After the death of Aethelstan, Anlaf Sihtricsson, nicknamed Cuaran (i.e. with the sock or brogue of leather, so called from his Irish dress) came to England and captured York. From there he made an attempt to conquer the Danish district of the Five Boroughs. He seems to have got a good part of Mercia into his hands but in the end Edmund freed the Danes from Norse oppression and took once more into his hands all Mercia south of a line from Dore (near Sheffield) to Whitwell (Derbyshire) and thence to the Humber. Edmund and Anlaf came to terms, but Anlaf was driven out by the Northumbrians in 943, and in the next year that province fell into the hands of Edmund. In 947 Eric Blood-axe, son of Harold Fairhair, was accepted as king by the Northumbrians. In Scandinavian tradition we learn how he was expelled from Norway in 934 by the supporters of Hákon, went on Viking raids in the west, was appointed ruler of Northumbria by Aethelstan on condition of his defending it against attack, but was not on good terms with Edmund, who favoured one Ólaf. Probably Eric retired after Aethelstan's death and only returned to England in 947. In 948 Edmund forced the Northumbrians to abandon his cause and about the same time Anlaf returned from Ireland and ruled till about 950 when he was replaced by Eric, whose short rule came to an end in 954. In that year he was expelled by the Northumbrians and killed at Stainmoor in Westmorland. The attempt to establish a Norse kingdom of Northumbria had failed and henceforward that district was directly under the rule of the English king. English authority was supreme once more even in those districts which were largely peopled with Scandinavian settlers.