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William Cook

Thesis Working Title

Scandinavian Identity in Cumbria

Research Interests

The Scandinavian migrants that settled in Cumbria from the early tenth century entered an already ethnically layered society open to British, Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon influence. This research aims to measure the extent and persistence of Scandinavian identity in Cumbria, establishing the extent to which Scandinavian migrants retained separate cultural and ethnic identities from pre-existing populations. It also seeks to address whether the impact of the Norman Conquest on Cumbria overturned the existing ethnic fabric and displaced any persisting Scandinavian identity, or merely injected another culture into an established 'melting pot' society.

The methodology for this work draws on a wide range of material and linguistic evidence: place-names, stone sculpture, metalwork and post-conquest personal names. Using these sources as indexes of cultural assimilation, the work seeks to map cultural identity in Cumbria by using GIS mapping tools to integrate and layer the separate data sets of evidence to analyse and compare their spatial distributions. Depending on how consistent a pattern emerges from these comparisons, new impressions may be gained of how extensive cultural exchange was between Scandinavian settlers and other ethnic groups in Cumbria. This has implications for understanding the strength of Scandinavian identity as well as the status of cultural practices as markers and identifiers of ethnicity. The research presents an alternative case study to previous research into Scandinavian identity in England by offering a rewardingly multi-layered context in which to reconsider ethnic identity.

Current Teaching

HIST100: From the Medieval to the Modern - History and Historians

Keywords: Anglo-Saxon England, Archaeology, Cultural anthropology, Cumbria, Diaspora, Early Middle Ages, Ethnicity, Genetics, Historical GIS, Identity, Interdisciplinary, Place-names