Hello from the Wirral

[Irby]

Hello, My name is Robert and I am from the Wirral in England. It is a strange place as it was small norse enclave in Anglo-saxon England. It was first settled by Norse around 902 AD, after they were forced out of Dublin by the Irish.

Enought history, I look forward to reading all of your different points of view and I am espically intrested in issus concerning Germanic spirtuality, as I am an member of the Odinic Rite.

Hail the old Gods of the North!



Faith, Folk and Family.

[Hersir]

Welcome to Skadi forum! Hope you like it here

[Siebenbürgerin]

Welcome here, Irby. I've to say the part about the Wirral interests me. I'm interested in enclaves especially. There is a forum on Skadi about that, "Germanic Enclaves". It would be nice if you could write an overview about this place and the Norse heritage. Anyway, I hope you enjoy your stay.

[Irby]

As a basic overview this is a short history of the Wirral, with reference to its Scandinavian roots.

The Anglo-Saxons under Æthelfrith, king of Northumbria, laid waste to Chester around 616. Æthelfrith withdrew, leaving the area west and south of the Mersey to become part of Mercia, and Anglo-Saxon settlers soon took over most of Wirral with the exception of the northern tip. Many of Wirral's villages, such as Willaston, Eastham and Sutton, were established and named at this time.

Towards the end of the ninth century, the Norsemen or Vikings began raiding the area. They settled along the Dee side of the peninsula, and along the sea coast, giving their villages names such as Kirby, Frankby and Meols. They also introduced their own system of local government, with its parliament at Thingwall. Ancient Irish annals record the population of Wirral by Norsemen led by Ingimund, expelled from Ireland around 902 and getting agreement from Aethelflaed or "Ethelfleda", Queen of the Mercian English to settle there peacefully. The boundary of the Norse colony is believed to have passed south of Neston and Raby, and along Dibbinsdale.[3] Evidence of the Norse presence in Wirral can still be seen from place name evidence - such as the common '-by' (meaning "town" in Danish) suffixes and names such as Tranmere, which comes from trani melr ("cranebird sandbank"). Similarly, archaeological finds (such as two hogback tombstones) corroborate this.[7] On 10 September 2007, a 1,000-year-old Viking transport longship (Nordic clinker design) was discovered under the car park of the Railway Inn in Meols.[8] Recent Y-DNA research has also revealed the genetic trail left by Vikings in the Wirral, specifically relatively high rates of the Haplogroup R1a, associated in Britain with Viking ancestry.[9]

Bromborough on the Wirral is also one of the possible sites of an epic battle in 937, the Battle of Brunanburh, which confirmed England as an Anglo-Saxon kingdom. This is the first battle where England came together as one country, to fight the combined forces of the Norsemen and the Scots, and thus historians consider it the birthplace of England. It is thought that the battlesite was so large that it covered a large area of Wirral. Egil's Saga, a story which tells of the battle, may have referred to Wirral as Wen Heath, Vínheíþr in Icelandic

As you can see it is quite an interesting place, although most people have never heard of it.

I hope that has given you a little insight!