The Scandinavian Influence on English Identity

The Danelaw

The Scandinavian Influence on English Identity

by

Lucas Novko

Helene Scheck, Advisor

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the

Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors

in Medieval & Renaissance Studies

University at Albany

Albany, NY

5 May 2016

Introduction

In today’s socio-political environment we are seeing borders shift and morph as a result of several different events and factors, whether it be a conflict between two nations or a separation of a single state or even the peaceful merger of two different municipalities. As these borders begin to shift there is a particular exposure between the cultures that constitute those newly formed states or sovereignties. These cultures may have had previous interactions before these developments, but now they are both a part of something; they have become part of a single nation, but they may still maintain cultural diversity. Bringing separate cultural groups under one political rule can result in a number of various outcomes. Other than open conflict, these groups could either become a cultural hybrid, one culture could become assimilated into the other (or others if there is a multitude). It seems that generally whenever borders experience dramatic shifts at least one or more of these activities occur. A prime example of a time and location where this is most certainly relevant was during the 9th and 10th centuries under the Danelaw, one of the major high-points of Medieval (or Viking Age) Scandinavian activity in the British Isles. Though short lived, it was because of the Vikings and their conquest of the region that we today call England that political boundaries were morphed. It is because of the Viking invasion and settlement that we had the early makings of a unified political English people.

The Viking Age

The year was 793 CE. The monastery built upon the Holy Island of Lindisfarne was attacked by a band of men who sailed from the north in their sturdy long-ships. These sailors and warriors were known as the Danes or the Northmen to the Anglo-Saxons and today they are commonly known as the Vikings. This was the label given to an international conglomerate of diverse groups of warriors, raiders, and tradesmen who ranged from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway[1]. For the next two and a half centuries, these men and women from across the sea would be known as a terror to the Christian kingdoms, but unexpectedly with their eventual conversion to Christianity, some of these Scandinavians would become strong advocates for that same faith that had originally demonized them and their ancestors. It is after this infamous raid on the island monastery of Lindisfarne off the North-East coast of England nearly 1,200 years ago many historians today consider the Viking Age to have begun. In fact, if one was to look into any text on the Vikings, he or she would most likely find a passage describing this infamous raid within the first few paragraphs, if not sentences. This was a period of Scandinavian and European history that was characterized by raiding and other such violent interactions, social and political exchanges between this northern culture and the cultures they came in contact with, and trade and exploration around Europe, the Near East, and even North America.

The study of this period had gained popularity in the 19th century by the Victorian scholars and the history had been subject to the Romantic and the Nationalist movements that took hold in Europe and eventually became wide spread. As a result of these movements, though, our image of this northern European society had become disfigured. Having been clouded by Wagnerian imagery and a sense of barbarism for the longest time, the true history of these Scandinavian people is still being revealed to us through more developed forms of archaeological research. Adding this research to further studies of texts written in this age aids in our understanding as to what sorts of impacts the Vikings had on those they came in contact with. The purpose for the research I have conducted is to further explore what sort of affects the Vikings had on England and its people and how the territory they had claimed, called the Danelaw, gave the Anglo-Saxons a better sense of their own “Englishness” and pushed them towards the creation of their own identity. But first, in order to gain an understanding how the Anglo-Saxons saw themselves during this time, it is necessary to first explore how they came to England and the establishment of Christianity amongst English society. With this vital historical background information I wish for my reader to grasp the idea of what sort of changes the English experienced as a result of the Viking Age and how English identity as we know it today got its start. In other words, it is because of the Scandinavian activities of the ninth century that we have the formation of a unified English identity.

Early England and the Formation of the Kingdoms

After the year 450 CE when England was no longer under Roman occupation, the island was open to invasion by Germanic tribes. These tribes consisted of the Angles who came from a region known as Angeln, the Saxons who came from Saxony, and the Jutes who were from northern Denmark. Unfortunately this period of time does not provide us with enough contemporary contextual evidence, so we must rely on later sources in order to gain some understanding of how things played out during the first Germanic invasions of Britain. Of course we must take this information with reasonable skepticism. In his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Bede the Venerable, an early English writer from the late seventh and early eighth centuries, provides us with a detailed account of this heavy influx of Germanic peoples. Originally, these tribes from across the sea were invited by Vortigern, who was at that time king of the Britons, to aid him and his people in their fight against the Picts and other northern Celtic tribes that were a constant threat to the South. In the fifteenth chapter of his first volume he writes:

