Hasting's great rival, Francis, was among those who urged the superior advantages of a permanent assessment.
In the years 892896 Alfred was assailed from many sides at once by viking fleets, of which the most important was that led by the great freebooter Hasting.
No region was more often ravaged than that of the lower Loire, so rich in abbeys - St Martin of Tours, Marmoutiers, St Benedict, &c. But the country ceded to the vikings under Hasting at the Loire mouth was insignificant and not in permanent occupation.
Later the name of Ragnar (probably Ragnar Lodbrog) appears, along with Weland, Hasting and one of the sons of Ragnar, Bjorn.
We know that at the same time that some Scandinavian folk were harrying all the western lands, others were founding Garbariki (Russia) in the east; others were pressing still farther south till they came in contact with the eastern empire in Constantinople, which the northern folk knew as MikillgarOr (Mikklegard); so that when Hasting and Bjorn had sailed to Luna in the gulf of Genoa the northern folk had almost put a girdle round the Christian world.
