3. Blood Eagles: The Great Heathen Army

On Big Lives, we take a single cultural icon.

“People like Jane Fonda, George Michael, little Richard.”

And we pull apart the story behind the image. And we do this by digging through the BBC's vast archives. Discovering for gone interviews that change exactly how we see these giants of our culture. We're here for the best sea, the brilliant,

the human version of our heroes. I mean, mental geochie? At Kyri? And this is Big Lives. Isn't it Big Lives?

Wherever you get your podcasts. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's 836 AD. A battle is in progress in the kingdom of Wessex, a fleet of 35 Viking long ships as put in at Kyri.

Modern day car hampton on the summer set coast. Not far from mine here.

“They've been met by an army led by King Eggbird.”

Eggbird is a formidable military leader. Under his reign, Wessex, a large, southern territory has become the most dominant of the English kingdoms, a position secured by defeating neighboring Mercia. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle will dub Eggbird, Brett Wilder,

overlord of Britain.

It is the first step towards the position that

his grandson Alfred the Great will one day claim, King of all the English. The battle rages. Sword lades crash. Spears probe the gaps between shields.

Battle axes shatter skulls. A hail of arrows blocks out the sun. For the Viking warriors, death holds no fear. If they survived the battle, they will live to fight another day.

“If not, a glorious afterlife in Valhalla awaits.”

They throw themselves into the fray, who she against the mass of the enemy with their shields, a blind fury possesses them. Suddenly, the word goes round, snarl from man to man, speed-filking or boars snout.

The formation takes shape. A triangular wedge, two men at the front, then three, then four, then five, drive forward into the enemy ranks, splitting the opposition force down the middle.

As the Vikings break through, they surge round to attack the enemy from behind. The West Saxon soldiers are sandwiched between two ranks of seething Norsemen. They are around them as lethal,

filled with flailing sharp edge metal. There is no way out of this but death. Eventually the Vikings bloodluster baits. A carpet of corpse is covers the ground. Crone circle above.

Among the dead they will feed on, a several members of the West Saxon elite. As the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records, the Danes had possession of the place of slaughter. For the Vikings at last,

a corner of England has not just been raided, but occupied. I'm Ian Glenn, from the Noiser podcast network. This is Real Vikings Part 3. We've heard how Viking fleets ravaged the coastlines of mainland Europe,

and advanced along rivers in their clash with the Christian Empire of the Franks. A clash which culminated in 845 years ago. A clash which culminated in 845 years ago. A clash which culminated in 845 years ago. A clash which culminated in 845 years ago.

A clash which culminated in 845 years ago. A clash which culminated in 845 with the audacious siege of Paris, led by the legendary Viking warlord, Ragnar Lotthrock. We're about to meet his sons.

The Battle of Carhampton is the first pitch battle

that we know of between Vikings and English forces. In the Anglo-Saxon world, this is how disputes are settled. Two sides pitted against each other across a battle ground. There are strict rules of engagement. So much so that at times warfare can seem an almost ritualised business.

Often battle locations are chosen because for the Saxons, they have symbolic rather than strategic significance.

There's a season for fighting too.

It's a summer activity like cricket.

“Both sides accept the necessity of breaking off from warfare”

to bring in the harvest. Winter when the roads are impossible is unanimously avoided. Plus, the Vikings need to sail back home in favorable seas. But as for the other rules, the Vikings do not acknowledge them. For one thing, they prefer to avoid pitch battles if they can.

They're not interested in symbolic victories. They want plunder. They go for soft targets, unarmed monks and villagers. Of a well-armed soldiers drawn up in discipline ranks. They have a creative, anything goes approach to fighting.

Favouring ambushes and raids, valuing surprise above all. Lars Brownworth

Vikings were not actually great out in the open.

In fact, there's several examples of when their caught in the open country doesn't end well for them. They're kind of hit and run people.

“Their speed makes them absolutely terrifying.”

They tend to be somewhat decentralized, and it was a strength in that they could kind of peel off and it's very hard to kind of shatter the Viking force because they were so, so mobile. Vikings abone to be warriors.

It's been ingrained in every boy since he's old enough to hold a wooden sword. Girls too, a unique feature of Viking warfare has been the advent of the shield maiden. Fighters as adept and every bit as fierce as their male warrior counterparts.

Although perhaps not as commonplace has represented in popular culture.

