Innholdsfortegnelse for The Story of Vikings and Anglo-Saxons 2016 i History Extra

From the crumbling of Roman rule in the fifth century AD until the triumph of the Normans (themselves descended from Norsemen) in 1066, Britain’s – and especially England’s – history is dominated by two groups: the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. Both originating in northern Europe, the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings arrived in waves of migrants and invaders, battling and making accommodations with both each other and the peoples already inhabiting these islands. They left a profound legacy in our language, our laws, our place names and remarkable artefacts that continue to be discovered today. In this special edition of BBC History Magazine we explore both groups in depth, with articles written by some of the country’s foremost experts. Discover the latest thinking about the ‘Dark Ages’, find out about the Vikings’…

“The treasure is a much-needed feast for the eyes in a period starved of visual aids” The year 1939 saw a rare ray of light shine into the Dark Ages – one that made people realise that the Anglo-Saxon period did not deserve that gloomy moniker. During the previous year, Edith Pretty, owner of Sutton Hoo House in Suffolk, had commissioned a local archaeologist, Basil Brown, to investigate the huge tumulus on her land. Brown did not do as he was asked. On examining it, he saw that a trench had been dug into its centre; he assumed that it had been robbed, so moved on to the smaller surrounding tumuli. Having found next to nothing in those, in 1939 he returned his attention to his original subject. He quickly…

1731: A very narrow escape Beowulf is very nearly lost in the fire at the Cottonian Library in Ashburnham House, Westminster, which destroys more than 200 medieval manuscripts. The document had presumably been in the possession of an English monastery dissolved by Henry VIII in the 1530s. At some point in the subsequent 30 years it passed into the possession of the antiquary and lexicographer Laurence Nowell (died c1570), then into the hands of Sir Robert Cotton (1571–1631), collector and MP for Huntingdonshire. 1815: The first printed edition The Icelandic archivist Grimur Jónsson Thorkelin, working under commission from the Danish government, publishes the first printed edition under the subtitle: A Danish Poem in Anglo-Saxon Dialect Concerning Danish Events of the Third and Fourth Centuries (sic). 1837: Translated into English The…

1 Isle of Iona, Inner Hebrides • www.welcometoiona.com This island off the west coast of Scotland, where the Irish saint Columba founded a monastery in 563, brings us close to the experience of the earliest missionaries. The breathtaking journey by land (across Mull) and sea takes you through some of the most spectacular scenery in Scotland. From here, Saint Columba led missions to spread Christianity among the Scots in Dalriada, and the Picts in the region. 2 Lindisfarne, Northumberland • www.lindisfarne.org.uk The unspoiled tidal island of Lindisfarne – off the coast of Northumberland, near the Anglo-Saxon royal fortress of Bamburgh – remains a major site of pilgrimage. In 635 – at the invitation of Oswald, king of Northumbria – Aidan, a monk from Iona, established a monastery and seat of…

On Saturday 20 May AD 685, Saint Cuthbert was with Northumbria’s queen Iurmenburh at Carlisle when he had a vision of her husband, Ecgfrith, dying at the hands of the Picts. A few days later, “they heard that it was announced far and wide that a wretched and lamentable battle had taken place at the very day and hour it was revealed to him”. Ecgfrith was dead, and the flower of his army had fallen. For Northumbria, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom that spanned much of what is now northern England and southern Scotland, it was a fateful day. Bede, the English monk and author, later quoted from Virgil’s Aeneid: “The hope and valour of the realm of the English began ‘to ebb and flow away’.” The Picts recovered lands previously taken…

1 Technological advances that encouraged piracy The onset of the Viking age coincided with the appearance of the technologically advanced, sail-powered longship – the stealth bomber of its time. Longships such as the Oseberg ship (built 820) replaced giant man-powered vessels like the Storhaug ship, found on Karmøy (buried 779), opening up the seas to young Scandinavian pirates as never before. 2 Poverty and overpopulation In his history On the Customs and Deeds of the First Norman Dukes (995–1015), Dudo of Saint-Quentin wrote that, in former times in the Scandinavian homelands, quarrels over land and property were resolved by “the drawing of lots”. Losers were condemned to a life abroad where “by fighting they can gain themselves countries”. 3 A flood of riches into Scandinavia Trading led to an influx…

Strathclyde A Welsh (‘British’) kingdom whose territory ranged across modern-day Scotland and Cumbria in north-western England, it was dealt a blow when Dumbarton Rock was besieged by Dublin Vikings in 870. With Govan (now in Glasgow) as its likely religious centre, Strathclyde continued as a political force well into the 10th century. Welsh kingdoms A range of kings with a variety of extents of power and layers of lordship appears to have been the order in early Wales, with Gwynedd in the north-west coming to the fore. Though Rhodri Mawr (‘the Great’) suffered at Viking and English hands, and was probably killed by Mercians in 878, his successors asserted dominance over many of the neighbouring kingdoms, making alliances with Vikings and Anglo-Saxons according to circumstances. Cornwall Cornwall was coming under…

