Go Wessex!

A fun account of the the war between Ivar the Boneless and King Alfred.

The Vikings had settled in Normandy, Iceland, and Greenland, and now they were headed for Britain. The British were divided into seven small kingdoms and were too weak to resist the Great Army lead by Halfdan and Ivar the Boneless. The Great Army marched through England fighting and looting, and the Vikings settled down, taking English land for their own farms.

THe Vikings had settled in the north, and now they wanted Wessex, which was in thesouth. THe people of Wessex tried to give them gold in an attempt to avoid an attack, but Guthorm invaded anyway. When Guthorm's army mounted a surprise attack at Christmastime, King Alfred fled into the country side and hid, pretending not to be king. A farmer's family took pity on him, not knowing he was the king. They gave him food and a bed in exchange for help with the household chores.

One day the farmer's wife said, "I'm going off to collect some firewood. You stay here and make sure that my cakes don't burn." Alfred agreed and sat down to watch the cakes. But he didn't watch them, and instead he thought about how he was going to defeat Guthorm. At the cakes got blacker and blacker, Alfred finally thought of something. He would wait untinl spring and then go out and face Guthorm. THat way the farmers would have reaped their harvest and even in the did defeat the Vikings, the people of Wessex wouldn't starve. When the farmer's wife got home, she found that the cakes were burnt. "We give you bed and food and just look what you do!" she scolded. Little did she know she was scolding a king!

Meanwhile, Guthorm's army was getting smaller and smally. His warriors were bored and beginning to settle down on farms. The great battle between the Vikings and Alfred's army was finally found on Salibury Plain, and Alfred won. Go Wessex!

Author's Note

I did this ages ago, so it's not fresh. It's mainly a writing exercise to help me retain what I learned about King Alfred, not a piece of work.