Grave of headless Vikings discovered in England

Considering how every country massages history to fit their agendas, and the USA is certainly no exception, they probably are worse than many, it's pretty lame to think that there is any perfect source for such a minor event.

Tales get told and retold, and each telling probably doesn't enhance the veracity of the actual event.

Don't you love their names . . . Forkbeard, Gorm the Old, Harold Bluetooth?

1.) Text books are written so that they will be bought in Texas and California. They are large states that can guarantee a printing run.

2.) The Italian-American lobby is powerful.

3.) Actually, there is mention of other voyages to the New World and L'anse aux Meadows is prominent in some current texts.

In those days there were no real nations, people were organized in tribes. Viking, Franks, Germans : all names for groups of tribes, not nations or nationalities.

"Those beheaded men probably met with some Celtic warriors, armed with long swords."


In that part of Britain, the Celts were no longer a people by then, l believe.

I would guess the Vikings were beheaded by Saxons. They were often warring until Norman rule. Hey who knows, maybe other Vikings beheaded them. Maybe it was one Viking with a shiny new sword saying "Look what l got for my birthday everyone!" and then there's this accident ... ?

The Vikings [sic] were not a people. The Danes under Sweyn Forkbeard succeeded in over-running Saxon England by 1013, but Sweyn died within a year, and was succeeded by Æthelred II, who was succeeded by Edmund Ironsides, who was succeeded by Cnut the Great, a younger son of Sweyn Forkbeard. Cnut died more than 30 years before the Norman invasion. The British remained independent in Cornwall and Wales, and it was very long before the descendants of the Normans were able to take over there. In fact, Wales was not brought under Norman rule until after the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1282.

You have no business shooting your mouth off to others when you so obviously are as ignorant as your remarks inferentially describe them.

Hello, l assume your reply was Pepijn Sweep, but anyway:

- The Vikings are known as Vikings now so please could everybody calm down with that, yes the correct knowledge of vikings is your wendy house, but it's also anybody else's should they wish and if everybody lays sole claim to the wendy house the wendy house will be no fun for anybody. Here in the UK, they are not known as Danes or Sweedes or whatever, except by historians and people wanting to make a specific reference.

- "The British" as you put it, were not a people until, l don't know, Queen Victoria or one of those predecessor demented fat male kings in tight trousers, the sort of king you get when peace prevails.

- Maybe you meant Britons, or Brythonic Celts? Slaps wrist!

- The beheading appears to have occurred in Dorset. That is nowhere near Cornwall nor Wales, friend. I don't understand your point?

There is a lot more than my point that you don't understand. Below is a map of southwest Britain. Note that Dorset is fewer than 50 miles east of Cornwall, and fewer than 50 miles south of Wales. Geography appears to be just another of many subjects about which you know very little.



Only the truly ignorant fail to make the distinction between vikings (pirates) and nations or ethnic groups if one prefers, such as the Danes and Norse. That you are a resident of the UK just makes your ignorance all the more pathetic. I do not doubt for a moment, though, that among your acquaintance, the distinction is opaque. They were certainly known as Danes, and not "vikings" when the Great Heathen Army invaded England in the latter half of the ninth century of the current era. It was, in fact, the Anglo-Saxons who dubbed them the Great Heathen Army.

The British were a people even in Roman days. The earliest reference of which I know is by Gildas, a monk in Armorica who stated that he was a Briton in his greatest work, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae--On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain. That's the earliest reference by a Briton. Of course, Tacitus discusses the British at length in his Agricola, the life of his father-in-law, who had conquered the island after the departure of Claudius. Tacitus wrote that in about 98 CE. Briton is singular, British is plural--slap your own goddamned wrist.

You are ignorant and supercilious. I'd not have taken any notice of your stupidity, had you not gotten snotty with POM about her post. You got what you deserve for your haughty remarks from the depth of your historical and linguistic hebetude.

Hilariously, you were responding to a post made more than eight years ago--I doubt that you even know how to determine that.

Reminds me of Latin clasess at schoool: Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur. ... Britanniae pars interior ab eis incolitur quos natos in insula ipsi memoria proditum dicunt ... (De Bello Gallico)

Tacitus, btw, had the ides that the Britons, living more in the South of the island, were like the Gauls because being near to them and living under the same climate.

It's really a very old thread - since the last posts a bit more is published: This group of executed Vikings were inexperienced raiders who oozed smelly pus

Hello Setanta,

- I know where Dorset is, and Cornwall. And Wales. Merely visiting an area is not the same as settling it and incorporating it into your tribal lands, thus your distances are not relevant, moreso because you measured neastest extremity to nearest extremity.

In other words: Do you have a source saying that Dorset was a Celtic power at that time? Because it was the suggestion that Celts could have beheaded the Vikings that l was responding to, and my response to that was what you took exception at.

- You were upset that people were calling Vikings "Vikings" and not "Danes" / "Swedes". Now you are upset that people are calling Vikings "Danes" / "Swedes" etc. and not "Vikings". Interesting ...

Please look up "Danelaw" to see the use of "Dane" in the context of a Viking kingdom in Britain.

- "British" in the sense that they were ever called British, appears to have come about around the Jacobean monarchy when the Union began. Nobody to my knowledge was ever called "British" prior to that - it was an anarchronism and as you're such a stickler, it's important to support you with pertinent info.