The diplomacy of Æthelstan’s reign included a seemingly thought-out attempt to achieve a pacification of the whole seaboard from Brittany to Norway through a series of diplomatic alliances. He fostered the heir to the Frankish kingdom and sponsored his return to Frankia. He brought up the Breton heir and actually provided military support for the Breton royal line to regain Brittany from the Vikings. He fostered the son of the king of Norway and befriended William Longsword of Normandy. He married four of his sisters to European rulers including Hugh the Great Duke of the Franks and Otto I, the founder of the first German reich. By these international alliances, he seemed to be trying to broker a pax across western Europe with a loose-knit group of Christian kings allied…

1014 Bury St Edmunds Saint Edmund exacts his legendary revenge Bury’s monks preserved a legend that the townspeople had resisted paying taxes to Swein, arguing that they paid taxes only to their saint. To prove their point, the martyred Saint Edmund reputedly appeared before Swein at Gainsborough and transfixed him with a lance, so that he died horribly. 1013–14 Gainsborough Swein establishes a strategic base Gainsborough in Lincolnshire is where Swein received the submission of Northumbria, of the men of Lindsey and of the Five Boroughs. With good communications, it made an ideal base for the Danish king. Swein died at Gainsborough after having supposedly fallen from his horse. 1013 Winchester Alfred’s former residence falls to the Vikings Winchester was one of the favoured residences of the kings of Wessex…

The helmet Based on late Roman and Swedish models, the Sutton Hoo helmet is littered with imagery. A long snake – perhaps representing Jörmungandr, the ‘world serpent’ that circled the Earth – reaches down to touch the beak of a bird whose wings form the eyebrows and whose tail comprises the warrior’s moustache. Hidden among the rust are images of hornedhelmeted and mounted warriors Purse lid The purse that contained the coins pictured below was presumably made of leather, which has long since rotted away. But its remarkably ornate lid of gold and cellwork plaques remains. It bears images that appear to relate to lost legend Coins and ingots Thanks to these 40 coins and two small ingots, we are able to accurately date the treasures of Sutton Hoo. The…

Beowulf, a noble Geat, goes to help the Danish king Hrothgar whose hall, Heorot, has suffered repeated night attacks by a monster from the fens called Grendel. Beowulf tears out Grendel’s arm and the monster limps off to die, only for his mother to exact revenge on Hrothgar’s men. Beowulf follows her trail to a cave at the bottom of a lake where he finds and kills her. The hero returns home, is made king of the Geats and rules gloriously for 50 years until the peace of his realm is disturbed by a dragon, made angry when its treasure is disturbed. The aged Beowulf dons armour and slays the beast but is mortally wounded in the battle. The poem ends with his cremation and his man, Wiglaf, chastising the…

Æthelfrith (Ecgfrith’s paternal grandfather) should be viewed as the founder of Northumbria. He came to prominence as king of the Bernicians in northern Northumbria c592, but expanded his rule dramatically by waging war against the neighbouring British kingdoms, and by imposing himself on Deira (basically Yorkshire). He also fought off an attack by the Scots of Dál Riata, then marched against the Welsh and won the battle of Chester around 615. Edwin (Ecgfrith’s maternal grandfather) was king of Northumbria 616–33. He was initially placed on the throne by East Anglian backers but from c626 onwards he was the most powerful king in Britain. He defeated the West Saxons and the Welsh, and took control of Anglesey and Man. Conversion to Roman Christianity provided him with an important source of soft…

It is not even certain that ‘Viking’ is Scandinavian in origin. It occurs several times in the Old English poems Widsith, usually dated to the end of the seventh century, and in the eighth-century Exodus, in which the tribe of Reuben are described as “sæwicingas”, meaning ‘sea-warriors’, as they cross the Red Sea on their way out of Egypt. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle uses the term only four times before 1066, in the native English forms wícenga or wícinga, in 879, 885, 921 and 982. Some linguists believe it derives from the Latin vícus, meaning ‘camp’ or ‘dwellingplace’. Others suggest it comes from an Old Norse verb víkja, meaning ‘to travel from place to place’. A simple and persuasive theory is that it originally denoted people from the Vik, the name…

When Æthelflæd died in 918 she was succeeded as ruler of the Mercians by Ælfwynn, her daughter. It is difficult to overstate how unusual Ælfwynn’s succession was. For one woman to succeed another is rare in any era, but in the early medieval period it was completely unheard of. It is the first example of female-to-female succession in Europe, and the last in Britain before the 16th century, when Lady Jane Grey (queen for nine days in 1553) was followed first by Mary (1553–58) and then Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Why, then, did the Mercian bigwigs allow it? Ultimately, they were confronted with the same choice that they had faced in 911 (when they accepted Æthelflæd): either be ruled by a king from a different kingdom who would bring in his…

