"The Starbuck name comes from the scandinavian Sterbeck and indicates that all descendents with and from the name have
Viking blood in their veins." (an indication that may be in error as my Starbuck dna does not indicate that this is so) I have
come across a written history by Dr.Anna Ritchie (an archaeologist and a Viking specialist) on the BBC history site from
which I have made the following observations on the lives of Starbuck forebears.......

The Vikings attacked Britain's holy places, killed the monks and carried away many teasures. Their well-designed boats and the
convenient winds helped the Vikings come and go as they pleased. Britain was devastated as the raiders divided the land
amongst themselves.


WHO WERE THE VIKINGS

We tend to think of Vikings as a single phenomenal race of Scandinavian
warriors, but in reality they were more complex than that. Raids on the British
Isles and the coasts of France and Spain were the work of Vikings from
Norway and Denmark (Swedish Vikings set out across the sea into Poland,
Latvia, Lithuania and Russia) The word Viking means one who lurks in a
'vik' or bay, in effect, a pirate.

The word "Viking" has come to describe a whole new age in Europe between
about 800 and 1150. This is despite the fact that Vikings were not just pirates
and warriors but also traders and colonists. But at the start of Viking Age at
the end of the 8th century, loot and adventure were the main goals of the
Norwegians who raided Scotland and Ireland and of the Danes who attacked
England. The monasteries with their personal wealth for the taking and with
captives therefrom to be sold,
were a great incentive to the sons of good families being seen as a way to earn
their way to respect within their family groups as well as to see the world.
The Norsemen
of the
Scandinavion Countries
The Starbuck Tree
dna pROJECT
THE NEED FOR LAND

Fertile land to farm was a desirable commodity which the British Isles
had but was in short supply on the western
seaboard of Norway. Once based in the western islands of Scotland,
they could farm and trade and still turn to raiding whenever
convenient. A Viking by the name of Svein Asleifarson lived on
Gairsay in Orkney in the 12th century and his lifestyle is recorded -
Vikings have become famous principally thanks to the long trips they made in their ingeniously constructed ships in which they
visited four continents. Along Western Europen coasts and rivers they travelled to the Mediterranean Sea. Via Russsian rivers
they travelled to the Black Sea and Constantinople and to the Caspian Sea and further to Baghdad in Asia. They resided in
Shetland and Orkney and crossed the Atlantic Sea to Iceland, Greenland and Canada, and maybe also made it as far south as
along the present day coast of the United States. Depending on the field of application there were several different ships; from
the broad merchant vessel to the fast, slender warship.
The Viking Age brought about great changes within Scandinavia and the rest of
Europe. Strong new states had been created while the power of other states had waned.
In Russia and Normandy, in Shetland and Orkney the Western Isles of Scotland and
on the Isle of Man, dynasties of Scandinavian origin ruled while in south-west
Greenland, Iceland and the Faeroe Islands, there were Scandinavian populations.
In parts of Ireland, and along the southern and eastern coast of the Baltic Sea,
scattered areas remained under Norse control. Parliaments or "Things" had been
established where free men met to consult on matters of importance. The descendants
of the early Viking immigrants now lived in England. In the early eleventh century,
Denmark and England shared a common king, Cnut (Old Norse Knùtr), who married a
Christian, Queen Emma, and became a patron of the English Church.
In 789, three Viking ships arrived on the Wessex coast.
The local reeve had ben sent to meet them but he was killed straight away.
This event was a recorded entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. But worse
came four years later, Lindisfarne, almost the most sacred of sites, was
ransacked. Word off the Viking threat spread through Europe.

"Lo, it is nearly 350 years that we and our fathers have inhabited this most
lovely land, and never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have
now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought that such an inroad from
the sea could be made. Behold the church of St.Cuthbert spattered with the
blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more
venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples...."
So said and set out in a letter from Alcuin to Ethelread, King of Northumbria.
Vikings were sometimes buried in their ships with their worldly goods and The
Gokstad ship from a burial south of Oslo in Norway is the sort of warship to
which the Viking raiders aspired. An elegant 23 metres of curving oak planks
that would skim the waves. Tree-rig dating has shown that this particular ship
was built towards the end of the 9th century, but its efficient design was
developed earlier - fast, flexible and, with its shallow draught, easy to beach. A
magnificent vessel such as this was usually too costly to send to the grave and
none such have been found in Britain. Smaller rowing boats were more usually
used for funeral purpose. Vikings used these smaller boats for striking out to
shore when able due to preferring to spend a night camping in tents than on
board their larger vessels.
Gradually the Viking era came to an end across Europe. The end of the Viking Age is usually set at around
AD 1050, though some monuments in the Scandinavian homelands demonstrate that Viking Age traditions
continued into the twelfth century (for example, Urnes stave church); and in some of the colonies, notably
Scotland and Iceland, Scandinavian culture and influences persisted for much longer. In northern Scotland
as late as the twelfth century, the adventures of Svein Asleifarson, recounted in Orkneyinga Saga, match
those of any true Viking.
"This was how Svein used to live - Winter he would spend at home on Gairsay,
where he entertained some eighty men at his own expense. His drinking hall
was so big, there was nothing in Orkney to compare with it. In the spring he
had more than enough to occupy him, with a great deal of seed to sow which he
saw to carefully himself. Then when that job was done, he would go off
plundering in the Hebrides and in Ireland on what he called his "spring-trip",
then back home just after mid-summer, where he stayed till the cornfields had
been reaped and the grain was safely in. After that he would go off raiding
again, and never came back till the first month of winter was ended. This he
used to call his "Autumn-trip".
The pattern of Danish colonisation in england was more organised, as had been Danish raids after about 850. In that year a Viking
army had spent the winter encamped on the Isle of Thanet at the mouth of the River Thames, and protection money had been
extorted from the English. Large forces of warriors, winter camps and payuments in silver or food became the norm, even deep
inland - a Viking camp of 873 has been excavated at Repton in Derbyshire. In 876 a Viking leader shared out the farmlands of
Northumbria amongst his warriors. The Danish colonisation of England had begun.


Is your heritage that of the Norsemen of Scandinavia ?
with the haplotype l1c

or was the life of the Celts that of your ancestors ?
with the haplotype R1b1

This page last modified on Monday, July 07, 2008