The Vikings who invaded England in the days of Alfred, on the other hand, were independent chieftains—the last of the class of the early Frankish and Anglo-Saxon type. Their invasion was not a Danish invasion in the sense that it came from a Danish kingdom. The Vikings of this earlier period were chieftains of moving armies living upon the country they invaded. Their armies were composed of Northmen, and, again to quote the words of Mr. Keary, ‘in the history of the Scandinavian nations they were the representatives in the countries of their origin of a bygone or passing order of things’—‘the opponents of the extended sort of kingship which was the new order of the day in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.’[234]
Let us for a moment follow the course of the movements of these Viking armies which preceded the compact between Alfred and Guthrum.
In 867 the ‘army’ was in the North, took possession of York, and subdued Northumbria. In 868 Mercia was invaded, and till 871 the incursions were practically confined to Northumbria and Mercia, and parts of East Anglia. In 871 the invasion of Wessex commenced, and in the same year Alfred, on the death of his brother Ethelred, became King of Wessex. In 874 the ‘army’ was again chiefly in Mercia and Northumbria and began definitely to settle in the latter. The southern half of Northumbria became the Kingdom of York under Halfdan, A.D. 876.
The other part of the army under Guthrum proceeded to attack Wessex, and the winter of 877-8 was marked by the retirement of Alfred into the island of Æthelney.
Compact between Alfred and Guthrum.
In 878 came the victory of Æthandune, which was followed by the baptism of Guthrum and the partition of England. In 880 Guthrum and his army settled in what became the Danelaga. And in 886 the final compact was entered into between Alfred and Guthrum the text of which has been preserved.
It will be convenient first to consider this compact and then the various fragments of Northumbrian and Mercian law the production or preservation of which may be traced to this period.
English and Danes equally dear.
The text of the compact is preserved in the tenth-century Manuscript B. Its first clause defines the boundaries between that part of England which was to remain English and the Danelaga. With this matter at the moment we are not specially concerned. Then follows the most material clause (2):—
And hi cwædon, gyf mon ofslægen wurðe, eal we letað efen dyrne, Engliscne ⁊ Denisce. ꝥ is to .viii. healf-marcum asodenes goldes. buton þam ceorle þe on gafol-lande sit ⁊ heora lysingon: þa syndon eac efen dyre. ægðer twa hund scyll::