Historians believe there was significant loss of life, though evidence is lacking on any specific estimates. At least 35 skeletons, all males aged 16 to 25 … Evidence of a brutal massacre of Vikings in Oxford 1100 years ago has been uncovered by archaeologists. However, the Ridgeway Hill individuals were systematically executed. At least 35 skeletons, all males aged 16 to 25 …

Further analysis then reveals that the St. Brice’s day massacre victims in Oxford were killed in a frenzied mob attack.

The skeletons showed evidence of violent death; many of the attacks appeared to have been from behind, demonstrating a link to the idea of a massacre. VIKING skeletons buried beneath an Oxford college were the victims of brutal ethnic cleansing 1,000 years ago, archaeologists have discovered. They were beheaded from the front - just like the warriors in the Jomsviking saga. It's the first archaeological evidence of an anti-Viking mass slaughter known as the St. Brice's Day Massacre.

In 2008 at St John’s College in Oxford, a burial site was discovered holding the bodies of over 35 Viking warriors.

Her husband Pallig Tokesen, the Danish Ealdorman of Devonshire, may also have died in the massacre or, according to a different version, played a part in provoking it by his defection to join raiders ravaging the south coast. On November 13, A.D. 1002, Æthelred Unræd, ruler of the English kingdom of Wessex, “ordered slain all the Danish men who were in England,” according to a royal charter.

In the saga, one captured Viking says: “I am content to die as are all our comrades. Among those thought to have been killed is Gunhilde, who may have been the sister of Sweyn Forkbeard, the King of Denmark. Evidence of a brutal massacre of Vikings in Oxford 1100 years ago has been uncovered by archaeologists.