The Vikings in Britain

1. The Vikings in Britain

2. Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms

3. Vikings

Also called Norsemen
The word „Viking“ means „Pirate raid“
Great seafarers
Skillful craftsmen
Their expansion ended with Christianization
Fierce warriors

4. Earliest raids

• 787 - First raid in Dorset
• 793 - Monastery of Lindisfarne
• Small raids common since
• 865 - Large army of Danes
invaded East Anglia
• Northumbria conquered and
settled by the Danes
• Invasion of Wessex repelled by
Alfred the Great

5. Map of Viking attack routes

6. Viking Invasion continues…

• Most of occupied lands captured back by the
army of Wessex
• Danelaw established
• 947 - New wave of viking attacks
• Norwegian king Eric Bloodaxe captured York
• Sweyn I (1013-1014)
• Canute the Great (1016-1035)

7. Danelaw Map

8. Kingdom of Canute the Great

9. What happened next?

• Troubles with inheritance
• Harthacanute vs. Harold Harefoot
• Return of Edward the Confessor from exile in
Normandy
• 1042 - Restoration of Saxon Wessex dynasty
• 1066 – Last attempt of Norwegians to invade
England, defeated by Anglo-Saxons who were in
turn defeated by William of Normandy

10. Vikings in Scotland

• Scotland – Norwegians defeated Picts who lost
their power and Kingdom of Scotland was found
• Islands off Scotland coast were part of Norway
until 1468

11. Vikings in Wales and Cornwall

• Of all parts of nowadays Great Britain Wales
was least settled by Vikings
• Vikings were not able control Wales for longer
period
• Cornwall became an ally of Vikings and helped
them conquer Wessex, remained independent of
Vikings

12. Vikings in Ireland

• Ireland was devided into many small kingdoms
• Heavily settled by the Vikings
• Norsemen could not conquer whole island and
were finally defeated by Irish allied forces
• High Kingdom of Ireland was founded though
after danger was overthrown it felt apart

13. Areas settled by Vikings

14. Ships

• Longship - „Drakkar“
• Merchantship – „Knarr“

15. Famous Misconceptions

• Horned helms were used only for ritual
ceremonies not in combat
• Vikings were not savage marauders, they had
advanced trade and culture
• They did not use sculls of their enemies as cups
• Uncleanliness? No way, look at the AngloSaxons instead