Think of the Vikings in England and most people these days think of the Jorvik Centre at York. York seems to have monopolised the Vikings, turning them into tourist dollars. But, after the decisive Battle of Etheldun at which King Alfred of Wessex forced the Danish invaders to accept baptism, it was to East Anglia rather than Northumbria that the great army withdrew. In a well-illustrated account of the Vikings in Norfolk, Sue Margeson, Keeper of Archaeology in Norwich Castle Museum until her tragic death last year, draws the unknown threads of this venture together.
This little book, completed during Sue Margeson's illness, sketches a picture that is as intriguing as it is informative. Medieval East Anglia, like Medieval Northumbria, took shape under its purposeful Viking conquerors. These peoples created a culture which was rich in North Sea artistic expression, and wedded to Continental Frankish economic ideals. As archaeology illuminates this formative episode, we begin to appreciate the full propangandic nature of celebrated texts like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the manipulative efforts of the West Saxon historians who have, until now, described the history of this age.

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