Early Britain: Viking Age

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

In 793 AD, a new group of Vikings arrived in Britain. This began the Viking Age, which lasted until 1066 AD when the Normans had their turn to invade England.

It's important to remember that the word Viking describes what these people did, raiding and pirating on the seas, but not who they were. So Viking is not a nationality like French or Spanish.

The Vikings were from an area known as Scandinavia, which includes present-day Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

The Vikings were ordinary farming people until they took to the seas and discovered how easy it was for them to plunder other people's treasures!

The first Viking raid on Britain occurred at the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in Northeast England. The Vikings plundered the monastery treasures, burned them to the ground, and killed many monks. The raids on Britain continued for the next 75 years.

The Vikings first raided the area and took its treasures away. However, they soon realized they could stay in Britain and take some land. They found its fertile land to be what they wanted for an easy farming life. There was a milder climate and more farmland in Britain than in Scandinavia.

In 865, many Vikings arrived in southeastern England. They had organized the Great Army (also called the Great Heathen Army), led by Ivar the Boneless. Historians don't know exactly how big this army was; however, by the middle 800s, they were attacking and taking over large parts of Britain.

Watch the following video to learn more, paying particular attention to who kept fighting the Vikings when other Anglo-Saxon kings had given in or been defeated.

As you saw in the video, there was one Anglo-Saxon kingdom determined not to give in to the Vikings or be taken by them. That was Wessex, in the south of England.

Wessex had taken over much of southern England. King Ethelred of Wessex fought against the Vikings. When he died in 871, his 5th son, Alfred, took over the fight.

After a long struggle, King Alfred the Great defeated Guthrum, the Viking leader trying to take over Wessex.

King Alfred made an agreement with Guthrum, which gave him control over Eastern England in the Kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia. This area of England became known as Danelaw. This Viking kingdom lasted from 878 to 954.

After Danelaw was established, there was peace for a while between the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons.

York

The Vikings captured York, a significant northern city, in 866. Rule over the city went back and forth between the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons several times.

For many years, it was the center of the Viking kingdom in the north (called the Kingdom of Yorvik in Old Norse) and a major port for their trade.

• Why did the Vikings want to take York?
• What advantages did the Vikings have in fighting the Anglo-Saxons?

York was a wealthy and important city known for its trade and resources. The Vikings could win battles because they were skilled and experienced warriors with a reputation for surprise and fierce attacks.

The last Viking king of Yorvik was Eric Bloodaxe. Not much is known about his real life, but he is portrayed as a hero in the Viking Sagas , a mixture of history, stories, and myths about the Vikings. We do know that he was defeated and driven out of York in 954.

King Alfred's son, Edward, and his grandson, Athelstan, fought to drive the Vikings out and united England under one rule.

Second Invasion

Sweyn Forkbeard, son of the King of Denmark, led another Viking invasion in 993. Although he could not capture London, he attacked it and terrorized much of England.

King Alfred's great-grandson, Ethelred, was on the throne then. Unlike Alfred, Ethelred was a weak king.

He was called Ethelred the Unready (this name means ill-advised). He listened to bad advice and tried to deal with the Vikings by giving them gold and land (called Danegeld) instead of fighting them. He made another bad decision when he called for a massacre of all the Danes in England. This, of course, enraged the Vikings even more.

Sweyn Forkbeard's son, Canute, became king of England in 1016. Ethelred then fled to Normandy (in what is now France). Canute was a strong ruler who shared his power with an English nobleman called jarl. This is where we get our English word earl.

Two of Canute's successors ruled England: Harald Harefoot and Hardicanute. And that was the end of the Viking kings of England!

Ethelred's son, Edward the Confessor, finally regained the throne for the Anglo-Saxons. When he died, however, he did not leave an heir. This caused another battle to erupt over the English throne — this time with three contenders!

Viking Villages

When they weren't fighting, the Vikings settled into villages and lived like ordinary people. Once they settled among the Anglo-Saxon people, they intermarried with them and adopted many of their ways.

Even though they initially attacked monasteries, they were also quick to accept Christianity.

Ships, Navigation, and Trade

One of the keys to the Vikings' success was their skill in shipbuilding and navigation. Listen for the answers to these questions in the next video.

• How did they make their boats so strong?
• What does clinker-built mean?
• How did the way their boats were built affect the teamwork of the crews?

With these boats, the Vikings could travel to many places and often trade with the people there. Look at this map of their voyages.

With all that trade, you can imagine the many treasures they brought home!

Look closely at some Viking treasures in the following video.

That ends our quick tour through Britain's Viking Age.

Now, you can move on to the Got It? section to review the Viking era and plan a trip to a Viking museum!