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From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS
XIV. THE NORTHMEN AND THE NORMANS TO 1066 A.D.
» Contents of this Chapter
Page 21
THE DANELAW
Alfred's victory did not end the war. Indeed, almost to the end of his reign, the heroic king had to face the Vikings, but he always drove them off and even recovered some of the territory north of the Thames. The English and Danes finally agreed to a treaty dividing the country between them. The eastern part of England, where the invaders were firmly established, came to be called the Danelaw, because here the Danish, and not the Anglo-Saxon, law prevailed. In the Danelaw the Danes have left memorials of themselves in local names [20] and in the bold, adventurous character of the inhabitants.
[20] The east of England contains more than six hundred names of towns ending in by (Danish "town"), compare by-law, originally a law for a special town.
CIVILIZING ACTIVITIES OF ALFRED
It was a well-nigh ruined country which Alfred had now to rule over and build up again. His work of restoration invites comparison with that of Charlemagne. Alfred's first care was to organize a fighting force always ready at his call to repel invasion. He also created an efficient fleet, which patrolled the coast and engaged the Vikings on their own element. He had the laws of the Anglo-Saxons collected and reduced to writing, taking pains at the same time to see that justice was done between man and man. He did much to rebuild the ruined churches and monasteries. Alfred labored with especial diligence to revive education among the English folk. His court at Winchester became a literary center where learned men wrote and taught. The king himself mastered Latin, in order that he might translate Latin books into the English tongue. So great were Alfred's services in this direction that he has been called "the father of English prose."
THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents
url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp
Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy
