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Did the Vikings invade Sunderland?


The Vikings (or more specifically the Danes) attacked religious institutions and some settlements on the north east coast of England but that's not the same as invading the region. An invasion suggests they settled here, but there's no historical evidence that they did so in sufficient numbers to subdue and dominate the local population.

You'd expect them to have left their mark on place names, as they did in Yorkshire and Cumbria, where the names of thousands of villages, towns, fields and geographical features are of Scandinavian origin. There are fewer than a dozen of these in the whole of Durham and Northumberland.

Likewise you'd expect to find a significant impact on local speech, as in Yorkshire, Cumbria and Scotland, but the vast majority of dialect words in the north east of England have survived from Anglo Saxon times. The handful of words of Scandinavian origin that we use today will have likely seeped over from neighbouring regions due to the movement of people well after the days of the Vikings.

There's also no archeological evidence of them settling in the region although they are known to have sailed up the Tyne and spent some winters there, possibly at Byker or Walker, which are extremely rare examples of Viking place names.

So no, the Vikings didn't invade Sunderland.
 
Mate reckons the Vikings turned up in the north east, stole all the good looking women and left the not so good looking ones. Why, Scandinavians all tall blondes and we have the descendents of the ones left, just a theory mind.
 
tiptoad said:
The Vikings (or more specifically the Danes) attacked religious institutions and some settlements on the north east coast of England but that's not the same as invading the region. An invasion suggests they settled here, but there's no historical evidence that they did so in sufficient numbers to subdue and dominate the local population.

You'd expect them to have left their mark on place names, as they did in Yorkshire and Cumbria, where the names of thousands of villages, towns, fields and geographical features are of Scandinavian origin. There are fewer than a dozen of these in the whole of Durham and Northumberland.

Likewise you'd expect to find a significant impact on local speech, as in Yorkshire, Cumbria and Scotland, but the vast majority of dialect words in the north east of England have survived from Anglo Saxon times. The handful of words of Scandinavian origin that we use today will have likely seeped over from neighbouring regions due to the movement of people well after the days of the Vikings.

There's also no archeological evidence of them settling in the region although they are known to have sailed up the Tyne and spent some winters there, possibly at Byker or Walker, which are extremely rare examples of Viking place names.

So no, the Vikings didn't invade Sunderland.
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Yet.

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tiptoad said:
The Vikings (or more specifically the Danes) attacked religious institutions and some settlements on the north east coast of England but that's not the same as invading the region. An invasion suggests they settled here, but there's no historical evidence that they did so in sufficient numbers to subdue and dominate the local population.

You'd expect them to have left their mark on place names, as they did in Yorkshire and Cumbria, where the names of thousands of villages, towns, fields and geographical features are of Scandinavian origin. There are fewer than a dozen of these in the whole of Durham and Northumberland.

Likewise you'd expect to find a significant impact on local speech, as in Yorkshire, Cumbria and Scotland, but the vast majority of dialect words in the north east of England have survived from Anglo Saxon times. The handful of words of Scandinavian origin that we use today will have likely seeped over from neighbouring regions due to the movement of people well after the days of the Vikings.

There's also no archeological evidence of them settling in the region although they are known to have sailed up the Tyne and spent some winters there, possibly at Byker or Walker, which are extremely rare examples of Viking place names.

So no, the Vikings didn't invade Sunderland.
Click to expand...
Answers my question pretty much perfectly, cheers mate.
 
tiptoad said:
The Vikings (or more specifically the Danes) attacked religious institutions and some settlements on the north east coast of England but that's not the same as invading the region. An invasion suggests they settled here, but there's no historical evidence that they did so in sufficient numbers to subdue and dominate the local population.

You'd expect them to have left their mark on place names, as they did in Yorkshire and Cumbria, where the names of thousands of villages, towns, fields and geographical features are of Scandinavian origin. There are fewer than a dozen of these in the whole of Durham and Northumberland.

Likewise you'd expect to find a significant impact on local speech, as in Yorkshire, Cumbria and Scotland, but the vast majority of dialect words in the north east of England have survived from Anglo Saxon times. The handful of words of Scandinavian origin that we use today will have likely seeped over from neighbouring regions due to the movement of people well after the days of the Vikings.

There's also no archeological evidence of them settling in the region although they are known to have sailed up the Tyne and spent some winters there, possibly at Byker or Walker, which are extremely rare examples of Viking place names.

So no, the Vikings didn't invade Sunderland.
Click to expand...

Germanic raiders from scandinavia, spot on post mind, the vikings were generally raiding monastrys, Lindisfarne etc, afaik they did'nt specifically raid wearmouth.
 
alexander said:
Or 'town' in Danish. Like Kirkby, pretty much Danish for Churchtown.

The old Viking name for my hometown of Varde is Warwik, meaning settlement at the river bank. Our local brewery bears the name these days.
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I think ton (town) is Anglo Saxon such as Easington. Ing means people so the Town of Essa's People, an early Angle settlement. Old Norsk is a North Germanic dialect whereas Old English along with Frisian, Dutch and German is a West Germanic dialect. I expect both North Germanic and West Germanic came from Proto Germanic which is why they have similarities. Interesting that in the NE we still pronounce Thursday as Thorsday.
 
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Mercia Blackcat said:
I think ton (town) is Anglo Saxon such as Easington. Ing means people so the Town of Essa's People, an early Angle settlement. Old Norsk is a North Germanic dialect whereas Old English along with Frisian, Dutch and German is a West Germanic dialect. I expect both North Germanic and West Germanic came from Proto Germanic which is why they have similarities. Interesting that in the NE we still pronounce Thursday as Thorsday.
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We have most week-days in common still.

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There are probably dozens of old Norse words in everyday use in England.
 
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