The Scandinavian invasion

The invaders, who in 793 began their predatory expeditions with the ruthless destruction of the Lindisfarne abbey and wholesale slaughter of those inhabiting it, were two Scandinavian peoples, Danes and Norwegians. Later on the Danes became the invaders of England and the Norwegians constituted the bulk of the hosts invading Scotland and Ireland. They were skilful warriors, cunning ship-builders, and daring pirates. They began the 9^th c. with murderous attacks on Ireland. The Irish gold fields were the greatest attraction for the robbers.

In 842 they burnt up London, in 850 they stayed to winter in England instead of withdrawing with the booty as usual, and in the 60ies of the 9^th c. they founded their first permanent settlements. In 871 they founded a fortified camp in Reading that served them as a base for their further push on to Wessex. It was the young king of Wessex, Alfred nicknamed the Great (871-899), who finally stopped them. The year 871 is called “Alfred’s great year of battles”. As a result, a peace treaty was signed in 879 stipulating a division of the country in two equal parts: the “Danelaw” part in the north-east and England proper in the south-west.

Alfred the Great made vigorous efforts to restore the country’s economy and build up its military potential so as to secure it against future invasions. Every knight having a certain number of hides of land was supposed to serve in the army. He established fortifications in key points along the frontier with permanent detachments of professional soldiers to be resistance centres in case of attacks. He did so well that for almost a century after his death there was comparative peace. His attempts to consolidate the state, establish a system of administration, bring about some sort of order in the law system. King Alfred’s “Truth”, the first code of England’s Common Law, was compiled about 890.

The Scandinavian raids were renewed at the end of the 10^th c. when the Danes saw an opportunity presenting itself in the shape of administrative slackening in the reign of Aethelred the Unready (978-1017).

The nature of those raids was different. This was again a new phase of the Scandinavian invasion, money, and not conquest. Trying to remedy the situation, Aethelred ordered a massacre of all the Danes in England (1002) which only made the matters worse inciting new, revengeful hordes of invaders clamouring for recompense in various forms, the financial form always being the prevailing feature. The sum that was taken out of the Anglo-Saxon tax payers’ pocket, thin enough as it was, by Aethelred to be handed over to king Sweyn, the Danish ruler who was also the king of Norway, was huge. The last payment, made in 1018 looked like a permanent tax for after a fierce struggle England was made part of the Danish kingdom including also Norway and Sweden with Sweyn’s son Canute or Knut as King (1017-1035). It was also during Canute’s reign that the Godwin family, formerly of little renown, came to power in England, that is, south-west of the line marking the “Danelaw” territory. After Canute’s death in 1035 and then the death of his sons (the last one, childless, died in 1042), the Godwin group succeeded in restoring the Old Saxon dynasty to the throne of England. This is how Edward, the son of Aethelred the Unready, was brought back from Normandy (the part of France occurred by the Northmen) where he had to stay at the court of his cousin. Weak-willed and extremely pious, he prepared ground for the Norman conquest soon to take place bringing crowds of Norman nobles, who played on his weaknesses and got what they coveted – a lot of best land and church posts. It was in his reign that the Westminster Abbey was built and the royal residence was moved into its immediate vicinity to a new palace he had built in Westminster.

The Scandinavian Element (the 8^th century – 1042)

Nouns: anger, fellow, gate, husband, sky, window.

Adjectives: ill, low, odd, ugly, flat, awkward, weak.

Verbs: crawl, gape, gasp, get, give, lift, die, take, raise, struggle.

Pronouns: same, both, they.

Scandinavian settlements in England left their toponymic traces in a great number of places:

e.g. – by (from Sc. byr- “settlement, village”) Derby, Rugby, Grimsby

(Sc. foss- “waterfall”) Fossbury, Fossway

(Sc. thorp- “village”) Althorp, Beythorp

(Sc. thvelt- “meadow”) Applethwalte, Cowperthwalte.

Some English words change their meanings taking on the meanings of the corresponding Scandinavian words:

e.g. Sc. draumr – dream (OE “joy”)

Sc. brauth – bread (OE “crumb”, “fragment”).