History of Medieval England - Thursday 6th Period: Discussion 2: Dark Ages Britain

[prof-methos.livejournal.com]

All right. So we touched briefly on King Arthur of gloriously fake memory, Alfred the Great who actually lived, and Anglo-Saxon Britain. Now it's time to talk.

Your homework, which should sound familiar already is to select a topic from your readings and cut and paste give me at least 100 words. Ready, steady, go.

[[OOC: OCD threads are up, go ahead.]]

Comments

Re: HOMEWORK: ME Disc 2

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

Danelaw

From about 800 AD, waves of Viking assaults on the coastlines of the British Isles were gradually followed by a succession of settlers. These enclaves rapidly expanded, and soon the Viking warriors were establishing areas of control of such extent that they might reasonably be described as kingdoms.

The reasons for these wave of immigrations are complex and bound to the political situation in Scandinavia at that time; moreover, they occurred at a time when the Viking forces were also establishing their presence in the Hebrides, in the Orkneys, the Faroe Islands, in Iceland, in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine (see Kievan Rus').

The Danelaw was formally established as a result of the Treaty of Wedmore in the late 9th century, after Alfred the Great had defeated the Viking Guthrum at the Battle of Edington. The Danelaw represented a consolidation of power for Alfred; the subsequent conversion of Guthrum to Christianity underlines the ideological significance of this shift in the balance of power.

The Danelaw was gradually eroded by Anglo-Saxon raids in later years. Edward the Elder (reigned 899 - 924) later incorporated it to his newfound Kingdom of England.