Learnings: The Town of Jorvik

The town of Jorvik as interpreted in Assassin's Creed Valhalla

After its capture by the Vikings, Jorvik, pictured in this screenshot from Assassin's Creed Valhalla, grew quickly in land, wealth, and people. It became a centre of commercial, political, and social power.

Even though it had been wrenched from Christian hands by a so-called Heathen Army, Jorvik was still an important place for Anglo-Saxon Christians. As a centre of trade and cultural exchange, Jorvik was one of only two towns in the Anglo-Saxon territories where an archbishop had a see, a seat of Christian religious authority. The Archbishop of Jorvik oversaw all the Christian faithful in the North from his seat in a "heathen" town.