Portal:Denmark/Selected article/Week 20, 2006



The Danelaw (from the Old English Dena lagu) is an 11th century name for an area of northern and eastern England under the administrative control of the Vikings (or Danes, or Norsemen) from the late 9th century. The term is also used to describe the set of legal terms and definitions established between Alfred the Great and the Viking Guthrum which were set down following Guthrum's defeat at the Battle of Edington in 878. Later, around 886, the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum was created which established the boundaries of their kingdoms and made some provision for relations between the English and the Danes.

The area occupied by the Danelaw was roughly the area to the north of a line drawn between London and Chester.

Five fortified towns became particularly important in the Danelaw: Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Stamford and Derby, broadly covering the area now called the East Midlands. These strongholds became known as the "Five Boroughs". Borough derives from the Old English word burg, meaning a fortified and walled enclosure containing several households — anything from a large stockade to a fortified town. The meaning has since developed further.

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