After 840 the
quarrels
between the heirs of Louis the Pious laid
Western Europe open to attack even more than it had been hitherto.
Western Europe open to attack even more than it had been hitherto.
Cambridge Medieval History - v3 - Germany and the Western Empire
He followed his father's policy in uniting
the duchies with the Crown unless he saw good reason for the contrary.
Hence he gave away one great duchy after another when it seemed good.
He gave Bavaria to Henry of Luxemburg when it was threatened by
Obo of Hungary; Swabia to the Lorrainer Otto when Godfrey was
troubling the neighbouring Lorraine. And he did not fear to raise
houses that might become rivals in the Empire if they served the present
use. It was so with his patronage of Luxemburgers and of Babenbergs.
And yet it must be confessed that Henry's dealings with the duchies
were not happy. Bavaria and Carinthia he left largely hostile to the
Crown. Lorraine was torn by rebellion because in the case of Godfrey
Henry had misjudged his man. Personal genius was lacking, too, in his
dealings with the border-land states, although with Bohemia and Hungary
he could claim success. And in Burgundy, if anywhere, he did succeed.
Upon internal order he had set his heart. We recall his “Declarations
of Indulgence" and the “ peace undreamt of through the ages” which
followed. Yet the peace was itself precarious, though his example was
fruitfully followed afterwards; and Germany, breathing awhile more
CH. XII.
202
## p. 308 (#354) ############################################
308
Henry's character
peacefully during recurring “Landfrieden," had cause to bless the day at
Constance.
In himself he seems to have lacked breadth and geniality: with
humble fidelity he took up the task of his inheritance: his single-minded-
ness and purity of character are testified to by all: there were great men
whom he chose out or who trusted him: Herman of Cologne, Bruno of
Toul (Leo IX), Peter Damiani. Yet he could fail with great men as
with smaller: Leo IX towards the end, and Wazo of Liège he misjudged;
the difficult Godfrey of Lorraine, whom he failed to understand, wellnigh
wrecked his Empire. It was this personal weakness that made him, in his
last years, fall below his own high standard, unable to cope with the
many difficulties of his Empire. He seems weary when he comes to die.
Germany looked back to him, not for the good that he had done, but
for the evil which came so swiftly when his day was over.
In Germany he did not build to stand. One great thing he did to
change history, and in doing it he raised up the power that was to cast
down his son and destroy his Empire. His tomb and his monument
should be in Rome.
## p. 309 (#355) ############################################
309
CHAPTER XIII.
THE VIKINGS.
The term Viking is a derivative of the Old Norse Vik, a creek, bay
or fjord, and means one who haunts such an opening and uses it as a base
whence raids may be made on the surrounding country. The word is
now commonly applied to those Norsemen, Danes and Swedes who harried
Europe from the eighth to the eleventh centuries, and in such phrases as
“the Viking age," "Viking civilisation,” is used in a still wider sense as a
convenient term for Scandinavian civilisation at a particular stage in its
development. It is in this larger sense that the term is used in the
present chapter, covering the activities of the Northmen in peace as well
as in war. The term Viking in its narrower sense is no more descriptive
of this age than “ Buccaneering” would be of the age of Elizabeth. .
Except along the narrow line of the Eider, Scandinavia has no land-
boundaries of importance and is naturally severed from the rest of Europe.
Though known to Greek and Roman geographers and historians, it was
almost entirely unaffected by Roman civilisation. It was not till the
Scandinavian peoples were driven by stress of circumstance to find fresh
homes, that they found that the sea instead of dividing them from the
rest of Europe really furnished them with a ready and easy path of attack
against those nations of North-West Europe who had either neglected
or forgotten the art of seamanship.
The history of the Teutonic North from the middle of the sixth to
the end of the eighth century is almost a blank, at least in so far as
history concerns itself with the record of definite events. During the
first half of the sixth century there had been considerable activity in
Denmark and Southern Sweden. About the year 520 Chocilaicus, King
of the Danes, or, according to another authority, of the Getae (i. e. Götar)
in South Sweden, made a raid on the territory of the Franks on the Lower
Rhine, but was defeated and slain by Theudibert, son of the Frankish king
Theodoric, as he was withdrawing from Frisia with extensive plunder.
