Editing Battle of Brunanburh (section)

==Aftermath==
Æthelstan's victory prevented the dissolution of England, and Foot writes that "[e]xaggerating the importance of this victory is difficult".{{sfn|Foot|2011|p=171}} Livingston writes that the battle was "the moment when Englishness came of age" and "one of the most significant battles in the long history not just of England but of the whole of the British isles".<ref>Livingston, Michael. "The Roads to Brunanburh", in Livingston 2011, p. 1</ref> The battle was called "the greatest single battle in Anglo-Saxon history before the [[Battle of Hastings|Hastings]]" by [[Alfred P. Smyth|Alfred Smyth]], who nonetheless says its consequences beyond Æthelstan's reign have been overstated.{{sfnm|1a1=Smyth|1y=1975|1p=62|2a1=Smyth|2y=1984|2p=204}}

[[Alex Woolf]] describes it as a [[pyrrhic victory]] for Æthelstan: the campaign against the northern alliance ended in a stalemate, his ''imperium'' appears to have declined, and after he died in 939 Olaf acceded to the [[Kingdom of Northumbria]] without resistance.{{sfn|Woolf|2013|p= 256}} In 954 the Northumbrians finally submitted to southern kingship and expelled [[Eric Bloodaxe]].{{sfn|Higham|1993|p=211}}