The Vikings and the most wonderful English Language

Linguistics say that some 5% of the Modern English language can be traced back directly to Old Norse and the Viking Age that began with that fateful landing off the coast of Lindisfarne on 8 June 793. Over 1200 years have gone by, but still much of our core vocabulary contains words that the Vikings would still recognise. How did this come to be?

This booklet explores the opportunities that Old Norse had to influence Old English, as well as posing the question: were Old Norse and Old English mutually intelligible? Many of these questions are addressed by walking through Anglo-Saxon and Viking sources.

The booklet contains a glossary of 500 common words so that the reader can compare Modern English vocabulary to the Old English and Old Norse.

96 pages, booklet