And it's called paying the Dane-geld; But we have proven it again and again, that if you once pay him the Dane-geld, you will never get rid of the Dane. #The poet Rudyard Kipling described it best with his poem Dane-geld, first published in 1911. Although it was written as an allegory of the relationships of humanity as a whole, the specificity of the source demands clarification on how such a metaphor can even come into being. Although no society intentionally plans its own destruction or enslavement, the reality of such acts is a matter of historical fact. An example, and indeed perhaps the most crucial of all such events for the English-speaking world, is the creation of the Dane-geld in pre-Norman Britain and how the effectiveness of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in national tax collection led directly to their downfall. There are many other factors which intervened in the success of the Norman conquest in the second half of the 11th century, but without this pre-existing and self-sufficient means of financing, which fueled the military machine of William the Conqueror during the post-1066 campaigns. . , it is doubtful whether the immediate impact of the invasion – the almost complete replacement of the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy by Norman rulers – and the devastation of northern England, through the genocidal acts of the Harrying of the North, would have could be obtained. This essay will describe the process by which the Dane-geld came into existence, its impact on Anglo-Saxon society, and its immediate use by the Norman invaders to take this pre-existing system and turn it against its creators in order to subjugate and overwhelm them. control. would prove to be the most significant invasion of the Western world...... middle of paper ...... Anglo-Saxon England, 500-1087. Stanford, CA: StanfordUniversity Press, 1984. Loyn, H.R. Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest. 2nd ed. London: Longman, 1991. Williams, Ann. Kingship and government in pre-conquest England, circa 500-1066. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. Williams, Ann. The English and the Norman Conquest. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: BoydellPress, 1995. Williams, Ann. The world before Domesday: the English aristocracy, 871-1066. London: Continuum, 2008. Primary sources The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. London: Everyman Press, 1912. Translation by the Rev. James Ingram (London, 1823), with further readings from the translation by Dr J. A. Giles (London, 1847). Online: http://omacl.org/Anglo/Dane-geld, AD 980-1016. Kipling, Rudyard. First published in 1911. Online: http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_danegeld.htm