The victory of the house of AElfred only hastened a process of fusion which was already going on.

From the first moment of his settlement in the Danelaw the northman had been passing into an Englishman.

The settlers were few; they were scattered among a large population; in tongue, in manner, in institutions there was little to distinguish them from the men among whom they dwelt.
Moreover their national temper helped on the process of assimilation.
Even in France, where difference of language and difference of custom seemed to interpose an impassable barrier between the northman settled in Normandy and his neighbours, he was fast becoming a Frenchman.

In England, where no such barriers existed, the assimilation was even quicker.

The two peoples soon became confounded.