It was my third day of walking when the rain really set in and I was feeling pretty miserable. Brushing my teeth shivering in a bird hide was certainly a new one. However this hide had a view of the Blackwater estuary, looking out onto Northey Island. Despite the drizzle, I couldn't help but appreciate the history of the island as I walked past and have since written this short article on its Viking heritage...
Vikings.
The scene your mind is probably conjuring having just read that word is probably one imminent of a bloody battle; the sounds of waves crashing against the curved hulls of wooden vessels mingle with the angry battle cries of men coming to plunder. A man with a horned helmet stands regarding the seas at the helm of his ship, his sword dripping crimson with fresh blood.
The Battle of Maldon is just one such battle that took place on English soil, on the 11th August 991 AD. It is well documented by the Old English poem The Battle of Maldon which still survives in part to this day. The Vikings established camp on Northey Island, a tidal island in Essex opposite the town of Maldon. Byrtnoth, the Saxon leader, refused to agree to the Vikings’ monetary demands to leave and instead invited them to battle. To cut a long story short, the Vikings, ferocious warriors they were, defeated the Saxons and added the victory to their long tally.
Their hardy stereotypes however mean we tend to brush over the trade, language and music that these Nordic voyagers brought to our Saxon culture. English takes many of its words from Old Norse, such as the days of the week and town names like Skegness, ‘ness’ meaning headland, and Whitby, ‘by’ for farmstead or village.
Today, 6% of England’s population share Danish Viking DNA, whilst in Ireland and Scotland it may be as high as 15%. We have the Vikings to thank therefore for creating the cultural and genetic melange that constitutes our society today.
What prompted them to come to Essex in the first place though? There is nothing obvious in the topography; the boggy mudflats and tidal estuaries would have been more of a strategic hindrance than anything else.
The answer perhaps lies in finned form. Northey Island lies nestled in the River Blackwater estuary, home to a small fish called the Blackwater Herring, a subspecies of the Atlantic herring Clupea harengus. With a prospering population, the Vikings would have been searching for ways to widen their resources and support their people. The Blackwater Estuary with its new culinary potential may have looked to them as more of a larder to loot than a village to violate.
So the rich diversity of England today is due, in small part, to a fish that lives a modest life in a tidal estuary, thriving off the nutrients delivered by the mudflats and oceanic currents of the North Sea. It goes to show that our history and heritage, which paved the way to the nations we know today, is intrinsically intertwined with the geography and ecology of our lands. By conserving our wild places, we not only protect the wildlife that lives there but safeguard our language, music, politics and economics, and ensure the continuation of that uniquely human phenomenon: culture.
Northey Island (photo nationaltrust.org.uk)
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