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This is CBSI and the world. I'm John Batchel. It's a delight to spend time with Eleanor Barclough. Her new book is Embers of the Hands, Hidden Histories of the Viking Age.

We have the Vikings as Raiders, but what about us conquers? Quickly now,

the Carolingian Empire is falling apart in mainland Europe. The Vikings are very good raiders,

and they do very well. They raid Paris and Eleanor reports that they walked away with seven

thousand pounds of gold. Good God. At the same time, they decide to bring an army and conquer

England. East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia all fall, only Wessex holds out. So,

you're English, Eleanor, but you're Norse. Is that it? Is this your origin story in the United Kingdom?

So the thing with the United Kingdom is there are so many origin stories. And that's what makes it such a fascinating melting pot of cultural influences and in commerce.

I mean, the Anglo-Saxons, sort of what we tend to characterize

these kingdoms at the time of the sort of Norse incursions, as you say, you know, this proper,

you know, more military conquest-style invasion. But of course, the Anglo-Saxons themselves are different

cultural groups that have come over to England a few centuries earlier. Before then, it's the

Romans. So it's much more interesting, you know, and it's much more complicated, that sort of

...