Approaching now the question whether Alfred's marriage took place at Gainsburgh, we may remark that we have already cleared the ground by shewing that for nearly two centuries before 868 Lindsey had been practically regarded as an integral part of Mercia, though it was still possible for Asser to confound it with Northumbria, and to speak of the army as going from Lindsey to Mercia. We have also shewn that, except for the incursion of a few marauding bands, and of one great destructive march, the Danes had hitherto left the province comparatively unmolested; that there was still a Bishop of Lindsey, and that until about the month of June, 868, the Danes had not left Northumbria. It follows that there was nothing to prevent Alfred from celebrating his marriage at any time within two months after Easter in that year at the home of his bride's family.

It is clear that the marriage took place before the middle of the year, since Alfred was with his brother in Wessex when the news of the Danish attack on Mercia arrived, after which there was no opportunity for peaceful festivity.

We must not forget, however, that Elswitha is markedly alluded to as connected in blood with the Mercian royal family, and that the Mercian Queen was Alfred's sister, so that it is conceivable that she might have been married from the more stately home of the Mercian Kings. But, after due consideration, we think that the balance of probability is in favour of the marriage having taken place at the bride's ancestral home, the Stronghold of the Gainas. In any case Gainsburgh may claim to have given to England a noble Queen, not unworthy of sharing in the glory of the greatest of all her Kings.

As to the actual ceremony, we need only add a few conjectures to the accounts given by Asser. Berhtred, Bishop of the Diocese, whose home was so near, probably performed the sacred rites in the Parish Church of those days, assisted perhaps by Ceolred, Bishop of Leicester, or Eadbert, who was then Bishop of some other Mercian see; and also, no doubt, by the local clergy. Among the guests may have been King Burrhed and his Queen, and possibly King Ethelred of Wessex himself. No doubt with their marriage gifts the numerous followers of the young prince

and of the Mercians brought sufficient weapons to guard the festivity from danger of sudden suprise from marauding bands of Danes, and everything as we know, passed off in safety, the only misfortune being the bridegroom's sudden and mysterious attack of sickness. But after his marriage King Alfred and his bride could never again have visited the stronghold of the Gainas, seeing that Lindsey and the whole of Mercia so soon afterwards passed into possession of the enemy. The next royal visitor to Gainsburgh was probably a Danish King.

CHAPTER V.

DANELAGH.--SWEYN FORKBEARD.-KNUT THE POWERFUL.

DANELAGH.

OR nearly two centuries from 878, Lindsey was almost wholly peopled by men of Danish blood. They had driven away King Burrhed of Mercia, and even for a time compelled Alfred of Wessex to confine himself to a very small corner of his Kingdom, until at length the Peace of Wedmore in 878 gave up to the Danes the whole of Northern and Eastern England, Watling. Street, the Roman road from London to Chester, being the boundary between the rival races. Alfred indeed, by this most important treaty, secured the baptism of the Danish chieftains, thereby laying the foundation of a permanent peace, and making possible the gradual fusion of the two peoples, who after all came from the same stock, and had many great traditions in common. Lincoln was chosen as one of the five Danish Burghs, and the whole district of Lindsey must soon have become thoroughly Danish in character.

It need not, however, be supposed that the older Anglian inhabitants entirely perished from the land, any more than the British had done in the earlier conquest. Experience shews that most of the early settlers in any immigration are young unmarried men, and although many of these doubtless returned to their mother country for wives, yet we cannot but think that large numbers of the widows and daughters of the conquered race were purposely spared from destruction, and that in many cases the children of the conquerors were decended from these. It has been

shewn that the words of British origin preserved in the AngloSaxon tongue denote far more often objects of servile and domestic use than things pertaining to war and active exercise, a fact which implies the presence of a female and slave population of the older race, and the same phenomenon was probably seen after the Danish conquest. The Danes spared from the sword a certain number of men and boys for servile work, and a large female population, many of whom became their wives and the mothers of their children.1.

How intensely Danish Lincolnshire became is shown by the immense number of villages with Danish names. The termination By, which occurs so frequently, is considered an almost certain sign of Danish origin. Thorpe, Toft, Holm, and Wick were also commonly, though not exclusively used by the Danes. Their chief God, Odin, is commemorated at Owmby, and his titles, such as Gunnr, warlike, Grimr, hooded, are embodied in the names of Gonerby, Gunby, Grimsby and Grimoldby. Thor has left his mark upon Thoresby and Thurlby, and we find the sacred beasts and birds of Danish mythology at Ulceby, Ormsby, Raventhorpe, and elsewhere. Among surnames still existing, many have a purely Danish origin, such as Bee, Brand, Bugg, Cattle, Dring, Flack, Gamble, Haith, Ingall, Jagger, Loft, Nutt, Odling, Orry, Raven, Rolfe, Skepper, Spink, Stark, Stout, Sturr, Swain, Thorold, Torr, and many more. Of the Danish words until lately in common use among the country population, but now being gradually banished by the spread of modern education, Mr. Peacock has spoken in his "Glossary of the Manley and Corringham Dialect." The reader of Streatfield's "Lincolnshire and the Danes " will realise the extent of which Danish influence prevailed. To these we must refer those who would pursue the subject further.

Long centuries of prosaic existence seem to have crushed out poetry from the thoughts of the modern Danes of Lincolnshire. Their ancestors were among the most naturally poetical of all ancient peoples. Like the Hebrews, they revelled in similes and metaphors. The whole Saga literature teems with figurative 1. Cf. Freeman's Norman Conquest.

expressions, more especially connected with their warlike deeds. Battle was the Song of the Spears, the Storm of Weapons, the Ground Reddener. Warriors were the Feeders of the Wolf, the Reddeners of Eagles' Claws. Blood was the Dew of the Sword, the Wine of the Corpse, the Surf of the Wound, the Froth of Weapons, the Ale of the Wolf. Horses were the Bloody-hoofed ones, the Galloping Fire, the Ships of the Ground, the Gold-maned, the Deer of the Saddle. War-ships were the Snow-skates of the Swan-field, the Serpents of the Ocean.'

Their riddles were wonderful exercises in ingenuity, many of them full of poetic thought. Here is one about the Aegir and the Nixies, from the Hervarar Saga:

I.

Maidens of Oegir.

Billows they are called,

And also Waves,

No man can be safe against them."2

It is interesting to compare the metaphors and poetical allusions of the Southern Aryans with those of the Northern. In the Rig-Veda we hear of the Maruts or Storm-Gods as "the chasers of the sky, the swift-gliding, swift-winged horses, combatants eager for glory, the well-made, golden, thousand-edged thunderbolts, the singers decked with their glittering ornaments, armed with beautiful rings, stored with spears, and winged with horses, their tawny horses which hasten their chariots, the mighty Maruts on dustless paths, armed with brilliant spears, with lightning spears, laughing like the heavenly lightning, milking the thundering unceasing spring, the fat milk of the clouds, the fiery cows whose udders are swelling, the archers, taking the arrow in their fists, whirling the hail, shaking the red apple from the firmament, rich in rain-drops, well-adorned, bounteous, terrible to behold, of inexhaustible wealth, noble by birth, golden-breasted, these singers of the sky, with their immortal name." The Aryans of India, like those of Scandinavia and Denmark, rejoiced with wild poetic joy in the terrible powers of Nature, but the latter had a deeper feeling of their own strength, as conquerors of Nature. Cf. Max Müller's Vedic Hymns.

2. Du Chaillu's Viking Age. The allusion to Waves as daughters of Oegir seems to provide an additional proof that the Aegir derives its name from the Sea God,