MARITIME HISTORY 



their failure at first to reach the coast from the centre of the county was re- 

 trieved, later, by a flank attack by way of Poole Harbour, thus turning the 

 strong position of the marshes and forests of the Frome, although no evidence 

 of such a movement has survived. If it did occur it is the only maritime 

 incident connected with the West Saxon conquest of Dorset. 



In 787, if the date given in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle be correct, came 

 the first appearance of the Northmen in England, and the experience fell upon 

 Dorset. According to one writer the landing-place was Portland ^ ; and the 

 king's reeve, ignorant of the character of the strangers, riding from Dorchester 

 to inquire the cause of their coming, was killed, together with his attendants. 

 Portland seems a less likely place of landing than either Poole or Weymouth 

 Harbours, and, if they came from the eastward, it is difficult to understand 

 why their first appearance should have been in Dorset when, to reach the 

 county, they must have passed much more tempting coasts on their way. We 

 read, however, that in the year 800 the northern shores of France were 

 harassed by the Northmen ^ ; that condition of things had existed for years 

 previously, so that it is likely that the marauders of 787 had come across the 

 Channel, especially as they were said to be from ' Haeretha-land,' now held to 

 be Jutland, which was also the home of the pirates of 800. Nearly half a 

 century elapsed before their next appearance in Dorset, and by that time the 

 lines of advance from the Baltic — eastward by way of the Frisian and French 

 coasts, westward by way of the Orkneys and Ireland — were closing round 

 England. In 833 a fleet appeared at Charmouth, where the Vikings were 

 met by Egbert in person, who was overthrown, and in 837 another force, 

 perhaps one which had just been repulsed in Southampton Water, landed at 

 Portland ; there the ealdorman Ethelhelm was defeated and killed by the 

 enemy who remained in possession of the island. Again, in 840, they came 

 to Charmouth and routed Ethelwulf, if the entry in the Chronicle is not a 

 repetition of the event of 837. The first landing may have been due to 

 chance, but assuming both entries to be correct it is not clear what attraction 

 Charmouth or its neighbourhood can have had sufficient to account for two 

 onslaughts in seven years. On the other hand the second landing may have 

 happened but have been unintentional, in the sense that bad weather forced a 

 roving party to seek a port. 



Whatever temptation Dorset may have offered at first to invite attacks, 

 in force they soon faded ; the county is not mentioned again until towards the 

 end of the long struggle of nearly fifteen years during which the Danes were 

 fighting for the conquest of England. In 876 Guthrum, with his division, 

 which had wintered in the Midlands, ' stole away ' from Cambridge to 

 Wareham. Probably he embarked in Orwell Haven and went by sea. That 

 Guthrum, or some of those with him, knew the strength of the Wareham 

 position affords reasonable presumption that they must have learned the 

 topography of the district as the result of small raids not noticed by the 

 chroniclers. Notwithstanding a solemn undertaking to leave the kingdom, 

 part of the Danish army escaped and occupied Exeter ; the remainder held 

 Wareham until the spring of 877,* when they left by sea to raise the blockade 



' Leland, Collect, iii, Z14 (Chron. St. Neot). 

 ' Pairohgiae, ed. J. P. Migne, civ, 458 {Jnn. Lauriosertses). 



' Traditions of Danish slaughter still linger in the neighbourhood of Wool (Moule, OIJ Donef, 139). 

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