— Ch. 1 · Pre-Viking Ethnic Landscape —
Viking activity in the British Isles.
~7 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
In the early medieval period, the islands of Ireland and Britain were culturally divided among distinct peoples. The Picts spoke a language that may have been Celtic or perhaps non-Indo-European like Basque. They lived north of the Forth and Clyde rivers in what is now Scotland. Scots crossed from Dalriada in northern Ireland during the late fifth century to settle in these lands. Britons inhabited the Old North, covering parts of southern Scotland and northern England. By the seventh or eighth centuries, these Britons came under political control of Anglo-Saxons. In Cornwall, Cumbria, Wales, and south-west Scotland, people spoke Brythonic languages. Their modern descendants include Welsh and Cornish. In Ireland and western Scotland, as well as on the Isle of Man, communities used Old Irish. Much of southern Britain became kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England. These migrants brought Old English, polytheistic religion, and cultural practices from continental Europe. Many had already converted to Christianity from older pre-Christian beliefs. Between half a million and a million people lived in England at this time. Society was rigidly hierarchical with kings and ealdormen at the top. Below them ranked thegns who held land. Agricultural workers formed the next class. Slaves made up as much as a quarter of the population. Most people lived in the countryside though towns like London and York developed as administrative centers.
Initial Raiding Patterns 780s-850
Viking raids began in England in the late eighth century primarily targeting monasteries. The first recorded raid occurred at Portland, Dorset in 789 when three ships from Hordaland landed. They killed Beaduheard, the royal reeve from Dorchester who tried to identify foreign merchants. Monasteries were popular targets because they were wealthy yet isolated on small islands or remote coastal areas. The monastery at Lindisfarne off the northeast coast of England was sacked on the 8th of June 793. This event marked one of the last major raids on England for about forty years before Vikings shifted focus to Ireland and Scotland. In 795, raiders attacked Iona Abbey off Scotland's west coast again in 802 and 806 killing sixty-eight people there. After such devastation, the monastic community fled to Kells in Ireland. In 835, the first major Viking raid in southern England targeted the Isle of Sheppey. A battle in 839 saw Vikings inflict heavy defeats against Picts killing Uuen king of the Picts along with his brother Bran and Aed son of Boanta king of Dál Riata. King Offa of Mercia had excluded military service against seaborne pirates in a document dating to 792 showing that Viking raids were already an established problem by then.