Vikings in Britain and Ireland explores one of the most dramatic turning points of the Viking Age: the moment when Scandinavian raiders became settlers, rulers, traders, and political powers across the British Isles. From the first Norse settlements in the northern islands and Ireland to the rise of Dublin, the arrival of the Great Heathen Army, and the fall of Northumbria and East Anglia, this book follows the transformation of Britain and Ireland under Viking pressure.
At the center of the story stands Alfred the Great, whose struggle for survival against Guthrum's forces brought Wessex to the edge of destruction before the decisive victory at Edington. Moreover, the book also examines the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, the creation of the Danelaw, the growth of Norse England, and the complex world of Saxons, Celts, and Vikings who fought, traded, converted, intermarried, and reshaped the future of the islands. Rich in political conflict, cultural change, and historical detail, this second volume shows how Viking conquest did not merely bring devastation—it helped create the foundations of medieval England, Norse Ireland, and the wider North Atlantic world.