Wessex-Danelaw Stalemate?

[Rekjavik]

How would it be possible for England to be permanently divided into two spheres, one dominated by Wessex and the other by the Danelaw?

My knowledge of Early Medieval England is sadly not great, but from what I have read the key focuses would be dealing with Alfred the Great in some way, preventing him from completely defeating the Vikings, and making the Norse coalesce into a more structured entity (at least for Early Medieval Europe) to better resist any eventual counter invasion, with a conversion to Christianity likely helping in the long run.

Supposing a stalemate would occur, what effects could we see in the rest of the British Isles? How would Mercia fair as a buffer between the two, or would it be swallowed by one or the other? What of Wales, Scotland and Northumbria? And how does a independent merchant city state of London sound like?

 

[Bastiram]

While i can't help with much (i don't know much about the period)

But one butterfly that would be interesting is that we will by all accounts not see an invasion from Normandy, meaning no harrying of the North. probably resulting in a richer north that will be the core areas of this Danelaw ?

 

[Just a Rube]

London isn't going to be independent for long; it's too important, and without control of access to the sea, it's not going to be able to prosper successfully.

Mercia is a bit harder to predict; OTL it was strong enough to conduct more or less independent military operations against the Danes even after being reduced to a "rump" state. It could see a resurgence to become an independent power, or it could end up annexed by Wessex as OTL.

As for changes in the Danelaw itself? Probably not too much; I expect the Norse will assimilate themselves to the local culture much as their cousins did in Normandy. Certainly they will quickly become Christian as OTL, and try to rebuild/coopt the church hierarchy in their areas. For that matter, this Danelaw state might also face challenges from later Norse raiders; it's still more or less the natural landing point for invaders and raiders, who might not be inclined to play nice just because they have a common ancestry.

The biggest challenge is going to be making the Norse unified rather than having them collapse into a bunch of petty states to be conquered IOTL.

 

[Rekjavik]

London isn't going to be independent for long; it's too important, and without control of access to the sea, it's not going to be able to prosper successfully.

Then where would it sit on the Wessex/Danelaw line? Granted at this point in time London wasn't particularely important, but if it would still grow to importance is an interesting topic. Would it still be important as a mere border town between two rival kingdoms?

The biggest challenge is going to be making the Norse unified rather than having them collapse into a bunch of petty states to be conquered IOTL.

I see two possible scenario's. Firstly, a local strongman from the Danelaw itself rises and is able to create a strong enough base to force the other Norse states into subordination. The problem I see here is if he is not able to do so quickly enough then Wessex could pick at the seams and slowly become dominant. Even if the does manage to control all of Danelaw without Wessex intervention there is also the issue of holding it all together, something that would require a good amount of luck.

Another idea would be to have an alternate 'North Sea Empire,' ala that of Cnut the Great, that only controls the Danelaw region. That way it could be unified by Denmark/Norway and then gain independence later as a whole rather than in tiny pieces. The question here is why stop at the Danelaw if you can take the whole English cake.