explain:three phases of scandinavian invesion (urgent pls)
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Answer:
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Explanation:
1. THE SCANDINAVIAN INVASION OF ENGLAND.
The Viking Age lasted roughly from the eighth century to the eleventh, with the Viking attacks on Europe beginning around 750 AD (Barber 1993:127). The Scandinavians were excellent sailors, and they had impressive ships and navigational However, the Vikings were mostly seen as barbaric warriors, rather than tradesmen, and the areas of western Europe that suffered the most from Viking attacks were Britain and Ireland.
There are several possible reasons why the Scandinavians took to the sea and headed for the British Isles; one might have been overpopulation in the harsh and poor landscape of the north.
Another reason was that in the old Scandinavian society it was customary to leave inheritances to the eldest son, which led to the younger sons wanting to seek their fortune elsewhere, perhaps at sea. However, the major reason might have been the fall of the Frisians, who were, until the late eighth century, the greatest maritime power of North-West Europe. This opened up the sea-routes and thus enabled the Scandinavians to travel south (Barber 1993:127).
The first Viking attacks on England took place around 800 AD and started as merely plundering raids, but some fifty years later the attacks had become more serious and groups had even started spending the winters in Britain (128). Previously these expeditions had been seasonal; winter was not a good time for war or travel, neither by sea nor by land. They found that winters in the south were milder, there was plenty of good land to take and, of course, the seas stayed open, so there was no reason to return home.
2. THE SETTLEMENT OF THE DANES IN ENGLAND.
From around 800 AD waves of Danish assaults on the coastlines of the British Isles were gradually followed by a succession of Danish settlerss. Danish raiders first began to settle in England strting in 865, when brothers Halfdan Ragnarsson and Ivar the Boneless wintered in East Anglia. They soon moved north and in 867 captured Northumbria and it´s capital, York.
Some indication of their number may be had from the fact that more than 1,400 places in England bear Scandinavian names.
The area occupied by the Danelaw was roughly the area to the north of a line drawn between London and Chester, excluding the portion of Northumbria to the east of the Pennines.
Five fortified towns became particularly important in the Danelaw: Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford and Lincoln.
ENDURING IMPACT OF THE DANELAW.
The influence of this period of Scandinavian settlement can still be seen in the North of England and the East Midlands, and is particularly evident in place-names: name endings such as -howe, -by ("village") or "thorp" ("hamlet") having Norse origins. There seems to be a remarkable number of Kirby/Kirkby names, some with remains of Anglo-Saxon building indicating both a Norse origin and early church building Scandinavian names blended with the English -ton give rise to typical hybrid place-names.
Old East Norse and Old English were still somewhat mutually comprehensible. The contact between these languages in the Danelaw caused the incorporation of many Norse words into the English language, including the word law itself, sky and window, and the third person plural pronouns she, they, them and their. Many Old Norse words still survive in the dialects of Northeastern England.
Four of the five boroughs became country towns — of the counties of Leicestershire, Linconlnshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. However, Stamford failed to gain such status—perhaps because of the nearby autonomous territory of Rutland.
3. THE AMALGAMATION OF THE TWO PEOPLES.
The amalgamation of the two peoples was greatly facilitated by the close kinship that existed between them. The policy of the English kings in the period when they were re-establishing their control over the Danelaw was to accept as an established fact the mixed population of the district and to devise a modus vivendi for its people. In this effort they were aided by the natural adaptability of the Scandinavian.
The Danes assimlated to most of the ways of English life. Many of them early accepted Christianity.
But these large centres and the multitude of smaller communities where the Northmen gradually settled were absorbed later into the general mass of the English population.