Icelanders in England: Memories of Viking Age Cultural Contact

Description

The English historical record is clear on the presence of Scandinavians on English shores during the period known as the Viking Age (c.793–c.1060). As that name implies, the English perspective of Anglo-Scandinavian interaction is often characterised by conflict with viking raiders, armies, and settlers in England’s east and north. This is, however, a one-sided perspective. The Scandinavian cultures which contributed to the viking phenomenon were, at best, semi-literate and, as such, left no record of how they self-identified or perceived their own actions.

This paper argues that some sense of a Scandinavian perception of Viking Age cultural contact with England can be constructed from the Íslendingasögur [sagas of Icelanders]. This literary corpus comprises some forty-odd texts that purport to relate the lives of Iceland’s leading Viking Age figures and families. Icelanders were, according to the Íslendingasögur, common visitors to England; they record around thirty-five such journeys. This paper will survey the Íslendingasögur references to England and categorise the intent of the cultural contact they imply. It will be seen that travel to England is rarely characterised as ‘viking’, but rather tends to be in aid of commerce or settlement. Where such activity does take on a marshal aspect, as with the skáld Egill, Bjǫrn and Gunnlaugr, the Icelanders usually take on a role in service to the king, rather than as an antagonist or aggressor to the English. The manner of these interactions illuminates Icelandic perceptions, and serves to create a more complete picture, of Anglo-Scandinavian cultural contact in the Viking Age.

Period	13 May 2022
Event title	International Congress on Medieval Studies
Event type	Conference
Location	Kalamazoo, United States, MichiganShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International