In Britain, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 793 says that " fiery dragons were seen flying in the air" during an attack from Viking invaders over Northumbria.
Augustine was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 601 AD and several great monasteries and centres of learning were established particularly in Northumbria (e.g. Jarrow, Lindisfarne).
From the seventh through the mid-eighth century, York in Northumbria, famed for its schools and for its literary productions, was the center of the English-speaking world.
King Aella of Northumbria (a kingdom in what is now England) killed their father, so they amassed the Great Heathen Army to conquer the kingdoms of Britain.
Mark Moss, from the Department of Psychology at Northumbria University, found that sage and peppermint show general positive effects on cognition while the smell of rosemary can enhance our memory.
By the time Alfred the Great came to the throne in 871, most of the great monasteries of Northumbria and Mercia lay in ruins and only Wessex remained as an independent kingdom.
In fact, when Ivar the Boneless led the Great Heathen Army into Northumbria, King Aella was involved in a civil war with King Osberht over who had the right to the throne.
The Germanic tribes settled in seven smaller kingdoms, known as the Heptarchy: the Saxons in Essex, Wessex and Sussex; the Angles in East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria; and the Jutes in Kent.
It was probably originally written in Northumbria, although the single manuscript that has come down to us (which dates from around 1000) contains a bewildering mix of Northumbrian, West Saxon and Anglian dialects.