At Carhampton as we have seen, the shield itself is an indispensable piece of kit. They can be overlap together to form an impenetrable bow. A mighty battering round, the famous shield. When an engagement descends into a free for all,

the thrusting spears and stabbing knives used at close quarters will be supplemented by full length swords. Or, in the main, and for the more budget conscious, compact deadly battle axis that could be 12 one handed. For protective clothing of Viking warrior will wear padded leathers,

some with the addition of chainmail or breastplate. And on their heads, it is time here to dispel one of the most enduring and erroneous myths that Vikings will horned helmets, sometimes winged ones. As striking as the imagery is, it is one born out of Victorian art.

The horns largely appear in 1800s. There were several discoveries of Celtic ceremonial helmets with these large horns. But of course, you know, having huge handlebars on your helmet is not a good idea going into battle, so no Viking ever wore

the wings of the horns. Those who do have head gear wear plain metal helmets that hug the skull, sometimes with an eye visor, much like your typical Saxon or Frankish soldier. What differentiates them from their foes,

a huge psychological advantage, is that sheer willingness to die. Some Vikings belong to a cult known as Bezekus, quite literally, bare shirters. Men who can work themselves into such an animalistic frenzy, that they sometimes are banned and armour all together, even weapons.

Launched into the fray as demonic shock troops, high on hallucinogens. They were apparently two of these, these things in drink, these things, it was almost like having a seizure, where they would seem to feel no pain,

and they would fight with their teeth and with their fingernails, and everything when their swords were broken. You could lock off an arm and they would keep coming. They were absolutely terrifying. And also terrifying to their fellow Vikings.

They seem to be out of their head, the berserk, literally berserk. It's where we get the expression. But this is all on dry land. For the Vikings are still masters of their signature form of combat, amphibious warfare.

“They're hardly likely to give up their most important strategic advantage,”

just to conform to Anglo-Saxon notions of fair play. Professor David Aesori. If they have a military advantage, it's their ships. Again, the fightmanship is the catalyst of the Vikings. It allows them to show up quickly.

All their shallot drafted ships onto the beaches and sail out quickly.

Easily take down or put up their sails

“so it makes these ships really versatile.”

Viking attacks in the south of England continue between 840 and 853, building infrequency and intensity.

As has been said, the Vikings don't always have it their way.

In 838, two years after Carhampton, there's a rematch at Hengeston, modern day Hingston down in Cornwall, in the far southwest of England. This time the Vikings are defeated by King Eggbird.

Over the next few years, Wessex successfully repels a series of Viking offences. In the face of such stiff opposition, the Vikings abandon harassing Wessex,

“the focus on the Saxon territories along England's east post,”

Northumbria, East Anglia and Kent. We notice another change too. They are no longer scuttling back to Scandinavia as the nightstroin. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in the year 850,

he then men stayed over the winter for the first time.

The first phase of the Viking age is seasonal raids. Probably farmers, supporters of Chieftons, getting on Viking ships, going abroad, doing raiding in returning in time for the harvest. This goes on until the 840s,

where we have our first records of Vikings overwintering. This opens up a second phase, where instead of going only during the summer and coming back each year, they decide to be easier to stay. Then we're here when the next raiding season begins.

And so with that, you have professional Vikings, essentially emerging. Ben Raffield has associate professor of archaeology and ancient history at Uppsala University. From the A50s, we see records in England of these groups staying and establishing encampments in England and staying there through the winter, implying a much more prolonged presence in the field.

The native population must have viewed the advent of vast Viking encampments with dread. Talk about the neighbours from hell. A year-round presence brings with it the potential for year-round raiding. In places like the Isle of Shepi, of the coast of Kent, the local residents are driven out,

houses are overrun or burned down, or churches are converted to feasting halls.

“But what must life have been like in one of the Viking winter camps?”

The camp sprawls over an area the size of a small town. The resides of industry everywhere. Some men are putting up a wooden policy to run the perimeter. Others dig trenches. The camp residents know they are not exactly welcome in their new home.

Their habit of stealing livestock from nearby farms hasn't made them any friends. Neither has the huddle of despondent prisoners chained together with iron hoops around their necks. A river runs nearby, providing an exit route to the sea, or an expressway to the interior where future targets await.

Some men use the time to carry out repairs on their boats, scraping off barnacles, replacing damaged timbres and checking the rigid. The camp is also close to an old Roman road, another excellent line of communication. A shanty town of Woodenhuts has sprung up in no time at all. In one hut, a blacksmith forge is weapons.

