CHAPTER II. THE INVASIONS OF THE NORTHMEN.

WE HAVE NOW ARRIVED AT the point when we must leave the shores of the northern continent and follow the exiles in their several conquests and settlements. These naturally fall into two periods:—

1. 787-855. During which the invasions are little more than plundering raids.

2. 855-912. A period of conquest and definite settlement.

On the earlier period we need not long dwell. The incursions were of necessity only temporary in their effects, and were chiefly confined to England, Germany, and France, though Spain and even Italy were by no means free from attack.

Of these the Danish invasions of England, the best authenticated, scarcely come within the scope of our subject. Their attacks on Italy and Spain, though no doubt severe, led to no permanent results till a much later date, while in Germany and France their annals are rendered irremediably defective through the insufficiency of contemporary authorities. From the death of the chronicler Nithard, grandson of Charles the Great, a Count of Ponthieu, who fell fighting against the Northmen, and left a fragment abruptly ended by his death, the authorities are very scant and the information confused. The frequent repetition of particular names running over a period longer than that generally covered by the deeds of one man, renders it probable that the terror of a name lasted after the hero’s death, and led the ecclesiastical chroniclers, never very well informed of events unconnected with their own district, to attribute to one the deeds of many.

All that we can feel certain of, all at least which it is in any way important to remember, is the frequency and enormous area of the attacks, and this cannot be put in better words than those of Sir Francis Palgrave:—‘Take,’ he says, ‘the map, and cover with vermilion the provinces, districts, and shores which the Northmen visited, as a record of each invasion, the colouring will have to be repeated more than ninety times successively before you arrive at the conclusion of the dynasty of Charles the Great. Furthermore, mark by the usual symbol of war, two crossed swords, the localities where battles were fought by the pirates, where they were defeated or triumphant, or where they pillaged, burned, or destroyed, and the valleys and the banks of the Elbe, Rhine and Moselle, Scheldt, Meuse, Somme and Seine, Loire, Garonne and Adour, and all the coasts and coast-lands between estuary and estuary, all the countries between river and streams will appear bristling as with chevaux de frise.’ This will give us some idea of the invasions as far as Gaul and Germany are concerned; but it should be repeated for England, Scotland, and the islands which surround their coasts to give any adequate conception of the misery they caused.

Confining, then, our attention more particularly to the second period, let us briefly consider the appearance and characteristic qualities of these Northmen.

The outward look of the Norse, the Dane, the Norseman was much the same. Broad-shouldered, deep-chested, long-limbed, yet with slender waist and small hands and feet, their figures told of strength; and so necessary was strength considered that puny infants were exposed and left to die, the healthy children being alone preserved. Their complexion—their hair and eyes, were fair—and the fair alone could pass for beautiful or well-born. A dark complexion was considered the mark of an alien race, and dishonourable. Thus Baldr, the noblest of the gods, was fair, and the outward appearance of the slave was thus contrasted with that of the freeman. Black and ugly they are. Their forefather, Thrall, had a broad face, bent back, long heels, blistered hands, stiff, slow joints, and clumsy figure. His wife, Thy, is bandy-legged, flat-nosed, and her arms are brown with toiling in the sun. Their children are like them.

The ordinary dress of both sexes was nearly the same. A shirt, loose drawers, long hose, high shoes with thongs twisted up the ankle. A short kirtle girt at the waist served for coat or gown; an armless cloak, with a low-crowned, broad brimmed hat, completed the dress of the man. The woman, instead of the hat, wore a wimple of linen, and over that a high twisted cap, sometimes bent at the top into the shape of a horn, but otherwise dressed much as the men. The under-clothing of both sexes was of linen; their outer of coarse, woollen homespun—of grey, or black, or blue, or red, the most prized of all.

