Yeah, there’s been a real revisionist streak of late regarding how kinder gentler they were.
They were so violent and ruthless that, when Alfred of Wessex fought back, he adopted guerrila tactics, because he’d had has ass handed to him during the early going. He hid on an old hillfort in the middle of a swamp, with a single dock-like wooden causeway for access, and did nothing for over a year but make iron weapons. Meanwhile the kingdom of Mercia ceased to exist.
Danes had poured into Britain as settlers, iow yeah, they weren’t all marauders, and the Anglo-Saxons struck back under the military principle, “hit ‘em where they ain’t”. The counterattacks took their slow toll, and the Danes agreed to a division and cessation of expansion into Anglo-Saxon areas.
51 Headless Vikings Found in English Execution Pit?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2302992/posts
Beheaded Vikings found at Olympic site
http://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2469999/posts
Medieval mass grave hints at gruesome secret
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2838620/posts
Vikings May Have Been More Social Than Savage
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3075494/posts
Fierce, fashionable Vikings filed their teeth and ironed their clothes
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2745707/posts
Dorset burial pit Viking had filed teeth
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2744340/posts
I imagine even the farmers and merchants amongst the Vikings were rather tougher than the Welsh wanted to tussle with.