In another, artisans work metal to form armulets in the shape of Thor's hammer. Here, a man works away at a piece of horn to create a fine tooth beard comb.

There's always a market for such articles of grooming.

Despite their rugged reputation, bikings are a vain lot. They take care of their appearance. Elsewhere sculptors carve wood into mythological figures and seams. Odin hanging from the sacred tree or the goddess Freya, driving her carriage drawn by cats. And pot is formed bowls, cutting intricate designs into the layered clay.

And here, children play with dolls and toy weapons as their mothers prepare food.

Yes, they're all women and children in the camp. Families, not just hardcore warriors. Dr. Pragyavora. There is evidence of women and children being part of the group. There is evidence of craft working quite extensive craft working both in terms of ceramics,

as well as in terms of metal working and urban wear. Where did the women come from? They can't all have sailed over from the homeland.

“So these are, I think family groups from Scandinavia on the move.”

But they are naturally, I think, picking up people as they go along.

In one mass grave that has been uncovered, many of the women seem to have come from England itself. Are they captives who have been thoughtably removed from their communities? They may not be. Because of the surviving narrative of the historical sources, we place an emphasis on conflict between Viking groups and regional populations. We're actually the nature of that interaction was both peaceful and it could be hostile.

So we do have to think about, kind of, intermixing the peoples as part of this. Women may not be the only locals drawn to join a Viking encampment or reading fleet. Some Anglo-Saxon men clearly don't see the Vikings as an enemy. If you spend your life as a subsistence farmer and you have an opportunity to win wealth status,

“you know, if you decide to join one of these fleets, maybe for some, that's an attractive option.”

At this stage, Viking winter camps are far from settled communities. They're highly mobile, ready to move on when local conditions are no longer favorable. It's a new way of operating. They're not just coming into violent contact with local and regional populations elsewhere, but they're also engaging in diplomacy they're engaging in trade.

The Vikings are an unpredictable presence in any region, at times willing to trade and negotiate. At other times simply taking what they need by force before moving on and leaving behind a squalid site in the middle of a devastated countryside. But the destruction they have meted out so far is nothing compared to what has to come. So in the '86-5, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the arrival of something that it calls the Michael Heda.

Michael in Anglo-Saxon being large and Heda being army. So it's the large army or the great army. And what it refers to here is a significantly larger band of Viking Raiders than they have seen before now.

And for the first time what we get with this great heathen army is its interest in acquiring territory.

This great heathen army, the term used by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, inflicts a great deal of damage, spreading chaos and misery wherever it goes. That said, it is most likely not a single coordinated invasion force. Instead, it evolves out of the existing mobile winter encampments, which are continuously supplemented by more and more Vikings coming over to England.

These are disparate bands, originating from different parts of Scandinavia, and following different sometimes rival leaders. Each of these smaller groups has its own agenda. They come together when they're interests coincide. And yet the impressions sometimes given as them.

To begin with at least, the great heathen army is a coherent unified force, led by a small group of legendary commanders united by blood and driven by a deeply personal motive. According to legend, the leaders of the great army are the sons of Ragnar. Of that Ragnar of Paris fame. The great Ragnar Lothrock, the most famous Viking warrior of all.

“If you remember, according to historians, Ragnar had died soon after his famous siege of Paris,”

back in 845, from an attack of dysentery. But that's not exactly a hero's death, and it's not the one you'll read about in the sagas. Legend has it that Ragnar then led an ill-fated invasion of Anglo-Saxon England,

He had died calling on his sons, the piglets, to his hunted ball, to avenge his death.

“The story of Philly or revenge may actually come courtesy of some revisionist history.”

The idea that Ragnar's sons came to England likely originated 200 years later, as a way to justify the reign of King Canute, the Danish king of England. Professor Elizabeth Row. This is a story that entirely fits the reign of Canute. Certainly there must have been people saying, "Oh, well if we look at the previous Danish presence in England,

they weren't there as robbers and murderers and undurers taking our land, but they were there for a virtuous heroic reason to avenge the undestified killing of one of their parents. As for the true motivation of the leaders, even if they are Ragnar's sons, that may have more to do with what's going on back home than what dead or didn't happen in an othumbrian snake pit." The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives them the title of Kings,

but these are not kings who we can match up with any kings of territories back in Scandinavia. These are people who are kings from an entirely military context,

“and because they are not actually kings of territories back in Scandinavia,”

it makes complete sense that they would stay in England over the winter and keep going with their reading activities from year to year. Whatever the case, Ragnar's boys are here, and they mean business. As well as sporting some catchy street names. They are Iva, the boonless, Bjorn-Einside,

Siegards Snake in the Eye, Halfordan of the Wild in Brace, and Plain Old, Uber. It's Iva, Halfordan and Uber, who are most associated with the Great Heathen Army.

