Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
I have read estimates of the population of the British Isles in the year 1000 A.D. and it is estimated that there was a population of about one person per square mile. So the 51 decapitated skeletons were “quite a catch” for the relatively small number of locals. Good on them.
The more recent movies which have been made of Shakespeare plays {Henry V, and Elizabeth I, for instance] don’t show dense crowds of soldiers clustering around their leaders, just a relatively sparse group of ‘grunts’ waiting to be inspired by “once more into the breach, good friends, once more, or fill the wall up with our English dead” etc.].
In the end, it’s the guts of the individual which make for the glory, isn’t it?
Marianne, who’s a little cranky this morning…
51 decapitations proved to be an insufficient deterrent.
Perhaps if they’d been able to video the event?
If the executions took place sometime between AD 910 and AD 1030, they only served to delay inevitable expansion of the Norsemen until 1066.
The Norman invasion was a bit different from the Norman invasion. It’s probably true that the Normans were Norsemen, but the Normans spoke a French dialect of the time, and the Danes spoke a Nordic form of German. The area that was ruled by the Danes has very distinctive names. An explanation that is quite interesting can be found in the book “The Story of English.”
“different from the Norse invasion”
There, fixed.
As stated here recently 1/4 of my ancestry is Scandinavian – this includes Vikings. Given Marianne’s comments above about the population of Britain at the time, I have to wonder if one of my ancestors could have been among the 51.
Not to say that the term “Viking Hoardes” doesn’t indicate volume of participants. But given the population of these areas at that time…I am left wondering.
Given that most were in their teens or early twenties, it’s unlikely, Kris. Distant cousins, maybe, but ancestors?
Dane geld is what brought about our modern tax systems. Little *expletives*.
Sorry to all Vikings in the room, no offense….
I join you, Liz, in apologizing to any and all Viking- descent readers of Lex’s blog if I offended them in my comments [and you all know who you are]. I understand that time heals all wounds — except when you are decapitated, of course.
Marianne
Time wounds all heels too.
Especially if Time features them as “Man of the Year”. Like Obama. And Hitler.
Firstly…MM & Liz… I accept your apologies…it did cut me to the quick…please see that it dosen’t happen again…
…secondly the people who invaded England in 1066 were not the Norsemen or the Vikings of the article…they were Normans, highly civilized Christians with Frankish, Roman, Celt and yes evolved Scandinavian roots, who spoke a dialect of French which subsequent to the invasion began the Latinization the English language as we know it today…
…those poor headless gomers referred to in the article were simple unwashed barbarian pirates suffering the effects of a run of bad luck. Best
Jerry Pournelle is right proud of his Norman French ancestry, and describes them as “Frenchified Danes.” When he was younger, he’da looked good in byrnie or bear shirt, and is famous for having had the drinking habits of his ancestors; famously being tossed off the Internet before the Internet as we know it even existed, for late-night drunken posting on ARPANET. (He was making perfect sense, but telling people _exactly_ what he thought of them.)
Heck, I’m entirely of scandanavian descent and it doesn’t bother me a bit. It’s ancient history, nothing I can do about it nor was i any part to it. No use holding a grudge.
Which, kind of interesting, Britain fell to outside invasion/immigration once before. Having failed to learn, it’s doing so again. Both times danegeld (aka: extorted money) was used to keep the invaders from destroying things initially. Both times they only prolonged the inevitable.
Wonder if anybody is paying attention?
– Max
To Football and Stout maybe, but not to the Islamic invasion. That would take effort.
I’m with you Max – doesn’t bother me at all. Quite the contrary it further fascinates me about my own ancestry and does make me wonder at any personal links. As stated in the article the archaeologists say that the remains indicate a widespread Scandinavian influence.
And to Marianne’s point about population: in 1066 the estimated population of the British Isles was 1.1 million souls on 85,000 sq. miles – putting the spread at less than one person per sq. mile. Population density was not what it is today…
A family genealogy done 40 years ago – and whose records are among the missing sadly – indicated that I descend from Vikings, specifically in the family line of Erik the Red and from William I, Duke of Normandy and the ultimate King of England who put an end to the Viking raids in 1066.
