Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Scandinavian Britain - II. The Danelaw - 4. The Kingdom of York - 5. Svein and Knút
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the lists of witnesses to royal charters. Eadgar’s laws
left the Northumbrian Danes in possession of their
old rights and usages, and his policy encouraged
intercourse with foreigners ; so much indeed that
both the old poem quoted in the Chronicle and the
account of his reign by William of Malmesbury make
against him the charge, so often repeated in English
history, that "outlandish men he hither enticed,
and harmful people allured to this land." It was
said that when Eadred held his court at Abingdon
the Northumbrian visitors became so drunk by
nightfall that they had to retire ; and that, under
Eadgar, the Saxons—"though they were free from
such propensities before that time"—learned drunkenness
from the Danes. On the other hand, John
of Wallingford’s story of the reason why the Danes
were hated is not without significance :—"they were
wont, after the fashion of their country, to comb
their hair every day, to bathe every Saturday"—
Laugardag, "bath-day,"—"to change their garments
often, and set off their persons by many such frivolous
devices. In this manner they laid siege to the virtue
of the women." Freeman always represents the
Northumbrian Danes as barbarians, but it does not
appear that the charge is justified.
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