“IN the year of our Lord 449, Martian being made emperor with Valentinian, and the fortysixth from Augustus, ruled the empire seven years. Then the nation of the Angles, or Saxons, being invited by the aforesaid king, arrived in Britain with three long ships, and had a place assigned them to reside in by the same king, in the eastern part of the island, that they might thus appear to be fighting for their country, whilst their real intentions were to enslave it.”[2]

The hiring of these mercenaries from the continent marked the beginning of German settlement on the island. These fighting men who sailed in their boats much like their Scandinavian cousins centuries later were paid for their services in land and after a time they took up residence in various regions of modern day England. These regions were inhabited by the different tribes as such:

“From the Jutes are descended the people of Kent, and of the Isle of Wight, and those also in the province of the West Saxons who are to this day called Jutes, seated opposite to the Isle of Wight. From the Saxons, that is, the country which is now called Old Saxony, came the East Saxons, the South Saxons, and the West Saxons. From the Angles, that is, the country which is called Anglia, and which is said, from that time, to remain desert to this day, between the provinces of the Jutes and the Saxons, are descended the East Angles, the Midland Angles, Mercians, all the race of the Northumbrians, that is, of those nations that dwell on the north side of the river Humber, and the other nations of the English.”[3]

In Bede’s account, after years of migration the number of Germans soon overwhelmed that of the native Bretons which according to him led to the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes allying themselves with the Picts, their former enemy, and devastating the Britons, eventually pushing them north along the western coast and to the west into the regions of what are now modern day Wales and Cornwall where the natives “continuing in their own country, led a miserable life among the woods, rocks, and mountains, with scarcely enough food to support life, and expecting every moment to be their last”[4] (though it now highly believed that the British were not forced from there homelands, but instead adopted Anglo-Saxon culture

If we follow Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, in the later centuries of this domination by the Germans between 450 and 600 CE, kingdoms were formed by the leaders of the various tribes that came to the eastern coast of England and pushed their way west. The kingdoms that were given birth at this time were Kent, which was created by a man named Oisc, East Anglia, founded by King Wuffa, Deira which later was called Northumbria, Wessex and Sussex which were settled by the West Saxons and South Saxons respectively, and Mercia in the midland marches of England[5]. These names were coined later on to express this change of political and social climate and were reliant upon one another for their existence (for example, the West Saxons require the East and the South Saxons in order for their name to be relevant)[6]. These separate kingdoms were involved in several political conflicts (especially with the surviving British peoples in the west and the north of the island) and took part in a complicated system of alliances that brought about English expansion further west.

There are two accepted views held by scholars that explain how and why these early kingdoms formed where they did and both of these views are credible[7]. One idea in regards to the buildup of the Anglo-Saxon lands is the complete demolition of older Roman territorial markers and structures and replacing them with new ones that did not regard previous boundaries.[8] This idea seems to correlate with the scenario described by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History. The other viewpoint is that these territories that were originally marked out during the Roman period and some of the Romano-British centers were taken over and experienced a continuity that aided in their survival into the early middle ages[9]. According to Highman, this idea does not focus on the idea of collected tribal kingdoms but rather it gives attention to the thought of scattered minority Anglo-Saxon groups becoming incorporated by their more sizable neighboring communities[10].

As for the ruling of these separate kingdoms, leadership was derived from Germanic practices where leaders were typically chosen by how well they proved themselves in combat. Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England relied upon a mutually beneficial relationship between a king and his nobles or þegns. In Germanic tradition, whatever treasure or wealth that a tribal leader, or cyng, was able to procure through combat and raiding, a portion of it was divvied up between the nobles. This was to ensure that the king possessed the loyalty and service of his nobles while the nobles were also experienced the benefit of being paid for that loyalty. If we were to look at Bede’s description of the kingdoms again, we’ll find that he refers to them and their founding by group name rather than by the name of the area they occupied[11]. What we could take from this is that these tribal groups and the kingdoms formed were based upon kinship and familial and ethnic ties. This concept along with the act of gift giving is what seemed to have held these kingdoms together in their infancy. However, it most definitely did not prevent these groups from fighting with one another especially given the fact that this society was focused on warfare, but this also does not mean that these kings relied solely upon violence to attain their right to rule and the loyalty of their followers. This could have also been achieved through negotiation and strategic placement near resources[12]. Regardless of what alliances or feuds they had with each other, the fact is that these kingdoms and the people in them did not see themselves as one English people.

