Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Scandinavian Britain - II. The Danelaw - 5. Svein and Knút
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origin. In 1005 a famine sent the Danes away, only
to return in 1006 when they ravaged Kent and Sussex,
wintered in the Isle of Wight, and next year marched
to Reading and Marlborough; but on payment of
£36,000 they desisted from further attacks for the
time. In 1008 a great fleet was got together by the
English, but Wulfnoth of Sussex, being impeached
before the king, turned viking, and defied the whole
power of the country.
Two fleets arrived at Sandwich in 1009, one
under Hemming and Eylaf and the other under
Thorkel the Tall, son of Strut-Harald, jarl of Sjæland,
and brother of Hemming. Taking a ransom of
£3,000 for Canterbury, they plundered the south
coast, and wintered in their burg at Greenwich. Next
year they made four raids into the interior, in the first
of which Ulfketil offered an unsuccessful resistance
at Ringmere (near Thetford ?) : but as the year proceeded
the defence became weaker, until at last the
Witan negotiated for peace at the price of £48,000.
The payment was delayed : meantime Canterbury
was attacked—it is evident that Canterbury was not
in the area affected by the negotiations—and the
whole population was held to ransom. It was not
until the Easter of next year that the first debt was
paid, and the payment celebrated at a feast in which
the Viking soldiers—Thorkel himself, it is said, being
absent—drank themselves drunk on wine, and dragged
archbishop ÆIfheah to their "husting" clamouring
for the ransom of Canterbury. On his refusal they
pelted him with bones from their feast, and one of them
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