Page:Source Problems in English History.djvu/31

Alfred and the Danes south extended beyond that of mere portable plunder. For these invaders came from among a people of settled life, engaged in agriculture and grazing, and the south seemed a pleasant place to live in as well as to plunder. Real estate had rather more enduring charms than chattels. This natural change coincided roughly with new conditions at home, especially in Denmark, but soon to some extent in Norway also. There was a growing unity and central power under the first real kings in these countries. Piracy, suppressed at home, spread abroad, and many defeated petty chiefs, who scorned to live in subjection, sought a new career in the south. Moreover, the movements were no longer monopolized by people who were pirates by nature and choice, but by the more stable, land-seeking element. Desultory plundering raids were gradually superseded by larger and better concerted movements with permanent colonization as a prominent object. But they never became a national migration under one great leader. The political units established in the conquered lands were always small, like the primitive settlements of the Anglo-Saxons who had passed through somewhat analogous stages—settlements that were the resultants of the different and often hostile aims of many petty chiefs. But confederations and combinations of formidable size might hold together for a short time when there was a particular point to gain or obstacle to overcome. Such were the “armies,” involving hundreds of boats and thousands of men, met by Alfred and the brother, Ethelred, who ruled just before him.

The viking raids became serious in England late in Egbert’s reign, about the year 834. From that time there was but slight cessation until the crisis was passed in Alfred’s reign, and as a result of his great leadership. The English invasions were very closely bound up with 5