THE GREAT HEATHEN ARMY

 THE GREAT HEATHEN ARMY 

By 866, Olaf found himself encamped in the Isle of Thanet for some months now. The people who were already living in the area asked for peace in the exchange of gold, but that was useless. Of course, he took some of the gold that was offered to him but the other Vikings agreed to not follow the agreement. 

The first thing Olaf did was raid a small household, taking their gold and food. He plundered everything that he could to take back to camp. He did not kill this time, he simply looted to restock his supplies and prepare for trade when needed. 

He was not always in a violent situation with the Anglo-Saxons. When he decided not to loot and plunder, Olaf often took to trading with them. Exchanging Norse ornaments for gold or other necessities. They seem to like it. The Anglo-Saxons were a weird bunch, so Olaf thought. They spoke a language that sounded Norse ... but not Norse enough. He was able to communicate with them some but learned a few words here and there. They called him "heathen" for whatever that meant, Olaf often tries to correct them by saying "Olaf." The Anglo-Saxons still haven't got a hold of his name yet. 

credit: John D Fisher ARPS



His time in the Great Heathen Army was long and tedious. Instead of returning home for the winter, Olaf settled to stay in East Anglia for the winter as he heard that he will be settling North to a place where these Anglo-Saxons called Northumbria. 

In the meantime, Olaf passed the time playing Hnefatafl with his friends. The winters in East Anglia were not as gruesome as in Denmark, but to keep himself warm -- he drank lots of mead. There wasn't much to do in the winters, but he did practice his swordsmanship and wrestle to build up strength for the spring.  

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Bibliography

 Primary Sources The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . Trans. Dorothy Whitelock, David C. Douglas, and Susie I. Tucker. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1961. The Annals of Ulster . Edited by Pádraig Bambury and Stephen Beechinor. CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T100001A/index.html.  Grammaticus, Saxo. Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes . Edited by Karsten Friis-Jensen. Translated by Peter Fisher. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2015.  The War of Gaedhill with the Gaill or The Invasion of Ireland by the Danes and Other Norsemen . Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney . Secondary Sources  Ables, Richard. "English Logistics and Military Administration 871-1066: the Impact of The Viking Wars," in Military Aspects of Scandinavian Society in a European Perspective, AD 1-1300, 1997. Retrieved from https://deremilitari.org/2013/07/english-logistics-and-military-administration-871-1066-the-impact-of-the-viking-wars/.  Bidd...
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Introduction

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