Why are you re-enacting Vikings in Britain, didn't they all live in Norway?
Vikings came from the far north - what is today modern Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. The people of Britain usually called them Northmen or Danes - rarely "Vikings". Viking was definitely more of an attitude than a people. Men went "a viking" - that is to trade, raid or settle a different country to the one they were born in.
The Vikings hit the shores of Britain in the late eighth century - giving the monks on Lindisfarne a hard time in 793AD. The campaign of raiding easy targets such as monasteries was to go on for a further 50 years or so. In 865AD a "Great Army" arrived in the East Anglia which was to leave a trail of devastation throughout the country. This army overran the towns of York, Nottingham and Reading. Their progress south was halted at the battle of Edington in Wiltshire by Alfred the Great in 878AD. Alfred and the Viking King Guthrum arranged to share England between them, drawing a line between the Dee and the Thames to split the land creating the Kingdom of Wessex to the South and the Danelaw in the North. Over a further 50 years the Wessex kings would conquer the Danelaw which would lead to the creation of England. Many battles occurred in this period between the Saxons and the Vikings of the Danelaw.
Things then remained pretty quiet until the 990's when a new army of Vikings started to attack the south coast. Led by men with names such as Olaf Trygvassen, Sven Forkbeard and his son Cnut. The Saxons fought them off for 20 years - but the Vikings demanded more and more silver in exchange for them going away. This was a protection racket on a big scale - more than 100,000 pounds of silver would make their way to Scandinavia in this period. Eventually the Saxons could stand no more and in 1016 England found itself a colony of Denmark under the rule of Cnut. With the death of Cnut's sons the throne reverted to the Saxon kings - there would be attempts at the recovery of the kingdom in 1066, but the Viking age was effectively finished.
England of course was not the only place
to suffer from the incursions of these early "Mafiosi". They colonised
most, if not all of the outlying islands such as Orkney, Shetland, The
Hebrides and the Isle of Man. They founded cities in Ireland such as Dublin.
They caused trouble in Wales and Scotland as well as travelling much further
afield to Iceland, Russia, Spain and Turkey. They may also have reached
Newfoundlnd, landing on the coast of North Americ 500 years befor Columbus.
Why did they come here?
Greed - well,it's not as simple
as that, but a thirst for silver and land undoubtedly contributed to the
reasons behind the various expeditions. The men who first undertook "hit
and run" raids on the monasteries were undoubtedly thieves after portable
goods. The men who came with the Great Army would settle and raise families,
and the men who sailed with Cnut came first for silver and then for the
Kingdom.
How do we know all of this?
Documents written at the time give us some clues. The Saxons kept a chronicle called, unsurprisingly, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which details battles and visitations year by year. Its a little biased in that most of it was written in the south of England and we do not hear too much about the north. Some documents such as the Icelandic Sagas give us some information about the characters of people like Ivar the Boneless and Eric Bloodaxe - but they were not written down until the13/14th century so they are rather more like stories than real history.
Our other form of evidence comes from archaeology. Towns like York have in recent years seen extensive excavations taking place - on these sites there have been things found such as jewellery and other domestic items which are very similar to Viking items from Scandinavia. Some of the buildings excavated in England like ones in Cheddar and Durham show signs of Scandinavian influence in their plan. There have also been finds of large amounts of silver such as those from Goldsborough, Yorkshire and Cuerdale, Lancashire. A few burials of Vikings have been found in England in counties such as Norfolk, Yorkshire and Berkshire. We know they are Vikings because of the things found in their graves - such as swords, spears and distinctive brooches. The Isle of Man and Scotland have a number of graves as well. The Vikings also left behind stone carvings of great beauty such as the grave slab from St Pauls in London and Hogback tombstones in Yorkshire and Lancashire. One very special carving on a cross shaft in Middleton, Yorkshire shows a Viking with his sword, axe, spear and shield surrounding him.
Other things that the Vikings left behind are some of the names of our towns and villages. The word "by" seems to have been a general Viking word for settlement, so Derby, Selby and Kirby all have Viking pasts. Places ending in "thorpe" also come from the Vikings. We also get Scandinavian personal names being used and adding a Saxon word (town) at the end - so Grim may have settled somewhere and the local Saxons might call his settlement Grimston.
Hopefully it is now obvious why doing Viking re-enactment in Britain is just as valid as in Norway, Denmark or Sweden. The Scandinavian raids and settlement of this country would bring about many changes to the early medieval world. Not only would they bring devastation and destruction - but they also brought beautiful artwork, poetry and literature, lasting towns, and trade with Europe and beyond. Subsequent generations found the romance and excitement of the Viking age something to look to for inspiration. Today The Vikings hope to both entertain and inform people about the Viking age, its people and how it helped to shape the Britain we know today .
Caroline Buckley is the Society Scripts and Casting Officer and works as a Cartographer in York.