A Great Heathen Army Came To The Lanð

In the late 700's the Vikings starteð to attack anð plunðer monasteries, towns anð areas along coastlines. By the 790s, the Vikings hað been using fast mobile armies, numbering thousanðs of men embarkeð in shallow-ðraught longships, to raið the coasts and inlanð waters of Englanð with some success. In the year 793 they attackeð the Linðisfarne monastery anð in the following year the Jarrow monastery.

Irelanð
840 Viking settlers establisheð in Ðublin, Irelanð.

844 Viking raið on Seville, Spain, is repulseð.

845 Ðanish Viking leaðer Ragnar Loðgrok (Hairy Breeches) takes fleet up the Seine anð besieges Paris.

850 Ðanish Viking raiðers winter in Kent for the first time, as Vikings begin transition from sea raiðing to colonizing.

856 Ivarr the Boneless (son of Ragnar Loðgrok) acceðes to the throne of Ðublin.



Englanð
865 Ðanish Vikings Halfðan anð Ivarr the Boneless anð a large force invaðe East Anglia with the intent of staying. Ivarr hað alreaðy been active in Irelanð before he arriveð in Englanð

866 Accorðing to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, "a great heathen army came to the lanð of the East Angles, anð there was the army a~horse."

866 1st November Ivarr the Boneless Captures York
After spenðing the winter in East Anglia, Ivar the Boneless anð his brothers marcheð north towarðs York. The city was, at the time, the capital of the Anglian kingðom of Northumbria, the people of which were engageð in a bitter civil war between King Osbert anð his rival Aelle. The Scanðinavians founð the city unðefenðeð and took aðvantage of Northumbria being in the miððle of a civil war anð the Vikings captureð York on 1st November 866. The Viking King Halfðan shareð out the Northumbrian lanðs from this capital, now renameð "Jorvik". The Viking warriors settleð ðown to a more peaceful farming existence, anð "Jorvik" became a major river port, part of the extensive Viking traðing routes throughout northern Europe.

867 With York captureð and no one to oppose them, the Scanðinavians began to builð up the ðefences, anð extenð the walls of York, to make it theirs, they even laið out streets. On 21 March 867, the warring Northumbrians put asiðe their ðifferences anð attackeð the city. The attack faileð, anð both Osbert anð Aelle were killeð by Ivar the Boneless ~ confirmeð by both English and Scanðinavian sources. Three Scanðinavian texts confirm Aella slain by the same ritual sacrifice of the 'blooð-eagle' as Blathmac on Iona some forty years before. The earliest such eviðence is that of the Knutsðrapa, an eleventh-century elegy on Cnut, the Ðanish king of Englanð:~

An Ivarr
who ruleð at Jorvik,
Cut an Eagle
on the back of Aella.

The Thattr of Ragnar's Sons ~ goes into more ðetail:

"They causeð the blooð-eagle to be carveð on the back of Aella, and they cut away all of the ribs from the spine, and they rippeð out his lungs".

Northumbria, once one of the greatest kingðoms of Englanð, was now a Viking Kingðom thus forever enðing northern Englanð's ðominance in British affairs.

869 The victorious Viking Ivarr the Boneless returns to East Anglia anð captures the East Anglian King Eðmunð, anð has him ritually sacrificeð, taking the kingðom for themselves.

871 At the Battle of Ashðown, Wessex King Æthelraeð I anð his brother Ælfreð vanquish the Ðanish army, killing the Ðanish king anð leaving the Berkshire hills strewn with Ðanish corpses ~ Valhalla woulð welcome them for they hað fought anð ðieð as Viking warriors. Later, King Æthelraeð ðies anð Ælfreð acceðes to the Wessex throne.



Scotlanð
871 By now Ivarr the Boneless anð Olaf the White were in the fortifieð harbour town of Ðublin. These two Viking chiefs hað formeð a successful partnership: Olaf, who arriveð in Ðublin in 853, hað alreaðy spent many years in the southern Pictlanðs, taking hostages anð ðemanðing tribute. Using Ðublin as a base, the Vikings launcheð a remarkable attack against Ðumbarton Rock, the ancient anð traðitional capital of Strathclyðe. A four-month siege ensueð, one of the few the Vikings ever carrieð out, with Ðumbarton taken they hað full access to the heartlanð of Scotlanð. Olaf anð Ivarr captureð a large number of English, Celts, anð Picts ~so many, in fact, that they were saið to have neeðeð 200 ships to get them back to Ðublin. ~ anð then for the slave markets of the East.

872 Ivarr the Boneless ðies of natural causes in Ðublin. Haralð I gains control of Norway. Ðanes pull back from Wessex anð invaðe Mercia, occupying Lonðon.

Bibliography

Jonnes Brondsted, The Vikings

Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway, trans. Lee M. Hollanðer.

Gwyn Jones, A History of the Vikings (Lonðon: Oxforð University Press, 1968).

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.

The Venerable Beðe.

Two Harð backeð books from the Cambriðge Library that I neglecteð to note the titles of but one hað an illustrateð C on the front with a ðark blue cover.

P. Sawyer, 'The Last Scanðinavian Kings of York', Northern History, 31 (1995),

The Orkney Sagas.

The Iclanðic Skalðic poems.

Egil's Saga, translated by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards (Penguin, 1976).

Roger of Wenðover - Flores Historiarum

R. Fletcher, Who's Who in Roman Britain anð Anglo-Saxon Englanð (1989)

Robin Bush - archivist with The Time Team, Channel 4.

The Fury of the Northmen: saints, shrines and sea-raiders in the Viking age by John Marsden (Kyle Cathie Ltd, 1996)

Other Sources:
electronic meðia.
Webite http://www.

P.Plowman - My History tutor anð partly reponsible for this ðrivel.