To this the chiefs added in the time of war a helm and shirt of mail, and all were armed with a long shield, protecting the whole body—white in time of peace, red in time of war—covered with leather, with iron rim and boss; spears of ashen shaft and iron point; axes; and, above all, the sword, the darling of the Northmen.

Their ships were long half-decked galleys, propelled by oars and sail. The waist, where the rowers sat, was low, that the oars might have free play. The bow and stern were high, and ended, the former in a beak or jaw, the latter in the tail of some beast. Dragons were the most commonly represented, and thus the ship looked like a huge monster on the sea, whose gaping jaws were held to bewitch the foe. The sails were gay with stripes of blue or green or red.

In the prow stood the warriors, and the vessel was driven stem on against the enemy: in the stern the chief, and behind him the helmsman, his helm inscribed with magic runes to charm away all evil. In action the rowers were protected by planks set up along the bulwarks, and all round the vessel ran a gangway, from whence they boarded the enemy’s ship.

The character of these hardy Northmen was well suited to their future destiny.

The daily struggle for existence in an inhospitable climate had taught them fearlessness and ready wit in danger. From the absence of all aristocracy or other privileged class they had acquired a spirit of independence, a haughty and unbending character which prepared them for their future conquests. Set face to face with the mysteries of nature and of their self-taught religion, they had gained an heroic fancifulness, a thoughtful sternness which lit up the darker tints. These features were the natural result of the free and independent life of their forefathers. To these we must add a cold-blooded ferocity, contracted in the long civil disturbances which had torn their country since the end of the eighth century. All these are the qualities common in early times to successful conquerors; but, as we follow the history of their settlements, another more important feature appears, namely, their extraordinary versatility and power of adapting themselves to varied forms and states of society. The Northmen never seem to have been original, never to have invented anything; rather they readily assumed the language, religion, ideas of their adopted country, and soon became absorbed in the society around them. This will be found to be invariably the case, except with regard to Iceland, where the previous occupation was too insignificant to affect the new settlers. In Russia, they became Russians; in France, Frenchmen; in Italy, Italians; in England twice over Englishmen, first in the case of the Danes, and secondly, in that of the later Normans. Everywhere they became fused in the surrounding nationality. Their individuality is lost, and their presence is traced only in the nomenclature of the country, that fossil remnant of denationalised races, as it has been called. Not so their influence. They fell on stirring times, and in every case they took the lead, and deeply affected the nations with which they came in contact. Europe at that date was in a fluid state, and the Northmen seem to have acted as a crystallising power; to have formed a nucleus round which political society might grow. In Iceland they formed a free republic, in Russia they first organised a kingdom; in England they, by their pressure, first consolidated the kingdom of Wessex, then conquered it under Canute and William I.; in the West-Frankish country they finally put an end to the long struggle for supremacy, sounded the death knell of the Karolings of Laon, and aided to form modern France. Nor is this all; they borrow everything and make it their own, and their presence is chiefly felt in increased activity and more rapid development of institutions, literature, and art. Thus, while they invent nothing, they perfect, they organise everything, and everywhere appear the master-spirits of their age.

We have hitherto treated the Norwegians, Swedes and Danes under the common appellation of Northmen; and this is in many ways the most convenient, for it is often impossible to decide the nationality of the individual settlement. Indeed, it would appear probable that the devastating bands were often composed indiscriminately of the several nationalities. Still, in tracing the history of their conquests, we may lay it down as a general rule that England was the exclusive prey of the Danes; that Scotland and the islands to the north as far as Iceland, and to the south as far as Anglesea and Ireland fell to the Norwegians, and Russia to the Swedes; while Gaul and Germany were equally the spoil of the Norwegians and the Danes. The last will claim our more careful attention. At the former we can only cast a cursory glance.

I. In England, the Danish inroads beginning about the year 787, had assumed their second phase about the year 855, and destroyed the nascent unity of the kingdom then partially attained by Egbert, king of the West-Saxons. The Danes had easily occupied the more northern kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia; peopled as...