3 ms·

> Norse invasion in 1066 Is that a common way of describing the Norman invasion?

• kwhitefoot 3y ago
  No. The Normans had been in Normandy for a long time and were quite distinct from the Norse. The Normans had been there for 150 years before they invaded South East England at pretty much the same time that Harald Hardrade was trying to invade the North East. The latter were Norse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_activity_in_the_British_Isles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_activity_in_the_British...
  • gerdesj 3y ago
    Harold was a Saxon king and I think you got former and latter reversed. I very deliberately used the word Norse instead of Norman. 150 years is sod all time for "cultural" change, 1000 odd years ago. Nowadays we have all this jingoistic, nationalistic bollocks going on. The articles on HN reflect this: "British scientists discover their own arses", "Russian scientists forget humanitarianism", "Chinese scientologists discover Pi three million years ago" Norman is a modern word and so is norse here, and both are English terms and both mean northman - ie bloke (or bird - let's not be sexist) from the "north" Bear in mind that travelling by boat is far easier than land, when the Fosse Way hasn't been built, let alone the A38 or M5. If you want to get to grips with the olden times, you have to lose silly modern notions of well ... everything.
    • injb 3y ago
      >> Harold was a Saxon king and I think you got former and latter reversed Harold Godwinson was a saxon. He's talking about Harald Hadrada, a viking who invaded the North of England just before William The Bastard invaded from the South.