Swedish Vikings in England: A Very Interesting Paper

[DerHerbst]

Hello fellow Brytenwalda enthusiasts! 

Being an American of Swedish, Irish (and possibly Norse-Irish as my grandpa's last name is said to translate roughly into "long ship") and German descent it is sometimes hard to choose which culture I want from the character creation menu.  Sometimes I go Irish, sometimes I go Saxon, and sometimes I choose theod/jute for Swedish.  Despite all of the books and articles I've read about the First (Anglo-Saxon-Jute) & Second (Norse/Danish) Scandinavian invasions of Britain, I'd yet to come across anything about Swedish involvement in the British Isles.  Well luckily I happened to come across this paper the other night and it looks very interesting.  I haven't read it in detail yet but I gleaned enough from a quick scan to deem it worth a full reading.  So if anyone else out there is curious about evidence for Swedish vikings in Britain, give this paper a read.  It has some great color/B W photos of runestones as well.  Maybe my current Swedish/theod character isn't total fantasy after all? 

http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Swedish%20Vikings%20in%20England.pdf

P.S. If you look at the title page it says the author is a professor of "runology"!  How awesome is that?

 

[Morcant]

Thanks for the link.

Brytenwalda is set before the viking age. Yet 7th century anglo-saxon elite had influences from southern Sweden, such as the famous Sutton Hoo helmet beeing decorated with similar plates like the Vendel/Valsgarde helmets. It's likely some members of the royal households came from there.

And the most famous tale in early medieval anglo-saxon tradition, Beowulf, speaks of Geats, Danes and Svears, the hero beeing himself a Geat which was one of the strongest tribes in 7th century Sweden.

 

[Hengwulf]

Thanks , moar info for my pdf library

 

[Letissier]

Sorry for bringing up an old thread

But the Wuffingas of East Engla is said to hail from the Geats (Götar in swedish)

Alot of runestones dating from 7th century to the 10th century tell tales of Swedish men going to England.

 

[Magnus Maximus]

yes it has been proposed that the Wuffingas were a branch of the Geatish Wulfinga clan. while that would put the deat/execution of Ragnar Lodbrok and the revenge of his sons Ivar,  Halfdan and Ubbe.
the relation between the Wuffina and the Wulfinga is mostly speculation as far as i know, however it seems compelling. this scenario would put the arrival of the great armies in certain perspective, possibly being spurred on by dynastic in-fighting.
what is certain is that the Norse and Anglo-Saxons were close cousins and the so called Vikings just kept on what had been going on since the Saxon advent, raid and pillage the British isles. the only difference was that the now Christian Anglo-Saxons got the sharp end of the stick handed to them. it is karma really ...

 

[Letissier]

Haha so true so true

Reading about this makes me so excited about the Viking expansion