ABSTRACT
In 970 England was a divided country. The Danelaw (cf. § 132) together with substantial parts of north Lancashire, Westmorland and Cumberland, was settled largely by Scandinavians, and predominantly Scandinavian in speech (other parts of Cumberland spoke a Celtic language, Cumbric). The Scandinavian settlements were about a century old, and had been preceded by almost a century of viking raids, but during all that time links with Scandinavia had not been broken. Fresh waves of raiders or settlers poured into the country, and those already settled sided sometimes with them, sometimes with the English. These Scandinavians did not (except with runes, cf. §217) write their own language; if they became literate it was in English. Our knowledge of them as a speech-community is therefore inferential, but certain points are clear. Those of the E were predominantly Danes, those of the W predominantly Norwegians (usually coming indirectly, from Ireland, the Isle of Man or western Scotland, rather than directly from Norway). Danish and Norwegian were not widely separated linguistically at that date, nor would either have been mutually incomprehensible with English. Our evidence on this is literary, but it is strong and inherently plausible. At the time when the English migrated to England the Danes were their close neighbours and they must have spoken much alike. At the time of the early Scandinavian settlements in England the period of separation had only been slightly longer than between British and American English today, and the two communities had been in touch with one another for much of the time. Once the Scandinavian settlements began, one might expect movements of convergence rather than divergence.
