Anglo-Saxon warriors travelled. In Beowulf, we hear of a Geatish warrior, Beowulf, fetching up at the court of Hrothgar, king of the Danes, to help him in his fight against the monster Grendel.

There was clearly nothing outlandish to the audience that first heard this poem in a warrior setting off to a different country in search of adventure, renown and an enemy against whom to pit his sword. It was quite common for a warrior to travel to another kingdom and offer his fighting skills there.

Indeed, the most renowned of all the kings of Northumbria, Oswald, took refuge in the sea-spanning kingdom of Dál Riata as a boy and fought for its rulers as a man. While there, he learnt the language of the Dál Riatans, heard their stories, sang their songs. There were many stories for him and his men to tell when they returned to Northumbria.