GUTHRUM (GODRUM). – King of East Anglia. In the English annals he is first mentioned in the year 875 as one of the three Danish kings who invaded the British Isles.
Defeated at Edington in 878 by Alfred, he went to Aller in Somersetshire. There he converted to Christianity, taking the name Aethelstan. Some historians identify him with Gormr. Numerous legends have arisen around his name in the Scandinavian countries, some of which would suggest that his conversion was a fiction.
BIBL.: K. Norgate, s. V. in Dictionary of national biography, VIII, pp. 827–28. Miroslav Stumpf