I have really enjoyed the Saxon Stories, this period in history being a favorite of mine since childhood. I have written a poem about it, hope you will enjoy it.

King Alfred the Great With hair of gold and thighs of steel The Danes of old embraced the field, Great Norseman raging for the kill. The banshees screamed of death As Celts and Saxons failing breath Cried out to God and gods for faith. Yet Ragnarok swarmed onto shore And Odin on his breastplate wore The hunger of the Satyr, Sore in anger, and at danger swore An oath of blood and fate and fire And piled the bodies on the bier. A flooding storm the Viking sea Oer ran the shores of Brittany Till soon all Briton Danish be, The kingdom being torn apart As Guthrum drove into the heart Of Wessex . Then the upstart Son of Athelwulf oertook the reigns. >From swamps defeated, he gathered thegns, Rose to the field and rushed the Danes And crushed them so that Guthrum bowed. He, being baptized was allowed The Danelaw where the Danes abode. Our Alfred ruled through burh and fyrd And laws and books and many a word And through his sons did undergird Reconquering all and finally cleaving England from the Norse (But then the Normans came, of course, A subject for another verse) But for now invasion did abate And the beginnings of the sovereign state Were gilded by King Alfred the Great.

Cheers, John Wacaster