Heirs of the Vikings: History and Identity in Normandy and England, c. 950–c. 1015 by Katherine Cross (review)

Heirs of the Vikings is an original and thought-provoking contribution to Viking Age history in England and Normandy. The study provides a detailed focus on written sources in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. A wide range of material is analyzed, including genealogies, histories, hagiography, charters, and law codes. These texts provide a retrospective view of raiding and settlement in England and Normandy and deal with identity politics at the times when they were written down, thus providing a means to study the development of ethnic identities over time. Naturally, such an analysis leaves out discussion of material culture and art history, but it would be interesting to apply the analysis of ethnic identity presented here to other types of material. The comparison between England and Normandy (which is largely a comparison of works written under the patronage of Wessex kings and Norman dukes) allows common themes and strategies on either side of the Channel to show how elites sought to manipulate their subjects’ sense of identity.

Cross refreshingly avoids the tendency to view “viking” and “native” as fixed categories and challenges the simplistic use of labels. She argues that identities shifted and that, over time, “viking” identity did not neatly correlate with Scandinavian culture; contemporary labels and identities were contextual. Medieval ethnonyms were used to serve an immediate purpose; they were not intended as a neat taxonomy for future historians. Cross demonstrates how the same label, such as “Northman” or “Dane,” might be applied to describe very different phenomena at different times, and categories could overlap. This innovative approach is informed by sociological and historical literature on ethnicity ranging from the 1960s to the present. This approach highlights, among other things, the pitfalls of defining the “Danelaw” as a territorial creation of the 870s when its recognition as a legal phenomenon only emerges in the early eleventh century.

Cross draws clear overarching conclusions from the large amount of material that is considered. In Normandy, she shows, viking identity was used to promote independence from Frankish political rule. The transformation from pagan plunderer to Christian defender was represented as part of a divinely ordained plan. Claim to viking ancestry did not correlate with the impact of Scandinavian culture, as the people of Normandy rapidly assimilated to French culture. In England, the Wessex royal line identified itself as a symbol of the English people, fighting back against viking oppression, a rhetoric that promoted unity and obedience. English identity was also flexible, including claims to ancient Scandinavian figures in the royal line, in order to integrate people of mixed English and Scandinavian culture and to encourage them to align themselves with the “English” side. Thus, despite the widespread influence of Norse language, people were encouraged to identify as English. Cross argues that references to “Danes” in the charters of Æthelred were not a recognition of continuing Anglo-Scandinavian identity, but referred to individuals who were foreign-born in England, indicating a separation between contemporary and historic Scandinavian identities.

Given the timeframe of the book, which follows the demise of viking York and precedes the reign of Cnut, not much space is given to the strategies of identity deployed by viking or Scandinavian rulers in England. However, some interesting observations are made on this subject. Cross points out that the label Anglo-Scandinavian is a term coined by modern historians, and people of the past might not have thought of themselves as belonging to such an identity. Regional identity may have been more significant. The seeming irony that viking rulers in East Anglia minted coins in the name of King Edmund, who was martyred by vikings, seems less ironic when Cross points out that Guthrum and his successors may have regarded themselves as a different group from Ivar (who is said to have killed the king) and his successors who ruled...