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Rey Cross

Stone Circle

Folklore

"King Eric was treacherously killed by Earl Maccus in a certain lonely place which is called Stainmore, with his son Haeric and his brother Ragnald, betrayed by Earl Oswulf, and then afterwards King Eadred ruled in these districts".
Flowers of the Histories
Roger of Wendover

In his book "In Search of The Dark Ages"Michael Wood describes Eric as "The last king of the Northumbrian race"

A few more quotes relating to Rey Cross and Stainmore.

"Here was the boundary between the 'Westmoringas' and the Northumbrians, the old Glasgow diocesan border, and before that the frontier of the Cumbrians and the Northumbrians. The place is marked by the stump of a cross still called rey Cross, from the Norse word hreyrr, meaning boundary.
Some seventy years ago Prof. W. Collingwood identified this as an English-style cross with figured decoration, and suggests that it was done by an English sculptor and commisioned by sympathisers in York to commemorate their king".

"Eric's other monument survives in a more intelligible form. When his wife and family fled by sea from York to Orkney, a poet in their entourage composed his epitaph, the Eiriksmal. It is redolent of the old Scandanavian world, thoroughly pagan, soaked in the shamanistic inspiration of Odin".

"The lost History of the Ancient Northumbrians ended with Eric's death, and was rounded off with the king lists; 'Ever since, the Northumbrians have been mouring their lost liberty.' And of course, some of them still do!"

All Quotes from
In Search of the Dark Ages
Michael Wood
Published by BBC Books
1987
fitzcoraldo Posted by fitzcoraldo
26th February 2004ce
Edited 26th February 2004ce

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