!

Later Royal charters and other documents from Mercian kings and King Ælfred, Edward the Elder and Æþelstan all mention hawks or falcons but name no definite species. Specific birds killed in falconry were Herons, Ardea cineria, Bitterns, Botaurus stellaris and Curlews, Numenius arquata. Goshawks cold be flown at Hares, Lepus capensis, as well as at birds such as Partridges, Perdix perdix.

The Old English Heoruswealwe from The Fortunes of Men and meaning fierce or deadly swallow, probably and appropriately refers to the Peregrine.

Ælfric's Colloquy from c 1000 AD describes various activities including those of the fugelere or fowler, although it names no definite species. The modern term fowler refers to a duck gunner crouching in a marsh or estuary in the early morning, but Ælfric's fowler was an Auceps or hawk trainer and hunter of smaller birds and would have kept Gos- or Sparrowhawks.

The manuscript Cotton Tiberius BV f7 shows falcons being released for the kill and also shows an obvious Crane, recognised by the stance and voluminous and drooping tertial feathers.

Manuscript illustrations of specific birds are rare, but the late 10th century Bodleian Library, 130, f91v shows an eagle, aquila, which is clutching a large salmon-like fish and the bird is clearly a White-tailed Sea Eagle, Haliætus albicilla from the plumage pattern and unfeathered tarsi. The other English eagle of the time, the Golden Eagle, Aquila chrysætos, rarely catches fish.

The distribution of eagles in mediæval England has been questioned but the Golden Eagle formerly nested on sea cliffs and the Sea Eagle's habitat abroad includes inland lakes in wooded districts (oak and beech), marshes and estuaries so that large parts of Anglo-Saxon England would have been suitable breeding territory for either species. Sea Eagles were recorded as carrion eaters in both Southern and Northern England (see below).

Literary evidence for specific birds in Anglo-Saxon England

For the year 937 the Chronicle records the victory of King Æþelstan at Brunanburgh and states that the carrion eaters on the battlefield were Ravens, Corvus corax and White-tailed Sea Eagles, Haliætus albicilla . This is an unusually specific reference by the Chronicle's scribe and indicates that Sea Eagles must have been relatively numerous in parts of 10th century England. They must have been accompanied by Crows, Corvus corone, and Kites, Milvus milvus and perhaps other species of scavengers. The Old English 'The Battle of Maldon' refers to the Earn or Sea Eagle as a carrion eater in 10th century Essex.

The Seafarer of c 700 names the Anglo-Saxon birds ylfete, ganete, huilpe, mæw, stearn and earn. These species indicate that the location of the poem was the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth.

• Ylfete was the Whooper Swan, Cygnus cygnus, on migration. The Mute Swan, Cygnus olor, would be extremely unlikely near the Bass Rock, especially prior to the late 12th century.
• Ganete was the Gannet, Sula bassana, which bred there.
• Huilpe was the Curlew, Numenius arquata or more likely the Whimbrel, N. phæopus on migration.
• Mæw is non-specific but was either a gull or the Kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla, which bred there.
• Stearn is the Common Tern, Sterna hirundo or Arctic Tern, S. paradisiæa on migration.
• Earn is the Sea Eagle, Haliætus albicilla , which bred there.

The poem Beowulf, late 10th century MS refers to the sea as the "ganetes bæð". In spite of these coastal species, there are no clear references in Old English to any species of Auks, (Alcidæ) such as Guillemots, Razorbills or Puffins, presumably very numerous in the favourable environment.

Birds are referred to in some of the 10th century Exeter Book riddles; the Anglo-Saxons believed that the swan's wings produced music in flight and the loud rhythmic throbbing sound of the flight of the Mute Swan, Cygnus olor differentiates it from the Whooper Swan, Cygnus cygnus whose wings produce a quieter swishing sound.

Another riddle contains the runic G,A,R,O,H,I, an anagram of Higora, one of the Old English names for the Green Woodpecker, Picus viridis.

