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Y302: The Viking Age c.790–1066

Depth study: The Danelaw — Definitions, origins, organisation and growth

  • 1 thing to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on definitions, origins, organisation and growth.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Evaluation

Why does the definition of the Danelaw matter for interpretation?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What problem do historians identify with the word Danelaw itself?

    Model answer

    It is not a Viking-age term at all: it first appears in English law more than a century after the settlements, describing an area where Danish legal custom applied, so using it for a ninth-century political entity is an anachronism.

  2. 2

    Why does the definition of the Danelaw matter for interpretation?

    Model answer

    Defined by law it is a zone of custom, defined by settlement it is a region of Scandinavian population, and defined politically it is a set of separate Viking lordships, so historians arguing about its extent and unity are often measuring different things.

  3. 3

    What were the origins of the Danelaw?

    Model answer

    It grew directly out of the campaigns of the great army, whose leaders shared out land in Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia between 876 and 880 and ruled the resulting territories as conquerors.

  4. 4

    What did the agreement between Alfred and Guthrum establish?

    Model answer

    It fixed a boundary running up the Thames and the Lea and across to Watling Street, set equal compensation values for English and Danes, and regulated trade and the movement of people between the two territories.

  5. 5

    Was the Danelaw a single state?

    Model answer

    No: it was a collection of separate lordships, with the kingdom of York in the north, the armies of the Five Boroughs in the midlands and a Danish kingdom in East Anglia, which frequently acted independently and sometimes against one another.

  6. 6

    Describe how the Danelaw was organised at local level.

    Model answer

    Territory was divided into wapentakes taking decisions at open assemblies, land was assessed in carucates rather than hides, the boroughs each supported an army under a jarl, and groups of lawmen presided over legal business under a distinct scale of fines and penalties.

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