were much used by persons pretending to deal in magic. As they were alike difficult to form and to read when formed, it was only the learned who were able to employ them to convey messages; but as the same runes were used by all the early Scandinavian people, they formed a means of maintaining intercourse between the various branches of the great northern stock. Thus we are told that, during the eighth and ninth centuries, when the Northmen had extended their power over so many parts of Europe, letters written in runes were frequently sent from one prince to another, and could be equally well read at Anglo-Saxon, Frankish, Gothic, Russian, and Scandinavian courts. Even in the East, at Constantinople, there were many men in the imperial palace, well versed in runes, and eager to welcome the northern skalds, who were able to recite to them the sagas of Scandinavia. owing to the fact that the body-guards of the Emperors, known as Væringjar, or wanderers, were Northmen, who, although often of noble birth, had been tempted by their love of roaming and the prospect of gain to take service in ancient Byzantium, where for centuries they formed the only trustworthy defenders of the lives and freedom of the inmates of the imperial palace. In Russia, too, the Northmen had formed important settlements in the ninth century, and had made themselves princes in the land; and by the intermarriage of these conquerors with the Slavi, or original inhabitants, a race sprang up, from which have descended the Czars of Russia and many of the leading families of the Russian empire.

This was

Vikingar.-The Northmen were such a wandering, restless race of people, that from the latter times of the Roman Republic till very nearly the days of our William the Conqueror, who was himself of direct Scandinavian descent, they were always swarming southward from their northern hives, like so many hungry bees, ever eager to settle on the first pleasant spot that seemed to offer them the food and shelter which they sought; and ready, like those busy insects, to throw off fresh broods whenever the new hives grew too crowded for them. Tribe after tribe appeared every year with the return of warm weather; and when the Roman empire had ceased to exist, and Charlemagne had formed a new empire in Europe, these ancient foes

of Rome, under other names perhaps, but with the same spirit as of old, hung upon every frontier, and attempted to penetrate into the interior through every stream and river that opened a way to pillage. In the later times of their wanderings, the leaders among the Northmen were known as Vikingar, a name derived from vik, a bay, from the habit which these men had of lying under covert in some little bay, or vik, and darting out in their barks to waylay and plunder any vessel passing by. The art of coming unawares upon others, whether singly or with a large fleet, was for this reason known as a "viking." After a time these vikingar joined themselves into bands, and went forth in well-manned flotillas of small vessels, or rowing-boats, to attack foreign shores. After roaming over the seas from spring to autumn, they returned to their northern homes before the frost closed the harbours, and spent their winters in feasting and in athletic sports, or in preparing their shattered barks for future viking cruises. But faithful to the precepts of their religion, they never failed to offer sacrifices and gifts to Odin, and their favourite gods, in gratitude for past favours, and in the earnest hope of securing, by these acts of devotion, a rich harvest of spoil for their next voyage.

CHAPTER II.

THE DANES IN EARLY TIMES.

The homes of the Northmen, who first came to Britain-The names of the Danish provinces-Saxo Grammaticus, the writer on old Danish history -King Dan, the so-called founder of the Danish monarchy; what was done to his body after death-King Frode, his golden bracelets, which served as his money-bank-Stærkodder, and who alone could kill him-Rolf Krake, the slim and handsome; his Berserkers, and why they were so called-The battle of Bravalla- Odin's last appearance on earth-How the god gave the victory to the Swedish king, and killed the Danish monarch Harald with his own battle-axe-Regner Lodbrog, why he wore leather leggings, how he died, and what vengeance his sons took on his slayer-King Ella of Northumbria -The torture of the "Spread Eagle "-The victories of King Alfred the Great-The Northern sea-rovers driven out of England-The little we know of the Danes in their own country a thousand years ago.

PART I.

THE NORTHMEN AT HOME.

