ABSTRACT
Through what mechanisms were Scandinavian identities maintained throughout the diasporic settlements of the Viking Age? Recent scholarship has stressed the role of elite courts and towns as conduits of Scandinavian culture outside of the homelands. But evidence relating to Scandinavian settlement in the Danelaw region of Northern and Eastern England (c. AD 870–950) paints a different picture. In this chapter, I review the varied evidence for the presence of women of Scandinavian background in the Danelaw and assess their importance in sustaining Scandinavian culture in this particular overseas area of settlement. Informed by anthropological studies of gender in more recent, historical migrations, as well as by emerging archaeological and onomastic evidence from the Danelaw, I argue that women from the Viking homelands were likely key bearers of Scandinavian cultural traditions in England, playing a pivotal role in preserving fundamental aspects of home culture, including dress and language.
