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the Saxons massacred the survivors. Offers of peace
were renewed, and the army withdrew to Gloucester,
and then to Chippenham, where they spent the early
months of 878. The inhabitants of the district who
could do so fled into Wales, and the west country was
entirely in the hands of the Vikings.
This is the time when Ælfred is said to have burnt
the cakes. As a matter of fact he was reduced to
taking refuge among the fens of Athelney ; not that
he was wholly inactive, but he had with him only
his personal retinue and the Somerset fyrd under
ealdorman Æthelnoth. It is extraordinary to us
to think of the other shires of Wessex sitting at
home and taking no steps for the rescue of those
whom we should now consider their fellow-countrymen;
but there was no united "England" in those
days, when each district had until recently been
independent, and still retained its local jealousies.
It is the great praise of Ælfred that he overcame this
feeling among the various groups of the people he
ruled, and created the possibility of efficient fighting
power in a country which, for all its civilisation and
Christianity, was behind the pagans in political and
military organisation.
At the junction of the Tone and the Parret the
triple-ramparted mound called Borough Mump may
be the fort in Athelney built by King Ælfred; the
Arx Cynuit, held by the men of Devon against Ubbi
and the Danes is a site about which there has been
much dispute. Here a signal victory was won over
the Vikings, and their Raven standard was captured.
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