The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction by Julian D. Richards Page A
Authors: Julian D. Richards
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They were also responsible for the great boom in church building in the 10th and 11th centuries. In Anglo-Saxon England there was a system of minster churches under which small 75
communities of monks served the large estates. These had collapsed during the Scandinavian settlement and the new landowners now constructed private chapels on their estates, many of which developed into parish churches serving the local community. At Wharram Percy there is 8th- and 9th-century sculpture relating to an earlier, possibly minster church, but a small timber church was established on a new site in the 10th century. This was enlarged in the 11th century into a stone church with a separate nave and chancel. The church became the focus for burials of the early lords of the manor, including some marked by recumbent stone slabs, and many of the early burials around the church have been radiocarbon dated to the 10th century. An Old English inscription on the sundial at the site of the Anglo-Saxon minster at Kirkdale provides a graphic illustration for this process of Anglo-Scandinavian privatization. It relates how Orm, son of Gamal –
both Old Norse names – bought the minster when it was tumbled s
down and ruined, and erected a new church on the site in 1055–65, g
kin
the decade before the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
e Vi
Th
In England, therefore, there is evidence for a complex sequence of assimilation between peoples of different language, culture, and religion, and the creation of hybrid identities, over at least 200
years. The following chapters will look at the situation in other parts of the British Isles, where the native societies may not have been so economically or politically advanced.
76
Chapter 8
Raiders and traders around
the Irish Sea
The areas bordering the Irish Sea rarely featured in contemporary written sources but were of strategic importance to Scandinavian raiders and settlers. Cumbria has already been considered and this chapter will focus on the evidence for a Scandinavian presence in Ireland, Wales and the Isle of Man. The Hebrides, which formed the more northerly extent of this cultural zone, will be considered in the next chapter. There is also evidence for Scandinavian activity in south-west Scotland and along the Solway Firth. At Whithorn, a largely undocumented monastic site was destroyed by fire and abandoned in the 830s. It was reoccupied later in the 9th century, by a community with Scandinavian connections. By the 11th century it was a thriving trading post, with square timber houses which parallel examples from Dublin. From the Iron Age these areas had been united by their easy access to the sea, and they shared a hybrid Hiberno-Norse identity, born of interaction between an indigenous Celtic population and an incoming Scandinavian one.
Ireland
By the late 8th century Ireland was a centre for art, literature, and learning. Despite the lack of unified kingship the Irish elite had 77
developed the concept of an Irish identity, based on language, culture, and religion, and defined and justified through genealogy and origin myths. It was in contrast to this that incoming Vikings were seen as gaill , or foreigners. The Vikings have continued to be seen as outsiders – the Irish have looked back to their Celtic heritage for their roots, although the Vikings have been credited with the establishment of the major Irish towns. As is the case in England, there is actually considerable evidence for the development of a hybrid culture in Ireland. Although many of the settlers may have shared a common Norwegian ancestry they are unlikely to have arrived direct from Scandinavia, and they also adopted aspects of Celtic culture. It is therefore often appropriate to describe them as Hiberno-Norse.
It is not as if the Vikings were the only ones looting monasteries.
Raiding was endemic in early Christian Ireland and there are at s
least 30 recorded attacks by Irish raiders prior to the first recorded
communities of monks served the large estates. These had collapsed during the Scandinavian settlement and the new landowners now constructed private chapels on their estates, many of which developed into parish churches serving the local community. At Wharram Percy there is 8th- and 9th-century sculpture relating to an earlier, possibly minster church, but a small timber church was established on a new site in the 10th century. This was enlarged in the 11th century into a stone church with a separate nave and chancel. The church became the focus for burials of the early lords of the manor, including some marked by recumbent stone slabs, and many of the early burials around the church have been radiocarbon dated to the 10th century. An Old English inscription on the sundial at the site of the Anglo-Saxon minster at Kirkdale provides a graphic illustration for this process of Anglo-Scandinavian privatization. It relates how Orm, son of Gamal –
both Old Norse names – bought the minster when it was tumbled s
down and ruined, and erected a new church on the site in 1055–65, g
kin
the decade before the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
e Vi
Th
In England, therefore, there is evidence for a complex sequence of assimilation between peoples of different language, culture, and religion, and the creation of hybrid identities, over at least 200
years. The following chapters will look at the situation in other parts of the British Isles, where the native societies may not have been so economically or politically advanced.
76
Chapter 8
Raiders and traders around
the Irish Sea
The areas bordering the Irish Sea rarely featured in contemporary written sources but were of strategic importance to Scandinavian raiders and settlers. Cumbria has already been considered and this chapter will focus on the evidence for a Scandinavian presence in Ireland, Wales and the Isle of Man. The Hebrides, which formed the more northerly extent of this cultural zone, will be considered in the next chapter. There is also evidence for Scandinavian activity in south-west Scotland and along the Solway Firth. At Whithorn, a largely undocumented monastic site was destroyed by fire and abandoned in the 830s. It was reoccupied later in the 9th century, by a community with Scandinavian connections. By the 11th century it was a thriving trading post, with square timber houses which parallel examples from Dublin. From the Iron Age these areas had been united by their easy access to the sea, and they shared a hybrid Hiberno-Norse identity, born of interaction between an indigenous Celtic population and an incoming Scandinavian one.
Ireland
By the late 8th century Ireland was a centre for art, literature, and learning. Despite the lack of unified kingship the Irish elite had 77
developed the concept of an Irish identity, based on language, culture, and religion, and defined and justified through genealogy and origin myths. It was in contrast to this that incoming Vikings were seen as gaill , or foreigners. The Vikings have continued to be seen as outsiders – the Irish have looked back to their Celtic heritage for their roots, although the Vikings have been credited with the establishment of the major Irish towns. As is the case in England, there is actually considerable evidence for the development of a hybrid culture in Ireland. Although many of the settlers may have shared a common Norwegian ancestry they are unlikely to have arrived direct from Scandinavia, and they also adopted aspects of Celtic culture. It is therefore often appropriate to describe them as Hiberno-Norse.
It is not as if the Vikings were the only ones looting monasteries.
Raiding was endemic in early Christian Ireland and there are at s
least 30 recorded attacks by Irish raiders prior to the first recorded
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