HISTORY......orcs?

Wonder, though, if they were called Orcs too!

Anyone read "The Long Ships" by Frans Bengtsson ?
Good rollicking Viking tale and fairly accurate historically I think.

Yes there was a Norman kingdom in the middle east wasn't there. i learned so much from Sharon Penman who was recommended by GN.

...and they became Kings of Sicily and Antioch. Travelled cross country through Russia to Byzantium, mainly trading but not averse to pillage if all else failed as well.

They founded Dublin, too.

Swansea was also a Viking colony Sweyne's Eyot. (Swenyn's little island at the river mouth, I think)

Oistreham does sound right doesn't it? Easterham? Yes, The Vikings were immigrants to Normandy [Nor' man dy] Northmen. I heard they had to wait a year before they got their benefits though, so came came to UK [it was a soft touch!] Any local who derided their long ginger hair or beard got an axe through their nut [ hence....... gingernuts!]

Strangely enough there are a few red beards in this bit of Normandy. I have also read that there are four Viking place names in Basse Normandie. I reckon Ouistreham might be one?

Evidently there were other waves of Vikings. Not many red heads around these parts now.
You'd probably find the inside looking smarter mamie - at least the parts on public view. But there are something like 300 rooms apparently.

How about this?
www.museumwales.ac.uk/cy/1934/

Oh you'll never get to heaven, in an old Ford car
Cos an old Ford car won't go that far.

Love the Ford Anglia bit Mamie!

We went back in the 1970s when the children were small. Not since though.

I was working for the bloke that ran the caff. Pre National Trust I think. The recipe book was from people living on the estate and round about. I keep it for the Bara Brith recipe. My OH had a hot dog van on the Llanberis pass that year. People were for ever asking the way to Beddgelert apart from one family who wanted to go to Betelgeuse. He said they were unlikely to get there in a Ford Anglia.

I always felt I had Viking ancestors, having red hair and being born in the North East

That's fantastic mamie I will ask if it is still in print.
yes - the cooks recipes it sounds like.
Was that working for the family or the NT mamie?
Have you been back?

Sounds like the gentry nicking the local recipes?

Jess, when I was a student I had a vac job as a waitress in Penrhyn Castle. It was a nice walk up the drive in the morning. I still have the Lady Janet cookery book (not her copy obviously) with recipes for things like Mrs Dai Evans' suet roll.

The Normans were Vikings and the Anglo Saxons from North Germany were genetically identical to the Danish Vikings, although the Vikings from the Northern lands were different.

I was surprised that Chepstow Castle (near my sister's place) was built in 1067!

Gingers, eh?

Not forgetting the Harrying of the North and the burning of the land there...

Yes and once they had nicked advanced technology from the Welsh (the longbow) they kept up the beserker tradition (with a hefty dose of Catholicism thrown in)
Quite a few of the nobility had reddish hair and their idea of perfect female beauty was a scandinavian type blonde - presumably the Viking influence.

It was a three or four part series caled The Normans; at first I thought the presenter was going to be really dry and boring but it turned out to be really interesting. Trouble is, I watch these things and five minutes later I've forgotten everything I've seen.

The Normans were actually Viking immigrants to France, weren't they?

Which prog was that Tegan?
I'm sure individually some of them were... but it was a dog eat dog world in which brothers and cousins waged war against each other (and even their parents) and the ones with the most bloodthirsty armies got to be king - with had absolute power. And women (with very few exceptions) had a rough deal.