The Vikings

Overview :The Viking Age
The Vikings' homeland was Scandinavia: modern Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Historians disagree about the origin of the word Viking. In Old Norse the word means a pirate
raid, from either vikja (to move swiftly) or vik (an inlet). This captures the nature of the
Vikings, fast-moving sailors who used the water as their highway to take them across the
northern Atlantic, around the coasts of Europe to trade, raid or settle. They travelled great
distances, mainly by sea and river – as far as North America to the west, Russia to the east,
Lapland to the north and the Mediterranean World (Constantinople) and Iraq (Baghdad) to the
south. As well as warriors, they were skilled craftsmen and boat-builders, adventurous
explorers and traders. We know about them through archaeology, poetry, sagas and proverbs,
treaties, and the writings of people in Europe and Asia whom they encountered. They left very
little written evidence about themselves. In their poetry they call the sea 'the whale road'.
Anglo-Saxon writers called them Danes, Northmen, the Great Army, sea rovers, sea wolves,
or the heathen.
What we call the Viking Age, and the relationship with England, lasted from
approximately 800 to 1150 AD – The viking’s expansion took the form of warfare,
exploration, settlement and trade. During this period, around 200,000 people left Scandinavia
to settle in other lands, mainly Newfoundland (Canada), Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, England,
Scotland, the islands around Britain, France (where they became the Normans), Russia and
Sicily. However, by the end of the 11th century the great days of Viking expansion were over.
Vikings in Britain
From around 860AD onwards, Vikings raided, settled and prospered in Britain . They
became part of the mix of people who today make up the British nation. Pirates continued to
make regular raids around the coasts of England, stealing treasure and other goods, and
capturing people as slaves. Monasteries were often targeted, for their precious silver or gold
cups, plates, bowls and crucifixes. Gradually, the Viking raiders began to stay, first in winter
camps, then settling in land they had seized, mainly in the east and north of England.
Outside Anglo-Saxon England, to the north of Britain, the Vikings took over and settled
Iceland, the Faroes and Orkney, becoming farmers and fishermen. Orkney became powerful,
and the Earls of Orkney ruled most of Scotland. To this day, especially on the north-east
coast, many Scots still bear Viking names.
To the west of Britain, the Isle of Man became a Viking kingdom. In Ireland, the Vikings
raided around the coasts and up the rivers. They founded the cities of Dublin, Cork and
Limerick as Viking strongholds.
Meanwhile, back in England, the Vikings took over Northumbria, East Anglia and parts of
Mercia. In 866 they captured modern York (Viking name: Jorvik) and made it their capital.
They continued to extend south and west. The kings of Mercia and Wessex resisted , but with
little success until the time of Alfred of Wessex, the only king of England to be called ‘the
Great'.
King Alfred and the Danes
King Alfred ruled from 871-899 and after many trials (including the famous story of the
burning of the cakes!) he defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Edington in 878. After the
battle the Viking leader Guthrum converted to Christianity. In 886 Alfred took London from
the Vikings and fortified it. The same year he signed a treaty with Guthrum. The treaty
divided England between Vikings and English. The Viking territory became known as the
Danelaw. It comprised the north-west, the north-east and east of England. Here, people would
be subject to Danish laws. Alfred became king of the rest.
Alfred's grandson, Athelstan, became the first true King of England. He led an English
victory over the Vikings at the Battle of Brunaburh in 937, and his kingdom for the first time
included the Danelaw. In 954, Eirik Bloodaxe, the last Viking king of York, was killed and
his kingdom was taken over by English earls.
Later Viking raids and rulers
However, the Viking raidings did not stop . In 991, during the reign of Æthelred 'the
Unready' ('ill-advised'), Olaf Tryggvason's Viking raiding party defeated the Anglo-Saxon
defenders . As a matter of fact, the Vikings were not decisively defeated – England was to
have four Viking kings between 1013 and 1042. The greatest of these was King Cnut, who
was king of Denmark as well as of England. A Christian, he did not force the English to obey
Danish law; instead he recognised Anglo-Saxon law and customs. He worked to create a north
Atlantic empire that united Scandinavia and Britain. Unfortunately, he died at the age of 39,
and his sons had short, troubled reigns.
The final Viking invasion of England came in 1066, when The English king, Harold
Godwinson, marched north with his army and defeated Hardrada( a viking king) in a long and
bloody battle. The English had repelled the last invasion from Scandinavia.
However, immediately after the battle, King Harold heard that William of Normandy had
landed in Kent with another invading army. With no time to rest, Harold's army marched back
south to meet this new enemy ( threat). The exhausted English army fought the Normans at
the Battle of Hastings on 14th October, 1066. At the end of a long day's fighting the Normans
had won, King Harold was dead, and William was the new king of England.
The irony is that William was of Viking descent: his great-great-great-grandfather Rollo
was a Viking who in 911 had invaded Normandy in northern France. His people had become
French over time, but in fact this final successful invasion of England was another Viking
one.

The Vikings

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The Vikings

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Overview :The Viking Age

King Alfred and the Danes

Later Viking raids and rulers

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