Viking invasion of Britain

Things had been looking rosy for the Saxons – they’d ousted the Britons from what was to become England (and the Saxons gradually became known as the English, too) and had carved the country up into several kingdoms. But that was not to last – in 789 the first Viking raid on England took place on the coast of Dorset. In 793 Vikings sacked the monastery on Lindisfarne, an island off the Northumbrian coast. The following year they raided the Scottish coast and the year after it was the turn of Ireland. Soon, raids were coming in thick and fast all round the coast of Britain, and the Vikings were establishing themselves on the Scottish islands. In 851 they sacked London and Canterbury, although on this occasion the raiders were caught and defeated. The year after marked the first Viking settlements in England. Viking was originally a Norse word describing a journey with lots of fighting, rape, and pillage along the way, although now it has become synonymous with those who took part in these activities. The Vikings came from all over Scandinavia. They were fine seamen and navigators who made voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and even to the North American coast. They also travelled deep into Russia along its great rivers. They made wonderfully intricate carvings and fine wooden buildings. But mostly we remember the Vikings as ferocious raiders and formidable warriors who employed shock and terror as psychological weapons.
In addition to the more usual weapons of sword and spear, the Vikings brought the terrible one- or two-handed fighting axe to the battlefields of Britain. As if that was not enough, they held a particular type of warrior, the berserker, in high esteem. Whether it was the joy of battle or simple blood lust, the berserker fought like a madman, hacking and killing regardless of his own wounds, until he either dropped dead or no one was left to kill. People avoided berserkers on the rampage if at all possible, even if they did add a
new word to everyone’s English dictionary. One element making the Vikings so dangerous was an understanding of strategic principles that had not been seen in Britain since Roman times. For example, when attacking a specific kingdom in force, they sometimes did so from different directions, forcing the defenders to split their resources. Some Vikings settled in territory they had overrun, others enjoyed the annual cycle of raiding. Such was their energy that even when they were defeated they kept coming back again and again. By 866 the Vikings, or Danes as they had become commonly known, had taken York and within eight years they had been able to conquer the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia. Everywhere north of Watling Street, running from London to Shrewsbury, was now known as the Danelaw, after the new owners.
In recent years some historians have attempted to rehabilitate the grizzly reputation of the Vikings by describing them as economic tourists seeking investment opportunities. It’s a point of view, but names like Eric Bloodaxe and Sven the Skullsplitter give us more than a hint about their business methods