The following paper constitutes an investigation of Old Norse contributions to the development of the English language from a lexical-semantic perspective based upon the Proto-Germanic language. Such an approach is intended to offer a much deeper insight into the infl uence exerted by the speech of Vikings upon English, as well as to prove that the modifi cations of the English lexis resulting from the Anglo-Scandinavian contact represent an unusual and extremely rare language phenomenon, and at the same time to reveal surprisingly intriguing histories hidden behind many inconspicuous ordinary lexemes. Moreover, the investigation of Proto-Germanic forms ancestral to particular Scandinavian lexical items and their Anglo-Saxon equivalents may constitute an interesting, though obviously limited, account of the origin of vocabulary used by these two groups of Germanic peoples. Foremost, however, the Common Germanic parent language is hoped to serve as an important background for the analysis, due to its role in enabling all the unique interactions between the Old Norse tongue of the Viking raiders and the Old English speech of the Anglo-Saxons.