Ebook: Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age

How did the English county of Cumberland come into being? Why do we find so many Welsh-sounding place names in the lands around the head of the Solway Firth? What is the origin of the term Cumbria? An answer to each of these questions will be found in this book.

With a geographical focus on what are now south-west Scotland and north-west England, Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age traces the history of political relations between the kingdom of Strathclyde and its English neighbours in the Viking Age. At the centre of the narrative are the Cumbri, or North Britons, an ancient people whose kings ruled from a power base in the lower valley of the River Clyde. In the tenth century, these kings extended their rule southward to the Solway Firth and beyond, bringing their language and culture to districts that had been in English hands for more than two hundred years. Their kingdom, known as Strathclyde or Cumbria, became one of the great powers of the time. Its history is an important chapter in the tale of how England and Scotland emerged from the early medieval period or ‘Dark Ages’ as the countries we know today.