The Birth of England
597 to 793.
The Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons begins with the baptism of Aethelberht of Kent in 597. Arwald, who died in 686 as the king of the Isle of Wight, is thought of as the last Anglo-Saxon1 king to not convert to Christianity. By comparison, Saeberht of Essex was baptized in 604, but his sons remained pagan. Caedwalla, king of Wessex, was not baptized until 688. Caedwalla's predecessor, Centwine, was born a pagan but may have become Christian during his life.
Christianity in the 7th century was not firmly entrenched as a family tradition. Kings would convert, but leave their sons to take the throne without requiring them to be Christians. Ine of Wessex, crowned in 689, was the first king of Wessex to issue fines for failing to baptize a child or pay tithes to the church. These laws were likely first written around 694. Anglo-Saxons became so Christian that they became compelled to travel to Europe to proselytize to the pagan Frisians in 680. They continued this mission for 100 years, until all of north-western Germany was thoroughly Christianized.
Ecgberht of Ripon, the founder of the Anglo-Saxon evangelists, also was present at the Synod of Birr in Ireland, 697. This synod proclaimed the Cáin Adomnáin, or in Latin, Lex Innocentium, also known as the Law of Padraicc (Patrick). These laws essentially treated women, children, and non-combatants with the same protections as monks. That is, anyone who killed an unarmed monk would face the harshest penalties for killing a man of God, including excommunication. Many of these notions were already present in traditional Irish law, but the synod canonized these laws as part of church doctrine.
During the 7th century, pagan kings continued to colonize Britain at the expense of the natives. Bede writes that the pagan king Aethelfrith “conquered more territories from the Britons, either making them tributary, or driving the inhabitants clean out, and planting English in their places.”2 While Christianity conquered the Anglo-Saxons from within, they simultaneously expanded outward. This history is supported by the latest genetic research, which confirms that "individuals [..] from eastern England derived up to 76% of their ancestry from the continental North Sea zone."3
According to Bede, Ealdwulf of East Anglia (d. 713) grew up visiting the temple of Raedwald, which contained both an altar worshipping Christ and an altar worshipping pagan Gods. The name of Woden was still not entirely eradicated even centuries after. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, completed during the reign of Alfred the Great (871-899), records a battle at "Woddes beorge,” Woden’s Hill, in 715. Later Christianizers renamed the site “Adam’s Grave.” The most definitive date for the victory of Christianization is the date of completion for Bede’s history, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, 731. From 597 to its completion between 686 and 731, Christianization spanned 89 to 134 years.
In comparison with the British dark ages (383/411 to 597, 186 to 214 years), the period of Christianization was rapid. Caedwalla was baptized in Rome, ten days before his death in 689. Such pilgrimages fostered pan-European connections, the use of Latin, the adoption of international legal codes, and the funding of a priest class which conducted research in law, history, and medicine.
In his Historia in 731, Bede says that “Lundenwic,” was “a trading center for many nations who visit it by land and sea.” The suffix -wic is related to -wich and -vik, and the Dutch -wijk, and generally refers to a settlement or port city, such as Gatwick, Warwick, Sandwich, Harwich, Ipswich, and Reykjavik. The name "York" also derives from the Old Norse Jorvik. Part of the reason that Bede referred to London as a crossroad for many nations “by land” was because it sat at the crossroads of Essex, Kent, and Wessex, each of which was considered its own independent nation.
The Western Crusade
The national divisions between various Anglo-Saxons began to crumble with the unifying power of the church. The Council of Hertford (672) was the first time when all corners of the Anglo-Saxon church convened in a synod. It followed earlier regional synods, such as the Synod of Whitby. The principle issue of both synods was that of Easter and tonsure. Should the Anglo-Saxon church follow the dating and hairstyles of Ireland, or of Rome? In both cases, the Anglo-Saxons sided with Rome over Ireland.
This religious split between the Celtic church and the Roman church became a war of words in the Epistola ad Geruntium, written by Abbot Aldhelm. This letter came between Aldhelm's visit to Rome (701) and his appointment as Bishop (705). Aldhelm was a disciple of Adrian of Canterbury. Bede describes Adrian as "an abbot called Hadrian, by nation an African, well versed in Holy Scripture, trained in monastic and ecclesiastical teaching, and excellently skilled both in the Greek and Latin tongues."4
After 689, the most significant expansion of English territory came at the expense of the Celtic kingdom of Dumnonia.5 Aldhelm acted as a propagandist for the Anglo-Saxons, accusing the Celts of being out of communion with Rome, and subject to the wrath of God:6
[Aldhelm] was deputed by a synod of the church in Wessex to remonstrate with the Britons of Domnonia (Devon and Cornwall) on their differences from the Roman practice in the shape of the tonsure and the date of Easter. This he did in a long and rather acrimonious letter to their king Geraint (Geruntius), and their ultimate agreement with Rome is referred by William of Malmesbury to his efforts.7
Geraint’s openness to changing church custom is unclear, and different accounts portray him as either open or recalcitrant. In either case, this did not stop the armies of Wessex from encroaching further into the South West Peninsula. Geraint was cut down and slain in 710, during the Battle of Llongborth. He would be the last king of a united Dumnonia.
