Dane-geld by Rudyard Kipling

Danegeld originaly referred to money paid to viking invaders as appeasement money or blackmail money. In the United Kingdom, the term "Danegeld" has come to be used as a warning and a criticism of any coercive payment, whether in money or kind. For example, as mentioned in the British House of Commons during the debate on the Belfast Agreement:

I feared that the Belfast agreement might be built on sand, but I hoped otherwise. But as we have seen, Danegeld has been paid, and the thing about Danegeld is that one keeps on having to pay it. Concession after concession has been made. What will be the next one?[36]

To emphasise the point, people often quote Kipling's poem "Dane-Geld", especially its two most famous lines. For example, journalist Tony Parsons quoted the poem in The Daily Mirror, when criticising the Rome daily La Repubblica for writing "Ransom was paid and that is nothing to be ashamed of," in response to the announcement that the Italian government paid $1 million for the release of two hostages in Iraq in October 2004.[37]

In Britain the phrase is often coupled with the experience of Chamberlain's Appeasement of Hitler The Danegeld (/ˈdeɪn.ɡɛld/;[1] "Danish tax", literally "Dane tribute") was a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the geld or gafol in eleventh-century sources. The term Danegeld did not appear until the early twelfth century It was characteristic of royal policy in both England and Francia during the ninth through eleventh centuries, collected both as tributary, to buy off the attackers, and as stipendiary, to pay the defensive forces.

Dane Geld by Rudyard Kipling read by Jim Clark ..

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, And the people who ask it explain That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld And then you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation, To puff and look important and to say: – "Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you. We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld; But we've proved it again and again, That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation, For fear they should succumb and go astray; So when you are requested to pay up or be molested, You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld, No matter how trifling the cost; For the end of that game is oppression and shame, And the nation that plays it is lost!"