Early Christianity

Signs of Christianity, which had been a strong element in Romano-British culture, had nearly disappeared throughout England as a result of the Anglo-Saxon invasions. It seems that it survived with the Celtic kingdoms in the west but there is very little evidence for the practice of this religion between the fifth and late sixth centuries by the Anglo-Saxons who were already practicing their polytheistic religion that they brought with them from the continent[13]. The English movement to Christianity originally began in the south-east of England in the kingdom of Kent with the efforts of Augustine. Sent by Pope Gregory in 597 CE, this monk had successfully converted King Æthelberht of Kent and around ten thousand of his subjects, which could easily serve as an indicator for how their loyalty to their king affected the decisions of the English[14]. Augustine was able to settle himself and his followers in the ancient town of Canterbury where he acted as bishop from 597 to 604 CE. Because of Canterbury’s role as a base of Christian operation in England, this bishop stationed here would be considered England’s ultimate Christian authority[15]

Another effort was made by Irish missionaries such as Columba in the late sixth century to bring Christianity to Scotland, Northern England and the islands around the north of Britain. Because of his efforts and the efforts of his contemporaries, several monastic settlements were successfully founded in Scotland in Columba’s lifetime[16]. The one monastery founded by Columba that had become the most directly involved in Anglo-Saxon Christianity was located on the Isle of Iona. It was from this island monastery that the first known Anglo-Saxon Christians, who resided there as monks, were found. Oswald, who became king of Northumbria in 635 CE, stayed at the monastery during his exile before he was crowned and once he rose to power he asked for priests from the island to come to Northumbria so that they could convert all of his subjects[17].

With the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the reintroduction of Christianity to England, a tone was set for the future of this land and those that inhabited it. It did not, however, completely change the customs of the Anglo-Saxons especially during the infancy of English Christianity. Though he became a Christian himself, Æthelberht did not compose any laws that would forbid the practice of the older pagan customs. Therefore when his son, Eadbald who did not even convert in the first place, took the throne there was a “cultural return” to pagan tradition throughout Kent with the death of Æthelberht[18]. After paganism was outlawed in 640CE, the English form of Christianity still experienced a sort of fusion with Germanic traditions. German concepts such as Wergeld, or man price, were still a common idea held by the Anglo-Saxons along with the concept of revenge for wrongdoings[19]. This Latin-Germanic society of the seventh century with it conflicting identities can be seen as a parallel to the Anglo-Scandinavians that would emerge just a couple of centuries later with the formation of the Danelaw.

The Coming of the Northmen

After the raid on Lindisfarne, more Danes and Norwegians made their way west, not limiting their raids to England, but instead making their way into and around the continent sailing along the coast and traversing rivers all around Europe. Men such as Olaf Tryggvason, Harald Bluetooth, along with several unnamed individuals would take part in the raiding and socio-political exchanges that marked this period, making a name for themselves and becoming historical figures of legendary status that still influence today’s culture in the form of cinematic entertainment, technological innovations (such as Bluetooth), literature and so on. These men and women from northern Europe and their activities had affected the very political structure of empires such as those forged by the Byzantines and the Carolingians. Yet the focus of this work will be on what these people did to influence England’s character and how the circumstances behind their invasion and settlement on the British Isles aided in the formation of English identity. These were a people who spoke in a different language, worshipped different gods, and by most English men and women were seen as a curse from God with the sole purpose of destruction and the utter ruin of their home. But these Scandinavians were more similar to those same people who saw them as a terrible blight from the sea, more than the English would have fathomed. Given the fact that these two cultures, though miles of sea had separated them for several centuries, had stemmed from the same Germanic group there are still striking similarities to be found between the two cultures. For instance these groups had originally worshipped and followed the traditions of the same set of deities and the English had only been fully Christian for only a couple of centuries before they came into extended contact with the Danes. Their language, though it had diverged from that spoken by their Scandinavian cousins, still had many similar elements in their languages, such as grammar, and also used like terms for several people and objects.