The lexical effects of Anglo-Scandinavian linguistic contact on Old English

Anglo-Saxon England experienced a process of multicultural assimilation similar to that of contemporary England. At the end of the ninth century Old Norse speakers from present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden started to settle down in the so-called 'Danelaw' amongst the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants, and brought with them cultural traditions and linguistic elements that are still a very significant part of our lives and our speech in the twenty-first century. This book analyses the first Norse terms to be recorded in English. After revising the list of terms recorded in Old English texts which can be considered to be Norse-derived, the author explores their dialectal and chronological distribution, as well as the semantic and stylistic relationship which the Norse-derived terms established with their native equivalents (when they existed). This approach helps to clarify questions such as: Why were the terms borrowed?