Hello everyone and welcome to the Anglo-Saxoning and Podcast episode 14, Pirates from the North.

Last time we got to the end of the reign of Egbert of Wessex in 839. It was a reign which

had transformed the political map of England. With the emergence of a greater Wessex, comprised

of all the kingdoms south of the Tens, with Wessex recognises overlord of the still-powerful

Mercian Kingdom, East Anglia and Essex, quite possibly Northumbria too, though as far as

Northumbria is concerned, more in name than practical reality.

Despite the dramatic downfall of Mercia from her bio-now well-established supremacy, in

many ways the fundamentals stayed exactly the same. It's probably true to say that Kent

and Sussex no longer really exist as independent political entities, but we're still really

in a period of the heptarchy and England divided into multiple kingdoms.

But now into this world was to come a visceral, seemingly unstoppable force that would change

the game completely and forever. To sweep away many of the certainties to which the Anglo-Saxons

had become familiar, which were seemingly unchanging, the interplay of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms,

the Christian religion, the only real external enemies being the British of Wales in the

West and the Picts and Scots in the North. The cards were soon to be thrown up into the

air with a chaos and ferocity reminiscent of the fifth and sixth centuries. I speak,

of course, of the Vikings. Now, as a young lad reading all sorts of myths, there were

none anywhere remotely as cool as the Norse ones. And while being a big supporter of the

Anglo-Saxons, it was impossible not to be fascinated by the Vikings for their pure

aggression, vitality and enterprise, quite apart from the coolness of their names, of course.

Of course, these days, in the finest tradition of revisionism, there's a wider understanding

of the Vikings, their sagas, their art, their talent for metalworking and master of trade.

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