In 789, the Vikings attacked the Isles of Portland in the English Channel and killed an official from Dorchester Manor. This is the first Viking attacked in the British Isles.
In 851 AD their attacks had become more common and for that reason they spent the winters on the British island with no intention of leaving soon.
Eventually the raids turned into an invasion and in 865 a large Viking army swept through England. Most of the Viking raiders came from the lands known as Denmark and Norway. The Vikings who attacked England were referred to by the Anglo-Saxon as Dene ‘Danes’, but there were also Norwegians among them.
A huge Viking army landed in East Anglia, and within five years the Danes controlled most of northeast England.
They invaded eastern England, Ireland and Scotland to create permanent agricultural settlement.
Viking attacks on England fall into two periods. From 793 to the treaty of Wedmore in 878 which restricted the Danes to an area called ‘the Danelaw’ and from 975 to 1016 when the Viking leader Cnut became King of England.
As the Viking began to settle in England, so their language began to create changes in the English language. English grammar soon was modeled on Scandinavian grammar.
Viking invasion of England
