Epilogue, Viking Invasions, Challenge Completed!

We cannot know how long, if ever, it would have taken the Saxon kingdoms to unify into a single realm without the threat of the Vikings. Alfred’s rule began the idea of a united English people, and Aethelstan made it a reality. 

Yet Wessex’s creation of England was as much a conquest as it was a unification. By defeating the Vikings and taking their lands, they imposed a unified nation on the Northumbrians, whether they were Saxon or Norse. By creating such a large kingdom, they dwarfed the realms of the other peoples of the British Isles. English rulers, beginning with Aethelstan, started to believe that the other peoples of the islands belonged under English overlordship. This fundamental theme of British history - a powerful England, and its claim to rule the British Isles - is a direct consequence of the Viking Age.

The consequences of the English overlordship declared by Aethelstan at Eamont have been far-reaching and disastrous for many of the Celtic inhabitants of the British Isles. Modern independence movements in Scotland and Wales argue against the precedent of centralised English power first put forward in the 10th century. The great north/south divide of England also owes part of its origin to the treaties of Alfred and Guthrum. Today, the cultural differences between northern and southern England remain so great that many scholars wonder if a unified English identity exists at all. The split between the two regions created by the Danelaw has never been fully bridged, whilst the dominance of the south has continued until the present day. 

Before being exposed to their great trade networks, the Saxons were a relatively isolated people, far less connected to other European states than, for example, the Irish. The Viking trade led to the development of ports in Bristol, London, and Whitby. These ports would later become essential nodes in the vast British trading and colonial empire of the modern period. Perhaps there’s a long, squiggly, faded line that can be drawn between the early Viking traders and the British Empire. In fact, if you’re reading this from the USA or Canada, there’s a connection to be found from the growth of Bristol as a trading port in the Viking Age, the voyage of John Cabot, which set off from Bristol’s harbour in 1497, its landfall in North America, the subsequent European colonisation and the creation of your modern homeland. 

We live with the consequences of the Viking Age every day in the modern United Kingdom. Whether it's the dialect you speak, the cities you live in, the place names passed as you drive through the soft, green, dry-stone wall-lined countryside, the Vikings are a constant presence. 

Because of a large amount of extra content, I took this challenge slow with my 3-mile walks in the morning.  I'll wait until I get a few more of my open challenges complete before starting Number 2 in the series.  I found the content fascinating.