The Acculturation of Scandinavians in England: A Consideration of the Burial Record

Abstract

The portrayal of the ‘Vikings’ as an archetypal barbarian ‘other,’ wreaking death and destruction wherever they went, was already current in the medieval period, but in England the depictions became more extreme in the centuries after the attacks. This paper will focus on the texts and archaeology of ninth- and tenthcentury England and argue that in many respects Scandinavians were not as ‘other’ as later medieval writers believed. Furthermore, once Scandinavian groups settled in England the notion of ‘otherness’ appears to have quickly disappeared. Particular attention will be paid to the burial record as a means of identifying probable Scandinavians, and for evidence of acculturation to Anglo- Saxon Christian burial customs.