[SunkenCiv]

[caption only] Silver arm-rings from the Silverdale Viking hoard, now on display at the British Museum in London. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

[strongbow]

Just incredible!

[Free Vulcan]

Very cool and well preserved stuff.

I am actually descended from some of this crowd through my maternal grandmother so that makes it all the more interesting.

[shibumi]

King Airdeconut, the first cousin of King Airdecoconut, who was responsible for the importation of exotic seed/fruits into the British Isles, using the nascent technology of laden swallows.

[null and void]

Airdeconut

Sounds like air [speed] coconut.

There’s a silent [sparrow] in there somewhere...

[colorado tanker]

I'm a little confused by what the article is saying. There was a King Harthacnut but much later; he preceded Edward the Confessor.

So, are they saying there was another Harthacnut, previously unknown, who ruled around 900? Very unlikely - the English succession at the time is well known.

Another possibility is a previously unknown King of Northumbria, which at the time was in its Viking period. Of course, Lancashire wasn't in Northumbria, but it was close. Perhaps a party raiding into Mercia buried it and never got back to dig it up?