Sweyn Forkbeard: England's forgotten Viking king

BBC News ^ | David McKenna

[Fiji Hill]

“Ethelred The Unready”? Now, there’s a name that will strike fear in the hearts of your enemies.

Brings to mind Louis the Fat, who ruled France a few decades later.

[Psiman]

I have been to see the Jelling Stones in Jutland, a surprisingly impressive site and the earliest marker of Christianity in Scandinavia. Harald’s direct descendent, Dronning Magrethe, is Queen of Denmark and leader of the oldest royal family in Europe.

[driftless2]

Another little known fact is that Sweyn’s attempt to force the English to eat lutefisk led to more popular revolts resulting in his ultimate downfall. Uff da.

[RichInOC]

You mean lutefisk wasn’t proto-English cooking?

[Caipirabob]

It was a brutal time, which saw women burned alive, children impaled on lances and men dying suspended from their private parts...

Or using obamacare as a baseline, as socialist democrats would state "A good time was had by all..."

[SunkenCiv]

I should check before typing this (in case it has ULready been posted), but Ethelred the Unready is a modern joke, used to help UK kids remember the name. His nick was Unraed, which means without counsel, or counsel-less, given because of his practice of making up his mind and just charging on in.

[SunkenCiv]

The Vikings never invaded mainland Scotland, probably the haggis kept them out, *that’s* how bad it was.

[colorado tanker]

Here's a place where you can still down a pint in honor of the old bugger:

[Mmogamer]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelred_the_Unready

[wildbill]

The legend that this town name was supposed to be where King Canute crossed the Lily is bogus. He crossed a lot of rivers after all and there aren’t a lot of Nutsfords, are there?

No, the name Nutsford actually was a descriptive term for a ford on the river Lily that was almost waist deep.

[marsh2]

I believe that the Viking/Germanic law had a great impact on resultant Manorial law which gave us trial by jury, notions of trespass and tort and individual rights defined in physical, psychological and property. It also recognized a natural law right to secure rights against aggression.

In addition, King Cnut withdrew certain lands from free common access and reserved them for his own use, maintaining them primarily for exclusive royal hunting purposes or “chases.” In later reigns, it became a practice for kings to “forest” occupied areas by virtue of “sovereign ownership” of all land. At one time, it has been estimated that almost one-third of the country had been converted into “royal forest.” by royal proclamation.

The Latin term “foris” actually referred to exclusion from the application of the ordinary law and not to a wooded land. A separate system of “Forest Laws” and enforcement mechanisms were introduced by the Normans. That has transferred in America into our National Forests.

The harshness of the forest laws and the enlargement of “forested” areas became one of the issues dealt with in the Magna Carta (Parva Carta.) Seems we have not learned from history.

[SunkenCiv]