The Story of England Part II: King Alfred and the Danes

From the fiords of Norway to the Jutland flats, the Scandinavian peoples were on the move. The soil they tilled could not sustain any longer their rising population, nor a pastoral life satisfy their more turbulent members who were in revolt against their rulers. They were vigorous, picturesque, flamboyant rascals, younger sons of petty fiord jarls for whom there was no place at home, with long, flaxen hair, bright burnished spears and two-handed battle-axes. They delighted in silver-bound swords and jewels, golden bracelets and scarlet cloaks with brilliant borders. And, like all their race, they had a passionate love of independence and self-help. Around them they gathered bands of bloodthirsty followers, who feasted and drank in their halls in winter, sallying forth each spring “to play the game of Freyr.” Berserks and wolf-coats, they called themselves; where-ever they went, they boasted, the ravens followed.