This expedition finds poetic record in the exploits of Hygelac, King of
the Geats, in Beowulf. Some forty years later there is mention of them
in Venantius Fortunatus's eulogy of Duke Lupus of Champagne. They
a
a
CH. XI.
## p. 310 (#356) ############################################
310
Causes of Viking activity
were now in union with the Saxons and made a raid on Western Frisia,
but were soon driven back by the Franks. From this time until the first
landing of Vikings near Dorchester (c. 787), the earliest attacks on the
coast of France against which Charles the Great made defence in 800,
and the first encounter between the Danes and Franks on the borders of
Southern Denmark in 808, we know almost nothing of the history of
Scandinavia, at least in so far as we look for information in the annals or
histories of the time.
The story of these two hundred years has to some extent been pieced
together from scraps of historical, philological and archaeological evi-
dence. Professor Zimmer shewed that it was possible, that the attacks of
unknown pirates on the island of Eigg in the Hebrides and on Tory
Island off Donegal, described in certain Irish annals of the seventh
century, were really the work of early Viking invaders, and that the
witness of Irish legends and sagas tends to prove that already by the end
of the seventh century Irish missionaries were settled in the Shetlands and
Faroes, where they soon came into contact with the Northmen. Evidence
for the advance from the other side, of the Northmen towards the West
and South, has been found by Dr Jakobsen in his work on the place-names
of the Shetlands. He has shewn that many of these names must be due
to Norse settlements from a period long before the recognised Viking
movements of the ninth century. Archaeological evidence can also be
adduced in support of this belief in early intercourse between Scandinavia
and the islands of the West. Sculptured stones found in the island of
Gothland shew already by 700 clear evidence of Celtic art influence.
Indeed archaeologists are now agreed that in the eighth century and
even earlier there were trade connexions between Scandinavia and the
West. Long before English or Irish, Franks or Frisians, knew the
Northmen as Viking raiders, they had been familiar with them in peace-
ful mercantile intercourse, and it is probable that in the eighth century
there were a good number of Scandinavian merchants settled in Western
Europe. Their influence on the trade of the West was only exceeded
by that of the Frisians, who were the chief trading and naval power of
the seventh and eighth centuries, and it is most probable that it was the
crushing of Frisian power by Charles Martel in 734 and their final sub-
jection by Charles the Great towards the close of the eighth century
which helped to prepare the way for the great Viking advance.
About the year 800 the relations between the North and West
Germanic peoples underwent a great change both in character and extent.
We find the coasts of England, Ireland, Frisia and France attacked by
Viking raiders, while on the southern borders of Denmark there was
constant friction between the kings of that country and the forces of the
Empire. The question has often been asked: What were the causes of
this sudden outburst of hostile activity on the part of the Northmen?
Monkish chroniclers said they were sent by God in punishment for the
## p. 311 (#357) ############################################
Early raids on England and Ireland
311
a
sins of the age ; Norman tradition as preserved by Dudo and William of
Jumièges attributed the raids to the necessity for expansion consequent
on over-population. Polygamy had led to a rapid increase of population,
and many of the youth of the country were driven forth to gain fresh
lands for themselves elsewhere. Polygamy does not necessarily lead to
over-population, but polygamy among the ruling classes, as it prevailed
in the North, means a large number of younger sons for whom provision
must be made, and it is quite possible that stress of circumstance caused
many such to visit foreign lands on Viking raids. Of the political condition
of the Scandinavian countries we know very little at this time. We hear
however in Denmark in the early years of the ninth century of long
disputes as to the succession, and it is probable that difficulties of this
kind may have prompted many to go on foreign expeditions. In Norway
we know that the growth of the power of Harold Fairhair in the middle
portion of the ninth century led to the adoption of a Viking life by many
of the more independent spirits, and it is quite possible that earlier
efforts towards consolidation among the petty Norwegian kings may have
produced similar effects. Social and political conditions may thus have
worked together, preparing the ground for Scandinavian activity in the
ninth century, and it was perhaps, as suggested above, the destruction
of Frisian power which removed the last check on the energy of the
populous nations of the North.
