I have enjoyed reading your historical fictions, especially the Saxon series with Uhtred being modelled after your distant ancestor in York. At the same time, I have been researching my family genealogy and have encountered some potentially similar historical elements. My family is documentable back to the 1600’s as lease-hold farmers and blacksmiths but records peter out around the Civil War period when so many churches and records were destroyed. The Moreton name appears to originate from the Saxon or Norse or some combination of both. The Saxon meaning is of a fortification or farm by a lake or marshland – with many place names bearing the Moreton name in south and west England. The Norse connection could be from Møre in Norway from where Norse Vikings raided into the Orkneys, Ireland and northwest England – settling along the coast in Strathclyde, Formby and the Wirral. Moreton cum Lingham is a village in the Wirral, with Lingham being from old Norse meaning heather island and many Norse Viking artifacts and long boat remains have been found nearby. My Moreton roots are in Cheshire. And of course William the Conqueror’s ancestors go back through Rollo who was originally the Jarl of Møre and William’s half-brother Robert de Mortain became Robert de Moreton when they landed in England…So maybe Uhtred and my ancestors were on the shield wall together and are now celebrating good times in the great feast hall in Valhalla….Cheers! PS: My career included some contact with Statoil in Norway from whom I negotiated product quantities from their Midgard and Sleipner fields – old Norse legendary names you mention in your books, that continue to live on in today’s world…
Haig Moreton