Who was Thorkell the Tall?

The period sometimes referred to as the ‘second Viking Age’ witnessed a new intensification of Scandinavian attacks on England, starting with the English defeat at the Battle of Maldon in 991 and culminating, two and a half decades later, in the Danish conquest. This turbulent era of Anglo-Scandinavian entanglement bequeathed to history a colourful cast of characters, including Svein Forkbeard, Cnut the Great, Æthelred ‘the Unready’ and Emma of Normandy.

There is another figure whose role in the second Viking Age was equally pivotal: Thorkell the Tall. Arguably the most successful viking of the early 11th century, by the end of his life Thorkell had played a crucial role in the Danish conquest of England and had made himself a powerful magnate in Cnut’s North Sea empire.

The 990s saw the first attacks on England led by Scandinavian rulers. In particular, Svein Forkbeard of Denmark’s damaging raids led the English under Æthelred to start paying out enormous sums of silver as tribute to would-be attackers. England had become a tempting target for Scandinavian warleaders in search of their fortune.

Thorkell launched his attack on England in 1009. His life before this point is hazy. It is unclear what his family origins may have been: while later sources claim that he was the son of an earl of Zealand, many historians regard this as a fabrication. Many of the feats attributed to his youth, which are likewise only attested in later sources, should almost certainly be considered legendary, including his supposed participation in the battles of Hjörungavágr with the semi-legendary Jomsvikings and Svolder against King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway.

Thorkell’s arrival in England at the head of a viking army in 1009 is, conversely, well attested in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in contemporary Norse poetry and in the chronicle of the monk John of Worcester (d.1140). Thorkell’s army, these sources report, was a diverse amalgamation of smaller groups, including a contingent from Norway led by the country’s future patron saint, Olaf Haraldsson, as well as fighters from Sweden. According to John of Worcester, Thorkell’s army was also soon joined by a Danish fleet led by commanders named Hemming and Eilaf.

For the next three years Thorkell’s army ravaged widely through central, southern and eastern England. He won an impressive victory against Ulfcytel, the chief thegn in East Anglia, and received a modest tribute of 3,000 pounds of silver in Kent. In spring 1012 Thorkell’s army captured Archbishop Ælfheah of Canterbury. Although a truce had already been arranged, involving a truly massive tribute of £48,000, some of Thorkell’s men demanded to be paid an additional personal ransom for the archbishop. When Ælfheah refused to allow this, he was killed, evidently in a drunken brawl.

Although Thorkell’s culpability in the incident is unclear, Ælfheah’s murder was a serious political blunder and made a martyr of the archbishop. Shortly thereafter, Thorkell’s patchwork army dispersed, and a new stage in the second Viking Age began: 45 ships under Thorkell’s leadership remained in England and – possibly sensing an opportunity to benefit financially – entered the service of King Æthelred, supported by a new tax known as heregeld, or ‘army tax’.

Thorkell’s fleet was now being paid to shore up England’s ragged defences. The necessity of such a move would soon become apparent. In summer 1013 Svein Forkbeard returned to England. This time, however, he meant not merely to raid, but to conquer. Though Thorkell in particular put up a strong resistance, by the end of the year Svein had received the submission of the entire country and forced Æthelred into exile in Normandy. Only Svein’s untimely death five weeks later allowed Æthelred to return and force out Svein’s son Cnut, whom the Danish army had attempted to elevate in his father’s place.

Thorkell’s arrangement with Æthelred apparently survived Svein’s invasion. In summer 1014 Æthelred paid his fleet another £21,000. However, in September 1015 Cnut returned to England and once again forced the English to submit to a Danish king. By April 1016 Æthelred was dead, and by the next year Thorkell had been established as the earl of East Anglia, one of the most distinguished men in Cnut’s England, whose name appeared as the first witness to many of Cnut’s early diplomas.

When did Thorkell enter Cnut’s service? Did he continue to serve Æthelred until his death, or did he at some point abandon Æthelred to serve Cnut? The question has divided historians. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is silent on the matter and the Encomium Emmae Reginae, written at the behest of Emma of Normandy – wife of both Æthelred and Cnut – in the early 1040s, is deeply unreliable. However, the odds seem good that Thorkell played a critical role in Cnut’s campaign. He and Cnut are co-subjects of a Norse praise poem celebrating Cnut’s capture of London in 1016, and it is evident that Cnut showed Thorkell significant honour as he worked to consolidate his rule over England in 1017. Thorkell spent the rest of his life in Cnut’s service, with the exception of a brief period of exile. By the time he died, probably around 1023, Thorkell had been made governor of Denmark and guardian of Cnut’s son.

Over the course of 14 years, Thorkell had elevated himself from a viking commander to a great man of two realms. A mere two centuries later, however, he had passed nearly entirely out of historical memory. While he appears in passing in some late-12th- and 13th-century sagas, his name is hardly to be found in the magisterial histories of Angevin England. It seems that Thorkell was somewhat overshadowed by the ambitious princes of his era who relied on history writing to legitimate their campaigns. What is clear is that Thorkell played a crucial role in the reshaping of power in England in the decades before the Norman Conquest. Without the military might Thorkell and his army offered Æthelred and Cnut, England’s tumultuous 11th century may have looked very different.

Elizabeth Hasseler is a historian of medieval Scandinavia. She earned her PhD from the University of North Carolina.