Norse in England

[Ánleifr]

Not sure if anyone can really answer this question or not but did the Norse really rape when they would sack an area, in particular England? I realize that at first they started out by sacking but began to settle into areas in the British Isles.

Also, when they started to settle did they intermix with the locals or did they only stick with their own, or both?

And finally, how would you think that Norse ydna would end up in parts of England that didn't have any Norse settlements? For example, Norse ydna found in descendants of families from Cornwall or Devon whose families had been in these areas since at least before the 1400's?

[Dacul]

I do not think they actually raped women there.
I think they settled there and mixed with local women peacefully.
Old english was very close to old norse/old icelandic language .
From what I read in other parts,when viking kings started to rule Norway,some viking king was ruling Norway with an iron hand and made some people from there left to Iceland and UK.
So they went there,they mixed with population there.
I do not know if old norse people and old english were thinking of themselves as different nations.

[Xenomorph]

Yes, they did rape. Invading armies back then usually engaged in alot of rape, no matter where you were in the world. Later on, many Norse intermingled peacefully with native English, but this wouldn't have been the case at first.

[Barreldriver]

Not sure if anyone can really answer this question or not but did the Norse really rape when they would sack an area, in particular England? I realize that at first they started out by sacking but began to settle into areas in the British Isles.

Also, when they started to settle did they intermix with the locals or did they only stick with their own, or both?

And finally, how would you think that Norse ydna would end up in parts of England that didn't have any Norse settlements? For example, Norse ydna found in descendants of families from Cornwall or Devon whose families had been in these areas since at least before the 1400's?

It was my understanding that the Norse in the Danelaw regions cohabited with the English and Britons and married each other without much qualm until the Harrying of the North, even then that did not completely rid of the Danish presence as lineages had been intermixed prior, descendants survived even if some of the more obvious were killed. There are clades of Y-DNA that are hypothesized to have been brought by these "Danes" (aside from certain clades of I1 and R1a there's R1b L238/S182).

Some have mentioned that this settlement perhaps was the reason behind a sort of simplification within early English grammar so these peoples could communicate with each other (saw mention of this in a thread here dealing with the English language).

As for peoples descending from the "Danes" in Western England, Wessex had been marched upon by the Danish at one point (300 and some ships strong) so prior to 1400 it would not have been inconceivable for descendants of whoever was left in these parts (descendants of deserters, stragglers, etc.) to trot further West. Ye did mention Devon earlier and Devon was absorbed into Wessex post 660 for a while and suffered "Viking" raids of its own in the 9th Century.

[Ánleifr]

pertaining to Devon I can't find that they were any Norse settlements, a few attacks but no settlements like their were in York, Dublin and etc.

[Barreldriver]

pertaining to Devon I can't find that they were any Norse settlements, a few attacks but no settlements like their were in York, Dublin and etc.

No permanent settlements comparable to Yorkshire yes, but while it was incorporated into Wessex it is not inconceivable for deserters or left behind wounded from the Danish march on Wessex to have made way into Devon, or for shipwrecked raiders who raided Devon proper to assimilate in.

EDIT:

Forgot to mention, a fleet of 300 ships may not seem like much by today's standards but consider the population of these regions during the Early Medieval. 300 ships on your coast would have been a "shit your pants" moment.

[Dacul]

Yes, they did rape. Invading armies back then usually engaged in alot of rape, no matter where you were in the world. Later on, many Norse intermingled peacefully with native English, but this wouldn't have been the case at first.

Think at this,norwegian vikings were mostly blue eyed,tall,with high foreheads and high cheekbones,very muscled ,strengthened by enduring harsh weather and harsh conditions on the sea,with big beards and so on.
They were pretty perfect from physical point of view,see what that arab historian is telling about "Rus" (which were scandinavians doing trade in Russia) that he did not saw before people of such physical perfection.
So I think plenty of women from UK liked them a lot,norwegian vikings and other vikings were some kind of macho men there.
Is clear that lots of women went as wives to vikings in Iceland and in Norway,cause were done DNA tests to confirm this.
What do you think that they took so many women by force ?
Lol.

[Albion]

Think at this,norwegian vikings were mostly blue eyed,tall,with high foreheads and high cheekbones,very muscled ,strengthened by enduring harsh weather and harsh conditions on the sea,with big beards and so on.
They were pretty perfect from physical point of view,see what that arab historian is telling about "Rus" (which were scandinavians doing trade in Russia) that he did not saw before people of such physical perfection.
So I think plenty of women from UK liked them a lot,norwegian vikings and other vikings were some kind of macho men there.
Is clear that lots of women went as wives to vikings in Iceland and in Norway,cause were done DNA tests to confirm this.
What do you think that they took so many women by force ?
Lol.

Yeah, apart from the Vikings happened to be some of the shortest people in Europe at the time due to the very poor diet offered by their cold, overcrowded homeland.
Not so macho now are they? They fought so well because they were desperate for land.

They came to England because it was a breadbasket, a very fertile country perfect for their agriculture and with a related culture (think of it in terms of a American going to live in Canada - different, but not by much).

There's too much romanticism and not enough truth when it comes to the Vikings, Celts and whatever else.

[Xenomorph]

Think at this,norwegian vikings were mostly blue eyed,tall,with high foreheads and high cheekbones,very muscled ,strengthened by enduring harsh weather and harsh conditions on the sea,with big beards and so on.
They were pretty perfect from physical point of view,see what that arab historian is telling about "Rus" (which were scandinavians doing trade in Russia) that he did not saw before people of such physical perfection.
So I think plenty of women from UK liked them a lot,norwegian vikings and other vikings were some kind of macho men there.
Is clear that lots of women went as wives to vikings in Iceland and in Norway,cause were done DNA tests to confirm this.
What do you think that they took so many women by force ?
Lol.

They melted into the country later on, but initially, the English would have only seen them as heathen invaders and nothing more, regardless of their appearance. Before the permanent settlements, their raids were known to be brutal and rape was part of that. When they settled in and eventually became part of the population, they would have behaved like anyone else (though rapes probably did occur as it was just a lawless and violent time).

[Rødskjegg]

Yeah, apart from the Vikings happened to be some of the shortest people in Europe at the time due to the very poor diet offered by their cold, overcrowded homeland.

They were taller than the average height in those days. Britons on the other hand were short.