The Vikings
The Story of Old English
Course 1 · Chapter 7 · The Vikings
The Vikings appear in Chapters 3 and 6 as the force that broke the northern and eastern dialects and made Alfred's Wessex the centre of English writing. This chapter looks at them as speakers: Scandinavians who settled in England and left words, place names, and a long argument about English grammar.
The Great Heathen Army
According to Wikipedia's Great Heathen Army article, a coalition of mainly Danish Vikings invaded England in 865 and fought for about fourteen years.
| Date | Event (per the article) |
|---|---|
| 865 | The army lands in East Anglia; King Edmund gives them horses in return for peace; they winter at Thetford |
| late 866 to 867 | They take York; the Northumbrians pay danegeld, and the Vikings set up a puppet ruler |
| 867 | They capture Nottingham; the Mercians pay them off |
| 869 to 870 | East Anglia: Edmund is captured and killed, and later becomes Edmund the Martyr |
| 871 | Alfred's forces defeat the Vikings at Ashdown; Alfred then pays them to leave |
| 876 to 880 | Halfdan shares out Northumbrian land; his men "ploughed the land and supported themselves" |
| 878 | Alfred beats them at Edington; Guthrum agrees to baptism and to withdraw from Wessex |
The Danelaw
Wikipedia's Danelaw article says the Danelaw was the part of England where Danish law applied, from the late ninth century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. A treaty between Alfred and Guthrum, dated to about 886 to 890, set the boundaries and allowed the Danes self-government in exchange for loyalty to England. The area roughly covered Yorkshire, the central and eastern Midlands and the East of England, north of a line between London and Chester, though the article marks that boundary as needing a citation.
- Five Boroughs: Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford and Lincoln were fortified towns that became its key strongholds.
- Settlers: many were sokemen, a free-tenant class that made up 30 to 50 percent of the countryside population, according to the article.
- Reconquest: Edward the Elder's campaigns in the 910s conquered many Danish territories. In 954 Eric Bloodaxe was driven from Northumbria, ending the prospect of a northern Viking kingdom.
- The date to avoid: the article is explicit that the Danelaw did not end around 954: as a legal region it persisted until 1066.
Place names
The Danelaw article says Old Norse endings such as -by ("village") and -thorp ("hamlet") remain common in the North and the East Midlands, and Kirby and Kirkby names are also frequent. The History of English article says settlers often founded communities in places the Anglo-Saxons had not developed.
Old Norse and Old English
The History of English article describes Old Norse as a North Germanic language closely related to Old English. It gives these numbers:
| Question | What the article says |
|---|---|
| Norse words in Old English writing | Only about 100 to 150, mainly about government and administration |
| Norse words borrowed into English overall | About 2,000, of which several hundred survive in Modern English |
| Examples | anger, bag, both, hit, law, leg, same, skill, sky, take, window, and the pronoun they |
| Pronouns | they, them, their are thought to derive from Old Norse forms; only the short form 'em remains from the older English forms |
The Old Norse article lists egg, knife, sky and window among common English words from Old Norse, and says Middle English, especially the northern dialects in the Danelaw area, was strongly influenced by Norse. It says Old East Norse was spoken in eastern England and Old West Norse in the north-west, especially Cumbria. I did not find a statement about how well speakers of the two languages understood each other.
One point is easy to miss. The History of English article says only about 100 to 150 Norse words appear in Old English writing, so most of the borrowing is seen in later writing. It says Norse speakers assimilated after Danish rule ended and especially after the Norman Conquest, and that the resulting bilingualism possibly increased borrowing. It also says many Norse loanwords reached English directly from French.
Did Norse simplify English grammar?
The same article says Norse influence is considered to have stimulated and accelerated the simplification of Middle English, such as the loss of grammatical gender and of case marking except in pronouns, and that this simplification appeared earliest in the north and latest in the south-west. It says Norse reinforced the plural are over Old English alternatives, and may have helped spread phrasal verbs, though a Celtic influence is also possible. Some scholars have claimed that Old English died out and was replaced by Norse, since Middle English syntax resembles Norse more than Old English, but other scholars reject this. The article says it is unclear how much Norse shaped the spoken language of the north and east at the time.
Words to know
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Danelaw | The part of England under Danish law, from the late 9th century to 1066 |
| Danegeld | Money paid to Vikings to buy them off |
| Old Norse | The North Germanic language of the Scandinavians |
| Loanword | A word taken from another language |
| Assimilate | To become absorbed into the surrounding population and its language |
✏️ Try It Yourself
Think of the answer first, then click to check.
1. In which year did the Great Heathen Army invade, and where did it land?
Show answer
865, in East Anglia.
2. Which Viking leader agreed to baptism after Edington?
Show answer
Guthrum.
3. Name three of the Five Boroughs.
Show answer
Any three of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford and Lincoln.
4. When did the Danelaw end, according to the article?
Show answer
As a legal region it persisted until the Norman Conquest in 1066; 954 is when Eric Bloodaxe was driven from Northumbria, not the end of the Danelaw.
5. What do the place-name endings -by and -thorp mean?
Show answer
"Village" and "hamlet".
6. Name three English words from Old Norse.
Show answer
For example sky, law, take, window, egg, knife, leg, skill, anger, bag, same, both or hit.
7. Which pronouns are thought to come from Old Norse?
Show answer
They, them and their.
8. Why should you be careful with "the Vikings simplified English"?
Show answer
The article says Norse is "considered" to have accelerated simplification, records scholars who disagree, and says its effect on speech at the time is unclear.