In the ninth century, did theVikings pose a threat

[Demon of Light]

Everything that follows was written by Edgar the Peaceful


Hi all, I wanted to post this in the monastery but I wasn't authorised. I've got hand this in to my tutor next week and would welcome any comment. Since 'Viking Invasion' has just come out I think I'm on topic (Just&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

ps. I've had to take out all the quotation marks (it was representing them in code ) & footnotes so it might read a bit strangely

cheers

Edgar the Peaceful

[Demon of Light]

In the ninth century, did the Vikings pose a threat to Anglo-Saxon identity?

In his introduction to his article 'England in the Ninth Century: The Crucible of Defeat', N. P. Brooks posits that 'when Alfred died in 899'for most Englishmen the deepest impression [of the Danish impact] must have been of the defeat and destruction of the English polity and culture' . This suggests a sense of an impending apocalypse for the Anglo-Saxon identity but if this fear was actually felt by most Englishmen at the end of the ninth century it was, to some extent, misplaced. It belies both an underestimation of English organisational strength and cultural hardiness, and an exaggeration of the foreignness of Danish identity.

Argument has raged through medievalist historical journals regarding the exact size of the ninth century Danish military threat, particularly that of the great conquering armies, the micel here, of 866 and 892. Paul Sawyer has argued that The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, possibly under Alfred's direction, exaggerated the number of Danish ships and warriors in order to make the achievements of Wessex, in fending them off, all the greater . Sawyer puts the membership of the great Danish armies in the hundreds rather than thousands, with fleet levels estimated at considerably less than the 'two hundred and fifty ships' claimed by the Chronicle entry for 892. Brooks, however, convincingly challenges Sawyer's theory by favourably comparing the Chronicle's estimates with similar figures presented in continental sources such as the Frankish Annals de Saint-Bertin or the Irish Annals of Ulster . Many of these foreign sources depict fleets in the hundreds and, even accounting for occasional exaggeration on a large scale such as in the fantastic writings of Abbo, Brooks concludes that there is enough evidence to suggest that 'fleets of 100-200 ships were by no means rare' .

Brooks demonstrates that the micel here must have consisted of thousands of men for otherwise they would have been unable to 'maintain an effective guard on the 2180 yards of'ramparts at Wareham' or have survived living in 'enemy territory year in year out' . His argument is persuasive until he quotes the Anglo Saxon Chronicle accounts of the Danish army of 875 who purportedly 'slipped into' Wareham and on another occasion 'stole away' by the cover of night . Elusiveness is not usually a characteristic of armies numbering thousands of men. This discrepancy, however, may be partially explained if the 'great host' was split into many guerrilla-style groups. This is a possibility for it was the lauded Danish mobility, both on land and sea, which made them such difficult opponents to defeat.

Whatever the precise makeup of the Danish host, their military, and hence political, impact was formidable. Initially the Scandinavian martial force was felt by the rich monasteries of the east coast such as in the Norwegian raid on Lindisfarne in 793, but by the 850s and 60s the Danes were posing a significant political threat to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of northern and eastern England. The Chronicle states that in 851 'the heathen for the first time remained over the winter' and 'put to flight Beorhtwulf, king of Mercia' . In 865 the 'Kentish men promised [the Danes] money in return for peace' . In 867 the raiders demonstrated an opportunist and politically aware streak as they pillaged Northumbria exploiting 'a great dissension of the people amongst themselves' . The Danes often specifically captured and overwintered in Anglo-Saxon royal and administrative centres in order to emphasise their dominance over the old order.

By 886 King Alfred of Wessex had signed a treaty with Guthram of the Danes establishing, what has become known as, the 'Danelaw', cementing the Danish territorial gains, and temporarily ceasing the raids into Wessex. A boundary was drawn separating the Danelaw from Wessex and English Mercia. It ran 'up the Thames, and then up the Lea to its source, then in a straight line to Bedford, then up the Ouse to Watling Street' with everything to the north and east coming under Danish political dominion. This Saxon acknowledgement of Danish power is the culmination of a 40 year spell between 850 and 890 in which much of the former political nobility of eastern England had been slaughtered, displaced or had been forced to pay tribute to the Danish warlords. This is likely to have been a massive shock to Anglo-Saxon political identity not only in the shattered east but also in resistant Wessex.