A third riddle perpetuates the legend that Barnacle Geese, Branta laucopsis, were hatched from ship's barnacles. The Enigmata (riddles) of the 7th century Bishop Aldhelm contain interesting species and field characteristics. Enigma XXII is the Nightingale, Luscinia megarhynchos, stating "for winter puts me to flight, but I shall return as soon as summer comes". This sounds like an early appreciation of bird migration on Aldhelm's part, but he rather spoils things in Enigma XLVII when referring to the Swallow, Hirundo rustica, stating that "I spend several months wasting away without food, but sleep and slumber help pass these lengthy fasts". This misconception is in line with the fallacy that swallows hibernate beneath the mud of ponds or in cliff crevices, an idea which persisted at least until the 18th century.

Enigma XXXI refers to the White Stork, Ciconia ciconia, and their ability to kill and eat snakes. The "appearance that grows darkly black" presumably refers to the black wings.

Enigma XXXV is "Night Raven", Old English Nihthræfn. This controversial name originates in the Ancient Greek, nyktikorax, which is alleged to mean owl, but why should korax ever have been used for owl! It is inappropriately given as "screech-owl" i.e. Barn Owl, Tyto alba, in Lapidge and Rosier (1985). Nycticorax and Noctua (owl) are usually given as separate entries in glossaries. The field characteristics in the Enigma include a harsh chatter in mid-air, i.e. the raven-like croaks in flight of the crepuscular Night Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, named as Ardea nycticorax by Linnæus. This identification has been proposed at least from the 16th century to 18th century (Gesner, Ray and Albin) and by Whitman Suolahti Lindsay and Lockwood.

Aldhelm could have known the Night Heron in the fens of Anglo-Saxon England, where it probably bred up to the Middle Ages.

Specific birds named in medicinal recipes

The Sand Martin, Riparia riparia, is called Stæðswealwe, the staithe or bank swallow in the first Leechbook, where the nestlings cooked in wine are to be eaten before fighting. The Swallow, Hirundo rustica or Swealwe is burnt and used in several recipes, while the stones alleged to have been found in the stomach are used for complaints associated with witchcraft. In the recipes called the Lacnunga, the marrow (body fat) of the Earn or Sea Eagle, Haliætus albicilla is used in a complex salve. Bird bones are virtually hollow and contain little or no marrow.

In the second

Leechbook, a recipe recommends a light diet including Wildahænna (grouse or pheasants), Culfre (Woodpigeons, Columbus palumbus) and "birds that live on downs" (plovers?)

The naming of birds in Anglo-Saxon sources and modern interpretations

A total of less than 200 manuscripts or fragments in Old English, or containing a substantial amount, have survived centuries of damage or loss. Some contain names for a total of about 90 species of birds.

The primary sources are the manuscripts referred to above and the comprehensive catalogue by Ker gives the library titles, history and details of contents. Old English glossaries of Old Latin names sometimes occur in the margins of MS of unrelated subjects. A partial facsimile gives a list of Ælfric the Grammarian, c 1000. The primary sources may contain original scribal errors, sometimes due to uncertainty or imagination on the translators part in attempting to identity species and apply Old English names.

The secondary sources are modern translations of the Old Latin or Old English including various editions of the vocabularies, Wright and Wulcker, Sweet and Lindsay and dictionaries of Anglo-Saxon Old English; Bosworth and Toller, with addenda and Clark Hall.

The secondary sources also contain some errors in identifications apparently due to lack of ornithological knowledge. This Old English Wuducocc or Holthana refers to the Woodcock, Scolopax rusticola and not to the Snipe, Gallinago gallinago. Mæw is a general name for gulls and not the Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis, Stearn is a Tern and not a Starling, Sturnus vulgaris. Nihtegale is not the Nightjar, Caprimulgus europæus but the Nightingale, Luscinia megarhynchos.

Past editors or authors of papers on Anglo-Saxon vocabularies seem to have been largely unaware that some species now regarded as Mediterranean or Continental not only occurred in Anglo-Saxon England but in some cases bred there and on into the Middle Ages or beyond. They may have confused the location and status of species with the Mediterranean origin of manuscript.