Our Interest in the Northmen.-IN the former chapter we have seen that the north of Europe was left almost unvisited and certainly undescribed by foreigners, as far as we know, from the age of Alexander the Great of Macedon-more than 300 years B.C.-to that of Alfred the Great of England, nearly 900 years after the birth of Christ. In the present chapter we shall have to see by what means the people of our own and other lands became acquainted with the Northmen; and beginning with the Danes as the nation best known to ourselves, we will take a glance at their country, and pass on to the accounts given of

C

them in early times by their own historians. The Northmen who had carried on wars in Southern Europe against the Roman empire, and on its decline had formed kingdoms for themselves, either as Goths, Vandals, or others, regarded themselves as one nation descended from the same common stock, and were governed by the same laws and customs. In later Christian times, too, when northern invaders poured like a devastating flood over middle and southern Europe; although they bore the names of Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Jutes, Saxons, and Angles, they all traced their origin back to the same sources, and followed very nearly the same laws and religion. This identity of origin and habits among the Northmen of old makes it thus all the more interesting and necessary for us to acquaint ourselves with the home-lives of the Scandinavians, since we retain to the present day deep traces in our laws, usages, and perhaps even in our character, of the influence of our AngloSaxon forefathers, whose arrival in Britain more than 1,400 years ago was the true beginning of our national life. When we bear in mind the love of roaming shown from the earliest times by the Northmen, and their bold habit of pushing off to sea on the return of each spring, to seek out some richer lands than their own, we need not wonder that they should have found their way to Britain. We know, too, that after the Romans left our island, in the year 401, the Britons were so timid and weak that they could not defend themselves against the Picts and Scots. They were not likely, therefore, to make any very strong defence against the fierce Northmen. But according to the accounts written down long afterwards by the monk Gildas and others, the Northmen came to Britain, not only because they loved roaming about and robbing their richer fellow-men, but because some of the British princes, or chiefs, had sent to them to beg that they would come and protect them against their Scottish and Pictish neighbours. This is said to have happened about the middle of the fifth century, and if it was really the reason why the Northmen came to Britain, the Britons must soon have regretted what they had done; for before many years had passed, the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons had poured into Britain in such large numbers that they had found themselves strong enough to drive the natives

back into the mountains and waste parts, and to set themselves up as masters and rulers in almost every part of the island.

The Jutes founded a kingdom in Kent as early as 449, but they did not go on spreading themselves over Britain as fast as the Angles and Saxons. The last-named of these tribes appear to have been the first to settle in England, but they were soon followed by the Angles, who came in such numbers, that their own country, Angeln, was left almost without inhabitants. This small district, from which we Englishmen have taken our name, was a fruitful strip of land, stretching from the site of the present town of Flensborg in Slesvig to the fjord, or inlet of the Slie, and lying to the south of the land of the Jutes, since known as Jutland.

Chersonesus Cimbrica.-The Romans gave the name Chersonesus Cimbrica to the whole of that north-western extremity of Germany which lies north of the Elbe, and which included the ancient homes of the Jutes and Angles, but the Northmen themselves called it Reid-Gotaland, or the Firm (Continental) Goth's land, while they gave the name Ey-Gotaland, "Insular Goth's land," to all the Danish islands between the old Cimbric Chersonesus and the coasts of Sweden. These names confirm to us the fact of which we have already spoken, that the Danes, like all the other northern people, belonged to those Teuton or German tribes who were known as "Goths." The Saxons lived near the Angles, but mostly on the south side of the Elbe, and along the neighbouring German sea-coast; and these two nations, with the Jutes, spoke one and the same northern tongue, when they came into Britain, although perhaps with certain unimportant differences.

When the land of Angeln was left after the great immigration of the people into Britain, Jutes from the North, and Goths from the Danish islands, flocked into the deserted country and made themselves masters of it. Considering the few men left in it, this was no great feat, but, being fond of boasting, the new-comers called themselves the Conquerors of the land, while their skalds composed, in honour of this pretended conquest, songs and sagas, which were handed down from one generation to another. In the course of time these boastful tales came to be believed in as if they gave only the true account of the