[Studies in the Early Middle Ages] Cultures in Contact Volume 2 (Scandinavian Settlement in England in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries) ||

Illustrations 20. Distribution of multi-headed strap-ends in Britain 21. A selection of double-sided and ribbed strap-ends with examples of related buckles 22. Distribution of double-sided strap-ends in Britain 23. Distribution of ribbed strap-ends in Britain 24. The traditional map of 'Viking' burials 25. The races of Britain 26. Genetic boundaries in Britain 27. Pictish vs Scandinavian building characteristics 28. Cottam, East Yorkshire. Anglo-Scandinavian settlement as revealed in magnet ometer plot 29. Cottam, East Yorkshire. Two Anglo-Scandinavian bells decorated with ring-and-dot ornament Part 1. Problems and Perspectives Introduction: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Scandinavian Settlement DAWN M. HADLEY & JULIAN D. RICHARDS his volume examines the Scandinavian impact on England in the ninth and tenth centuries, with particular reference to Scandinavian settlement, and the diverse ways in which the Scandinavians and the native populations responded to each other. Many previous studies have described the settlement as involving a rapid assimilation of the settlers with native society and culture, and a swift process of integration. This volume re-examines that view and shows that the processes of accom modation, assimilation, and integration were gradual and complex, displaying important regional variations. Accordingly, we suggest that we need to ask and address the following questions: What type of society did the Scandinavians come from? What type of society did they eventually settle into? What were the implications of setting cultures in contact, and how is this reflected in the surviving material, documentary, and lin guistic evidence? An important aim of this volume is to open up new interdisciplinary dialogue in Viking Studies, and the following chapters analyse documentary, archaeo logical, artefactual, and linguistic evidence to assess just how far each of these forms of evidence can be used to examine issues of cultural identity and assimilation. The volume also seeks to develop more theoretically sophisticated accounts of Scandinavian settlement, and to bring the study of this subject up-to-date in terms of developments in other branches of history, archaeology, and linguistics. Recent discussion concerning material culture and language has shown that they do not simply reflect changes in society and culture but are also active, constituent elements in creating and re-creating social and cultural identities (Shennan 1989; Jones and Graves-Brown 1995; Jones 1997; Hines 1991; 1995). The volume takes a more rigorously contextual approach than has hitherto been the case in the study of Scandinavian ## DAWN M. HADLEY & JULIAN D. RICHARDS linguistic evidence, through the use of an archaeological parallel. He has described the production of 'Scandinavian English' as a deliberate act which was part of the processes of acculturation, which may also be traced through, for example, the fusion of indigenous and Scandinavian motifs on stone sculpture and coins (Hines, 1991, 417-18). He has also drawn a parallel between the manipulation of artefacts and of language by groups of people as 'acts of identity' (Hines 1995, 58). The manipulation of language, material culture, and identity is clearly a subject ripe for study in the societies of northern and eastern England, as a number of the contributions to the present volume demonstrate. If we are to make progress it is essential that future research recognizes the mutability of identity and its outward trappings, and that it moves beyond the long-standing tendency in the study of Scandinavian settlement to regard ethnic identity as fixed and innate (Hadley 1997, 82-93). ## Churches and Churchmen It is perhaps for violence against churches that the Scandinavians have been most seriously vilified. Our perception of the Scandinavian settlement has been coloured by ecclesiastical views from Alcuin onwards. Yet, whatever the damage done to the fortunes of the Church-which we should not forget may have been considerable (Wormald 1982, 137-41)-many churches survived, many others were eventually founded or re-founded, and many churchmen continued to play an important role in the politics and the culture of northern and eastern England. In a number of studies there has been an emphasis on continuity of ecclesiastical organization, or on its rapid re establishment (Whitelock 1937-45; Rollason 1987a, 45-61; Hadley 1996; 1997). However, how and why that was possible has received little detailed attention. How, for example, would the Church have responded to an incoming population with different religious beliefs? How far was the Church hampered by the disruption of bishoprics and the disappearance of some religious communities and the diminution of others? Most recent studies have suggested that the conversion of the Scandinavians to Christianity must have been rapid, but little attention has been paid to the mechanics of conversion, or to the impact of conversion on the lives of the newly converted, both in a political and a day-to-day context. It is important to draw a distinction between conversion -which may have been a relatively swift process following baptism, and which can often only be documented as involving leaders-and the more long-term processes by which the behaviour of individuals and societies was Christianized. As Lesley Abrams observes, perhaps conversion 'involved leaders, while Christianization was about the people they led'. Comparison with other examples of the conversion of populations to Christianity in the early medieval period sets the events in England in context and provides useful analogies, highlighting the inadequacy of some of the rather vague ways in which conversion has been addressed with respect to the Scandinavians. Yet, while Christianity was not something that could be lightly adopted as far as the Church was concerned, the artistic creations of the tenth century in northern England, particularly monumental stone sculpture, reveal that images drawn from both Scandinavian and DAWN M. HADLEY & JULIAN D. RICHARDS exchange of motifs. Jewellery displays more localized patterns of social expression than sculpture, and there is potential to identify new material culture assemblages by anal ysing the increasing finds that have come to light as a result of cataloguing objects found by metal detector users. Moreover, it is apparent that the motifs and symbols displayed on metalwork were often different from those displayed on stone sculpture: in different media, individuals and communities may have been concerned to express themselves in different ways. ## Settlement Archaeology Settlement archaeology is a relatively new focus of study, in England as well as in Scandinavia. Settlements still tend to be viewed in isolation rather than as part of a cul tural landscape in which they interact with other