Finding vikings in the Danelaw

Historical, artefactual and place-name evidence indicates that Scandinavian migrants moved to eastern England in the ninth century AD, settling in the Danelaw. However, only a handful of characteristically Scandinavian burials have been found in the region. One, widely held, explanation is that most of these Scandinavian settlers quickly adopted local Christian burial customs, thus leaving Scandinavians indistinguishable from the Anglo-Saxon population. We undertook osteological and isotopic analysis to investigate the presence of first-generation Scandinavian migrants. Burials from Masham were typical of the later Anglo-Saxon period and included men, women and children. The location and positioning of the four adult burials from Coppergate, however, are unusual for Anglo-Scandinavian York. None of the skeletons revealed interpersonal violence. Isotopic evidence did not suggest a marine component in the diet of either group, but revealed migration on a regional, and possibly an international, scale. Combined strontium and oxygen isotope analysis should be used to investigate further both regional and Scandinavian migration in the later Anglo-Saxon period.

West is east: the Irish Saracens in 'Of Arthour and of Merlin'

Among the more striking episodes in the Middle English poem Of Arthour and of Merlin is an invasion of England by, amongst others, an army of gigantic Irish pagans. Adapted from the French Estoire de Merlin, the English poem’s depiction of the Irish represents one of the more intriguing points of divergence between the two versions. Of Arthour and of Merlin paints the Irish in a highly negative light and repeatedly refers to them as ‘Saracens’. The French text, by contrast, depicts the Irish as gigantic, but it does not suggest that they are ignoble or pagan. Although, the term ‘Saracen’ was sometimes applied to non-Islamic enemies of England, such as the Vikings, this appears to be its only application to a historically Christian people dwelling west of England. This paper argues that the depiction of the Irish in the poem reflects a complex of ideas about Ireland in circulation in England in the period. In particular, the influential writings of Gerald of Wales lay great emphasis on supposed Irish heterodoxy and repeatedly link the Irish Occident with the Orient as the furthest extremities of the world, abounding in marvels but rendered barbaric by their isolation