November 13th is St Brice's Day. 2002 marks the 1000th anniversary of the day when Aethelred Unraed, King of the English, ordered "to be slain all the Danish people who were in England..." (AS Chronicle CDE). With this in mind, I present the following lists, which are largely based on later chroniclers' versions of the tale because these have a greater quantity of salacious detail. This piece of action is set in Oxford although it could be any town in England as it was the urbanisation of England that enabled this plan to be carried out more easily.

(According to John of Wallingford, William of Jumieges, et al)
Aethelred ordered every man, woman and child of the Danish race in England to be killed at the instigation of one of his advisors, a man called Huna or Eadric. This order was communicated to all the towns around the country and was enacted on St Brice's day. Women were buried up to their waists and their nipples were torn from their breasts by ferocious mastiffs. Children were crushed against doorposts or under rocks and men were cut down with swords and anything else that came to hand, which was probably quite a lot because this was Blotmonath (sacrifice month, according to Bede, although I may have misspelt it). In this month, the people killed their excess livestock that they could not afford to feed through the winter and salted the meat to feed themselves. Coincidence that they chose to kill the Danes now? I think not! Or at least that's what Julia Barrow suggests. In Oxford, some of the Danes escaped to St Frideswide's Church, where they sought sanctuary. Unfortunately the townsfolk were not such good Christians as one might have hoped and burnt the Danes inside the church.

John of Wallingford suggests that the Vikings had to be killed because they were a pain to the native English because they combed their hair every day, bathed every Saturday and regularly changed their clothes thus making it easier for them to seduce the native women. Naturally, the Saxon men hated this because it meant that they were not going to score unless they cleaned behind their ears. Definitely a cause for killing the Danes. In reality, Aethelred was probably hacked off at the Viking raiders who were infesting his kingdom at this time.

Traditionally the massacre took place on a Saturday, because they were able to surprise the Danes in their baths. An examination of the calendar shows that St Brice's day in 1002 was actually a Friday but why let reality get in the way of a good story?

Some houses (Bad going)
Danish women and Saxon collaborators buried to their waists (Bad going)
Doorposts (Impassable) or just use them as Behemoths (see below)

Stronghold: The King's mead hall

Stronghold: St Frideswide's church

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