Viking
Who were the Vikings?
The word `Viking' meant `sea robber'. It was the name given to
people who sailed to Britain from Norway, Sweden and Denmark more than a
thousand years ago.
The Vikings were great seafarers, building sturdy ships that they used for fishing and hunting seals and walrus.
Gradually, the hunters made longer and
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longer voyages into the open sea. They raided new lands and brought treasure
home with them.
Much of the soil in the Vikings' homeland was rocky and infertile. This made farming difficult. The Vikings began
to search for better places to settle, where the weather was warmer and the soil richer. This was the beginning of
the Viking Age.
The Early Raids
The first Viking raid on Britain were aimed at the monasteries which were built on the coast.
The monasteries were places where Christian monks lived and worshipped God. The pagan Vikings saw them as a source of great riches. From about 790, they began to make frequent attacks from the sea.
The first Viking raid took place on 8 June 793. The monks on the island of Lindisfarne, in north east England, noticed the square sails of strange ships on the horizon. The ships had sailed from Norway and they were packed with warrior.
The raiders beached their ships and rushed towards the monastery. They killed some of the monks and captured others, keeping them for `thralls', or slaves. They stripped the church of its gold and silver ornaments and then sailed away, back to Norway.
The raid had been very easy for the Vikings. The monastery was right next to the sea. It was full of
treasure and yet the monks made no effort to defend it. They were holy men and they did not own weapons.
It is hardly surprising that the Vikings returned again and again to raid monasteries on the
British coastline.
The Invasion
In 865 a massive Viking army crossed the sea from Denmark and landed in eastern England. These Vikings planned to invade the land
and stay for good. For 14 years, the Great Army moved around England. The summers were spent fighting the English. Each winter, the army retired to a winter camp, like the one discovered at Repton in Derbyshire. We know from English
writings that the Great Army passed the winter of 873-874 here.
Viking Towns
By the 880s, the Great Army had conquered much of the north and east of England. There were several important towns here, such as York, Lincoln, Leicester, Stamford and Derby.
The biggest Viking town in Britain was York, which the Vikings called Jorvik. Archaeologists digging here found all sorts of things that were left behind by craftworkers of the Viking Age.
Lincoln, which had been founded by the L Romans 800 years earlier, was a perfect place for a Viking settlement. It was beside a river which meant that the Vikings could reach it by ship. It was also strongly defended by massive Roman walls.
During the 1970s, archaeologists dug at Flaxengate in Lincoln and found remains of houses where the first Viking settlers might have lived. They were wooden long houses, each measuring around 16m by 5m. They had mostly rotted away in the dry earth, but a few black stumps of posts remained. Using this evidence archaeologists could work out what the houses had been like.
The Vikings had two ways of building in wood. They used either oak planks or wattle, which is springy twigs of hazel woven into a mat. Both types of house were found by archaeologists at Lincoln and at York. The Viking houses in
York were much better preserved than those at Lincoln. The soil was very wet: wood lasts longer if it is waterlogged.
In Lincoln, many of the streets have names such as Danegate, Flaxengate and Micklegate. This is because the Danish word for street was `gata' or gate. Danegate means `street of the Danes'.
The end of the Viking Age
The year 1066 is often said to mark the end of the Viking Age. It was in that year that King Harald Hard Ruler of Norway tried to invade England. This was the last great Viking invasion.
Harald failed and was killed in battle near York. Instead, England was conquered by the Normans, who were originally Vikings (North men') who had settled in France.
Long after 1066, Viking languages were still being spoken in Britain. Over time, English speakers picked up hundreds of Viking words for everyday things. We still use these words, including law, husband, egg, take, happy, sky, ugly, knife, fellow, they, and window.
We are still influenced by the Vikings who settled in Britain more than a thousand years ago. In some
places, people remember their Viking past through festivals. `Up-Helly-Aa', a fire festival
which takes place on the last Tuesday in January in Shetland. Most of the islanders go to the capital,
Lerwick, to join in the fun. Dressed as Vikings, they pull a specially built longship through the
streets, finally setting it on fire.
Extract from “On The Trail Of The Vikings In Britain”, written by Peter Chrisp. London, Franklin Watts, 1999.
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