How the Vikings fought their way into our blood stream

Some of them came from Angeln, the land immediately to the south of the Danish frontier with Germany. It almost certainly means Hook-Land, a usage that survives in angling, the posh word for fishing. And the name of their homeland stuck. England comes from Angle-land, Hookland.

By the early 4th century, when Constantine the Great was acclaimed as Emperor of Rome in York, the army had built a string of shore forts at Filey, Scarborough, Ravenscar, Goldsborough and Huntscliffe.

From the towers of their signal stations, soldiers scanned the horizons of the North Sea for raiders.

These could sail from the north, the ferocious fleets of the Picts, or from the east, raiders from Northern Germany or Denmark. The latter were later absorbed into the imperial defence force as mercenaries and many began to settle. But when the Empire collapsed at the beginning of the 5th century, more raiders came, fought the warbands of the native Celtic kings and began to settle in Eastern Yorkshire.

They were Angles from Angeln and they laid the foundations of the great kingdom of Deira. Another story-telling name, it probably comes from the Celtic word Daru for the oak tree and refers to the conquest of the valley of the River Derwent, the Oak River.

In our new project to discover the DNA of Yorkshire, the ancient identity of Yorkshire, we have already discovered a few tantalising traces of the Angles, and also of other Germanic groups. Perhaps some still live on the banks of the Oak River – such extraordinary continuities are not unusual.

When Deira united with Bernicia, the kingdom of the Angles centred on Bamburgh, the powerful state of Northumbria was forged. The Christian kings of Ebrauc were defeated and the old Roman fortress became Eoforwic, the City of the Wild Boar. Deiran warbands conquered the small western kindred of Craven and Edwin of Deira drove out Cerdig, the last king of Celtic Elmet.

To the south of the united kingdom of Northumbria lay Mercia, another strong Anglo-Saxon polity on the southern borders of Yorkshire. By the middle of the 7th-century, Northumbria was dominant in Britain, politically and culturally. It stretched from the southern shores of the Firth of Forth to the Humber, and its influence spread even further.

The prestige of Imperial Rome lingered for a long time and Northumbrian rulers such as Edwin and Ecgfrith aped the ceremonies and nomenclature of the legions and their commanders. As they progressed around their royal estates, the kings were preceded by a man carrying a tufa, the orb of state. They called themselves Bretwaldas, Britain-Rulers, a harking back to the Roman governors of Britannia.

One of the key questions for Yorkshire’s DNA is to discover just how Anglian the population became at the zenith of Northumbrian power. Were the warbands and their kings a small minority set over a predominantly Celtic peasantry? Where did the Angles and the other Germanic immigrants settle? Only DNA can tell these stories. Yorkshire’s prehistory and history lie around us like the vivid pieces of an unmade jigsaw.

In 793 the monastic 
chroniclers reported fell portents. Dragons flew in the air, thunder boomed and God’s Church on Lindisfarne was attacked and pillaged. The Vikings had sailed into history. Seemingly out of nowhere, new and merciless waves of pagan raiders began to target churches and because they were not God-fearing, did not hesitate to violate the holy places and kill the holy men.

The shock of the first Viking attacks is still palpable – even over 12 centuries. As well as terror, they brought their DNA with them. They changed the name of York once more – from Eoforwic to Jorvik, and left an indelible mark on Yorkshire.

www.yorkshiresdna.com

The first results of testing will be revealed with a guest lecture on November 1 at West Yorkshire Playhouse. Tickets 0113 213 7700.