These essays radically rethink the origins of Scandinavian influence on England. Unquestionably Scandinavian people settled here. Their language is deeply embedded into English and their place names dominate much of the North and East. Unfortunately modern historians have jumped to the conclusion that, since the Vikings were Scandinavian, it must have been they who were responsible. In fact, Scandinavian influence is much older. It was already old when the seventh century historian, the Venerable Bede, included the Danish Angles and the Jutes among the tribes who settled England after the Romans left. This collection of essays presents overwhelming evidence that this was the case.
The first essay "Viking Related Place Names in England and Europe." presents the most powerful evidence against the Viking origins theory. It addresses the question that should have been asked by those who advocated the idea that the Vikings were responsible for the introduction of "by" place name endings, ie "Did the Vikings have an equally profound effect on their other colonies?". The answer is a resounding "no". Nowhere else were entire regions like Lincolnshire and Yorkshire dominated by these place names. This was not simply the establishment of a few villages, but, over substantial parts of England, their numbers indicate a continuum of Scandinavian place names across the North Sea. It was a massive tribal migration. Neither in Normandy nor Ireland was this the case. Even in Iceland, where the country was completely taken over by Vikings, there are only a few "by" place names. All this implies that these place names were not imported by Viking age settlers.
The second essay "The Partial Viking Conquest of England." looks at the earliest and most important source of information about the attempted Viking conquest of England - the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It mainly records when the kings and bishops of England held office but goes into some detail about the struggle between Wessex and the invaders. It has been used as evidence for a mass Scandinavian settlement. This essay considers that evidence.
third essay "The meaning of the word 'Settlement' in Anglo-Saxon." looks at the meaning of the word 'Settlement' in Anglo-Saxon". The verb to settle is tainted by its use to describe "settler economies" in which imperial governments planted their own surplus populations in their colonies to exploit and control them. I look at what the Anglo-Saxon scribes meant by it, by examining the contexts in which they used the word.
The next essay "Do Anglo-Saxon Place Names Cluster into Groups?" takes a novel look at the distribution of Germanic place names throughout England. The underlying rationale is that the post Roman, Germanic, conquest of England involved a melange of warring tribes. I consider whether and if, the various tribes that settled England lived in their own distinct lingistic groups. These tribes and factions of them, created their own mini kingdoms. Accordingly we might expect a corresponding melange of dialects from the various Angles, Saxons and Jutes etc. Fortunately these dialects are often embedded into the names they gave to their settlements, for example "ham" or "by", "kirk or church, "beck" or "stream" according to the preferences or language of the speaker. So, theoretically, we can use these place name endings to examine how tribal people cluster together. I used a factor analysis of place names to test the idea. The results suggest that there is indeed some clustering of people into linguistic groups.
The next essay "English and European DNA in the pre-Viking Period." takes a quick look at the evidence from ancient DNA, that is DNA from individuals who lived at the time we are studying. A recent paper on ancient DNA by Gretzinger et al has helped clear up a debate between those who saw the Germanic settlement of England as a tribal migration and those who saw it as an elite takeover. The results show that the people who lived before the Viking era in those places where place names ended in "by", frequently came from the very areas where "by" names are common in Denmark. This, together with the lack of "by" place names anywhere else in Europe (see Essay 1.) implies that "by" place names were not introduced by the Vikings, but an earlier wave ofimmigration. The article goes on to examine the precise European origins of the settlers. The main problem with their approach is that it relies on the limited number of individuals whose remains have been excavated and where enough DNA can be extracted for analysis.
The next essay "English and European Pottery in the Pre-Viking period" considers the work of JNL Myres, who made a lifelong study of early Germanic pottery in England. This led him to believe that the Germanic settlement of England originated in the Roman auxilliaries who came here before the Roman withdrawal, and that these people were already "mixed" Anglo-Saxons before they arrived. In some repects his findings are similar to those of Gretzinger et al.
The next essay "The Viking Settlement of Northumbria" questions the recent idea that Viking power in England extended only as far north as the River Tees. There is no contemporary written support for this belief. I think this may have been a response to explain the absense of the place name ending "by" there. I favour a more radical response, attributing that absense to the much earlier kingdoms of Deira (sort of modern Yorkshire) and Bernicia (think of modern Northumbria).
The next essay "The Viking Settlement of Northumbria" questions the recent idea that Viking power in England extended only as far north as the River Tees. There is no contemporary written support for this belief. I think this may have been a response to explain the absense of the place name ending "by" there. I favour a more radical response, attributing that absense to the much earlier kingdoms of Deira (sort of modern Yorkshire) and Bernicia (think of modern Northumbria).
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