Over recent weeks my thoughts have lingered on the image of a large hill in the Cleveland area of the North Yorkshire Moors; Roseberry Topping. About 15 years ago I carried out a series of rites in the company of a folk comrade from Woden's Folk, dedicating or more accurately rededicating the hill to Woden. Over recent weeks I have come to the conclusion that this hill should carry a much greater spiritual significance for those of us who are heathens than it currently does.
Roseberry Topping is of sandstone formation and dates back to the Middle and Lower Jurassic periods which are reckoned to be between 208 and 165,000,000 years ago. The top of the hill is very distinctive with a conical shape or cap which is said to protect the underlying clays from the effects of erosion by the weather. It is said that from the top of the hill one has views of the surrounding countryside for up to 50 miles, seeing the nearby Cleveland hills and even the Pennines in the west. Having climbed to the summit I can confirm that this is indeed true! Pragya Vohra in the Introduction to The Vikings in Cleveland (Edited by Heather O' Donoghue and Pragya Vohra, published by the University of Nottingham, 2014) describes the top of the hill as "a volcano-shaped outlier of the Cleveland hills". This is the best and most succinct description of its summit in my opinion.
We know from the etymology of the name of the hill that it was indeed sacred during the time of the Danelaw from the 9th century onwards. According to Eleanor Rye (The Vikings in Cleveland) the name of the hill was first attested in the 12th century and was known as Othenesberg and Ohensberg and she suggests that these two names indicate that its Old Norse original name was Odins berg. This has the obvious English meaning of 'Odin's mountain'. Please note that the Old Norse letter 'eth' would have been used in the Old Norse, not the English letter 'd' but I am limited by my keyboard! Eleanor Rye also mentions Onsbjerg on the Danish island of Samso, recorded as Othensberg in the 15th century which appears to confirm the etymological assumptions. J.C. Atkinson writing in The Journal of the Ethnological Society of London (1869-1870), volume 2, no. 3, pages 351-366) finds the following variations of the name between 1119 and 1540-Otneberch, Ohtnebereg, Othenbruche, Othenesbergh, Ornbach, Ounsbery, Onesbergh, Hensberg, Hogtenberg, Thuerbrugh and Thuerbrught.
Close to Roseberry Topping is the village Newton under Roseberry in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland in North Yorkshire. As an aside the church of St. Oswald in the village has a rather interesting Anglo-Saxon carving featuring two apparently mythical creatures. The name of the village would originally have been Newton under Ounsbery. The rather unusual term 'Topping' features in the dialect of both Yorkshire and Lancashire for hill names. It is believed that Roseberry Topping is the only known example of a hill or mountain in England containing the name of Odin. However there is also an Anglo-Saxon cognate in Woodnesborough, a village in East Kent, two miles to the west of Sandwich. It is first attested in the Domesday Book in 1086 with the name Golles-Wanesberge. Around the year 1100 the name was recorded as Wodnesbeorge and in 1484 it appears as Wodnesbergh.The Old English reconstruction of the name would have been Wodnesburh, the hill or mound of Woden. (See A Dictionary of English Place-Names by A.D. Mills (Oxford University Press).)
Roseberry Topping is close to the north-eastern boundary of the Danelaw and the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria and it would have been visible to the Vikings as they sailed up and down the river Tees and must have had an awe-inspiring effect upon their imagination. The river Tees it must be pointed out is the boundary between my county of birth-Durham on the north bank and the North Riding of Yorkshire on the south bank. Despite the river being an ancient boundary the people of South Durham and the North Riding have a great deal in common and this commonality has in recent years been recognised by the creation of the 'Tees Valley', a 'city region' administered by the Tees Valley Combined Authority which consists of five unitary authorities: Darlington (County Durham), Stockton on Tees (County Durham), Hartlepool (County Durham), Middlesbrough (North Yorkshire) and Redcar and Cleveland (North Yorkshire). Interestingly the unitary authority of Stockton-on-Tees includes land south of the river in North Yorkshire-Thornaby on Tees, Yarm and Ingleby Barwick. The Tees Valley is part of the North East Region of England and has its own airport-Durham Tees Valley, previously known as Teesside Airport and is due to revert to its former name. It is situated just outside of Darlington.
The ancient county of Yorkshire is divided into three 'Ridings' and this is a curious expression which likewise dates back to the Danelaw. The renowned scholar Jesse L. Byock writing in his Viking Language 1 (page 25, 2013, Jules William Press) reveals that the term 'Riding' derives from the Old Norse thridjungr which means the 'third part of an assembly'. It can also be used to describe a geographical region. The Old Norse term was adopted into Old English as thriding. In Modern English the 'th' has been dropped. Once again it should be noted that the Old English/Old Norse letter 'thorn' rather than 'th' is the correct spelling and likewise the 'd' in thriding has been substituted for the Old Norse 'eth'!
It is my hope that the sacred Odinic associations of Roseberry Topping become more recognised by the heathen community and that it should in time have a similar status that Waylands Smithy has in the folklore and mythology of Woden's Folk. Both places should in my opinion be considered 'sacred centres' for our Wodenist community, Roseberry Topping having a particular significance for the Woden's Folk Community of the north of England, the Danelaw part of England.