However, dynastic power struggles between warlords over the lordship of the English kingdoms were nothing new. The Danes exploited existing English intrigues and interregional jealousies and, in turn, were courted by power-hungry native pretenders. Ceolwulf, demeaned in the pro-Wessex Chronicle as 'a foolish king's thane' but probably a legitimate heir to the Mercian throne, swore tribute to the Danes in 873 in what may be seen as a shrewd political move or, as the Chronicle implies, a cowardly act. Ceolwulf, notes Pauline Stafford, was 'doing what other'would-be rulers had done before him: coming to terms with the Vikings in a way which advanced his own interests but also provided the tribute which the Vikings sought, that tribute which had been the hallmark of political domination since the sixth century' .
Wessex, who 'hijacked Englishness for its own purposes', portrayed the northern Saxon leaders' acquiescence to Danish demands as craven and almost unpatriotic in order to gain political capital in the event of the Danish hold on the north and east slipping. This perhaps demonstrates a self-confidence in Wessex's own ability to resist the Danes and emerge as the strongest English power. Furthermore, these political machinations display a continuity in the power struggles of Anglo-Saxon dynasties, but one in which an extremely powerful new faction had emerged onto the scene, eroding some of the old Anglo-Saxon political dynamics and invigorating others.

In Viking culture, Henry Loyn suggests, 'the same men could be pirates one day, colonizers the next, and peaceful traders again the third'. This flexibility of identity is reflected in the Danish invaders variable relationship with English Christianity in the ninth century. The English ecclesiastical community in the north and east was massively disrupted by the pillaging of religious centres and, later, the settlement and domination of an initially pagan ruling class. Evidence for this disruption may be seen in the anxious wording of several ninth century charters by which rights were granted 'as long as the Christian faith should last in Britain' , or in the disappearance of several Kentish monasteries and the accelerated decline in Latin scholarship in Canterbury in the latter half of the ninth century.

[Demon of Light]

However, once settled, the Danish ruling class saw the benefits of alliance with church leaders in order to help successfully govern a largely Christian populace. 'The church', opines D. M. Hadley, 'offered a means for Scandinavian rulers, as much as indigenous lords, to legitimate their rule' . This 'marriage of convenience' between Christian and pagan elites is graphically illustrated in the coinage minted in late ninth century York which bore the emblems of the cross on one side and the hammer of Thor on the other. Ecclesiastical Anglo-Saxon identity had been shaken and, in the Danelaw, forced to adapt to Danish requirements. Christian ideas, however, were soon wholly adopted by the pagan settlers. Its 'subtler spiritual force' was better suited to their new engagement in 'ploughing and 'making a living for themselves' than the warlike Norse pantheon. Despite disruption, Christian Anglo-Saxon identity was not hugely damaged by Danish settlement.

Paradoxically, the perceived pagan threat may be seen to have galvanised a Church in decline. King Alfred, in a parallel of Gildas's anxieties over the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, 'saw the Vikings as the instruments of God's punishment of an unworthy people' . He made it a priority to re-establish the scholarship and piety of his clergy, and the spiritual well being of his people through the translation of texts such as Orosius's fitting Histories Against the Pagans and Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care and their subsequent wide distribution throughout Wessex.

Alfred 'desired the revival of learning for its own sake and 'for the sake of victory' but he also realised the necessity of a developing a strong, highly disciplined army. In the period c.879 to 892, whilst the Danish micel here were raiding the continent, Alfred began to establish the 'burghal hideage' system which aimed to provide a garrisoned, fortified town at regular intervals in order that no household in Wessex lived further than 20 miles from martial protection. This was a mammoth task in itself, but the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle indicates further Alfredian reforms over this period, such as dividing 'his levies into two sections, so that there was always half at home and half on active service' , and building a fleet of ships.
If the Chronicle is to be believed, these impressive logistical achievements were being put into place only a few years after the Danes, in 878, had ridden 'over Wessex' [driving] a great part of the inhabitants oversea[s]' and dominating the remainder. Alfred meanwhile, somewhat romantically, 'moved under difficulties through the woods and into inaccessible places in marshes' . Clearly there is some discrepancy between Chronicle's depiction of the mortally wounded Wessex of 878 and the galvanised military powerhouse of the 890s. Alfred was no doubt a remarkable leader but it is tempting to ascribe to R. H. C. Davis's arguments that the bad state of Wessex may have been exaggerated in order to further emphasise Alfred's, already remarkable, achievements. This possible exaggeration has ramifications in an assessment of the Viking threat to Anglo-Saxon identity. If Wessex, as the last resistant Anglo-Saxon kingdom, really was on the point of capitulation then the integrity of the English political identity was under serious threat, but the logistical achievements of Alfred's reign suggest a stronger Wessex than the Chronicle presents.

