Farthegn's Tun and the Danelaw
	"Known as the Danelaw because it fell under Danish authority, that area encompassed some 25,000 square miles and became one of the largest and most fertile grounds for Viking settlement outside Scandinavia."  from What Life was Like When Longships Sailed, by the editors of Time-Life Books (Alexandria, Va., 1978). In the illustration below, Farthingstone (or Farthegn's Tun) is located in the yellow-shaded area in the center of the map on the left side of the blue line.  Try as he might, King Alfred could not stop Viking settlements from spilling over to the west of Watling Street.  Today a few Scandinavian place-names, including Farthingstone,  are still found in this area.
						Farthegn's Tun was located next to the ancient Roman road called Watling Street.  This road became a "virtual Viking highway".  Using horses brought over from Scandinavia or procured from East Anglia, the Viking armies could move very quickly to support each other and mount surprise attacks.  In 878 they came within an ace of capturing King Alfred,  snuffing out the old West Saxon line of kings and ending all resistance to total conquest.  But Alfred escaped and won a temporary peace with his old foe.  He could not, however, stop the  mass immigration of Scandinavians to the Danelaw and they would eventually make it the most populous and prosperous region in the British Isles.    Previous Page......Next Page