The Vikings (History-Night Shift)

The Vikings


The Viking invasions to Britain started by the end of the eighth century.
It is impossible to assign the various Viking groups precisely to places of origin. But broadly speaking, adventurers from the coast of Norway and Denmark raid the north of England and continued round the Scottish coast to Ireland. Vikings from the same region later settle in the Scottish islands, Iceland and parts of Ireland.
The word Viking is Scandinavian (from Scandinavia: Sweden, Denmark and Norway) for 'pirate', and it accurately describes these men who for two centuries raid the coasts of Britain.
The coast of the British isles were dotted with monasteries with sufficient wealth to attract Viking raiders. So when they arrived there they burnt churches and monasteries all along the east, north and west coast of Britain and Ireland.
In 865 they arrived in England armed and ready to battle. This time they were going to conquer and settle there too. They took York in 866 (and becomes, as Yorkvik, the Danish capital in England). Nottingham in 867. Then in 870 they advance into Wessex where they found the hardest opposition. During the next year nine battles are fought in this district. And during the same year (871), at Ashdown, the English won their first significant victory of the war; a Danish king and nine earls are killed on the battle field. This Victory introduced a figure of significance in English history. This army was commanded by Alfred, brother of the king of Wessex. Later on, in the same year Alfred's brother died and he became the king of Wessex.
In this period the Vikings had accepted Christianity and did not disturb the local population. By 875 Alfred, in the west of Wessex, was the only king who could held out the Vikings that have taken most of England. After some serious defeats Alfred won a decisive battle in 878 and got enough power to make a treaty with the Vikings. The treaty known as the treaty of Wedmore Guthram stated that Guthram agree to move his men out of Wessex and convert to Christianity.
Viking rule was recognized in the east and north of England. It was called the Danelaw. In the rest of the county Alfred was recognized as King. During this period he built walled settlements to keep them out (burghs, now spelled borough).
Later on by 950 the Danish Vikings started raiding westwards and when they met the Saxon King Ethelred, he decided to pay the Vikings to stay out of his territory. So he set a tax upon all his people called Danegeld.
When Ethelred died Cnut (Canute), the leader of the Danish Vikings controlled much of England. He became a king because the Witan and everyone else feared disorder. It was better to have a Danish king that no king. Canute died in 1035 and his son lasted only 5 years more and died too. After that the Witan chose Edward to be the king. He was the son of the Saxon king Ethelred.
King Edward was known as “The Confessor” because he was more interested in the church than in kingship. He built churches in almost every village and spent almost all his life in Normandy because his mother was daughter of the duke of Normandy.
Edward died in 1066 having no heir. So, who should follow him as a king became the most important question for England during those days. Norman were not liked by the most powerful Saxon nobles, particularly by the most powerful family of Wessex, the Godwinson. The Witan chose Harold Godwinson to be the next king of England, even though he had no royal blood.
Harold's right to the English throne soon was threatened and challenged by William who was a Duke of Normandy. During this period he faced several dangers from the south and north with the Danish Vikings that were still claiming to the English throne. In 1066 he went north to Yorkshire to defeat the Danes in that area. He was informed that during his absence William had landed in England with an army. His men were tired but had no time to rest and marched back to England as fast as possible. This time Norman soldiers were better armed, better organized and were mounted on horses. Harold was defeated and killed in the battle of Hastings. After that William marched to London and started burning villages outside the city so they soon gave in and crowned him king on England in 1066.
The long-term linguistic effect of the Viking settlements in England was threefold: over a thousand words eventually became part of Standard English; numerous places in the East and North-east of England have Danish names; and many English personal names are of Scandinavian origin. Scandinavian words that entered the English language included landing, score, beck, fellow, take, busting, and steersman. The vast majority of loan words did not appear in documents until the early twelfth century; these included many modern words which used sk- sounds, such as skirt, sky, and skin; other words appearing in written sources at this time included again, awkward, birth, cake, dregs, fog, freckles, gasp, law, neck, ransack, root, scowl, sister, seat, sly, smile, want, weak, and window. Some of the words that came into use are among the most common in English, such as both, same, get, and give. The system of personal pronouns was affected, with they, them, and their replacing the earlier forms. Old Norse influenced the verb to be; the replacement of sindon by are is almost certainly Scandinavian in origin, as is the third-person-singular ending -s in the present tense of verbs.
There are more than 1,500 Scandinavian place names in England, mainly in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (within the former boundaries of the Danelaw): over 600 end in -by, the Scandinavian word for "village" or "town" — for example Grimsby, Naseby, and Whitby; many others end in -thorpe ("farm"), -thwaite ("clearing"), and -toft ("homestead").
The distribution of family names showing Scandinavian influence is still, as an analysis of names ending in -son reveals, concentrated in the north and east, corresponding to areas of former Viking settlement. Early medieval records indicate that over 60% of personal names in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire showed Scandinavian influence.

(Martin Romano)