Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

The Viking Great Army and its Legacy

Join archaeologists Professors Dawn M Hadley and Julian D Richards to discover the ninth-century Viking Great Army and its enduring impact.

The Viking Great Army landed in eastern England in late 865. It was the largest Viking army to raid in the British Isles and it was to be a year-round presence for the following fifteen years. Broadly contemporary written sources enable us to trace the outline of its activities. It fought numerous battles in all four English kingdoms, deposed or killed at least four of their kings, and contracted and regularly broke peace treaties. A little over a decade after its arrival the Army had taken control of, and settled in, parts of Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia, paving the way for future generations of Scandinavian settlers. But what of this Army; its composition, wider activities and longer-term impact? This talk will address those questions, showing how new forms of archaeological evidence have transformed our understanding. It coincides with the new Viking North exhibition in the Yorkshire Museum, which showcases finds from the Great Army’s camp at Aldwark, north-west of York, informed by research by Dawn and Julian.

Dawn M Hadley and Julian D Richards are both Professors of Archaeology at the University of York, and members of the Centre for Medieval Studies. Dawn joined York in 2018 after over 20 years in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield. Her research interests include early medieval England, the impact of the Vikings, gender, childhood and funerary archaeology. Julian was founding Director of both the Archaeology Data Service, and the e-journal Internet Archaeology, established in 1996. In his archaeological research Julian focusses on Viking Age England. He has directed excavations of settlements at Cottam, Cowlam, Burdale, and Wharram Percy, and of the only Viking cremation cemetery in the British Isles at Heath Wood, Ingleby.  Julian and Dawn co-directed the “Tents to Towns” project, investigating the winter camps of the Viking Great Army. Their research, Life in the Viking Great Army: Raiders, Traders, and Settlers, was published in 2025 by Oxford University Press.

7pm in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum on Tuesday 25 November.

YPS Members free, non members £5.

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