[blam]

(From The BBC, 12-03-2001)

Monday, 3 December, 2001, 18:15 GMT

Viking blood still flowing

Many Vikings settled in Britain 1,200 years ago

Blood tests taken over the past year may help show part of Cumbria in northwest England was a Viking stronghold 1,200 years ago.
Geneticists discovered the area around Penrith has clear evidence of Norwegian influence.

However, the study also confirms that Vikings settled in large numbers in the Shetland and Orkneys and the far north of the Scottish mainland.

The research is part of a ground-breaking project commissioned by the BBC to uncover the UK's Viking roots.

Vikings revealed

In the first large-scale genetics survey of its kind, experts from University College, London, studied the DNA of 2,000 people.

The full results of the project will be revealed in the final programme of the series, Blood of the Vikings, on Tuesday at 2100 GMT.

The study shows the genetic pattern of the Vikings remains in some parts of the UK population.

The research confirms the Norwegian Vikings did not just raid and retreat to Scandinavia, but actually settled in Britain.

Genetic markers

Of all the English test sites, only Penrith in Cumbria had clear evidence of Norwegian influence.

Surprisingly, mainland Scotland had a similar Celtic input as the population of southern England, showing that not only were the English never "homogenous Anglo-Saxons", but neither were the Scots predominantly Celtic.

Geneticist Professor David Goldstein, from the University College London (UCL), led the study. He said: "Modern genetics has opened up a powerful window on the past.

"We can now trace past movements of peoples and address questions that have proved difficult to answer through history and archaeology alone.

Men only

"I'm delighted that we have been able to distinguish clear markers to indicate the genetic inheritance from the Norwegian Vikings."

Scientists at UCL took mouth swabs from 2,000 people from 25 different locations across Britain.

They only tested men because information they were interested in was contained on the Y chromosome - which women do not have.

The genetic material in the samples was compared with DNA taken from people in Scandinavia where some locals are thought to be most similar to the Vikings.

[LN2Campy]

The genetic material in the samples was compared with DNA taken from people in Scandinavia where some locals are thought to be most similar to the Vikings.

Well, DUHHH, what did they think, they should go to Nigeria for viking DNA???

[RightWhale]

This is personally interesting since we have stories in the family dating back to AD 900 when they were in southwest England in the Southampton region. That's when they arrived, by boat. Don't know where they arrived from, but some of the family thinks Belgium.

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Yeah blam, but this does not answer the question. What do those Celt men wear under those kilts?

[LostTribe]

Virtually all the population of NW Europe is of Celtic origin. Too many academics have defined Celtic too narrowly. (Click on my Profile.)

[LostTribe]

>The research confirms the Norwegian Vikings did not just raid and retreat to Scandinavia, but actually settled in Britain.

It is nice to see this again confirmed. The Vikings have long suffered at the hands of Roman historians who didn't much like them. They called the Vikings "bloodthirsty", and other historians just repeated what they read. How did those Roman historians describe their own activities at the Coliseum?

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

For about four hundred years after Kenneth, Scotland suffered much at the hands of the Norsemen or Danes. They came chiefly from Norway and Denmark, and were nearly related to the English. ...Those fierce Norsemen, or Northmen, were also called Vikings, and were just such a torment to the English and the Scots, as the English were to the Britons in the fifth century....By-and-by they were no longer content to plunder and sail away. They came in swarms and tried to settle the land. In the ninth century they seized the Orkney Islands, and somewhat later the Western Islands or Hebrides....These sea-rovers often sailed up the Firths of Tay, Forth, and Clyde, and more than one king of the Scots lost his life in battle with them....the Scots also gained victories over them, and were often able to beat them back to their ships. At last, the Norsemen, kept to the islands, which remained in their hands for a long time.- History of Scotland to Union of the Crowns, Douglas Reader III, 1909. (Wipe out the Celts, HAH!)

[dljordan]

I just had a DNA test done and the exact matches came back, 6 Irish, 4 Scot, 3 English, 1 Welsh, and 1 "Anglo/Celt". I found myself wondering what the hell an "Anglo/Celt" was.