The Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum - Sociolinguistic Background and Linguistic Analysis

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, University of Leipzig (Institut für Anglistik), course: Seminar: Diachronic Linguistics: Old English, language: English, abstract: According to the Oxford Dictionary, a compromise is defined as ¿an agreement reached by each side making concessions¿. (Oxford English Dictionary) The ¿Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum¿ may be considered as such a compromise since it reflects a decisive turning point after approximately 100 years of violent raids and brutal battles.

This significant agreement is one of the few surviving Old English or more specifically West Saxon documents and includes very interesting details about the society, culture as well as politics in 9th century England.