The Great Heathen Army is first reported landing on the shores of East Anglia,

on England's East Coast. During the late 20th century,

“there was a sort of a minimalistic view,”

almost of these groups that they might be several hundred people. But I think, you know, we are now. I am anyway comfortable in talking in the thousands. I mean, these are very large groups of people. If we accept that there are thousands of men involved,

the number of long ships has to be in the hundreds. The arrival of such a vast fleet must have been a daunting side for the locals. While there, the Vikings take tribute from the East Anglia and Ruler, King Edmund.

It is the first recorded payment of Dane Gelt, in England.

Continuing a means of financial leverage that has already become a feature of Viking raiding in Francia. Crucially, the payment made by Edmund includes horses and provisions, guaranteeing the Viking Army's exceptional mobility and basics of Ivan. Call it extortion, protection money, blackmail, a racket, a shake down,

effectively Edmund is paying the Vikings to go away and bother someone else, which they do. In 866, as the warmer weather of spring sets in, the great Heathen Army upsticks from East Anglia and heads with lightning speed up the Great North Road.

As the land army sweeps across the country, the fleet sails up the East Coast carrying supplies. News of the Army's progress races ahead of it, terrified villages flee their homes, farms are left deserted. Facing no resistance, the Vikings take what they want along the way

and destroy what they don't. The speed of the advance is startling, though they are sure to take time out to plunder any churches they come across. King Edmund has got what he wanted. The Vikings are someone else's problem now.

The remorseless rampage continues as they move further north. The Vikings then head to York to Northumbria, presumably because they've heard of the kind of political unsettledness of Northumbria at the time.

The Vikings always see instability as an opportunity right for exploitation.

And what do you know? The King of Northumbria is Ailer, the very same man who according to the plot,

You can see how the story of Phillyel revenge fits the facts, or how the facts can be made to fit the story. This is how legends are born. What is indisputable is that King Ailer is unable to offer any meaningful resistance to this massive Viking force.

The great Heathen army sweeps into air four week. York.

For the Vikings, it is a momentous breakthrough.

York is the royal capital of Northumbria.

“Home of York, Minister, the seat of an important diocese,”

second only to Canterbury. And it is now in the hands of a Heathen rabble. Not just that, but it's entire provincial hinterland. The Christian kingdom of Northumbria is no more. According to legend, King Ailer now finds himself the prisoner of Ragnar's boys,

who are hell-bentern revenge. A 13th century saga called the Tale of Ragnar's sons, goes into gruesome detail of how the brothers, led by Eva the Boneless, exact their terrible retribution.

First, Eva has the shape of an eagle cut into Ailer's back,

then Ailer's ribs are severed from his backbone with a sword. His lungs are pulled through to flap in the open light wings. The bloody eagle, as it's called,

“as attained mythic status as a savage Viking means of execution.”

But whether this sadistic act was ever actually practised is debatable, in the case of Ailer's death, it's more likely a fiction that arose because of a misreading of a very ambiguous Norse verse. One interpretation of this text is that Eva simply killed Ailer,

then left his body for the eagle's defeat upon. In other words, it's just one of those colorful descriptive phrases that are bound in Norse poetry. After the fall of Nathumbria, the great heathen army targets the central, Midlands Kingdom of Mercia.

Overwintering there at the end of 867. The Mercian King Burred appeals to Ethelred of Wessex for help.

“At the head of the West Saxon army, Ethelred and his brother,”

the future Alfred the Great, reach knotting him where the enemy is hauled up. That plan is to engage the Vikings in a pitch battle. But as we know, the Vikings don't follow the Anglo Saxon rules of warfare. They refuse to come out of the fortified city. The confrontation ends in stalemate.

