Dane-geld (poem)
"Dane-geld" is a poem by British writer
Excerpt
The poem ends thus:
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say:—
"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost!"[1]— Stanzas 5-6
Background
The poem is subtitled "(AD 980-1016)". In 978,
Publication history
The poem was first published in 1911, in A School History of England by C. R. L. Fletcher and Rudyard Kipling. It was included in all subsequent editions.[4] Fletcher's description of the historical events has been said to be "lurid" and to contain "over-heavy sarcasm" when drawing parallels with the time of writing.[3]
T. S. Eliot included the poem in his 1941 collection A Choice of Kipling's Verse.
The poem has been included in collected editions of Kipling's works; and presumably also in poetry anthologies, because it has been quoted by 21st-century historical and political writers.[5][6]
Legacy
Kipling did not invent the expression "paying someone Dane-geld"; but it has become attached to him, even in books of quotations. In the 1930s, it was invoked against the British government's policy of
In 1984, Margaret Thatcher quoted Kipling (Stanza 6) in her Conservative Party speech in Brighton.
In 2008, American historian
Leslie Fish has set "Dane-geld" to music and performed it, along with other settings of Kipling, on her 1985 album The Undertaker's Horse.
References
- OCLC 225762741.
- ^ Æthelred's nickname "Unready" derives from Old English unræd – meaning badly-advised or foolish, not the modern sense of poorly-prepared.
- ^ Kipling Society. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
- ^ Kipling Society. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-0521817035. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
- ^ a b Moen, Ole Martin (5 August 2011). "Danegeld". University of Oxford. Retrieved 15 July 2017. Original publication Ole Martin Moen, The Washington Times, 14 July 2011.
- ^ Orwell, George (February 1942). "Rudyard Kipling". Horizon. Retrieved 16 July 2017.