Alfred and the Viking Threat

Rational bandits: Plunder, public goods, and the Vikings

The economics of banditry• Roving bandit receives large, individual

benefits from plunder at the expense of society as a whole– Unrestricted plundering leads to competition– Plunder used for local infrastructure

Rational bandits: Plunder, public goods, and the Vikings

The economics of banditry• Roving bandit becomes stationary bandit

– Receives local taxation– Accepted because protects area from other bandits

• Provides security and legal institutions– Economic growth

Viking Ship

Viking Conquests – Northern Europe

Orkney• Christian contact reported c. 600; Irish contact

709; Broch settlements used by Picts• Domestic rubbish includes cow, sheep, pig and red

deer• Sagas report Norwegian settlement c. 870• Viking era layers indicate some coexistence?

Genetics

Admixed population

Scandinavian British/Irish

  Y-chromosome

mtDNA Y-chromosome

mtDNA

Shetland 0.445 0.43 ,555 .57

Orkney 0.31 0.305 .69 .695

Scottish NW coast

.15 .145 .85 .855

Western Isles and Skye

.225 .11 0.775 0.89

Iceland .75 .34 0.25 0.66

A Bone of Contention

Orkney

Ashby, Steven P “Combs, Contact and Chronology: Reconsidering Hair Combs in Early-Historic and Viking-Age Atlantic Scotland” Medieval Archaeology, 53, 2009

Pictish Combs

Insu

lar A

rt in

Nor

weg

ian

Gra

ves

Gausel hanging bowl

Brooch, Vinjum in AurlandKillarney Brooch

Hopperstad bucket

Codex Amiatinus, Wearmouth-JarrowCuthbert Gospel, Lindisfarne

Balance and Weights, Hopperstad, Norway

Fellow travelers

Norway mice as indicators of where Norwegian Viking ships land

Martyrdom of St. EdmundPickering, Yorkshire

Alfred faces the Great Army