ABSTRACT
The Roman invaders, used to crossing real mountains, had treated the British hills with contempt when they first arrived. The Vikings were pirates, traders and settlers. Edgar's power was much more effective in the midlands and the south-east than elsewhere. Meanwhile Swein and Olaf grew rich on English tribute; Ethelred found it easier to use the fine organisation of his mints to coin silver pennies with which to buy the Danes off than to raise armies which he could trust to fight them. It enabled him to unite the Danish and English elements in his English kingdom as they had never been united before. He ruled in Scandinavia as a Viking warlord. The leading Viking of this period, Harold Bluetooth, king of Denmark, had held some kind of sway over Norway as well, and under pressure from Otto II had organised the conversion of the Danes to Christianity.
