โ Scribed by Derek Yates
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Ethelred, known as 'the Unready' (a mis-translation, in fact, of Unraed meaning 'lacking counsel'-but one which is perhaps most apt), ascended the English throne in ad 979. He was crowned on 14 April of that year, at Kingston, by Archbishop Dunstan.
Even at the start of his reign, coastal raids by Norse pirates provided difficulties for Ethelred and suffering for his subjects. In the twelve years that followed, the raids became more extensive and incursive, thereby providing strong indications that some event of greater significance would follow. That 'event' was an invasion of England by Viking forces from Denmark and Norway. The invasion commenced (arguably) in 991, had escalated by 994 to the extent that the Norwegian King Olaf Tryggvesson and King Sweyn of Denmark were besieging London, and culminated in Ethelred fleeing the country in 1013.
To repel the Vikings, Ethelred could have built and assembled sufficient ships to intercept the invaders before they achieved landfall, and/or amassed cohesive groups of trained, and well-led troops capable of defeating such of the invading forces as did reach the shores of England. He did, in fact, attempt to take-up both of these options. However, it would not be inaccurate to describe the attempts as being 'too little done too late'no ship-building programme of a large scale was instituted until 1008, and although land forces were assembled, effective leadership and spirit was found to be lacking both before and during engagements. In fact, Ethelred's solution (which may have been forced upon him) to many of the crises that arose during the period of the invasion was that of 'paying tribute' to (buying-off) his immediate opponents.
At the turn of the second millennium, just as at the turn of the first, there are very clear indications of an invasion, but one whose manifestations are radically different from any previously encountered. It is an invasion that cannot be deferred by paying tribute. Its date is set, and it must be challenged-the Year 2000 Bug will take no prisoners.
At midnight on 31 December 1999, when the hands of our clocks pull us inevitably into the next century, will their turning for a thousand years have taught us anything? Will we as 'subjects of automation' suffer the depredations of the invader as did Ethelred's subjects? Will those in positions of influence and power be judged to have done too little too late and, ultimately, will they be required to flee in the face of failure? Or, will the problem have been fully understood, the planning have been done correctly, and the appropriate software and hardware be in place--will we, unlike Ethelred, be well counselled and ready!?
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES