1100 years ago a group of Viking settlers from Norway arrived somewhere between VEstri-Kirkjubyr (West Kirby) and Meir (Meols) on the shores of north Wirral - a small peninsula lying between the Rivers Dee and Mersey - having been driven out of Ireland. This initiated a mass migration of their fellow countrymen into the area and soon they had established a community with a clearly defined border, its own leader, its own language, a trading port, and at its centre a place of assembly or government - the Thing at Pingvollr (Thingwall).
This community was answerable to nobody else: the English, the Welsh, the Dublin Norse, the Isle of Man, Iceland, and not even Norway. The Wirral Norse settlement therefore satisfied all the criteria of an independent, self-governing Viking state - albeit a mini one!
Wirral was also probably witness to one of the greatest battles in the history of the British Isles - Brunanburh.
Foreword by Magnus Magnusson, K.B.E.
Preface
Chapter 1 -Ingimund's Saga
Chapter 2 - Harald Harfagri
Chapter 3 - Six-hundred Scandinavian Places: a new Wirral-Norse "Mini State"
Chapter 4 - For the anoraks
Chapter 5 - The major Viking place names in Wirral
Chapter 6 - Minor Viking names inside the border
Chapter 7 - Minor Viking names outside the border
Chapter 8 - Some interesting extracts from the Cheshire Sheaf and John Rylands Charters
Chapter 9 - "Visits" to Chester
Chapter 10 - The South-East Border: Raby and Willow Valleu
Chapter 11 - Cross the border: Anlaf and the battle of Bromborough
Chapter 12 - The Thing
Chapter 13 - The Kirks - Christian Vikings
Chapter 14 - Beauty Spots, Horse Racing and Rock Climbing
Chapter 15 - Thor
Chapter 16 - Canute, Royal Visitor
Chapter 17 - Sigtiot - Lady of Wallasey
Chapter 18 - Lost and Found: Scouse and Skaus
Further Reading