Viking Conquest in 11th Century?

Could the Scandinavian Vikings conquered England directly in the 11Th Century, instead of the Normans? If so, how would this affect language evolution? Would a different English Language be written with runes?
 
There was Harald Hardrada who was killed in battle not long before the infamous Battle of Hastings and the result conquest. Certainly from here on there would be a greater potential (assuming Harald can fend off the Bastard) for a North Germanic influence into English but this could end up being rather minimalist or materialistic in impact. Runes were infrequently used at this point at least by those in question. There would likely be next to no English written in Runes. If there was to be any it would be the general English population by an "Antiquarian" (can't think where I saw this description for the usage).
In short Tom. Yes, little (Englisc remains Englisc mostly) and very, very unlikely.
 
IIRC, Scandinavian influence on the English language became widespread after the Norman conquest. This leads me to think that the Scandinavian influence was mainly on the lower class of people, so once the Anglosaxon upperclass's influence was diminished the language was able to change.
 
Could the Scandinavian Vikings conquered England directly in the 11Th Century, instead of the Normans? If so, how would this affect language evolution? Would a different English Language be written with runes?

Is this a DBWI?

The Vikings, or Danes, under Sweyn Forkbeard in 1013, and Canute the Great in 1016, did conquer England, and in the latter case, ruled for two decades until his death! And his sons ruled England until 1042!

So yeah, the Viking did conquer England directly in the 11th century.
 
Is this a DBWI?

The Vikings, or Danes, under Sweyn Forkbeard in 1013, and Canute the Great in 1016, did conquer England, and in the latter case, ruled for two decades until his death! And his sons ruled England until 1042!

So yeah, the Viking did conquer England directly in the 11th century.

May I ask what a DBWI is?
 
May I ask what a DBWI is?
Double Blind What If.
Essentially you write as if you exist in a world where some event went differently to OTL. The initial question/post is usually on if events had happened as in OTL with subsequent posts further exploring the alternate history.
E.g. "What if John Wilkes Booth had succeeded in his attack on President Lincoln? Would the President had got his controversial 3rd term? Would the President's Health Act have made it into the Amendment on the succession?"
 
So maybe the question is more “what if Harthacnut hadn’t suddenly died in 1042?” From a brief wiki search it seems as though he could’ve had an heir who kept England?
 
context, people. the OP directly asks "what if the Vikings conquered England instead of the Normans?" so the intended POD is clearly in relation to Harald Hardrada in 1066, not Sweyn, Canute, Harthacnut, or Harefoot earlier in the century
 
The Danish king Svend Estridsen tried twice in 1070 and 1075 with little luck. In 1070 he had a large fleet at York, but nothing really came of it as the Danish commander was paid a large sum of money by William to just pack up and go back home, much to the chagrin of his brother, the king.

Ten years later one of Estridsen's many sons, Canute IV, gathered 1000 ships for another attempt at conquering England. However, because of tensions with the HRE the fleet never left Denmark. People got pissed and Canute ended up getting murdered by angry peasants.

So the idea of a reconquest was certainly very much alive during the 11th century, but circumstance and bad leadership pretty much made all the attempts stillborn. Change some of said conditions and it could probably happen.
 
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