By 753, King Cuthred of Wessex largely reduced the formerly independent Cornish territories to a rump state. Cornwall was entirely devastated in 815 by king Ecgbryht, “from east to west.”8
During this period of colonization, the inhabitants of Jutland were no longer considered Angles, Saxons, or Jutes. Rather, they were forced out by a new ethnicity known as “Danes.” The first Danish king who emerged out of the realm of mythology into the realm of history was Gudfred, who began his rule in 804.9 The Treaty of Heiligen in 811 was signed between King Hemming of Denmark and Charlemagne, which recognized Danish sovereignty and political authority.
During this period, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian were all mutually intelligible dialects. In fact, Danish and Swedish were not distinct enough to even call different dialects.
Old Saxon, Old Frisian, and Old English are all referred to as North Sea Germanic languages. These languages occupied the Jutland peninsula between the 1st century and the 5th century. After the 2nd century, North Germanic languages (ancestors of Danish, Norwegian, Swedish) began to migrate south into Jutland. This pushed the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons out of Jutland, and led them to sail to Britain.
The colonization of America operated in similar waves. New York was first colonized by the Swedish, then the Dutch, and then the English. Similarly, Jutland was first colonized by “Sea Germans” (named because they eventually migrated by sea to Britain) and then pushed out by their North German cousins. Other parallels can be drawn to the Germanic invasions of Rome, who were themselves invaded by the Huns.
This domino effect is also noted in ancient mythologies. Virgil’s account of the founding of Rome portrays Aeneas as a refugee fleeing the sack of Troy. The heroic thing to do was not to remain in the city as a guerrilla or resistance, but to colonize some even weaker tribe.
Today it is believed that the Viking age began in the 8th or 9th century, when Norse men began for the first time to finally venture out of Scandinavia. This is an entirely false romanticization, promoted by neo-pagans and Hollywood. In fact, Norse expansions had occurred violently for hundreds of years. The first expansion began in the 2nd century, which promoted the Saxons to begin raiding Britain. This expansionary pressure on the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes culminated in the total migration of all Anglo-Saxons to Britain. Those who stayed behind in Jutland were entirely assimilated into a new “Danish” culture, which was composed of violent Norse migrants from Scandinavia. The Danish as we know them today are not natives to Jutland, but migrants from Scandinavia who pushed south over centuries, finally eliminating the Anglo-Saxons between 500 and 800 AD.
These facts are important to consider, because popularized accounts of the Viking expansion paints their violence as a response to Christian violence. This is an attempt to frame Viking culture within Christian morality. “The Vikings weren’t really violent — they were just defending themselves against Christians!” In fact, Scandinavian expansions had occurred for hundreds of years before the Christianization of Rome, Gaul, Germany, or Britain, and they were all violent.
As early as 787, Danes made their way to Cornwall. By 807, they attempted to form alliances with the Cornish. This strategic alliance came to a climax in 838, during the Battle of Hingston Down, when a combined force of Danish naval power and Cornish armies were defeated by the Ecgberht, king of Wessex. The term “Viking” was not used during this period, but instead “Danish,” “Norse,” or “Northmen.”
While the Danes did not succeed in reviving the Cornish as an ally against the English, they continued to raid and attack the eastern coast of England. The raid at Lindisfarne in 793 is generally considered the beginning of the Viking era, but again, these people were not called Vikings, nor did they call themselves Vikings.
By 795, Norsemen were raiding Ireland, including Iona, Rathlin Island, Inishmurray, Inishbofin, and Lambay Island. Although Anglo-Saxons would not make any incursions into Ireland until after the Norman conquest, the Norse settlement of Ireland already began in the 9th century.
The Myth of the Word “Viking”
As Norse raids increased in the 9th century, the term “Viking” was completely absent. The Anglo-Saxon term wicing meant pirate, and it may have had to do with the term wic, wich, vik, which referred to a camp, settlement, or port city. Therefore, a wicing was a frequenter of ports. The Latin translation of wicing was pirata, pirate, from the Greek peirates, one who attempts, one who risks danger, one who plots or schemes. However, wicing was not a frequent term. More often, the raiders were referred to as Norþmenn (“north men”), haeþene (“pagans”), and Dene (“Danes”). Dene was the plural form, and a singular Dane was a Denisċ (a “Danish”) or Denisċ mann.
The concept of a “Viking” somewhat obscures the fact that a Danish national identity was in its early stages, in terms of self-identification as well as external identification, alongside a Norwegian identity, Norðvegr, Norðmaðr or Nóregr. The Norse were somewhat unique in world history in that they referred to themselves as “the northern ones,” having the navigational skills to understand that there were no significant populations north of the arctic circle. Collectively, Norwegian and Danes who traveled to Britain could refer to themselves as “Ostmen,” or “Austr,” those who came from the east.
