Danegeld; Rudyard Kipling

[stryck]

It would figure that he's the origin of the phrase.

Danegeld

IT IS always a temptation to an armed and agile nation,
To call upon a neighbour and to say:
"We invaded you last night - we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld

Comments

[jordan179]

Quite true, and when combined with "Recessional," you get the sad state of modern Britain.

[stryck]

The funny thing is, I've been (mis)quoting the "once you pay" line since before I was in high school, and never looked up the source until now.

I think I picked it up from a role-playing supplement, or from an article in Dragon magazine.

Which leads me to conclude that my time spent in school was mostly wasted.

...you get the sad state of modern Britain.

[jordan179]

You mean the coming Islamic Republic of Anglostan?

And not only are you never rid of the Dane...

[anonymous]

...you get to find out how many relatives he has in Denmark, when all of them show up demanding THEIR Danegeld.