The Vikings in Britain

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The Vikings

About the year 800, bands of fierce raiders began to attack our coasts. They were the Vikings. They came across the North Sea, just as the Anglo-Saxons had done 400 years earlier.

In time, like the Anglo-Saxons, they made their home here. They drove the Saxons out of part of the country and took it for themselves.

King Alfred, Saxon king of Wessex, fought them in a great battle, but he could not drive them right away and had to let them have part of the country, called Danelaw.

1. Where did the Vikings come from?
2. Who were the Vikings?
3. When did they invade Britain?
4. Alfred the Great and Danelaw
5. Why did the Vikings invade Britain?
6. Where did the Vikings settle in Britain?
7. What religion did the Vikings follow?
8. What were Viking houses like?
9. What were Viking clothes like?
10. Timeline
11. Other Viking websites

Where did the Vikings come from?

The Vikings lived over one thousand years ago and came from the three countries of Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Who were the Vikings?

Vikings were also known as the Norsemen. They were great travellers and sailed to other parts of Europe, where they traded, raided, and often settled

They were also farmers, fishermen, trappers and traders. Viking craftsmen made beautiful objects out of wood, metal and bone; Viking women were skilful weavers, produced fine, warm textiles.

Many Vikings were great travellers and sailed all over Europe and the Atlantic Ocean in their long ships.

A model of a Viking longboat

When did they invade Britain?

The Viking Age in Britain began about 1,200 years ago in the 9th Century AD and lasted for 300 years. The Vikings first invaded Britain in AD 793 and last invaded in 1066 when William the Conqueror became King of England after the Battle of Hastings.

The first place the Vikings attacked in Britain was the monastery at Lindisfarne, a holy island situated off the Northumberland coast in the north east of England. A few years later the island of Iona (off the west coast of Scotland), came under attack and its monks were slaughtered.

Soon no region of the British Isles (Britain and nearby islands) was safe from the Vikings. They attacked villages and towns in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man and England.

No matter how many times the Vikings were beaten, they always came back, and in the end all their efforts paid off. It was the Vikings (Norse) of Normandy who finally conquered England in 1066 and changed British history for ever.

Alfred the Great and Danelaw

Rather than face defeat, Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, paid the Vikings (Danes) to leave his kingdom alone. He bought just five years of peace. In that time the Vikings took over one third of England. Then they returned to take Wessex. Alfred fought and defeated the Vikings and their leader, King Guthrum, asked for peace. The Vikings settled peacefully in an area of Britain which became known as Danelaw

Other countries were attacked by the Vikings too

The Vikings also attacked settlements along the coasts and rivers of Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and France. The area they settled in France became known as Normandy, meaning land of the Northmen

Why did the Vikings invade Britain?

Most Vikings who sailed overseas were simply searching for better land for their farms. Their land was not very good for farming. Norway was very hilly, Sweden was covered in forests, and Denmark had a lot of sandy home land.

Where did the Vikings settle in Britain?

The area eventually settled by Vikings was called the Danelaw. It formed a boundary separating Anglo-Saxon England from Viking England and was defined in a treaty between the English King Alfred and Viking King Guthrum in AD 880. It lay north of Watling Street, a Roman road running from London north-west to Chester and covered northern and eastern England. It included counties north of an imaginary line running from London to Bedford and then up to Chester.

The Vikings settled in:

• Islands off the coast of Scotland - Shetland, Orkney and The Hebrides
• Around the north and north west coast of Scotland
• Parts of Ireland - Dublin is a Viking city
• The Isle of Man
• Small parts of Wales
• Parts of England known as Danelaw
  

Place Names

We can tell where the Vikings settled by place names of towns and villages today. Some of the names of places in Britain are made up of Viking words.

Place names ending in –by eg. Derby, Rugby, Whitby, Selby, Grimsby
–by meant farm or homestead (village). These places mark the earliest Viking settlements.

Derby - A village where deer are found

Place names ending in –thorpe (or -thorp, -throp or –trop) eg. Scunthorpe and Grimethorpe
-thorpe meant farms.

Place names ending in –toft or-tofts.
A -toft referred to the site of a house or a plot of land.

Viking Words

hús = house
holm = islet; dry place in a marshy area
orme = Serpent or Dragon

What religion did the Vikings follow?

The Vikings worshipped many different gods, but there were three that were especially important.

• Odin, the leader of the gods - god of knowledge and war
• Thor, provided protection from cold hunger, giants and other dangers.
• Freya, goddess of love and beauty

The Vikings believed that men who died in battle went to Valhalla (Old Norse Valhöll, "Hall of the slain") and feasted with the gods.

Soon after settling in England (Angle Land) the Vikings changed the religion to Christianity.

Interactive Activity

Information on Viking Gods

Viking Houses

Most people lived on farms. The Vikings lived in long rectangular houses made with upright timbers (wood), wattle and daub or stone. They were usually one room with a cooking fire in the middle. The smoke escaped through a hole in the roof.

Animals and people lived in the same building. The animals lived in a byre at one end of the house and the people lived at the other.

More about Viking Homes

Clothes

Men wore tunics and trousers and women wore a long dress with a pinafore over it. Their clothes were fastened with belts and brooches. They made their clothes from wool and linen.