The term Viking is used to imply that there was a defined political, logistical, cultural, spiritual, or identitarian movement of Norse who decided to raid foreign lands for moral, ideological, or fashionable reasons, as distinct from the cultures of the Goths, Danes, and Norwegians. The picture that is painted is that some men, one day, said, “we are Vikings, this is what Vikings do,” and then, all of a sudden and without precedent, they began to Viking all over the place. This ignores centuries of raiding and expansion prior to the Vikings.
The reason why the Norse raids after 793 were especially noteworthy is not because they were the first of their kind, but because Christian propagandists wrote them down to great effect. The moral panic over Heathenry and Pagan Races makes it appear as if the invasions were unprecedented. They were not. Germanic tribes had conducted raids on one another for centuries. No Germanic tribe ever thought to write these down from a victimological perspective, because that would have been seen as weak or cowardly. The reason why the period from 793 onward seems especially violent, unstable, ravenous, or chaotic is because it was portrayed that way by an entrenched, literate, and wealthy priest class. In comparison to previous ages, however, there was nothing to write home about. Then as still today, the media distorts reality.
Part of the reason that the term “Viking” became popular may be due to the early Swedish nationalism of the 19th century, which could not take national pride in the term “Northmen” or “Danes,” and so had to instead invent a third, universal Scandinavian identity known as Wiking. The term Swede essentially comes from the proto-Germanic swé, which simply means “self” or “us.” This became Soenskr in old Norse. Thus, the term “Swede” means “our people,” and is cognate with the ethnonym “Swabian.” In all fairness, the inhabitants of modern Sweden were, at that time, engaged in the most vicious conquest of Finland, Russia, and serving as Varangians in Byzantium, but these tribes were generally referred to as “Goths,” not Swedes.
The term “Goth” may be related to gautaz, one who pours out libations for the Gods. The term guda in proto-Germanic means "one for whom libations are poured out," and this is where we derive our word "God." In this sense, the Goths may have claimed descent from Gods, or perhaps they were like the kohen of Israel, the priests who made libations to the Gods. It may also be related to the ethnonym Jute, which may derive from eutaz, as in Jotunn, giants, the ones who eat. Thus, the Danes, previously inhabited by Jutes, and Goths (pre-modern Swedes), may share an etymological connection.
Understanding these linguistic distinctions, while pedantic, helps reveal the shallowness of the popular imagination surrounding the so-called Vikings, who we could more accurately call the Danes and Norwegians.
Conclusion
The period from 597 to 694 represents a massive religious transition. The Anglo-Saxons, who began as pagans, gradually became devout Christians over a period of 200 years. What followed was a 100 year period of general consolidation and expansion, up until the first raid Lindisfarne in 793 by haeþenra manna, heathen men. This would signal the return of paganism to England in the form of mass Norse invasions. Just as the Christianization of the Celts was undone by the Anglo-Saxons after 411, the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons was threatened by the Heathen raids of 793. Ultimately, the Norwegian and Danish invaders would not be as successful as their Anglo-Saxon cousins, until the Norman invasion of 1066. In this sense, the period from 793 to 1066 can be characterized by a continuous threat of Norse from the east, followed by a sudden Norse invasion from the south, which would end the primacy of the English language in England for hundreds of years. This period, from 793 to 1362, can be called the Nordic period of English history, signifying the influence first of the Norse, and then of the Normans. The term “Viking age” fails to identify the continuity between the Danish, Norwegian, and Norman invaders. A more accurate assessment will bring this gigantic ethnic and military phenomenon into context.
He was likely Jutish, although the Jutes are rarely distinguished from their Anglo-Saxon cousins, and Anglo-Saxon-Jutish is a mouthful.
Book 1, CHAPTER XXXIV. ETHELFRID, KING OF THE NORTHUMBRIANS, HAVING VANQUISHED THE NATIONS OF THE SCOTS, EXPELS THEM FROM THE TERRITORIES OF THE ENGLISH. [A.D. 603.]
The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the early English gene pool, 2022.
Book IV Chap. I. How when Deusdedit died, Wighard was sent to Rome to receive the episcopate; but he dying there, Theodore was ordained archbishop, and sent into Britain with the Abbot Hadrian
It is from this far western kingdom that Tolkien may have derived the Celtic sounding “Dúnedain,” men of the west.
Probert, Duncan (2010). New light on Aldhelm's letter to King Gerent of Dumnonia. . pp. 110–28.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aldhelm". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). pp. 535–536.
The Anglo Saxon Chronicle states "& þy geare gehergade Ecgbryht cyning on West Walas from easteweardum oþ westewearde."
The word “vikingr” originates in the 10th century. The word "Denmark" appears in English in the translation of Paulus Orosius' Historiarum adversum Paganos Libri Septem, as it was translated into Anglo-Saxon during the reign of Alfred the Great, 871–899.