Danegeld, by Rudyard Kipling - A.D. 980-1016

It's Kipling Night!

This time, I'm not typing the whole poem because I've found someone else who has done the 'data entry' thingie for me.


Danegeld, by Rudyard Kipling - A.D. 980-1016

IT IS always a temptation to an armed and agile nation,
To call upon a neighbour and to say:
"We invaded you last night - we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you’ve only to pay ’em the Dane-geld
And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say:
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

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!"

It's easy to apply this lesson to RealPolitiks in today's world. Think of the Iraqi war, the War on Terrorism, and you will know that the question is not one which was ultimately resolved in the past millenium ... or the one before that. It's a problem which will haunt us forever: Whether it is better to pay the Danegeld, and learn to live with the Danes; or to fight the 'Danes' at every opportunity.

The 'Danes' are those vandals who predate innocents. One thousand years ago it was the Danes (the Vikings, coastal raiders, whomever). We in America dealt with the Barbary Pirates in the Mediterranean two centurys ago, because we then refused to pay them tribute ... DaneGeld.

But there's a much more recent example of the problem with paying DaneGeld. It is the slaying of innocents in Isreal. Can the Israelis ... can we ... afford to buy off terrorists by giving in to their demands for territory?

Here are two victims of terrorism. Let's give the victim a face, and put a name to the act.



Daniel Pipes supports the concept that there is no reasonable alternative to fighting the Danes. Or, as our modern world names it, Jihad.

"... if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane."