What if the Vikings NEVER Invaded Britain and Ireland?
Channel: Celtic History Decoded
Date: 2023-09-24

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What if the Vikings NEVER Invaded Britain and Ireland?

Creative Commons Imagery:

Silar https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:02022_0559_Slagscene_med_vikinger,_Trzcinica.jpg Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en 

The Viking invasion of Britain and Ireland is one of the most famous and fascinating events in the history of these isles, but what if it didn’t happen? How would our world of today be different if there was no Viking invasion? History is not a forgone conclusion, it’s only from our vantage point of the present that we can often think of it that way. 

First up, and perhaps not what some of you would be expecting, is that the English language would be different today without the Vikings. Numerous everyday words in the English language come from the Vikings and are connected to Old Norse, stemming from Vikings raids over the centuries as well as the Danelaw period, when Danes settled part of modern England from 865–954. 

Words such as egg, husband, anger, bag and slaughter are from Old Norse, a legacy of the Vikings invasions. Without the Vikings, we might still be confusing our eggs and our eyes, as the Old English word for egg was ey until the Old Norse egg replaced it, maybe due to the confusion. Old Norse also had an influence on many place names as well. 

Sources:

Scotsman - On this day 1472: Orkney and Shetland join Scotland - https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/on-this-day-1472-orkney-and-shetland-join-scotland-1512113 

Th Herald - Shetland looks at independence from Scotland https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18710705.shetland-looks-independence-scotland/ 

The Independent - ‘Revolutionary’: Orkney independence vote ‘made UK and Scotland sit up and take notice’ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/orkney-independence-vote-norway-shetland-b2369364.html 

Anger, Online Etymology Dictionary - https://www.etymonline.com/word/anger 

Egg https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=egg 

Knife https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=knife 

Bag https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=bag 

Slaughter https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=slaughter 

Husband https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=husband 

List of English words of Old Norse origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Old_Norse_origin
 
Danelaw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danelaw 

Settlers: Genetics, Geography and the Peopling of Britain - Oxford University Museum of Natural History - http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/settlers/ 

Oxford University Museum of Natural History - Genetic Ancestry and the People of the British Isles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8k9LMaFeRM&t=1s 

University of Oxford - Who do you think you really are? A genetic map of the British Isles https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-03-19-who-do-you-think-you-really-are-genetic-map-british-isles 

University of Oxford - People of the British Isles - Population Genetics and Facial Genetics https://www.peopleofthebritishisles.org/ https://www.peopleofthebritishisles.org/population-genetics 

The genetic landscape of Scotland and the Isles, PNAS, Edmund Gilbert, Seamus O’Reilly, Michael Merrigan, +16, and James F. Wilson, September 3, 2019 116 (38) 19064-19070 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1904761116 

Gilbert, E., O’Reilly, S., Merrigan, M. et al. The Irish DNA Atlas: Revealing Fine-Scale Population Structure and History within Ireland. Sci Rep 7, 17199 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17124-4 The Irish DNA Atlas: Revealing Fine-Scale Population Structure and History within Ireland | Scientific Reports (nature.com) 

Rob Words - OLD NORSE IN ENGLISH: The words the Vikings left behind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XimUGRX81V8 

Promote Shetland - Up Helly Aa 2019 - your 4 minute tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYDW7LnTbeU 

History - Vikings: Season 6 Official Trailer | History https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7d0A5re7-0 

THE NORTHMAN - Official Trailer - Only In Theaters April 22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMSdFM12hOw 

#history #vikings #britain