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Vikings in Britain

Vikings raided Britain beginning in 793, attacking monasteries and coastal areas to loot treasure and capture slaves. They gradually began settling in eastern and northern England, establishing kingdoms and becoming integrated with the local population. Place names and many common English words also show the lasting linguistic impact of the Vikings in Britain.

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Olga Uspenska
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165 views

Vikings in Britain

Vikings raided Britain beginning in 793, attacking monasteries and coastal areas to loot treasure and capture slaves. They gradually began settling in eastern and northern England, establishing kingdoms and becoming integrated with the local population. Place names and many common English words also show the lasting linguistic impact of the Vikings in Britain.

Uploaded by

Olga Uspenska
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Vikings in Britain

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 essence 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 and up its rivers to trade, raid or
settle. In their poetry they call the sea 'the
whale road'.
Anglo-Saxon writers called them
Danes, Norsemen, Northmen, the Great
Army, sea rovers, sea wolves, or the
heathen.
From around 860 AD onwards,
Vikings stayed, settled and
prospered in Britain, becoming
part of the mix of people who
today make up the British nation.
Our names for days of the week
come mainly from Norse gods –
Tuesday from Tiw or Týr,
Wednesday from Woden (Odin),
Thursday from Thor and so on.
Many of their other words have also
become part of English, for example
egg, steak, law, die, bread, down,
fog, muck, lump and scrawny.
In 793 came the first recorded Viking raid, where 'on the Ides of June the harrying of the
heathen destroyed God's church on Lindisfarne, bringing ruin and slaughter' (The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).
These ruthless pirates continued to make
regular raids around the coasts of England,
looting treasure and other goods, and capturing
people as slaves. Monasteries were often
targeted, for their precious silver or gold
chalices, 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, and sometimes going on summer trading or
raiding voyages. Orkney became powerful, and from there 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.


The island still has its Tynwald, or ting-vollr (assembly field), a
reminder of Viking rule. 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
press south and west. The kings of Mercia and Wessex resisted as
best they could, but with little success until the time of Alfred of
Wessex, the only king of England to be called ‘the Great'.

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