Assess the impact of the Vikings on either the political or the social development of Western Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries.

        Ireland was also affected strongly by the impact of the Vikings. Before the invasions of the Norse, the Irish were a race of cattle farmers, living mainly inland and there was little commerce or trade within Ireland or between Ireland and the rest of Europe. After the Norse had settled the Irish concentrated on the coastal areas and a rich system of trade developed. This shows that the Vikings had a significant impact on the culture and society of the Irish, without which they would not have developed so quickly.

        The Viking invasions initially held negative repercussions for the Church and monasteries as well. The Vikings were held responsible for the destruction of many of them, and several disappeared completely such as the monastery at Whitby. However there is evidence that Bede had deplored ‘pseudo-monasteries’ long before the attacks began and so the disappearance of certain monasteries may not be related to the impact of the Vikings.  Much of the North and East lost its ‘crucial organisation of dioceses’ due to the attacks from the Vikings. This led to severe disruption within the Church but it can be noted that this disruption was short-lived, as order was re-established once the Vikings began to settle and convert to Christianity. 

The conversion of the Vikings to Christianity in an important point as it shows that although the Vikings had an impact on life in England, there is also much evidence of the Vikings adopting English traditions. Therefore one can say that England also had a social impact on the development of the Vikings in their new surroundings. There is even evidence that Christianity had an effect on the Vikings long before conversion was complete, for example their pagan temples were modelled on churches.

This assimilation of the Vikings into the culture of the places they had settled had an important impact on social development. A first influence of the Vikings that will be looked at is on the language that was used at the time. Most settlers learned the native language over time and this affected the different dialects that were spoken, in particular dialects in the Danelaw were deeply affected. Danish words were ‘loaned’ to the language and are still used today, such as ‘window’, ‘sky’ and ‘husband’. In fact there is evidence of about 900 words that originate with the Vikings in the ninth and tenth centuries. This shows that the impact of the Vikings was significant enough to still be recognisable today in the language we use.

Place names in areas under Viking control also show that the Vikings must have had a significant impact at local level. In some instances, such as the Orkney Islands, almost every name is Scandinavian in origin. This is evident throughout Western Europe although not to the extent of in England where half the country was under Danish rule. For example, place names ending in ‘by’, such as Derby are Danish in origin. However it is not known when exactly places were named due to lack of evidence and it is possible that they were named long after the Vikings age although this still would be evidence of the lasting social impact the Viking raids and settlement had on England and its population.

Despite these examples of evidence of Viking impact on European culture it can be said that the impact was not as significant as it could have been. There is little evidence of Viking traditions being adopted by the local population and in fact it seems that the Vikings did not impose their beliefs on them at all. Instead the Vikings accommodated themselves to English ways and merged with the native population. Evidence to support this can be found in contemporary sources, in which ‘Danishness’ is rarely referred to. This shows that natives must have accepted the Vikings fairly quickly and also that ethnic background was not as important as social standing in the early Middle Ages.

The attempts by the Vikings to assimilate themselves into the local population is also evident in the artefacts found that show a mixture of native and imported influences, such as personal dress ornaments. These are reflections of choice and therefore are important evidence of Vikings choosing to adopt Western European ways instead of forcing their Danish ways on people. This again, shows the limitations of the impact of the Vikings in Western Europe as most purely Viking traditions were wiped out and therefore played little or no role in the social development of Western Europe.

Sawyer points outs that the Vikings themselves were not innovative in their ways, and chose mainly to adapt existing arrangements instead of introducing new ones. For example Vikings did not introduce the administrative divisions for taxation purposes in the Scottish Isles.

Overall it can be seen from the points discussed above that the Vikings did have an impact on the social development of Western Europe, particularly in England. The Vikings influenced many aspects of life such as language and urban life. The growth of towns as important trading places is probably one of the most important social developments that are due to Vikings. The growth of towns leads to modernisation as it encourages trade and manufacturing and therefore it can be said that in this aspect of development the Vikings contribution was significant. However, one can also note that the overall impact was perhaps less than previously thought. This is due to the fact that instead of imposing their own traditions on the population, the Vikings tended to adopt the beliefs and culture of the places they settled in. This led to the conversion of them of them to Christianity and meant that the cultural impact of the Vikings was much less significant. They merged with the local population and as Hadley points out, it becomes much harder to determine the Danish from the English in contemporary sources, which shows that the people of England did not see the Vikings as intruders once they had settled. This illustrates the idea that the impact was not huge because if things had radically changed the new settlers would not have been accepted so quickly.

To conclude, the Vikings did have an impact on social development in Western Europe and has left a legacy that is still apparent today in speech and place names. However overall it would be more accurate to say that the places that they settled in had more of an impact on the Vikings own social development as it led to them radically changing their beliefs and customs in such a way that did not happen in Western Europe.

Bibliography

• Fisher, D.J.V. The Anglo-Saxon Age c.400 to 1042 (Longman,  1973)

•  Hadley, D.M, Viking and Native: rethinking identity in the Danelaw (2002)

• Hadley, D.M, The Invisible Viking (British Archaeology Magazine, April 2002)
• McKitterick, R. The Early Middle Ages (Oxford University Press, 2001)
• Rosedahl, E. The Vikings (Penguin Books, 1991)
• Sawyer, P. Kings and Vikings (Routledge, 1994)
• Stafford, P. Unification and Conquest (Arnold, 1996)

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Sarah E. Thomas.

10th December 2003

Assess the impact of the Vikings on either the political or the social development of Western Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries.

School of History

The Birth of Europe 500 to 1200

V11115

Dr. Claire Taylor

Word count: 1532

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