- By the way, yes, Britons and British are interchangeable today, though "Briton" is considered a little archaic, but that's my point: you're imposing a modern frame of reference. The two terms were never interchangeable during the time we are discussing, because "British" didn't even exist.

Here you go (l didn't even need to research this but maybe you could make use of it):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britishness

"Although the term 'Britishness' "[sprang] into political and academic prominence" only in the late 20th century,[6] its origins lie with the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707."

- I don't think you are getting that l'm making a distinction between "Briton" / "Brythonic" and "British", and l've plainly stated this in my previous post, yet you continue to interchange the two terms to refute me. You are actually repeating the error that l am correcting, it's blatant, and my correction was blatant. I will therefore not pursue this matter further.

- I have no idea who POM is, nor their reply, nor why you are talking about reputations, and personal stuff. Nor am l interested. I do not wish to engage or encourage you in this.

- "British is plural--slap your own goddamned wrist."
British is not plural, it's a noun or adjective.

- By the way, nobody would call that Southwest Britain, they'd call it Southwest England. Please don't be angry.


As you are too angry to type objectively, l shall leave it there as l don't wish you to take any of this so personally. I refuse the slanging match on offer here, you win, you have out-insulted me. You're the best Sweary Wendy House King EVER

You remind me of an individual here who frequently observes that to Americans, one hundred years is a long time, and that to Brits, one hundred miles is a long distance. You also seem to be confused as to who occupied those lands, and continued to occupy them, even after the Saxons arrived. As late as the late ninth century, when the Great Heathen Army was attempting to take over Wessex, there were no Saxons in what is now Cornwall, and precious few in either Devon or Dorset. Did you think that Saxons arrived saying: "Alright, you lot, move along."? You're peddling a straw man, I didn't say that Dorset was a Keltic power (the word is of Greek origin--no "C" in Greek). As for who beheaded them, it was likely whoever trapped the pirate scum in the first place.

None of the drivel you have posted here has upset me, and your proximity to logic is equivalent to what you allege to have been the proximity of Dorset to Cornwall and Wales. "To your knowledge" is a huge qualifier, much vaster than the entire, silly little island you inhabit. Brettisc was used by the Anglo-Saxons--it's Old English. You seem to think that these vague, fuzzy recollections you have of history qualify you to speak as though with expertise. I assure you that that is delusional. Once again, you had no business making snide remarks to POM on a topic for which you display not only no authority, but a good deal of ignorance. POM (Plain Old Me) is the member whose eight year old post you were pontificating about. There is so much you don't understand here, and you seem obsessed with constantly demonstrating that. Don't worry, I'm sure everyone here has already figured that out.

You think that one Briton should be called "a British?" As a noun, it's a plural noun. You don't seem to be very good with what one sadly assumes is your native language.

You must be a legend in your own mind. Contemptuous certainly, but I'm not angry. Get over yourself. It would lovely to think that you will desist, but I suspect that you'll continue to troll this and many other threads.

Hilarious, Walter, but far more about the personal hygiene and suppurating pustules of the ancients than I ever wanted to know.

If you're from England and you post on A2K it's only a matter of time before you get attacked by Setanta. And he even called you a legend in your own mind, he does that a lot, he called me that when I first got here too.

He sure does invest a considerable lot of emotional energy on such a tiny and insignificant island, it's almost like he's trying to make up for something, and now he's trying to redefine British to include himself.

I always knew he had issues, now I know that they're clearly not insignificant.

Ah-hahahahahahahahaha . . .

You can't beat this place for free entertainment.

So what happened with that allegation that you had me on ignore? Couldn't resist attempting a cheap shot, I suspect.

I think you said that when I first got here as well. You need to get a new phrasebook. If I said your responses were stale and jaded that would be an insult to stale and jaded responses.

Have you ever been to Dorset? I go there a lot.

You could always try to stop commentating on threads about this tiny and insignificant island, but I don't think you can, it's borderline obsessive.

I wasn't talking to you. I do have you on ignore, but when you attack a new member just because they're English I need to fill them in on your track record.

If you weren't talking to me, and you have me on ignore, how did you know what I had posted? Why are you always so angry? Why do you engage your emotions, and then your keyboard, but, apparently, never your mind?

You wanted to take a cheap shot, you wanted to get a rise out of me, and your "I have you on ignore" is BS.

It is all entertaining though. (By the way, there are any number of Englishmen here with whom I've enjoyed good relations. Your theory is like your use of the ignore function--pure, witless fantasy.)

Izzy he has a point though, in his mind it's only 30 minutes from Wales to Dorset by F18 Interceptor, 4 hours by pickup truck. And it's a stupid little island. So y'all can say whatever you like about its history and it be true! Roll on the Celtic Kingdom of Dorset (which he fails to realise was part of Wessex at the time)!

(Yes, that's Wessex, named for the Western Saxons, whom he insists were not present in Dorset to behead the Vikings)

When you have to keep saying something is entertaining you're kind of labouring the point.

I do have you on ignore, but sometimes, when others respond to you, like now I'll read what you said and respond accordingly. As you read everything I post you must know that already.

I can only think of Englishmen you attack and insult, like Spendius and Contrex.