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for all the fanfare the vikings get, the anglo-saxons were nearly as infamous as raiders and pirates, although usually in a slightly earlier era. Consider how
by throwaway2048 5y ago
for all the fanfare the vikings get, the anglo-saxons were nearly as infamous as raiders and pirates, although usually in a slightly earlier era.
Consider how they came to conquer and settle England.
- bivargen 5y agoAnd on a tangent to a tangent: The Old norse word for ‘boat’ is usually ‘bátr’, not the expected inherited ‘beitr’. The former is a loanword from Anglo-saxon and the inherited ’beitr’ is only found in poetry. While anecdotal, it is interesting that a culture so associated with seafaring as the viking-age Scandinavia borrowed the word for boat.
- herewulf 5y agoYes, indeed. Consider also the fact that the Anglo-Saxons were culturally and ethnically similar to the Vikings (whom the Anglo-Saxons collectively referred to as "Danes" despite also coming from Norway and Sweden). The Danelaw[1] had resulted in significant intermixing of Anglo-Saxons and Danes, and by 1066 England had had two Danish kings. It's completely unsurprising that Anglo-Saxons integrated well into the Varangian Guard. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danelaw https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danelaw