Like Edmund before him, King Burred resorts to paying the Vikings to go away. For the Vikings, putting yourself where you're not wanted is turning out to be a profitable business. As Rudyard Kipling will put it one day in verse,

that if once you have paid him the day in guilt, you never get rid of the day.

The heathen army temporarily returns to Nathumbria, before sweeping back down to East Anglia in 870. It overwinters in Thetford, Norfolk, at the time a major town. Once the base of the Great Iceani, Waria Queen, Budica. So much for the day in guilt that East Anglia's King Edmund handed over just a few years ago.

As the Anglo Saxon Chronicle tells us, that winter King Edmund fought with them, and the dayns took victory and slew the King and took all the land. King Edmund, for his pains, will be remembered by history as Edmund the martyr. His shrine will become a place of pilgrimage, given rise to an abbey and surrounding town, or burr. Known today, as Barry sent Edmunds.

From the days of raiding and trading to now, the Vikings required a taste for territorial conquest. This marks a definite shift in their ammo. Nothing on the scale of the Great Heathen Army has ever been seen in England. New sprawling camps spring up at sites such as Torxie and Northumbria,

dwarfing any previous winter encampments. Today Torxie is a small village about 10 miles from Lincoln. Back then, however, it was a navigation gateway, sitting on the eastern bank of the tidal river trend, which empties its waters into the Humber basin.

Nowadays, the Green and Pleasant setting includes a golf course.

“There's no clue that this was ever the sight of a major Viking occupation,”

though archaeological digs reveal otherwise. The excavation at Torxie covers roughly about 55 hectares, which is massive. It's larger than some long established urban settlements in Scandinavia, as well as in Britain.

So it gives you the sense of just how many numbers were involved. At places like Torxie,

the great army encampments reach a new level of sophistication.

They are minting imitation coins at these sites. So there's a complexity to them that we hadn't imagined before the archaeological evidence emerged.

“Another sight linked to the great heathen army is Repton,”

now home to a famous public school. Situated in Derbyshire, bang in the heart of England, Repton is a quiet village with leafy streets mixing Georgian, Victorian and post-war housing. The village is surrounded by floodplains. Like Torxie, Repton sits on the river Trent,

or at least it did back in the 9th century.

The river has changed its course over the years. While the encampment of Repton is on a smaller scale, it is nevertheless the site of a significant archaeological find. The story of its discovery begins in 1686.

“A workman called Thomas Walker is digging near St. Wisston's church.”

Suddenly, the blade of his shovel hits something hard. Walker scrapes away the soil to reveal part of a stone wall buried just beneath the surface. Further excavation and covers the structure about 15 feet long, a subterranean building.

When Walker enters it, he finds inside what appears to be a large stone coffin. He heaves off its heavy lid and makes a startling discovery. The coffin contained, as Walker recaps, a skeleton of a human body, nine foot long. Walker also claimed that a hundred other skeletons were positioned around the giant. Their feet pointing towards the coffin.

These were apparently of ordinary size. The workman confesses that he took the giant skull from the grave and gave it to the headmaster of the local free school. What became of the skull is not known. Not everyone believes Thomas Walker's story.

It is dismissed as fantastical, but the house of bones is rediscovered in the late 18th century and then again in 1914. We have to wait until the 1970s and 80s for the mass grave to be systematically excavated. 1,686 bones are dug up, the remains of 264 individuals, other graves are discovered nearby. Various objects are found among the bodies, including coins which date the burial site to the 870s,

when the great heathen army was present. There are both men and women among the dead, although the majority 80% are male, age between 18 and 45, fighting age. Many of the bones bear the marks of trauma. Isotopenalysis indicates that most, though not all, came from Scandinavia. Although no giant skeleton has ever been found,

it seems likely that the one described by Thomas Walker was that of a Viking lord, killed in battle and buried with his royal followers. Speculation about the identity of this lord has been rife ever since, with a popular theory being this is the final resting place of Eva the Boneless. Of course it can't be proven, but it's an intriguing idea.

Army encampments like Repton and Torxie represent one experience of life in Viking controlled areas of England. York is another. Today the only hordes invading York at the tourists, thronging through the shambles, the city's preserved medieval shopping street,

But in the 9th century, the city is overrun by Vikings.

“In many ways, York is an exception rather than the norm for Viking settlement in Britain,”

because it is an urban centre, it was already an established urban centre by the time the Vikings show up. But it does provide very valuable information about the kinds of lives that settlers in Britain would have led. One of the most valuable sources of information we have, is the excavation that took place in the 1980s along Coppergate in the centre of the city. There, archaeologists uncovered a row of properties fronting the river force.

