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Lindisfarne, 793: the first Viking raid the English wrote down. Within a century there was a Danish king in York, a Danelaw across half of England, and Norwegian earls in Orkney and Shetland. More than twelve hundred years later, where in Britain did they actually leave the most DNA?

Tonight I rank eight regions of Britain from the least Viking to the most, using the biggest genetic studies of these islands — the People of the British Isles project, the genetic map of Scotland, the Viking-world ancient genomes in Nature, and the father's-line surveys. Every number is named, every caveat said out loud, and where the studies disagree, you hear both.

In this video:
📍 Lindisfarne, 793
📍 What "Viking DNA" actually means
📍 #8 Wales — the raiders who named the coast
📍 #7 The Isle of Man and Caithness
📍 Myth-bust: R1a is not the Viking gene
📍 #6 England — St Brice's Day and the six per cent ceiling
📍 #5 The Danelaw — Viking place-names everywhere, Viking DNA nowhere you can see
📍 #4 The Norse north-west — the Wirral, West Lancashire and Cumbria
📍 #3 The Hebrides — Norse fathers, island mothers
📍 #2 Orkney
📍 #1 Shetland
📍 What "Scandinavian" on your DNA test really means
📍 How to trace a Norse-country family on paper

Tell me in the comments your guess for number one, your surname, and where in Britain your family comes from. I read every one.

🔎 TRACE YOUR SURNAME: https://dnaorigin.org
Type in your surname and it does the research for you: the language the name was born in (Norse, Gaelic, Old English or Norman), the region of Britain it first belongs to, the earliest record and the year a clerk wrote it down, and every spelling it has worn since. Or scan the QR code on screen.

Sources used in this episode:
Leslie S. et al. (2015). The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population. Nature 519, 309–314 (and Supplementary Information).
Gilbert E. et al. (2019). The genetic landscape of Scotland and the Isles. PNAS 116(38), 19064–19070.
Margaryan A. et al. (2020). Population genomics of the Viking world. Nature 585, 390–396.
Goodacre S. et al. (2005). Genetic evidence for a family-based Scandinavian settlement of Shetland and Orkney during the Viking periods. Heredity 95, 129–135.
Bowden G. R. et al. (2008). Excavating past population structures by surname-based sampling: the genetic legacy of the Vikings in northwest England. Molecular Biology and Evolution 25(2), 301–309.
Capelli C. et al. (2003). A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984.
Lall G. M. et al. (2021). Subdividing Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1 reveals Norse Viking dispersal lineages in Britain. European Journal of Human Genetics 29, 512–523.
Kershaw J. & Røyrvik E. C. (2016). The 'People of the British Isles' project and Viking settlement in England. Antiquity 90(354), 1670–1680.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, annals for 793, 866–867 and 1002; Alcuin's letter to King Æthelred of Northumbria (793).
Brut y Tywysogion, annal for 999.
The treaty of Alfred and Guthrum (late 9th century).
Charter of King Æthelred II for St Frideswide's, Oxford (1004).
Domesday Book (1086).
Fragmentary Annals of Ireland (Ingimund and the settlement near Chester).
'Given to the Ground': A Viking Age Mass Grave on Ridgeway Hill, Weymouth (Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 2014).
The Oxford Henge and Late Saxon Massacre (Thames Valley Archaeological Services, 2014).
E. Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names (Grimsby, Scunthorpe).
J. Jakobsen, An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland (Danish ed. 1908–21; English ed. 1928–32).
British Museum / National Museum of Scotland, the Lewis Chessmen.

Watch next:
This Map Shows EXACTLY Which Scottish Island Your Family Came From
Are You Pict, Gael, Norse or Norman? The Four Bloods of Scotland
This Map Shows EXACTLY Which English County Your Family Came From

Every number tonight comes from a published study. No legends. Only ink.

#Vikings #VikingDNA #Shetland #Orkney #Genealogy #DNA #Ancestry #Hebrides #FamilyHistory #TracedInTheDNA

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HASHTAGS (first 3 show above the title)
#Vikings #VikingDNA #Shetland #Orkney #Genealogy #DNA #Ancestry #Hebrides #FamilyHistory #TracedInTheDNA