The first definite record of Viking invasion is probably that found in
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (s. a. 787), which tells of the coming of Danish
ships to England in the days of Beorhtric, King of Wessex. They
landed in the neighbourhood of Dorchester and slew the king's reeve.
Certain versions of the Chronicle call them ships of the Northmen and
tell us that they came from “Herethaland. ” There can be little doubt that
this is the West Norwegian district of Hörthaland, and that “ Northmen"
here, as elsewhere in the Chronicle, means Norwegians? . The term
“ Danish” is probably generic for Scandinavian, the chronicler using the
name of the nationality best known to him. In June 793 the church at
Lindisfarne was destroyed, and a year later the monastery of St Paul at
Jarrow. In 795 Vikings landed in Skye and visited Lambay Island off
Dublin, and in 798 the Isle of Man. These invaders were certainly
Norse, for the Irish annalists mention expressly the first arrival of the
Danes in Ireland in 849, and draw a rigid distinction between the Nor-
wegian or “white” foreigners and the Danish or "black" ones.
England was not troubled again by Viking raiders until 835, but the
attacks on Ireland continued almost without cessation.
lona was
72
1
Attempts have been made to identify Herethaland with the district of Har-
desyssel in Jutland and to prove that these Northmen were Danes, but the weight
of evidence seems to the present writer to be all in favour of the identification with
Hörthaland. The name Hiruath commonly given to Norway by Gaelic writers is
another version of the same name,
CH. XIII,
## p. 312 (#358) ############################################
312
The Danish kingdom
destroyed in 802; by 807 the invaders had penetrated inland as far as
Roscommon, and four years later they had made their way round the
west coast of Ireland as far as Cork. In 821 the Howth peninsula was
plundered and during the next few years the rich monasteries of North Ire-
land were destroyed. By the year 834 the Northmen had visited nearly
the whole of the island and no place was safe from their raids. About this
time there came a change in the character of the attacks in that large
fleets began to anchor in the loughs and harbours and estuaries with
which the coast of Ireland abounds. Thence they made lengthy raids
on the surrounding country, often staying the whole winter through,
instead of paying summer visits only as they had done hitherto. At
the same time they often strengthened their base by the erection of
forts on the shores of the waters in which they had established them-
selves.
When the Viking raids were resumed in England in 835 it is fairly
certain that they were the work of Danish and not of Norwegian
invaders. The Norsemen had found other fields of activity in Ireland,
while the Danes who had already visited the chief estuaries of the Frankish
coast now crossed to England. At first their attacks were directed
towards the southern shores of Britain, but by 841 they had penetrated
into Lindsey and East Anglia. London and Rochester were sacked in
842. In 851 the Danes wintered in Thanet and four years later they
stayed in Sheppey. The Danish fleet in this year numbered some 350
ships. It was probably this same fleet, somewhat reduced in numbers,
which in 852 sailed round Britain and captured Dublin. With the
winterings in Thanet and Sheppey the Viking invasions of England had
reached the same stage of development as in Ireland. We have passed
from the period of isolated raids to that of persistent attacks with a
view to permanent conquest.
The mainland of Western Europe was also exposed during these
years
to attacks of a twofold character. In the first place, trouble arose
on the boundary between Southern Denmark and Frankish territory owing
to the desire of the Danish kings to extend their authority southward :
in the second, constant raids were made along the whole of the shores of
Europe from Frisia to Aquitaine.
The friction between the Danes and their neighbours on the south
was continuous through the last years of the eighth and the greater part
of the ninth century. Charles the Great by his campaigns against the
Saxons and Nordalbingians had advanced towards the Danish boundary
on the Eider, and the Danes first gave offence in 777 when their king
Sigefridus (Old Norse Sigurðr) gave shelter to the Saxon patriot Widukind.
