Book contents
- Medieval Historical Writing
- Medieval Historical Writing
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Abbreviations
- General Introduction
- Part I Time
- Part II Place
- Chapter 8 Mental Maps: Sense of Place in Medieval British Historical Writing
- Chapter 9 Viking Armies and their Historical Legacy across England’s North–South Divide, c.790–c.1100
- Chapter 10 Cross-Channel Networks of History Writing: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- Chapter 11 Creating and Curating an Archive: Bury St Edmunds and its Anglo-Saxon Past
- Chapter 12 Historical Writing in Medieval Wales
- Chapter 13 Scotland and Anglo-Scottish Border Writing
- Chapter 14 London Histories
- Chapter 15 History at the Universities: Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris
- Part III Practice
- Part IV Genre
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 9 - Viking Armies and their Historical Legacy across England’s North–South Divide, c.790–c.1100
from Part II - Place
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2019
- Medieval Historical Writing
- Medieval Historical Writing
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Abbreviations
- General Introduction
- Part I Time
- Part II Place
- Chapter 8 Mental Maps: Sense of Place in Medieval British Historical Writing
- Chapter 9 Viking Armies and their Historical Legacy across England’s North–South Divide, c.790–c.1100
- Chapter 10 Cross-Channel Networks of History Writing: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- Chapter 11 Creating and Curating an Archive: Bury St Edmunds and its Anglo-Saxon Past
- Chapter 12 Historical Writing in Medieval Wales
- Chapter 13 Scotland and Anglo-Scottish Border Writing
- Chapter 14 London Histories
- Chapter 15 History at the Universities: Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris
- Part III Practice
- Part IV Genre
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter looks at the written responses to the Viking Age in England. The initial response from Alcuin drew on the paradigm established by the 5th/6th-century British writer Gildas, who depicted the Anglo-Saxon invasions as punishment from God for the sinfulness of the Britons. It proceeds to contrast this with how the Viking Age was remembered in the north of England through an examination of the eleventh-century text Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, which (it is argued) shows how the Scandinavian past was integrated into northern English history as an essential, and very often positive, element. This is compared to the Skaldic poetry associated with the court of Cnut the Great, and it is suggested that the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto and other later English history-writing integrated elements of Scandinavian traditions (especially those associated with Cnut’s family) into their depictions of the English past.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Medieval Historical WritingBritain and Ireland, 500–1500, pp. 157 - 171Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019