Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Scandinavian Britain - II. The Danelaw - 1. The Age of Ælfred
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
II. THE DANELAW
1. THE AGE OF ÆLFRED
That part of Britain which the Danes conquered
in the days of King Ælfred was called in Anglo-Saxon
Denalagu, the district in which the Danes’ law prevailed.
The word lagu in the sense of "laws" comes
from the Scandinavian lög, which in its secondary use
meant not only "laws," but the group of people who
were ruled by a given code. Gulathings lög, or Thrænda
lög, came to be almost geographical expressions for
the country which owned the rulings of the Gulathing,
or the neighbourhood of Trondhjem. Hence the
form "Danelaw," used by recent historians as a
convenient rendering of Denalagu, is not misleading,
beside being more readable than the hybrid
"Danelagh."
King Ælfred’s life covers the period of this conquest,
the second half of the ninth century. After the
tentative attacks of the first sixteen years, came the
invasion of the Great Army, which created the Danelaw,
followed by the futile attempt of Hástein (Hasting)
to settle in Ælfred’s realm. By the year 900 the ethnological
map of England had been drawn on lines
which last, with alterations in details only, to this day.
The story is one of stirring deeds on both sides.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
