In 870 the dreaded Vikings (Danes and other Scandinavian races) invaded throughout East Anglia. The Danes were an independent race and, being good organisers, made laws and settled well in East Anglia. Thus the Saxons came under the Dane Law and, until their adoption of Christianity in the late 10th and early 11th Centuries, the Scandinavian peoples practised their traditional religion. The Dane Law is the name given to the areas under Danish Viking occupation in 878AD - much of Eastern and Northern England (including Sawtry) and the districts of Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, and Stamford.