The houses are crammed next to each other, they are small. Some of them would have been two story houses,

but they would have included spaces for animals, as well as humans living side by side.

The ventilation in these spaces is not great. We can't recreate the smell and audio just as well, perhaps.

“All of these indoor spaces would have been smoky and difficult to see in, they would have been dark.”

Diseases spread rapidly in the cramped living conditions. You might ask why anyone would choose to live like this. Living in York obviously had its advantages, because trade from all over the world blowed into York, people would have been relatively well off.

The story of Viking activity in England in the 9th century is one of gradual escalation, culminating in full-scale land grabs and political hegemony. But England, of course, isn't the only place where Vikings are active. I think what we sometimes know, what we miss is that this is an incredibly complex and interconnected world, of course.

“And not least, because you have Viking groups moving back and forth between these regions.”

Quite regularly. The same names crop up in different places in England and in Ireland, for example. A lot of these names are fairly common, and there was certainly more than one Evar running around in the Viking age. But of note, one of these Evar's reaches the highest level of Irish society.

He was partly, he was a king in Dublin, and there was somebody of the same name. Maybe it was the same person who was also active in England at the same time. If it is the same person, and an even bigger if, if it's the Evar identified as Evar the bonus son of Ragnar, then there really is something interesting going on here.

We see Evar aspiring to a stable kingship in Dublin, while at the same time crossing the Irish sea to act as an agent of chaos in England. It's a reminder that the boundaries we sometimes place on Viking spheres of action were not ones they themselves recognized.

Water is never a barrier.

As time wears on, Dublin and York will become the twin pillars of the Vikings island conquests. We'll return to Ireland in a future episode. By the beginning of the eight hundred and seventy's, the great Heathen army has brought about the downfall of three of the main English kingdoms. Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia.

Only one kingdom is holding out. Wessex, ruled by King Ethel Red. In December 870, a contingent of Viking sails up the River Thames and takes redding, an important trading settlement. Ethel Red and his brother Alfred move quickly to try and kick them out.

At notting them, the West Saxons had been frustrated by the Vikings refusal to come out and fight. This time, the Vikings take the bait and give battle. According to Bishop Asus biography of King Alfred, Britain during Alfred's reign, like wolves they burst out of all the gates and joined battle with all their might. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle adds, a great slaughter was made on both sides.

But it is efforts soldiers who flee the onslaught, leaving the Vikings victorious, and still in possession of redding. A week later, now into January 871, the two sides meet again. At nearby Ashes done, or Ashton.

a tactic which the Saxon army mirrors.

“While Alfred leads the King's forces into battle,”

Ethel Red stays in his tent to prey. To us, this might seem like a sign of despair, to a devout Christian king of the 9th century, however, it's an urgent bid to get God on his side. Despite the confusion and terror, Alfred holds his forces together,

the West Saxons advance on the Vikings with discipline and aggression. Ethel Red's prayers are answered. As Asura chords, one of the two Viking kings and two O's were cut down in that place, and many thousands on the Viking side were slain there too. The entire Viking army is put to flight.

The Christian soldiers give chase, continuing the slaughter.

It's the first major defeat of the great heathen army on English soil.

It marks a turning of the tide,

“and consolidates Alfred's credentials as an exemplary military commander.”

In April, 871, King Ethel Red dies. Alfred is crowned. Alfred the Great, as he is known to posterity, takes over the struggle against the Northman. Devout, wise, scholarly, and yet plagued by ill health.

Alfred emerges from history as not just the defender of his own kingdom, but the father of a new nation. With a claim to be one of the greatest kings of Anglo-Saxon England.

But it could so easily have been different.

And the same month that Alfred becomes King, there's a new kid on the block, bringing a fresh threat to Alfred's realm. Guthrun, leader of another major invasion fleet,

“dubbed this time the Great Summer Army by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,”

to differentiate it from the original Great Heathen army, which is now fragmenting. Guthrun is a little bit of an indigmal. We don't know very much about him. What we do know is that he shows up as part of the reinforcements

to the Great Army that arrive in 871. There are groups within the Great Army that appear to be seeking or they decide to establish landholdings. So we see now and then moving into the eight 70s, the Great Army devised up into contingents,

some who go after set of the landscape in eastern and northern England. One part of the army heads north, its leader, Halfordan, allegedly one of the sons of Ragnar, establishes himself as King of Northumbria in 876.

