WERE THE VIKINGS “MODEL IMMIGRANTS”?
WERE THE VIKINGS “MODEL IMMIGRANTS”? The Danegeld stands as strong evidence that the Vikings were pretty tough customers. However, this article on the Vikings in the Independent is headlined that “New research suggests they were model immigrants who co-existed peacefully with the natives.” The article is about a recent three- day conference at Cambridge University which featured new evidence about how Viking settlers in England learned the language, shared technology, assimilated, and lived peaceably side-by-side with their neighbors. The papers at the conference support the view that Vikings, Angles and Saxons lived in mixed societies that I posted on here and here. Michael Byrne had a long, interesting comment on the subject here.
I suspect generalizations of this type. The itinerant Vikings who gave Russia its name and followed river systems all the way to Bzyantium were certainly not generally very nice