How successfully did the Franks deal with the Viking threat to western
Europe in the period from c800 to c920? (no more than 1500 words)

Extract:			Annals of St Bertin, 845, ed. & trans. Janet L. Nelson

?In March 845, 120 ships of the Northmen sailed up the Seine to Paris,
laying waste everything and meeting not the least bit of opposition. 
Charles [Charles the Bald, king of W. Francia 843-77] made efforts to
offer some resistance but he realised that his men could not possibly
win.  So he made a deal with them:  by handing over to them 7,000lbs
of silver as a bribe, he restrained them from advancing further and
persuaded them to go away.?

 What were the Vikings looking for?   Were they trying to overthrow
Frankish kings?  Why did they not meet any opposition?
 Was it because of their large numbers?  What does the deal Charles
made with them tell you about royal strengths and weaknesses?  Does
the fact that Charles was able to make a deal at all strike you as
significant?  Does our source praise or condemn Charles?  Can you find
out if this was the pattern of behaviour throughout the ninth century?

P.H. Sawyer, ed.	The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings (1997)
esp. ch. by Nelson
J. Graham-Campbell,	Cultural Atlas of the Viking World (1992)
N. Hooper &		Cambridge Illustrated Atlas: Warfare of The Middle Ages
786-1487 (1996)
M. Bennet,	
J. Haywood,	The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings (1995)
P.H. Sawyer,	The Age of the Vikings (1962)
P.H. Sawyer,	Kings and Vikings (1982)
R. Collins,	Early Medieval Europe 300-1000 (1991; 2nd edn 1999)
J. Nelson ,	?The Vikings on the Continent?, History Today, 38, December
& S. Coupland,	1988.
P. Wormald,	?Viking Studies:  whence and whither?, in R.T. Farrell,
ed., The Vikings (1982)
F.D. Logan,	The Vikings in History (1983), esp. ch. 1 and ch. 5
S. Coupland,	?The Vikings on the Continent in Myth and History?,
History, 88 (2002) pp. 188-203

PS: 
This is a tall order and if someone could point me in the right
direction or perhaps answer this in full then a rather large
'christmas tip' would be awarded.

My Deadline is the 04/11/06...