Editing Danelaw (section)

==Geography==
{{See also|Five Boroughs of the Danelaw}}
[[File:Midland Map - 5 Boroughs 912 Ad.svg|thumb|upright=1.6|The Five Boroughs and the English Midlands in the early 10th century<ref>Falkus & Gillingham and Hill</ref>]]
The area occupied by the Danelaw was roughly the area to the north of a line drawn between [[London]] and [[Chester]], excluding the portion of Northumbria to the east of the [[Pennines]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}} 

Five fortified towns became particularly important in the Danelaw: Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford and Lincoln, broadly delineating the area now called the [[East Midlands]]. These strongholds became known as the ''Five Boroughs''. ''Borough'' derives from the Old English word {{lang|ang|burh}} ([[cognate]] with German {{lang|de|Burg}}, meaning castle), meaning a fortified and walled enclosure containing several households, anything from a large stockade to a fortified town. The meaning has since developed further.