In the two centuries before the Norman invasion of England, Anglo-Saxon
and Viking forces clashed repeatedly in battle, with mixed success for
both sides. After the Vikings defeated three out of the four great
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and came close to defeating the fourth in the 860s
and 870s, they conquered and settled large areas of England. The
surviving West Saxon kingdom in turn conquered the Viking settlements in
England to create the first unified English kingdom in the mid-10th
century, before a new wave of Viking raids led to the Danish conquest of
England in 1016. Fifty years later a Norwegian army sought to conquer
England again, under the leadership of the celebrated Viking warrior
Harald Hard-Counsel. His defeat at Stamford Bridge in 1066 is often seen
as the end of the Viking age in England.
The two sides are seen as very different in popular perceptions, but how
much are these differences based on fact, and how much on the bias of
the surviving contemporary accounts and later historical traditions? And
how far did the two sides learn from each other in the course of 200
years of conflict? Drawing upon historical accounts from both English
and Scandinavian sources, and on archaeological evidence, Gareth
Williams presents a detailed comparison of the weaponry, tactics,
strategies and underlying military organization of the Anglo-Saxons and
Vikings, and considers the developments which took place on both sides
between the arrival of the Vikings' 'Great Raiding Army' in 865 and the
battle of Stamford Bridge.
