The Fyrd Of Oxnaforda - Recruiting

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TimT-T

Recruit
"The Fyrd of Oxnaforda" is a clan for Mount and Blade: Warband active in the mod "Vikingr". The clan is ruled by "Jarl Uhtred Ragnarson" (Big Tim) and "Hersir Wulfric Erikkson" (camptrigg22). We are a multinational clan, but you must be able to speak fluent English.

Oxford was first settled in Saxon times and was initially known as "Oxnaforda", meaning "Ford of the Oxen"; fords were more common than bridges at that time. It began with the establishment of a river crossing for oxen around AD 900. In the 10th century, Oxford became an important military frontier town between the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex and was on several occasions raided by Danes.

The Fyrd, in early Anglo-Saxon times, was an army that was mobilized from freemen to defend their shire, or from select representatives to join a royal expedition. Service in the fyrd was usually of short duration and participants were expected to provide their own arms and provisions. The composition of the fyrd evolved over the years, particularly as a reaction to raids and invasions by the Vikings. The system of defence and conscription was reorganised during the reign of Alfred the Great, who set up 33 fortified towns (or burhs) in his kingdom of Wessex. The amount of taxation required to maintain each town was laid down in a document known as the Burghal Hidage. Each lord had his individual holding of land assessed in hides. Based on his land holding, he had to contribute men and arms to maintain and defend the burhs. Non compliance of this requirement could lead to severe penalties.
Ultimately the fyrd consisted of a nucleus of experienced soldiers that would be supplemented by ordinary villagers and farmers from the shires who would accompany their lords.

We are a Clan made for Vikingr and specialise in the Engle faction. If you are interested in joining, either search for our steam group page, The Fyrd Of Oxnaforda - this is the page we will organise ourselves from, Add me on Steam Bigtim123164, or make a post here.

Wyrd bith ful araed
 
Welcome!

Enjoy your stay here and good luck! Also a more Englisc names? Éadríc made a good thread for names for all factions; http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,237364.0.html

Cheers!

~ Áed (Þéodríc Heaðuwines sunu Hláford & Wísa Gægninga)
 
Good luck and welcome to Víkingr!

If you want help with Old English names, ranks or anything else, feel free to PM me. The thread Áed linked you to is a good start!
 
Hail and welcome, fellow Anglo-Saxon warriors!

I hope you don't mind if I make some remarks. I am the one who wrote the post on Anglo-Saxon names.

First, Oxnaforda is the dative form. The nominative form is Oxnaford. That is to say: Old English of Oxnaforda is a correct phrase, since of requires the dative of the noun it accompanies. But when the place-name is the subject or direct object in a sentence, it is simply Oxnaford.

Secondly, jarl and hersir were Scandinavian titles. The Anglo-Saxon equivalent of jarl was eorl.

Thirdly, a fyrd was indeed typically led by an eorl (or an ealdormann before that), but it comprised hundreds if not thousands of men in that time, while Víkingr clans comprise ten to twenty men on average. Such a warband of ten to twenty men was in that time typically led by a man of lower standing, most often a þegn (Modern English thane, or in Tolkien's spelling thain). That is why I, as the leader of the Fyrningas (the House of Fyrna), am a þegn. Or rather a cynges þegn, a king's thain.

Fourthly, the patronym Ragnarsson is Scandinavian. You could have a Scandinavian father of course, but if you are an Anglo-Saxon, that patronym would by custom be Anglo-Saxonised, into Rægenheres sunu or Rægenhering.

Lastly, as the documents of the time show, titles in Old English came after the name. So if you were a þegn and your title was mentioned along with your name, you'd be called Úhtréd þegn. (Or along with your patronym, Úhtréd þegn Rægenheres sunu.)

Not trying to be a pedant, just setting the record straight.

Best wishes,

Éadríc
 
Wow! Glad there are so many helpful people actively playing this mod. I will take all of this into account and make correct changes when I have the time.
Uhtred Ragnarson is taken from a series of books by Bernard Cornwell, He was brought up as a slave and then as a son by a Dane named Ragnar, He was in fact Northumbrian. Excellent set of books.
Changes should be made soon, and I now have about 10 players so we're up for clan matches soon!
Thanks again.  :grin:
 
Good to see you guys getting involved. :smile:

What ranks are you using? Some websites out there list some pretty, huh, debatable Anglo-Saxon ranks, so be careful with that stuff.
 
Ealdorman

Ealdorþegn

Þegnas

Huscarl

Genéatas

Gebúras

Yeah saw you on Vikingr today! good show.
 
I see. That list is a bit anachronistic, though. Huscarl would only be used since around the times of Cnut the Great, when ealdorman largely fell out of use and was replaced by eorl, so chances are you wouldn't find huscarl and ealdorman in the same context. Furthermore, although huscarl wasn't a separate social rank per se, a huscarl would be understood to be above a common þegn. Bear in mind that petty nobility was very common in Anglo-Saxon England, and that being a þegn didn't imply a particularly high social rank by itself - if you owned enough land (and not a lot of land was required), you were entitled to the rank of þegn.

Secondly, bear in mind that the gebúras were poor freemen, and very few if any of them would be required to provide active military service. In late Anglo-Saxon England (or rather, since the days of King Ælfred), the fyrd was designed in a way that only well-equipped men would serve, by making several landowners put their resources together if necessary to send a single representative. This would more often than not be a þegn, or at least a well-off ceorl who had become a semi-professional soldier. The standard ratio that held throughout most of England was one fyrdman for every 5 hides of land, which was also the amount of land you needed to be entitled to the rank of þegn (the ratio varied in some regions). Therefore, a gebúr would most certainly have no place in the fyrd, his military service basically boiling down to repairing bridges and fortifications or transporting supplies, and if a genéat did fight, his social status would have little to no relevance in that context, as social ranks are not military ranks.

You should also consider that the fights we see in Víkingr don't really fit with the idea and organization of the fyrd. Rather than being a host called up by the king or some other high-ranked individual for defensive or offensive purposes, Víkingr clans are better understood in terms of household troops raiding and counter-raiding, or foraging in the context of a wider expedition. As such, having an ealdorman or an eorl as the leader might be a bit off, as ealdormen were very high-ranking individuals, and there were never many of them. Oxnafordscir in particular would not be led by an "eorl of Oxfordshire", since it was part of a single eorldom together with Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Berkshire and Somerset (this eorldom was established ca. 1043 and bestowed upon Sweyn Godwinson; before that, those regions would have been part of the eorldom of Wessex, or perhaps of Mercia in the specific case of Oxfordshire). What I mean is that a host from Oxford may ultimately answer to an eorl, or an ealdorman in earlier times, but their immediate captain would in all probability not be an eorl or an eoldorman himself. He would probably have been a þegn of unspecified status, although one important enough to be called an ealdorþegn if you wish (bear in mind however that these are social and legal ranks, not titles: a þegn would be referred to just by his name, and he would sign charters using just his name, without any reference to his being a þegn. The only titles as such that seem to have existed at the time are cyning/cyng and eorl, plus several ecclesiastical titles like bisceop, mæssepreost, etc.)

Finally, Þegnas, genéatas and gebúras are in the plural - they should be þegn, genéat and gebúr in the singular.

I hope you don't mind the lecture!
 
I certainly didn't mind the lecture. It couldn't hurt to broaden my knowledge on Anglo-Saxon England!

Good luck men of Oxnaforda. From what I have seen when I played against/with you guys, you seemed like a bunch of nice chaps.
Wes þū hāl!
 
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