Danelaw

American  

[deyn-law] / ˈdeɪnˌlɔ /

Also Danelage

noun

1. the body of laws in force in the northeast of England where the Danes settled in the 9th century a.d.

2. the part of England under this law.

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Danelaw British  

/ ˈdeɪnˌlɔː /

noun

1. the northern, central and eastern parts of Anglo-Saxon England in which Danish law and custom were observed

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Etymology

Origin of Danelaw

before 1050; Middle English Dane-lawe, earlier Dene-lawe, Old English Dena lagu. See Dane, law ¹

Example Sentences

Once Alfred the Great defeated the Great Army at Edington in AD878, the warlord Guthrum retreated to East Anglia, where it was ruled under Scandinavian law and customs, known as the Danelaw.

From BBC • Aug. 7, 2022

But the geneticists see no trace of the Danelaw, the Danish rule over northern England from the ninth to the 11th century, nor of the Norman conquest of England in 1066.

From New York Times • Mar. 18, 2015

The very name with its ending “by” showed that his farm was a part of the Danelaw.

From In the Days of the Guild by Lamprey, Louise

Whether this was his original plan cannot be known: it may be that the news of Edmund's activity in the Danelaw was to some extent responsible for this move.

From Canute the Great The Rise of Danish Imperialism during the Viking Age by Larson, Laurence Marcellus

It was not till 910 that a fresh rising of the northmen forced �lfred's children to gird themselves to the conquest of the Danelaw.

From History of the English People, Volume I Early England, 449-1071; Foreign Kings, 1071-1204; The Charter, 1204-1216 by Green, John Richard