The Munsons of Texas — an American Saga
Inset 3
THE DANISH INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
The height of the Viking raids to England and Europe occurred between the years 800 and 1000 A.D. The Vikings were Norsemen, ancestors of modern Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes. They not only traveled to plunder but also to settle new lands, and through local warfare to establish new countries. They established Normandy in France and Dublin in Ireland, and they settled heavily on the eastern shores of England, in what is now Lincolnshire. There they fought with the Celts, the Angles,and the Saxons for control of the land for over two centuries. By 878 they had become the dominant force in central England, and the Danish king, Guthrum, ruled the Danish kingdom of Danelaw in central England. Danelaw was reconquered by the Anglo-Saxons in 939, but from 1017 till 1035 all of England was ruled by the Danish King Canute. The Normans from France were supreme after the invasion by William the Conqueror in 1066. Danish place names are common in Lincolnshire — the ending "-by" is Danish for a settlement, and a "thorpe" was a farm.
