Time Team Special: The Real Vikings | Classic Special (Full Episode) - 2010

Howarth, Brant. All four, names in Old Norse or Scandinavian. In Domesday Book, for every Old English name, we find nine Old Norse names. It is evidence that many Vikings not only stayed in this area, but also intermarried with the locals, and wherever they went, they left a lasting legacy, a legacy we have overlooked by dismissing the Vikings as deadly raiders but itinerant. In general, people in Britain have been tolerant of newcomers, have lived alongside them and learned to live with them. And again, the Vikings

real

ly started that process and it's continued ever since. It's in the words Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Words like egg, knife, window, scarce. Even the pronouns they, their, and their, something like 2,000 words in modern English, come from Old Norse. It's Vicki the Viking, it's Marvel's Thor, it's the American gods. They have left a mark on our imagination and our lives almost like no other culture has. Thanks to painstaking archeology and impressive finds, our image of the Vikings has been completely transformed. They are no longer historical caricatures. They are

real

people and quite modern, actually. They are global traders, technological pioneers and terrifying invaders. A bit like Americans, actually. And, just like Americans, you either love them or hate them, depending on your point of view.

But one thing is for sure. The Viking legacy has helped change the Britain we live in today. Join the Time

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