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Britain during t he Viking Age

Norsemen and Anglo-Saxon Culture Martial Similarities Maritime Prowess Religious Differences Initial & Wide Contacts Trading and Raiding Northern Raiders Monastic Foundations Settlements in the Midlands 9 th cent. Wessex Danelaw Cultural Clash & Integration

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Britain during t he Viking Age

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  1. Norsemen and Anglo-Saxon Culture Martial Similarities Maritime Prowess Religious Differences Initial & Wide Contacts Trading and Raiding Northern Raiders Monastic Foundations Settlements in the Midlands 9th cent. Wessex Danelaw Cultural Clash & Integration 10th cent. Raids The Reign of Cnut (1016-35) Britain during the Viking Age Viking Towns in Scandinavia (NB: Roskilde, Copenhagen

  2. Norse & Anglo-Saxon Cultures 8th cent. Similarities Languages Intelligible Settlements, Architecture Martial Values 8th cent. Differences A-S Sedentary Life Norse Traveling Life Military, Maritime Prowess Religious Differences Potential for Cultural Clash, Assimilation Reconstruction of a Viking Ship, Roskilde, Denmark

  3. Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde • M,hv

  4. Initial Contacts; Wide Contacts Trade within the Baltic East Into Russia to the Black Sea Far West to Ice-, Green-, Vinland South to Germany, France South to Spain, Mediterranean British Isles: Northumbria, E. Anglia, Wessex; Scotland, Ireland Medieval Warm Period (pack-ice) Longships (long-distance travel) Population, Political Pressure

  5. Raiders of the North 1st Raids 787/9 – A-S Chronicle 793 – Lindisfarne, St. Cuthbert 794 – Jarrow 802 – Iona (Monastic Foundations) Sporadic during the 810s/20s Almost Perennial 830s/40s NB: Iona is in Northwest Corner 793: This year came dreadful fore-warnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully:  these were immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds, and fiery, dragons flying across the firmament.  These tremendous tokens were soon followed by a great famine: and not long after, on the sixth day before the ides of January in the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island, by rapine and slaughter.

  6. Full-Scale Invasion & Settling Down 850/1 & 854 Wintering on Isle of Thanet, Kent Raids on London & Canterbury 865-76: The Great Army (1000s of men) Halfdan, Ivar the Boneless (Berserker) Conquest of E. Anglia; York by 867 Most of N.umbria (disunity) Eastern Mercia (poorly defended) Danegeld paid by Mercia, Wessex Ivar’s Blood Eagle Sacrifice of Edmund Alfred’s Stand vs. Danish Guthrum 878: Battle of Edington, Wiltshire 886: Regains London; Danelaw est. 880s-900 Firm Division; Coexistence; Common Xty Scandinavian Stone depicting Blood Eagle

  7. Danelaw: Territorial and Cultural Much of Northumbria (Yorkshire) Eastern Mercia (5 Boroughs) Lincoln Stamford Nottingham Leicester Derby East Anglia Much of Ireland (Dublin) Division b/w Wessex Watling Street

  8. Continued Clashes & Integration Raids Renewed 910s: Irish Vikings in NW England Capital City: York, 919 920s-50s: Contest in Yorkshire Erik Bloodaxe, York, 947 980s/90s: SE, Wessex Raided Olaf Tryggvason; SweinForkbeard Danegeld (Extortion) Swein: King in the Danelaw Cnut (r. 1016-35) Danish Warrior Conqueror Christian, Statesman Administrative Divisions (4 Earls) By 1028, King of England, Dmark, Norway Silver Penny of Eric Bloodaxe, Viking King of York/Northumbria (947/8, 952-4) Cnut was later made famous for his (supposed) attempt to stop the tide from invading his lands. The waters did not obey, proving to Cnut and his nobles that “the power of kings is vain and trivial, and that none is worthy the name of king but He whose command the heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws.”

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