sites. The rural settlement archaeology of the Danelaw has hitherto played only a small part in debates about the scale and impact of the Scandinavian settlement. The perceived lack of settlement evidence has long been regarded as a problem of recovery and recognition; however, recent arch aeological excavations and discoveries by metal detector users have revealed an increasing number of ninth-and tenth-century rural settlements. It is becoming clear that Scandinavian settlements cannot be identified on the basis of purely Scandinavian material culture, not least because the Scandinavians did not settle an empty landscape, nor did they proceed to live in isolation from the indigenous communities. The new and distinctive forms of settlement that emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries need to be set in the context of contact between different cultures, and in the context of the formation of new cultural identities. We also have to remember that so much of the evidence that we use to identify Scandinavian settlement is actually largely non-Scandinavian in origin. More useful approaches focus on the nature of the Scandinavian contacts, and on the fact that if individuals used material culture to express social or ethnic identities it is apparent that the extent to which they did so varied between different cultural media. As Richard Hall points out, many artefacts from York display whether 'by chance or subtle design' a mixture of styles and motifs, and any intended political or cultural message was diminished by the debasement of motifs apparent on at least some of the products. Rather than artefacts with Scandinavian and Northum brian, not to mention Irish and West Saxon, affiliations being used as distinctive cultural or ethnic markers, 'compromise may have been a common underlying concern' within the complex political and cultural environment of later ninth-and tenth-century York. Finally, we need to address the hope that non-specialists frequently espouse that scientific analysis of ancient DNA will allow archaeologists to answer questions of race. A growing body of skeletal and genetic evidence for Scandinavian settlement in England is being adduced, but there are serious doubts that Scandinavian settlers may be identified from such data. Martin Evison demonstrates that such studies have to be based on populations rather than individuals. Studies of gene frequencies in parts of England and in Scandinavia have more to reveal about admixture of populations than about the density of Scandinavian settlement. Many of the regions of England where Front matter (“Contents”, “Illustrations”), p. i Free Access Introduction: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Scandinavian Settlement, p. 3 Dawn M. Hadley, Julian D. Richards https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1258 Ethnicity, Migration Theory, and the Historiography of the Scandinavian Settlement of England, p. 17 Simon Trafford https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1259 The Alfred-Guthrum Treaty: Scripting Accommodation and Interaction in Viking Age England, p. 43 Paul Kershaw https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1260 Danelaw Identities: Ethnicity, Regionalism, and Political Allegiance, p. 65 Matthew Innes https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1261 Viking Age England as a Bilingual Society, p. 89 Matthew Townend https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1262 ‘Hamlet and the Princes of Denmark’: Lordship in the Danelaw, c. 860–954, p. 107 Dawn M. Hadley https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1263 Conversion and Assimilation, p. 135 Lesley Abrams https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1264 Survival and Mutation: Ecclesiastical Institutions in the Danelaw in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, p. 155 Julia Barrow https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1265 Monuments and Merchants: Irregularities in the Distribution of Stone Sculpture in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire in the Tenth Century, p. 179 David Stocker https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1266 Viking Age Stone Monuments and Social Identity in Derbyshire, p. 213 Phil Sidebottom https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1267 Anglo-Scandinavian Metalwork from the Danelaw: Exploring Social and Cultural Interaction, p. 237 Gabor Thomas https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1268 The Viking Presence in England? The Burial Evidence Reconsidered, p. 259 Guy Halsall https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1269 All in the Genes? Evaluating the Biological Evidence of Contact and Migration, p. 277 Martin Paul Evison https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1270 Identifying Anglo-Scandinavian Settlements, p. 295 Julian D. Richards https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1271 Anglo-Scandinavian Attitudes: Archaeological Ambiguities in Late Ninth- to Mid-Eleventh-Century York, p. 311 R.A. Hall https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.1272 Back matter (“Index”), p. 325 This volume examines the Scandinavian impact on England in the ninth and tenth centuries, with particular reference to Scandinavian settlement and the diverse ways in which the Scandinavians and the native populations responded to each other. Many previous studies have described the settlement as involving a rapid assimilation of the settlers with native society and culture, and a swift process of integration. This volume challenges that view and shows that the processes of assimilation, integration and accommodation were gradual and complex, displaying important regional variations. Where did the Scandinavians come from? What type of society did they eventually settle into? What were the implications of the drawing of different cultures in contact, and how is this portrayed in the surviving material? An important aim of this volume is to open up new interdisciplinary dialogue in Viking Studies, and it analyses documentary, archaeological, artefactual and linguistic evidence. The volume also seeks to develop more theoretically sophisticated accounts of Scandinavian settlement, and brings the study of this subject up-to-date in terms of developments in other branches of history, archaeology and linguistics. Recent discussion in other fields concerning, for example, material culture and language have shown that they did not simply reflect changes in society but were also active, constituent elements in creating and re-creating social and cultural identities. The volume focuses on the creation of local and regional identities and affinities, and moves on from the traditional depiction of the issues in terms of a simple dichotomy of 'Scandinavian' and 'English'. It takes a more rigorously contextual approach than has hitherto been the case in the study of Scandinavian settlement, and seeks to throw new light on the consequences of cultures in contact.