Guthrum

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A ninth-century Danish Viking warlord who became king of East Anglia and later signed a treaty with Alfred the Great
2. The Norse-born Viking chieftain who ruled the East Anglian kingdom after invading England in the late 800s
3. A Danish raider turned monarch who held East Anglia in the 9th century and agreed a boundary treaty with King Alfred

Etymology: Guthrum was a historical figure rather than a common word: a Viking leader who ruled the Danish kingdom of East Anglia and fought King Alfred of Wessex in the 870s and 880s. His name is Old Norse in origin, and it is usually reconstructed as "Guthrum" from a compound of "guthr" (battle, war) and a second element of uncertain meaning, though the name is recorded in Old English chronicles and in the Treaty of Wedmore (around 878), where Alfred and Guthrum agreed a boundary and Guthrum accepted baptism under the name Athelstan. The treaty is the most surprising part of the story: a pagan army leader converted and took an English Christian name in exchange for peace, and the agreement set the frontier along the Watling Street line. Guthrum's name survives mainly in historical writing and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which is where most readers first encounter it.