The Danelaw, Viking Invasions

Nowhere was more emblematic of this new hybrid Saxon-Norse culture than the city of Jorvik. After its capture by Ragnar’s sons in 866, Jorvik boomed, becoming an essential node in the dense network of Britain's river trade. As the 10th century dawned, the city rivalled Dublin as the most important Viking settlement in the British Isles.

In the Danelaw, many Norse lived seasonal lives: farmers in the summer months when there was agricultural work to be done, and then Vikings again after the harvest, heading out in their longships to raid and trade. Many had strong links with the rest of the medieval world, and, from their cousins plying the Volga, brought the luxuries of the east to the relative backwater of England. Archaeological finds such as the Bedale Hoard and the Vale of York Hoard have unearthed Islamic silver dirhams and ornaments, as well as ingots, Irish-manufactured jewellery and Scandinavian weapons, showing how the Viking settlers connected Britain to global trade.

The Vikings also left placenames, a constant reminder of their presence still seen throughout the British Isles. The Yorkshire town of Grimsby, for example, is said to have been named after a Viking named Grimir, with the Norse suffix ‘-by’ meaning village or town. In fact, if you travel through the UK, especially in the northeast and Scotland, you’ll notice many towns ending in ‘-by’ (Whitby, Derby), ‘-thorpe’ (Scunthorpe, Littlethorpe), ‘-Ness’ (Skegness), all of which are former Viking settlements. Historians have used the densities of these types of placenames to identify the areas of the most extensive Norse colonisation, especially the East Midlands and modern Yorkshire. With ‘Gunthorpe in the East Midlands’, we have a town named after a woman - the name originally meant ‘Gunhilde’s Farm’, proof that Viking women owned and managed property independent of men. 

Other influences are still visible today. Many of the traditional sheep breeds of northern England come from Scandinavian stock, brought over by settlers who saw the vast undulating Yorkshire moors and the high slopes of the Lake District as perfect pastureland. The English language was influenced: words such as crave, ransack, rive, scare, take and thrust all come from Norse (do you notice a theme?). Many northern dialects also feature Scandinavian vocabulary, as well as sharing syntax with modern Scandinavian languages. Norse words from northern English dialects include beck for stream, fell for mountain and laik for play.

Cultural exchange went both ways, and the Vikings learned from the Saxons. The influence with the most wide-ranging consequences was probably the slow adoption of Christianity. Whilst we find numerous Viking burials with grave goods in Northumbria, showing a strong Pagan presence, by the mid-10th century, it became more common for Vikings to adopt the religion of the British Isles. This resulted in some fantastic art that mixed motifs from Norse mythology and Biblical stories (take a look at the Gosforth Cross Heritage Site for a good example). 

The Saxons also introduced standardised coinage to the Norse. Previously, Vikings traded by weight of silver, either through the practice of ‘hacksilver’ - weighing pieces cut off a bar of silver - or by weighing Arab silver dirhams. In the Danelaw, the Vikings adopted the Saxon practice of establishing royal mints, where coin makers would be granted a licence by the king to produce coinage. 

In the years after Alfred’s victory, the cultural differences between the north and south grew. As the Danelaw remained independent, its Norse population expanded, and its Saxons got used to living under Norse kings, at least enough that there was no particular reason to prefer rule by a southerner from Wessex. After Alfred’s death, his successors would need to navigate this reality if they wished to bring the Saxon people together under one king.