ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT This chapter is an attempt to reconstruct some of the linguistic and cultural conditions in which the Viking Age genetic input of Scandinavians into the population of north-west England took place. Starting from the observation that Y-chromosome studies cannot reveal much about the role of women in this process, the evidence of language, place-names, runic inscriptions, and carved stones is adduced to produce a picture in which women were essential elements in the creation and maintenance of the Norse-speaking diasporic communities of the Irish Sea region in the Viking Age.
