Viking Law and Order: English Edition

About this episode

The episode discusses the influence of Vikings on English legal customs with Dr. Jake Stattel.

Historians and archaeologists who study the vikings are constantly grappling with the question of the amount and level of influence they had on the various parts of the world they ventured into. In this episode we add legal customs to the mix with Dr. Jake Stattel, a legal historian and postdoc research fellow at Cambridge University's Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic , who is looking into this very thing — pun intended :) We talked about how legal institutions in England were changing dramatically from AD 900 to 1200 due in part to internal political developments but also to the incursion of the vikings who not only raided and traded but eventually settled there, creating a new hybrid culture based on traditional Scandinavian legal systems, in an area that came to be known as the Danelaw. Want to know the difference between customary and common law, how a person would know which laws they needed to obey when living in a hybrid world, and what happened to 13-year old thieves? Jake’s got you covered. His article Legal culture in the Danelaw: a study of III Æthelred has won several awards for its novel approach to this subject, so if you’re interested in a deeper dive, do…

People in this episode

Guest: Dr. Jake Stattel

Topics covered

• Viking influence
• legal customs
• Danelaw
• Anglo-Saxon history
• common law
• hybrid culture

Keywords

• Vikings
• law
• Danelaw
• legal history
• Anglo-Saxon
• customary law
• common law

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cambridge University

Books & works: Legal culture in the Danelaw: a study of III Æthelred

Places: England, Danelaw

More episodes of Vikingology Podcast

• The Saga of the Earls of Orkney · April 29, 2026 · 1h 14m
• The Secret Code of the Vikings · April 10, 2026 · 1h 10m
• Playing in the Halls of Asgard · April 6, 2026 · 1h 1m
• For the love of Beowulf · March 27, 2026 · 1h 21m
• A milestone episode with Jackson Crawford · February 14, 2026 · 1h 33m
• Myth and belief in the Viking Age and beyond · January 24, 2026 · 1h 10m