Horrible Histories - Viking Peace

We Vikings have an awful reputation with your nation
But when we’d finished plundering and pillages
Made nice villages
Any place name ending –thorpe or –kirk or –by was us, you see
Scunthorpe, Ormskirk, Wetherby, Scarborough fair
We named them, yeah

We split your isles diagonally from south-east to north-west
Our section called the Danelaw, King Alfred ruled the rest
Think we’re scary? No don’t flee
Conquered Saxons would find we
Settled and lived in harmony
Vike-Eng-land
Though we began as raiders
So well-planned
You accepted us as traders
We introduced some new terms
Husband, gasp, egg, awkward, nag, leg
More than fifty words to leave your lingo
To your liking, thank a Viking
Your little town of Swansea City
Named for our King Sweyn
Waterford and Dublin
Us old Norse Vikings again
As farmers we made doubly sure
To respect agriculture
With us, locals felt secure
Norse-Scot-land
Large parts of that whole region
Norse got land
Were improved by Norwegians
London Bridge is falling down
The nursery rhyme comes from our time
Vikings played key roles
In 1014 it was pulled down
By Olaf Haraldsson
You can call him Ol
In a dispute with King Canute
Olaf’s side won
Ethelred returned as king
And could be heard proclaiming
“Here’s to you, Olaf Haraldsson”
Vike-Eng-land
We swapped our life of violence
Norse-Scot-land
To enjoy the sound of silence
There’s no doubt under Viking rule
Britain did improve-y
Feelin’ groovy
And that’s no lie
La-lie, la, la, lie