Which all gives me great pause…and a thirst to find those damn documents.
Kris, do not fret about your geanology. Go back far enough and do the math, every one of us is probably descended from Charlemagne or Harold or Gorm the Old by some small token amount. I did one summer in Norway tracing the family history, went back to the 1490′s thanks to church records.
Yeah, I’m descended from a bunch of farmers…
The sobering statistic is that for every Harold or Erik or William in our bloodline, there were probably 100 poor dirt farmers and fishermen we’re also related to, doing the drudge-work of peeling potatoes and gutting fish.
There is a reason we know of Harold and Erik and William. There’s also a reason we don’t know of Hans, Frans, Ole, and Jarold the Incredible Farming Foursome.
But I’d bet if their stories could be told they’d be equally riveting.
– Max
And your last sentence is why I am fascinated – always have been – with my own history. I want to know more about the farming foursome who may exist in my way-back lineage.
I know it’s likely a fruitless effort but someday and trip to Sweden may answer some of my long-standing questions at least about that portion of my heritage.
“Britain fell to outside invasion/immigration once before.”
Once? That was just the last in a long string.
Cast of…um…dozens/Beaker folk/Picts/Celts/Britons/Anglo-Saxons/Danes/Normans…
There goes the neighborhood. Again.
The new Viking:
“Geeze, Lars! How many times do I have to tell you? First rape, then pillage, THEN burn!”
“You just look like an idiot if you do it in the wrong order.”
It is impolite to mention but the standard joke is, “First you pillage, then burn, and finally rape. It’s so much more romantic by firelight.”
– Max
“Go ugly early.”
Anybody?
Damn. A guy and a few of his friends make a beer run and look what happens when they go to the wrong neighborhood.
Modern day Vikings haven’t fared much better– in Superbowls IV, VIII, IX and XI.
Sorry, couldn’t resist…
Many of the commenters on this blog are airmen–pilots or crew etc.
But if you’ve been a ground pounder, and if you’ve spent much time in England, you can get a chill looking at the topography. All those small rivers flowing to coastal outlets–not big enough to run a modern ship up, but certainly big enough to row a longboat up, certainly presented plenty of opportunities for the Danes, and the Vikings. There’s an interesting underground museum in York. It’s part museum, part Disney style “Pirates of the North”. It shows a Saxon village laid waste by invaders. You ride your little tour boat through. I can recall that they had a little aroma therapy in one part of the tour where you could smell the (fake) pigs.
This is why so many old cities are not right on the coast, but several miles up the estuary, such as Washington, D.C. and London. That would give time for warning of arrival of seaborne raiders in the days before modern communications.
Most modern day VIkings probably have a little British in them from days-gone-by.
Or the other way around. Saxon, Dane and Normans are close German/Scandinavian cousins. Indeed, the bloodlines of William of Normandy – the guy of 1066 fame – had the bloodlines of a recycled Viking.
In the ninth century, the Vikings established year-round settlements in Ireland on coastal inlets. Although Irish DNA is primarily Celtic, in these coastal towns there are today, numbers with Irish-Viking surnames.
Thanks, fliterman…I had no idea.
Thought it was solely a one-way street. Learn something new everyday.
A coupla years ago I pointed out here that red hair in an Irish family is almost certain evidence of a Viking in the woodpile. My pastor is Irish and both of his sons are redheads. They do seem to need to be ridden a little harder than yer average boy to keep them from too much dangerous rowdiness.
This all rings of old-home week. I’m of British descent, with a family name that traces directly back to William the Conqueror (1066). There is even a small village on the Bay of Biscay in France which bears the French spelling of our family name.
…and then I found a red-headed Scotch-Irish lassie with whom to match up and, as they say, the rest is history. I would imagine that our children are a combination of the Dane/Norman/Saxon Vikings and the Irish Vikings. We have no red-heads, but there are three of us who throw the axe with our left hand.
