[Northkeep] FW: BBC News ENGLAND Viking blood still flowing

Marc Carlson marccarlson20 at hotmail.com
Tue Dec 11 12:25:55 PST 2001


>From: "Ivo Blackhawk" <ivo_blackhawk at hotmail.com>
>I have a problem here. Acording to my histroy books, the 'Vikings'
>-scandanavians- were not only a major force in england prior to 1066
>-hastings- but they ran the island. There were two major migrations from
>scandanavia, and the first king to rule over a 'single english kingdom' was
>scandanavian; Cnut.

Ummm, no.

True, the Scandinavians overran the island starting in the 830s, but at that
time the island was a number of different kingdoms, -most- of which were
some sort of Anglo-Saxon overlaid on a Briton base genetic stock (with a few
exceptions, like the Welsh, and some of the people in Scotland).

The first king to rule "THE ISLAND" was Edward I, and even he could only
make some general claims to it.  Until the linking of the Kingdoms (i.e.
"The United Kingdom") under James I/VI no one really could do more than
pretend to rule everyone.

About 878 Alfred settles the "Danes" in the "Danelaw".  There's a huge
inveasion in 892 which gets pushed back.  But even at that point, the
Danelaw is mostly Briton roadbed, paved over with Anglo-Saxons, with
Scandinavian paint on the road, but mostly "England" is cut in half, with
the Scandinavians in charge in the NE, and the English in the SW -- but even
so, the Danelaw was supposed to be under the rule of the English King.
Canute/Cnut just "unified" the country under Scandinavian rule (i.e. Him).
When he died, the kingship did this wobble thing back and forth between
English and Danish.

Then William (the French-Scandinavian) showed up.

>Besides, and sopmeone check me on this, 1200 years ago puts it about 800
>ad, right?

That would be about right there.

>wasn't that right about the time of the first scandanavian migration?



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