It remains to discuss the cultural impact of the Danes on Anglo-Saxon identity, particularly the impact of the settling war bands and the probable subsequent migration from Scandinavia. Our best indication for the location and intensity of Davish settlement is through the analysis of the origins of place-names, but this is an imprecise science and must be used with care. The ‘Grimstone hybrids', a grouping of names which comprise of a Danish personal name combined with an Anglo-Saxon suffix, seem to reflect the early period of Scandinavian settlement in the Danelaw in which Danish elites seized control of established English settlements situated on prime arable land. However, the 'presence of such [hybrids] in Berkshire, Devon and Hampshire' far from the areas of Danish dominion 'is in itself an indication that the Scandinavian personal names are not necessarily those of ninth-century Danish settlers' . These may be the legacy of the country-wide fashion for Scandinavian language and culture which swept England in the tenth century.
That this fashion occurred at all indicates that the Danes must have had a significant impact on the common culture of England and it is unlikely that this influence could solely have come from the Danish elites. There is little evidence to show exactly how much secondary Scandinavian immigration occurred after the initial settlement of the war bands but the preponderance of purely Danish place names, containing both Danish personal name and suffix, in areas of poorer soil suggest it must have occurred. The amount of Danish influence on the common language in certain parts of the Danelaw suggests a significant, if unquantifiable, Scandinavian settlement. Pauline Stafford points out, 'when rivers are renamed, or, as in Derbyshire, new words adopted to describe the landscape and its fields'a much wider linguistic influence [on Anglo-Saxon culture] is argued' . This linguistic change is 'hard to reconcile with a settlement consisting of no more than an aristocratic takeover'

The culture of the Danelaw was dialectic with both cultural groups influencing the other, the native English adopted some Danish words and artistic styles whilst the Scandinavian settler soon adopted Christian Anglo-Saxon burial procedures. The Viking war bands, who made the initial settlements, were 'likely to have been ethnically mixed' because of their ability to attract allies and followers from the regions they raided ' and this is perhaps reflected in the even-handed agreement signed by Alfred and Guthrum which states that ' all of us estimate Englishman and Dane at the same amount, at eight half-marks of pure gold' . This racial equality is markedly different to the early Anglo-Saxon subjugation of the British, in which a Briton's wergild was set far lower than for that of a Saxon and it suggests a more fluid and relaxed attitude to ethnicity. An 'Anglo-Scandinavian' society, a D. H. Hadley terms it, was forged in the Danelaw.

Anglo-Saxon identity proved remarkably resilient to the Viking threat of the ninth century, not only in the strong military resistance of Wessex but also in its ability to accommodate and acculturate Danish settlers. However, the Danes did have a significant political impact on the north east which helped shape the political dynamic of the area long after the Danelaw was reconquered. The Danish conquest of most of the old Anglo-Saxon kingdoms paved the way for the later unification of England and , as such, Anglo-Saxon political identity was fundamentally altered by the Viking threat.



Bibliography

N. Brooks, 'England in the Ninth Century: The Crucible of Defeat' in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser. 29 (1979), pp. 120-47
R. C. H. Davis, 'Alfred the Great: Propaganda and Truth' in History 56 (1971), pp. 169-82
G. Fellows-Jensen, The Vikings and their Victims: the Verdict of the Names (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1995)
G. N. Garmonsway (trns.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1975)
D. M. Hadley, The Northern Danelaw: Its Social Structure, c.800-1100 (London: Leicester University Press, 2000)
S. Keynes & M. Lapidge (eds.), Alfred the Great: Asser’s Life of King Alfred and other contemporary sources (London: Penguin, 1983)
H. Loyn, The Vikings in Britain (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994)
P. Stafford, The East Midlands in the Early Middle Ages (Bath: Leicester University Press, 1985)
Back to top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Crimson Castle]

Quote[/b] (Demon of Light @ May 08 2003,14:10)]In the ninth century, did the Vikings pose a threat to Anglo-Saxon identity?
You should post your essay in soc.history.medieval - there are more people there who are familiar with your subject area.

Cheers

[Crimson Castle]

I am not an expert in ancient Anglo-Saxon history but I remember scholars claiming that the Norman invasion in 1066 did more damage to their culture by nearly completely eradicating Anglo-saxon myths and legends and replacing it with their own -"high"- culture.