It is autumn. The year is 880 two years after King Alfred’s famous victory over the great heathen army at Edington which had been led by Jarl Guthrum. Until the formal peace treaty is ratified there remains an uneasy peace between what remains of Mercia and the Saxon Christian kingdom of Wessex and the northeastern part of Mercia and East Anglia now known as the Danelaw. It is ruled by Guthrum who on becoming a Christian is now known as King Æthelstan.Constant raiding and fighting along the unra