In the late 8th century, the heathen Vikings exploded on the unsuspecting Christian communities in Britain. The raid on the isolated monastery of Lindisfarne in 793 produced the following comment from Alcuin, one of the leading churchmen of the day:

“Never before has such a terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought possible that such an inroad from the sea could be made.”

In fact, these heathen raiders were seen as a visitation from God, showing divine displeasure at the lifestyle of the Christian Anglo-Saxons.

At first, these raids were hit-and-run affairs; there was no co-ordination and no long-term plan behind them. They were merely seeking portable wealth that could be carried back to the Scandinavian homelands. However, during the course of the 9th century there was a shift from raiding to a concerted effort to conquer and settle in England. Most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms capitulated, and it was only the action of King Alfred that halted the progress of the Viking armies.

Even so, it was only by giving over half of England to Danish rule that Alfred was able to buy a long enough period of peace to make preparations to prevent further losses to Viking armies.

But the Vikings were more than just raiders and warriors; they were also great traders. They produced the first towns in Ireland and created immense trade routes from Britain which linked with sites throughout Scandinavia and the Baltic, and finally connected with trade routes that ran down the great rivers of Russia to Byzantium.

In recent years, excavation of a number of Viking Age settlement and cemetery sites has added greatly to our knowledge of the Vikings. This course will consider the archaeological, historical and place-name evidence to evaluate the role of the Vikings in Britain.

• Davies, W. (ed), From the Vikings to the Normans, Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-1987-0051-2


• Graham-Campbell, J., The Viking World, Francis Lincoln, 1989, ISBN 0-7112-0571-X


• Hall, R., Viking Age York, B.T. Batsford/English Heritage, 1994, ISBN 0-7134-7014-3


• Richards, J., Blood of the Vikings, Hodder and Stoughton, 2001, ISBN 0-340-73385-3


• Richards, J.D., Viking Age England, B.T. Batsford/English Heritage, 1991, ISBN 0-7134-6520-4

• A list of Viking Related Websites
• Alfred the Great
• The Amazing Vikings
• The Battle of Maldon
• BBC Ancient History - Anglo-Saxons
• BBC Ancient History – Vikings
• The Burghal Hidage
• Danish Viking Ships
• History of the Vikings
• Raiding and Travelling with the Vikings
• The Viking Age
• Viking Age York and the North
• Viking Dublin
• Viking English
• Viking Raids and the Norman Invasion
• Viking Ship Construction
• Viking Ship Home Page
• Viking Ships
• The Vikings – Fury from the North
• The Vikings – Nova On-line
• Vikings – the North Atlantic Saga
• Who were the Vikings?
• Wikipedia – Viking
• Wikipedia – Wessex

Return to Oxford Experience