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The Great Heathen Army, a large alliance of Viking warriors, landed in England in 865. Within about a decade it had overrun three of the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and the land its leaders settled became known as the Danelaw, the area under Danish law.

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The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written in Old English, names Ivar and Halfdan among the army's leaders; later Scandinavian tradition made them sons of the legendary Ragnar Lothbrok, but that link cannot be confirmed. The army took York in 866, then overran Northumbria, East Anglia and much of Mercia, leaving Wessex as the last English kingdom standing. Its king, Alfred the Great, defeated the Viking leader Guthrum at Edington in 878. A later treaty between them set a rough border along the Thames, the River Lea and the old Roman road Watling Street, with Scandinavian law to the north and east. Place names ending in -by and -thorpe, from Old Norse words for a farm or village, still cluster in that part of England.

Türkçe oku
İngiliz kaynaklarının “Büyük Pagan Ordusu” dediği kalabalık Viking ordusu 865'te İngiltere'ye çıktı. On yıl kadar içinde dört Anglosakson krallığından üçünü ele geçirdi; liderlerinin yerleştiği topraklar, “Danimarka yasasının geçtiği yer” anlamında Danelaw diye anılır oldu.

Eski İngilizceyle yazılmış Anglosakson Kroniği, ordunun liderleri arasında Ivar ile Halfdan'ın adını verir; sonraki İskandinav anlatıları onları efsanevi Ragnar Lothbrok'un oğulları yapar, ama bu bağ doğrulanamıyor. Ordu 866'da York'u aldı, ardından Northumbria'yı, Doğu Anglia'yı ve Mercia'nın büyük bölümünü ele geçirdi; ayakta kalan tek İngiliz krallığı Wessex oldu. Wessex kralı Büyük Alfred, 878'de Edington'da Viking lideri Guthrum'u yendi. İkisi arasında sonradan yapılan antlaşma, kabaca Thames ve Lea ırmakları ile eski Roma yolu Watling Street boyunca bir sınır çizdi; kuzeyi ve doğusu İskandinav yasasına bırakıldı. İngiltere'nin bu bölgesinde, Eski İskandinavcada çiftlik ya da köy anlamına gelen -by ve -thorpe ile biten yer adları bugün de sık görülür.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Danelaw
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