![]() They didn’t just bring death and destruction to medieval England, they brought really cool words for death and destruction. If the Vikings are famous for one thing, it’s their obsession with war. The similarity of these names points to the common ancestry shared by the various Germanic tribes in prehistoric northern Europe, centuries before their descendants clashed on England’s shores. “Tuesday,” “Wednesday” and “Friday” are sometimes also attributed to the Norse gods Tyr, Odin and Freya respectively, but the weekdays are actually named for the Anglo-Saxon equivalents of these gods, Tiw, Wodan and Friga. ![]() The most obvious Old Norse influence on modern English is the word Thursday ( Þorsdagr), which you might guess means “Thor’s day.” Þeirra (their) language evolved into the modern-day Scandinavian languages, but þeir (they) also gave English the gift of hundreds of words. Traust me, þó (though) it may seem oddi at first, we er still very líkligr to use the same words the Vikings did in our everyday speech. However, the more successful and longer-lasting Norman conquest in 1066 marked the end of the Viking era and virtually erased Danish influence in almost all aspects of English culture but one: its effect on the development of the English language. England even had Danish kings from 1018 to 1042. The earliest Viking activity in England did consist of coastal raids, but by the 870s, the Danes had traded sword for plow and were settled across most of Northern England in an area governed by treaties known as the Danelaw. In the popular imagination, the Vikings were essentially pirates from the fjords of Denmark and Norway who descended on medieval England like a bloodthirsty frat party - they pillaged, murdered and razed villages, only to sail right back across the North Sea with their loot. ![]() The Old Norse word víking meant an overseas expedition, and a vikingr was someone who went on one of these expeditions. Let’s take a look at some Old Norse words that have withstood the test of time by fighting their way into our modern vocabulary. The English we speak today is riddled with lingual remnants leftover from a time when wearing ornately-decorated helmets was all the rage. But this take on English leaves out a very important piece of the linguistic puzzle: Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. Modern English is commonly thought of as a West Germanic language, with lots of French and, thanks to the church, Latin influence thrown in the mix.
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