The latest source is the Toronto University 'Microfiche Concordance to Old English', with over 400 fiches. (Hardly readily accessible to private individuals).

The Thesaurus of Old English is still to be published! See the acknowledgements to this publication.

The Old English bird names can be appropriate and accurately descriptive. In the name Hlæpewince for the Lapwing, Vanellus vanellus, hlæpe or leap refers to the soaring display flight and wince or wink to the flashing black-white appearance, well seen in large flocks, the word being derived from wincettan or wincian, to wink.

The Raradumbla or Raredumle was the Bittern, Botaurus stellaris, the names being derived from rarian, to roar or bellow. The modern German name is Rohrdommel.

The Hæferblæte or "goat bleat" is not the first bird name to have perplexed philologists. Any ornithologist would know that it refers to the "drumming" of the Snipe, Gallinago gallinago, and it is not a Curlew or a Bittern. Drumming is the noise produced by the vibrating outer tail feathers in the Snipe's display dive.

Ðisteltwige or "thistle tweaker", of the seed heads, is obviously the Goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis, just as Linetwige is "flax Tweaker" for the Linnet, Carduelis cannabina.

The alleged Old English name Herefong for Osprey, Pandion haliætus, is unusually inappropriate and incompatible with the bird's exclusive fishing habits. The name appears in MS Cotton Cleopatra AIII, f 76r and was somehow used for Osprey and continued so. Herefong means "army plunder" and glosses Old Latin ossifragus or "bone breaker". These terms apply to the Lammergeier Vulture, Gypætus barbatus, which has probably never occurred in England and breaks mammal bones for their marrow by dropping them onto rocks. It could certainly have been a carrion eater and bone breaker on foreign battlefields.

More appropriate names for the Osprey would have been fiscere or fischafoc. The Old English term "bleria pyttel" probably meaning bald hawk, i.e. a hawk with a white or whitish head, could have applied to the Osprey. It has been called the "Bald Buzzard" in the past which is analogous to the naming of the Bald Eagle, Haliætus leucocephalus. Bleria pyttel also applied to the Kite, Milvus milvus.

Many of the Old Latin names survive in the modern scientific names, e.g. Grus, Ciconia, Ardea, Strix , Luscinia, Alauda etc. Some have fallen into disuse, e.g. Bardiorolus for Coal Tit, Parus ater and Florentius for Goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis while others, such as Fulica for Coot, formerly referred to the Gannet, Sula bassana or to terns. The confusing Old Latin and Old English names for water birds could be interchanged in error or misidentified but fall approximately into two groups, diving and surface feeding. Latin Mergus and old English Scealfra or Scealfor (pronounced Shalfra) usually refer to the larger diving ducks, sawbills and grebes. Scræb (pronounced Shrab) applies to Shags and Cormorants. (Phalacrocorax sp.).

Latin Mergulus and Old English Dopfugel or Fugeldoppe primarily refer to smaller diving birds, e.g. Little Grebe, Tachybaptus ruficollis but also to Coot, Fulica atra and Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus.

Latin Anas and Old English Ened refer to surface feeders, such as Mallard, Anas platyrynchos.

Confusion between many species of birds must have been compounded by immature or autumn and winter plumages.

An Ornithological assessment of the names in the vocabularies and dictionaries brings some further sense and order to the Old English bird list.

Many bird names were used as single personal names and as "surnames" or non-hereditary bynames or freonama. Such uses are a further indication of an everyday Anglo-Saxon interest in and knowledge of wild birds.

The extensive group of bird names variously known as folk names and dialect, local, colloquial, provincial or common names sometimes apply to several completely different species (as do some of the Old English) and are often inappropriate and fanciful, but are sometimes related to genuine, recorded Old English names. Conjectural bird names such as OE Swift, for Apus apus; Culter nebbe (Puffin, Fratercula arctica); Godwiht (godwits); Reodscanca (Redshank, Tringa totanus) and Flæscwellere or executioner (shrikes) are not actually recorded in original Old English sources. Suolahti claims Old English Weargincel for shrike, related to Chaucer's Wariangle.