See my comment about Jerry Pournelle and his ancestry.
Couldn’t have been any of us Norskies, only Swedes lose thier heads in a panic.
PBFT!
Bernard Cornwell (best known for the Sharpe series) has a current series of books (five so far with more to come)revolving around the Viking invasions. From his website (http://www.bernardcornwell.net/index.cfm):
“The Saxon Stories tell the tale of Alfred the Great and his descendants through the eyes of Uhtred, an English boy born into the aristocracy of ninth-century Northumbria, captured by the Danes and taught the Viking ways.”
Exciting reads.
Thanks for the link -enjoyable reads.
I was kinda hoping this post was announcing the return of the mighty War Hoover…
Chunk, have you ever seen a Dane drink? “War Hoover” is a pretty apt description…
– Max
Yeah, but they seem otherwise so mild-mannered these days. Don’t they remember their National Anthem, in which King Christian stood by the high mast, and brought his sword down through Gothic helm and brain, through Gothic helm and brain?
P.s. The King of Sweden is also still officially King of the Goths. I wish he’d assert his authority and impose some discipline on the kind of sorry badly dressed teenagers who claim to be his subjects these days.
“your comment is awaiting moderation.” What? Why? I’ve posted some pretty rude comments, which I blushed to read later, which went right home. The one just above, I think, is pretty innocuous, and also informative, if I do say so my self.
I’ve had this memory I’ve been trying to noodle from the dark recesses the past couple of days. A few decades ago I was in college and there was a spectacle of a bunch of nuts dressing up like medieval solders and beating on each other with sticks — the Society for Creative Anachronism. Which was sort of appealing just on the face of it and could I do that to my roommate? There were also rather Lovely Young Things in gowns and bodices and other such bits of dress that did emphasize certain portions of the female form. Having made friends with one of the participants who would later become My Good Wife, I went to an after-event revel where it was promised there would be singing, drinking, and possibly a goodnight smooch.
OK, don’t remember much about the party itself, other than the goodnight smooch which I remember with crystal clarity, but there was a song those SCA folks sang called the Song of the Shield Wall, subtitled something like 850 years of British History in about 65 seconds.
It would seem appropriate to give the lyrics here.
Hasten, oh sea-steed, over the swan-road,
Foamy-necked ship o’er the froth of the sea,
Hengest has called us from Gotland and Frisia
To Vortigern’s country his army to be
We’ll take our pay there in sweeter than silver;
We’ll take our plunder in richer than gold,
For Hengest has promised us land for the fighting
Land for the sons of the Saxons to hold!
Hasten, oh fyrdsmen, down to the river
The dragonships come on the in-flowing tide
The linden-wood shield and the old spear of ash-wood
Are needed again by the cold water-side
Draw up the shield-wall, oh shoulder companions
Later whenever our story is told
They’ll say that we died guarding what we call dearest,
Land that the sons of the Saxons will hold!
Hasten, oh Huscarls, north to the Dane-Law
Harold Hardrada’s come over the sea
His longships he’s laden with berserks from Norway
To gain Cnut’s crown and our master to be
Bitter he’ll find there the bite of our spear points
Hard-running Northmen too strong to die old
We’ll grant him six feet, plus as much as he’s taller
Of land that the sons of the Saxons will hold!
Make haste, son of Godwin, southward from Stamford
Triumph is sweet and your men have fought hard
But William the Bastard has landed at Pevensey
Burning the land you have promised to guard
Draw up the spears on the hilltop at Hastings
Fight ’til the sun drops and evening grows cold
And die with the last of your Saxons around you
Holding the land we were given to hold!
– Max
You just sent me on a merry jaunt, my friend. It started with Hengest, took a side tour at the Night of the Long Knives, studied on the Anglo-Saxons and Romano-British for a time (and Vortigern), even ended up – in a process I cannot recollect – with the Athanasian Creed. I believe it had something to do with Arianism.
And that aint’ the whole of it. The Maniots got due play as well. Summat to do with a defeat of the Vandals, I believe.
Another hour of my life lost to Wikipedia.