Category: Culture

Episodes of The British History Podcast that include cultural history matters. You’ll learn about the diets, economics, and all the other aspects of daily life for the Celts, Romano-British, Britons, Anglo Saxons, and more.

216 – The Great Heathen Army: Always Be Prepared

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Click here to go the Summary of Zee’s PhD that I talked about.

We are coming to a major turning point in the story of Britain.The Anglo Saxon kingdoms never had a chance of turning the Great Heathen Army back, and now it looks like they’re here to stay. There’s no denying it anymore. But that’s as much a problem to solve for the Danes as it is for the Anglo Saxons. What happens when you’re no longer invaders, but rulers? History as we know it is littered with empires that fail right at this point, when they switch from the the activity of conquering to the business of governance.

This is also a major new problem for one of the last independent Anglo Saxon kings.

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215 – King Burgred and the end of the Danish Sausage Fest

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It’s 873 and so far Halfdan has extracted THREE Danegelds from King Burgred in exchange for promising to not occupy Mercia. And, of course, he’s gone on to occupy Mercia… most recently in a town called Torksey. He also put down a rebellion in Jorvik and reclaimed the city. He pushed King Ricsige of Northumbria beyond the Tyne, effectively demoting him to King Ricsige of Bernicia. And now, he was marching (or potentially rowing) towards Repton, which was also in Mercia.

Burgred couldn’t catch a break with this guy.

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213 – Danegelds, Peace, and Shame

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Last time we left off, Alfred… who we have been following since his earliest days, and whom we now know the most intimate details of, including the state of his butt (which was swollen) and the state of his libido (which apparently was also swollen)… well, by mid 871 his brother was dead and he was the last surviving son of old King AEthelwulf son of Egbert.

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207 – Christianity in Early Danelaw

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Here is part two to our story of religion and religious life at the age of the Great Heathen Army and the Danish invasion of Britain.

Last episode, I told you about how the stories we’re often told – of violent atrocities committed against Christian spaces and against Christendom itself – didn’t actually originate from the 9th century, when they supposedly occurred, but only appear in our record during the 12th Century. Two hundred years later during the height of the Crusades. We spoke about how the idea of the pagan zealotry of the Vikings doesn’t align with reports that they converted to Christianity eagerly and easily. And I showed you how the archaeological and contemporary record doesn’t comport with the popular story of a religious war against the Christians of Britain… a story that relies entirely upon records that were written centuries after the fact.

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206 – Did the Great Heathen Army Persecute Christians?

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Last week we covered the events of 869. The situation was dire. We have at least one dead Anglo Saxon king, two Anglo Saxon kingdoms that were now under the thumb of the Danes, and as far as the record tells us, everyone else was just keeping their heads down. They may have taken comfort in the fact that at least Ivarr the Boneless was gone… and we don’t know how many warriors he would have taken with him back to Ireland (or would have left, if the one oddr eport was correct and he died in Britain) but the Danes still held East Anglia and Jorvik.

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The playful nod at the end was the theme to Serial (bad dream) by Nick Thorburn. Please don’t sue me. I love the work you’re doing!

205 – Saint Edmund the Martyr

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Last episode we ended with the engagement of Prince Alfred to Ealhswith, daughter of Ealdorman AEthelred Mucel of Mercia and descendant of King Coenwulf of Merica, and I briefly mentioned political implications of such a match. But there was a personal aspect to this as well. Not the marriage itself, though that was certainly personal… so personal, in fact, that we have no real knowledge of how Alfred felt about his wife… we know how he felt about his piles, we know how he felt about hunting, we know quite a bit about his feelings for a variety of things… but not his wife. It’s entirely possible that he was desperately in love and the silence in the record was just part of the culture of the time and one didn’t speak of such things. But the fact remains that we don’t know much about how he, or Ealhswith, felt about the marriage.

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203 – Jorvik

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I’d like to start today’s episode with a poem. Not about my feelings, or about a tough breakup… but a skaldic poem from the 12th century. It’s called The Lay of Kraka, and it was probably recorded somewhere in Scotland. The reason why it’s important is that it contains what is claimed to be Ragnar Lodbrok’s death song… So according legend, this is the starting point for everything we’re been talking about.

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201 – East Anglia’s Danegeld

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Here we are, with a new king in Wessex. King AEthelred, son of AEthelwulf, was now sitting the throne. He was in his 20s, and despite having a large family back when he was a child… now his only family left were his wife… Queen Wulfthryth (and good on you Wulfthryth for insisting on being given the title of Queen… other than that, we don’t know much about her, but the fact that she was listed as queen, and her name, has lead some scholars to suspect that she was Mercian. You’ll remember that the Mercians were a bit less restrictive on women in power than their southern cousins).

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197 – The Sons of Ragnar Lodbrok (versus Battle-Cattle)

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We’re at a massive turning point for Britain. The Great Heathen Army is arriving on the Northern shores. I have been racking my brain for weeks trying to figure out how best to tell you this story deal with the Great Heathen Army, because it has all the elements that make a story nearly impossible to tell. On the one hand what remains to us of the Great Heathen Army has aspects that are almost certainly pure legend, along the lines of the story of King Arthur. It’s very tempting to just tell this story as a legend and discuss the legendary aspects in a direct way.

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196 – Vikings and Mercs and Franks. Oh My!

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When we left off last week we spoke about King AEthelberht’s ascension to the throne of Wessex in 860 and how, despite the insistence of the Chroniclers that his rule was marked by peace and tranquility, on that same year we had records of a Viking raid that struck the heart of the Kingdom of Wessex, Winchester…

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