DANELAW
DANELAW, also Danelagh, Danelaga. The system of law in the part of England ceded to Danish invaders in 878, and the area itself, roughly north and east of a line from London to Chester. In the mid-10c, Scandinavian kings maintained a Norse-speaking court at York, but the ordinary population, English and Danish, seems to have developed a simplified language for use in their daily contact. In the later 10c, the kings of Wessex established overlordship over the Danish settlers, who however retained control of local affairs. William of Malmesbury declared (c.1130) that the language north of the Humber and especially at York ‘sounds so harsh and grating that we southerners cannot understand a word of it’ and blamed this on the presence of ‘rough foreigners’ (De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, Book 3, Prologue). See DANISH, NORSE.
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DANELAW
