Guthrum (d. ca. 890) christened Aethelstan, alias Gorm in Danish, was King of the Danish Vikings in the Danelaw. He had killed the Danish king some time before 854; subsequently, he waged a long war against Wessex and its kings, most notably Alfred the Great. By 878 he stood on the brink of a final conquest of Wessex but was decisively defeated by Alfred at the Battle of Edington, following which he was forced to sign the Treaty of Wedmore, in which he accepted Christianity and consented to the division of England into two kingdoms: Alfred's Wessex and his own Danelaw.