The creation of the early English state was a political and military act, accomplished by war, but it was fired by a big idea: Bede’s vision of the gens Anglorum – the English people. In AD 731 the Venerable Bede, a monk from the north of England, finished his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The shape of early medieval English Christian culture was drawn by Bede in a lifetime’s work. His book defined the island of Britain as a land of milk and honey, and the English (“not Angles, but angels”) as a chosen people. It’s the blueprint for writings right down to Blake’s Jerusalem. His text was translated from the Latin into Old English by Alfred the Great, and Alfred’s grandson was surely driven by the idea of…

Swein was the son of Harald Bluetooth, the first Christian king of Denmark, who had substantially enlarged the Danish kingdom and been accepted as overlord in Norway. Eager to wield power himself, Swein rebelled against his father in AD 987 and drove him into exile. Such was the stability of the realm created by Harald that Swein was free to lead raids on England himself without having to worry about his security at home. And his campaign enjoyed the support not only of his own retainers but also of other leading men from Denmark and elsewhere in Scandinavia, who hoped to profit from the treasures he would win. Swein’s nickname, Forkbeard, is first recorded in a chronicle from Roskilde, compiled about 1140. Most medieval accounts of his career followed the…

“The windswept Kentish isle must have seemed a remote and desolate place” SARAH FOOT Lying at the most easterly point of Kent, the Isle of Thanet – with its sandy beaches and chalk cliffs – now seems an improbable place to search for the origins of Christianity among the English. Yet it was here in the year 597 that Roman missionaries landed and began to preach the gospel to the pagan Anglo-Saxons. The first missionaries to these shores had come in Roman times, creating a flourishing British church, but the end of Roman rule and the migration of non-Christian Germanic peoples into Britain had led the faith to decline. To the eyes of Pope Gregory the Great in Rome, Britain had once more become a pagan country. In the Middle…

The 30th year in power of Offa, king of the Mercians from AD 757 to 796, was one of the most momentous of his reign. An extract from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 787 outlines the situation: In this year there was a contentious synod at Chelsea, and Archbishop Jænberht lost a certain part of his province, and Hygeberht was chosen by King Offa. And Ecgfrith was consecrated king. Behind this brief report lie not just heated debates in a church council, but also negotiations with the papacy, a visit from two papal legates bent on reforming the English church and society, and a developing relationship between Offa and Charlemagne (Charles the Great), his counterpart in the kingdom of Frankia (modern France and Germany west of the Rhine). Charlemagne, who would…

782 Charlemagne’s Christian armies forcibly baptise and then behead 4,500 heathen Saxon prisoners at Verden on the banks of the river Aller. 793 The raid on Lindisfarne is the first in a series of terrorist attacks on ‘soft’ Christian targets in the north of Britain. 851 For the first time since raiding began on mainland England, a Viking army doesn’t return home after the summer but spends the winter camped at Thanet. 865 The ‘Great Heathen Army’ lands in England. Within 15 years, much of eastern England is under the rule of its leaders. Scandinavian political organisation and law-codes are introduced. 878 The Wessex king Alfred formally recognises the Viking chieftain Guthrum as king of East Anglia. Guthrum agrees to baptism, taking and using the Christian and Anglo-Saxon name Æthelstan.…

Alfred’s brother King Æthelberht (pictured) dies and is succeeded by another brother, Æthelred. The Great Danish Army (sometimes called the Great Heathen Army) lands in East Anglia King Edmund of East Anglia (later Saint Edmund of Bury St Edmunds) is killed by the Great Danish Army and his kingdom conquered. The army divides, with one part marching north and the other south The Danes conquer the kingdom of Mercia and send King Burgred into exile The Danes divide the kingdom of Mercia in two, keeping the eastern part and giving the western half to the Mercian king, Ceolwulf When the Danes renew their attacks on Alfred’s kingdom, his new defensive network comes into its own The Great Danish Army captures York, kills the two Northumbrian kings and conquers the kingdom…

There are several English monarchs who, for some reason or other, might justly be described as the father of the English state, but few have quite as direct a claim as Æthelstan. Just two years after his accession to the throne of Wessex and Mercia, he had expanded his territory from his power base in the south to cover most of what we would today know as England. And arguably the greatest turning point in British history before the 11th century came in AD 927 – the year when Æthelstan created a kingdom of all England. In early summer of that year Æthelstan overran Northumbria, captured York and called the northern British kings to a pact of mutual peace and protection. A continental poet in his entourage composed a poem…

Among the key sources for Viking history are the sagas, tales of heroism, feuding and exploration that probably began in oral form before being written down, mainly in Iceland, around the 13th century. Some of the sagas have a historical core, such as the Orkneyinga Saga that tells the history of the earls of Orkney, or the Vinland Sagas recounting Viking voyages of exploration in North America. Even these are distorted by the demands of storytelling and the interest of the authors in glorifying one family or group’s deeds over that of another. So, for example, it is almost impossible to determine from the evidence in the sagas exactly which parts of the Americas were visited by the Vikings. The largest group of sagas are the Íslendingasögur, ‘Icelandic family sagas’…