The Scandinavian Intervention

[JMcB]

This might be of possible interest to some:

The Scandinavian Intervention
Alex Woolf

FOLLOWING the introduction of Christianity in Late Antiquity the next major phase in Irish history resulted from the interaction between native Irish and Scandinavians, and, subsequently, the development of communities of Scandinavian origin established within Ireland and her peripheral territories (such as the Scottish islands, south-west Scotland, north-west England, the Isle of Man and coastal Wales). These interactions began as part of the wider phenomenon of Scandinavian diaspora in what is often termed the Viking Age. The concept of a Viking Age is not entirely unproblematic since, as Scandinavian archaeologists have argued, its beginnings, usually dated to the 790s, do not correspond to any major changes in domestic Scandinavian society.1 Indeed, the widely accepted chronological brackets of the Viking Age, c.790–1066, are derived entirely from the English experience, with the earliest recorded raid on Lindisfarne in 793 and the Battle of Stamford Bridge, in which the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada was slain in September 1066, providing the book-ends. It is thus questionable whether they should be exported to other countries. Even for England this chronology is tendentious, since although the raid on Lindisfarne may well be the earliest firmly dated Scandinavian attack, the Norwegian invasion of 1066 was followed up over the next decade by more than one Danish invasion under Sven Estridsson and the Domesday survey of 1086 seems to have been prompted by a planned inva- sion by Sven’s son Cnut the Holy. Later still, Earl Hugh of Shrewsbury was killed by Scandinavian raiders in 1098. The concept of a discrete Viking Age can also be critiqued on the grounds that the invasions led by national kings leading national armies of the eleventh century were very unlike anything that had occurred earlier. Indeed, the earlier centuries of the Viking Age can also be broken down into numerous distinct phases (see Map 6) ........

https://www.academia.edu/36494234/Th...n_Intervention

[Saetro]

This might be of possible interest to some:

The Scandinavian Intervention
Alex Woolf

These interactions began as part of the wider phenomenon of Scandinavian diaspora in what is often termed the Viking Age. The concept of a Viking Age is not entirely unproblematic since, as Scandinavian archaeologists have argued, its beginnings, usually dated to the 790s, do not correspond to any major changes in domestic Scandinavian society.
https://www.academia.edu/36494234/Th...n_Intervention

(Sorry, I usually have access to academia, but I am presently away from home and the system is not providing access, so I am commenting just on the posting here.)

If the Vikings changed from raiding to the East to raiding to the West, would we expect any major changes in Viking domestic society?
My reading of recent Icelandic academic sources on the topic includes chronology of Viking settlement there BEFORE Lindisfarne.
(Sorry again, I cannot quote references because they are at home.)
If Vikings did not already know about the British Isles, then the Irish monks they met on Iceland may have given them a hint.

I did read something about the Faeroes and Shetland also but cannot quite recall where they fit in, but again Shetland is closer to Norway and would have been a logical stepping stone to the British Isles, and would surely have been encountered before Lindisfarne also.

If Woolf's basic point is simply to look beyond England, then good on him.
The TV series "Vikings" may have inspired people to take an interest in this history, but they must understand that different characters and events from different times in reality have been linked in story in time and place in ways that are either poorly supported by history, or often completely against history, such as characters from 100 years apart meeting each other. And things that happened afterwards there sometimes actually happened before.