Siward's Howe, sometimes written ''Siwards How'' and also known as Heslington Hill or Bunny Hill, is a

terminal moraine A terminal moraine, also called an end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front e ...

located to the south-east of the city of

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

. The howe is situated north west of the Morrell Library building of the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

. The southern side of the howe is part of Alcuin College of the

. Its imposing

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

is visible from many parts of the nearby suburbs of

Tang Hall Tang Hall is a suburban district of the city of York in North Yorkshire, England. The name is derived from the Anglo Saxon Tang, which means the meeting place of two becks (Osbaldwick and Tang Hall becks join in the nearby St Nicholas Fields Lo ...

and

Osbaldwick Osbaldwick ( ) is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of the City of York in North Yorkshire, England. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2011 census was 2,902. It has been in existence since at least the 11th cen ...

. Howe, when derived from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

: ''haugr'', means hill, knoll, or mound and may refer to a tumulus, or barrow. Siward's Howe is named for

Siward, Earl of Northumbria Siward ( or more recently ; ) or Sigurd (, ) was an important earl of 11th-century northern England. The Old Norse nickname ''Digri'' and its Latin translation ''Grossus'' ("the stout") are given to him by near-contemporary texts. It is possibl ...

, the 11th-century Danish warrior. He was romanticised in the

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

play, ''

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

''. Siward died at York during 1055 and is rumoured to have been buried beneath the

tumuli A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

at the wooded summit.Archaeological Evaluation. Heslington Hill. Heslington York. (University of York. January 1997)

References

Other sources

*Aird, William M. (2004)
''Siward, earl of Northumbria (d. 1055), magnate''
(Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) University of York sites Moraines of Europe Geography of York Mountains and hills of North Yorkshire {{York-geo-stub