He divides up the land between his followers who begin to support themselves by plowing the fields, and thus, the ferocious marauders, become peaceful farmers. As for the rest, those who are still hungry for battle and booty,

they are galvanized by the arrival of this energetic new leader, Gottrum, and follow him to Cambridge in the east of England. From there, eventually, they make their way to Essex. They are about to come into conflict once more with Alfred. Its January 878,

were in Chippenum, Wessex, a King Alfred's royal palace. People here sense that there is a fresh threat to Wessex, but now is not the time. According to the Anglo-Saxon Halls of Engagement, you don't fight in winter,

let alone on the occasion of the great Christmas finale, the sacred 12th night feast. But, of course, the Vikings don't play butter rules. There's the meat sizzles and the ale flows, a messenger burst into the great hall.

It has alarming use, the deans, the Vikings, are closing in just a few miles away. For the sake of his people, his majesty must flee. Blindsided by this sneak attack, Alfred escapes in the nick of time. The Vikings have struck a blow into the very heart of his kingdom. A companyed by his court, Alfred slips into the swirling mists of the Somerset levels,

There, local guides lead him to Atholni,

“an isolated spit of land surrounded by treacherous swamps.”

For sustenance, the fugitive King must forage what he can from the countryside, doing what he must as simply stay alive. It's a classic Hollywood plot line. The hero reaches his lowest point. He's lost his palace, his precious library is kingdom, everything.

And if the legend is true, he even has his ears boxed by an old woman for burning some cakes he was told to watch over. Then, also the no doubt apocrypul story goes,

St. Cuthbert appears to him in a vision, spurring him on with the words.

To you and your sons was given all of Albion, you have been chosen as the king of all Britain.

“With or without St. Cuthbert's intervention, Alfred finds the inner fortitude to go on.”

Word is sent out to nobles and officials, to every old man, Thane and Reeve whose loyalty Alfred can count on. Muster your troops prepare to fight for your king. Beacons are lit, spreading the message from hilltop to hilltop. The corn is answered, levees are held in the hundreds and the shires,

and a battle is fought. The battle of Eddington, may 878. This time, victory is Alfred's. Guthrung withdraws to East Anglia. After the dust of battle is settled, Alfred and Guthrung draw breath,

perhaps both men have had enough of fighting,

“realizing that now something else is needed for both their peoples.”

A permanent settlement, a two state solution. Peace. Are they signed a treaty of Wedmore in 878, which essentially divides the country between the Scandinavians and the only kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons?

That's left, that's Wessex. That treaty establishes a line that is going to define what later becomes known as the dain law, that encompasses Northumberland, half of Bercia and East Anglia. And it was essentially a treaty agreeing the boundaries,

basically of Wessex and East Anglia and kingdom under Guthrung's rule.

On an approximate line from London in the southeast to chest it in the northwest, loosely following the old Roman road of Wacling Street. Anglo-Saxon England has been slashed along a diagonal, divided in two. This treaty is traditionally seen as the foundational document for what becomes called the dain law in later sources,

and the dain law being the territory where Danish or Scandinavian law applies. It's not a single kingdom. There are various Viking leaders in power in the dain law, but it's almost a non-Wessex territory rather than anything in and of itself. It's an absence of Wessex.

There is quit pro quo to the seeding of territory. As part of the treaty, Guthrung must convert to Christianity. He is baptised with a new name, Ethel Stan. House and Seren devout a Christian Guthrung becomes, we don't know. In this particular instance, in the case of Alfred and Guthrung,

it is part of the political machinations that we're seeing between the two leaders. But equally, there's unlikely to have been any sort of personal resistance from the part of Guthrung, particularly if converting, gave him access to the world of Anglo-Saxon power. Alfred, by dinner being the only Saxon King remaining in England,

can at last claim to be King of all Anglo-Saxons. While Guthrung, reborn as the Christian King Ethel Stan, an in a state of mutual coexistence, will rule East Anglia. A new chapter in Viking Saxon Relations has begun.

Trade across the Baltic leads to new lands and new rivers,

“ones that can carry longships right to the steps of Eurasia.”

A Viking state is established, the Rus.

And it comes with a fierce and matriarch, Olga of Kiev. That's next time.

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