THE VIKINGS AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE U.K.

 

 

Vikings were feared and respected. Some viewed and portrayed them as godless pagans, barbarian invaders. Others looked up to them, regarding them as brave, fearless legendary warriors.

Vikings formed part of a complex and sophisticated Scandinavian culture. They originated from what are now Norway, Sweden and Denmark, though there are mentions in historical records of Finnish, Estonian Varaginian and Saami Vikings as well.

As well as raiders they were traders, reaching as far east as the rivers of Russia and the Caspian Sea, far across the Atlantic where they would land on the coastline of North America ten centuries before Columbus; poets, composing verse and prose sagas of great power, and artists, creating works of astonishing beauty. While the Vikings had the runic alphabet, they didn’t have written history, it was transmitted orally. These seafaring warriors known collectively as Vikings or Norsemen (“Northmen”) began by raiding coastal sites, especially undefended monasteries, in the British Isles in 793 CE.

Terror descended on the coast of Northumbria (U.K), as armed raiders attacked the defenceless monastery of St Cuthbert on Lindisfarne. The terrified monks watched helplessly as these invaders made off with a haul of treasure and a clutch of captives, mainly monks most likely. It was the first recorded raid by the Vikings, who would prey on coastal communities in north-western Europe as well as parts of modern-day Russia, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland for more than two centuries. The attack and plunder of Lindisfarne echoed throughout the next 300 years of European history, what historians refer to as The Viking Age, had begun.

The exact reasons for Vikings to leave their homeland remain unclear, but we do know that at first they were looking for riches and not land which out rules the theory that they were overpopulated. It is a historic fact that Europe was growing richer, fuelling the growth of trading centres such as Dorestad and Quentovic on the Continent and Hamwic (now Southampton), London, Ipswich and York in England. Scandinavian furs were highly prized in the new trading markets. Their knowledge on new sailing technology and inner conflicts between European kingdoms would be used to expand their fortune-seeking activities into the North Sea and beyond. Special ship construction techniques made the long ships and larger dragon ships versatile enough to sail great distances, carry up to 200 men, withstand rough seas while still being light enough to drag over land or carry through portages. They traded all the goods of the north – furs, amber, iron and timber – for all the goods of the south – silver, gold, silks and spices. And all along the trade routes, the Vikings traded in slaves. It is worth noting that women in Viking society had more power than most other European women of the time. They could divorce their husbands, own some property and sell their own handicrafts. Some women became wealthy landowners too.

So Vikings took to raiding towns, churches and monasteries in Christian faith countries, e.g. Francia; many of the attacks took place on the coasts as they were easiest to reach. With their swift and easily landed ships, they quickly swarm over the communities, killing and looting, and just as fast returned to their ships and left. They were gone before any defence or counter-attack could be made. Strangely enough, for most of the men who went plundering, it was only part time. They often returned in time for harvest in the fall. However, raiding was very profitable and many farmers did become full time pirates and raiders.

Vikings presence in Britain

Gradually, 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 in Iceland, the Faroes and Orkney (an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland), 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’.

King Alfred ruled from 871-899 AD and after many trials and tribulations 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 partitioned 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.

Moreover, in 991, during the reign of Aethelred ‘the Unready’ (‘ill-advised’), Olaf Tryggvason’s Viking raiding party defeated the Anglo-Saxon defenders (recorded in the poem The Battle of Maldon), with Aethelred responding by paying ‘Danegeld’ in an attempt to buy off the Vikings. So the Vikings were not permanently 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. As 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 Harald Hardrada sailed up the River Humber and marched to Stamford Bridge with his men. His battle banner was called Land-waster. The English king, Harold Godwinson, marched north with his army and defeated Hardrada in a long and bloody battle. The English had repelled the last invasion from Scandinavia. Nonetheless, immediately after the battle, King Harold heard that William of Normandy had landed in Kent with yet another invading army. With no time to rest, Harold’s army marched swiftly back south to meet this new 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. ** Carruthers have a genealogy link to King Robert I also know as King Rollo ).   His people had become French over time, but in one sense this final successful invasion of England was another Viking one.

Interesting facts:

• Viking Age Scandinavia’s runic alphabet, the Futhark, is named after its first six symbols (f, u, th, a, r, and k). During the Viking Age (800-1050 CE), runestones were often painted and the carved lettering filled in with bright colors. Runestones were raised along waterways and property boundaries, by road intersections, and on hilltops so people could find and read them.

• English and Frankish Christian priests and monks had begun missionary tours to the Viking lands from the 700s to 800s but it wasn’t until King Harald Bluetooth was baptized in 965 that Christianity took a firmer hold in Denmark.

• Viking warriors usually went into battle bareheaded. The whole horned-helm idea came about in Victorian times when Vikings were romanticized.

• In English speaking countries, 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.

 

Preserving Our Past, Recording Our Present, Informing Our Future

Ancient and Honorable Clan Carruthers Int Society CCIS  LLc

carruthersclan1@gmail.com              carrothersclan@gmail.com

 

MARY STUART

CLAN CARRUTHERS INT SOCIETY CCIS HISTORIAN AND GENEALOGIST

You can find us on facebook at :

https://www.facebook.com/carrutherscarrothers.pat.9

https://www.facebook.com/CarruthersClan/

https://www.facebook.com/CarruthersClanLLC

Disclaimer Ancient and Honorable Carruthers Clan International Soci