ABSTRACT
The viking attacks begin again in 834. It was the year of a great Danish attack upon Frisia, and many of the Danes who set out then, and later, to harry that country and the French coast also determined to try their fortunes in England. The Treaty of Chippenham was made in 878 and it was not until 882 that Alfred was forced to take arms against the vikings once more, and on this occasion it was only to drive off four pirate ships. The Battle of Maldon is described in an epic poem that is one of the chief ornaments of pre-Chaucerian literature in England, and as it is thus one of the few battles with the vikings of which there is a coherent account it has a special interest. The hopes of saving England were now reviving and even the treacherous Eadric began to feel that after all he had thrown in his lot with the losing side.