Gradually the Frankish power advanced, and in 809 a fort was established
at Itzehoe (Esesfeld) on the Stör, north of the Elbe. The Danes also made
advances on their side and in 804 their king Godefridus (O. N. Guðröðr)
collected a fleet and army at Slesvík (Schleswig). In 808 after a successful
## p. 313 (#359) ############################################
Preaching of Christianity
313
campaign against the Obotrites, a Slavonic people in modern Meck-
lenburg, he constructed a boundary wall for his kingdom, stretching
from the Baltic to the Eider. He received tribute not only from the
Obotrites but also from the Nordalbingians and Frisians. He was pre-
paring to attack Charles the Great himself when he died suddenly by the
hand of a retainer in 810. There can be little doubt that this Godefridus
is to be identified with the Gotricus of Saxo Grammaticus and Guðröðr
the Yngling of Scandinavian tradition. If that is so, Guðröðr-Gode-
fridus was slain in Stifla Sound (probably on the coast of Vestfold), and
was king not only of Denmark, but also of much of Southern Norway,
including Vestfold, Vingulmörk, and perhaps Agðir, as well as of Verm-
land in Sweden.
Later events confirm the evidence for the existence of a Dano-
Norwegian kingdom of this kind. In 812 a dispute as to the succession
arose between Sigefridus, “nepos” to king Guðröðr, and Anulo (O. N.
Óli), “nepos” to a former king Herioldus (O. N. Haraldr) or Harold
(probably the famous Harold Hyldetan slain at the battle of Bravalla).
Both claimants were slain in fight but the party of Anulo were victorious.
Anulo's brothers, Harold and Reginfredus (O. N. Ragnfröðr), became joint
kings, and soon after we hear of their going to Vestfold, “the extreme
district of their realm, whose people and chiefs were refusing to be made
subject to them. ” Fortune fluctuated between Harold and the sons of
Godefridus during the next few years, but Harold secured the support of
the Emperor when he accepted baptism at Mayence in 826, with his wife,
son and nephew. After his baptism he returned to Denunark through
Frisia, where the Emperor had granted him Riustringen as a retreat in
case of necessity. An attempt to regain Denmark was frustrated, and
Harold probably availed himself of his Frisian grant during the next few
years. The next incident belongs to the year 836, when Horic (O. N.
Hárekr), one of the sons of Godefridus, sent an embassy to Louis the
Pious denying complicity in the Viking raids made on Frisia at that time,
and these denials continued during the next few years. In 837
Hemmingus (O. N. Hemmingr), probably a brother of Harold, and himself
a Christian, was slain while defending the island of Walcheren against
pirates. These two incidents are important as they tend to shew that
the Vikiny raids were rather individual than national enterprises and
that there was an extensive peaceful settlement of Danes in Frisia. In
addition to the grant of Riustringen the Emperor had assigned (826)
another part of Frisia to Roric (O. N. Hrærekr), a brother of Harold, on
condition that he should ward off piratical attacks.
It was during these years that the influence of Christianity first made
itself felt in Scandinavia. The earliest knowledge of Christianity
probably came, as is so often the case, with the extension of trade.
Danes and Swedes settled in Friesland and elsewhere for purposes of
trade, and either they or their emissaries must have made the “ white
CH. XIII.
## p. 314 (#360) ############################################
314
St Anskar
Christ” known to their heathen countrymen. The first definite mission
to the North was undertaken by St Willibrord at the beginning of the
eighth century. He was favourably received by the Danish king
Ongendus (O. N. Angantýr), but his mission was without fruit. In 822
Pope Paschal appointed Ebbo, Archbishop of Rheims, as his legate
among the northern peoples. He undertook a mission to Denmark in
823 and made a few converts. But it was in 826, when King Harold was
baptised and prepared to return to Denmark, that the first opportunity
of preaching Christianity in Denmark really came. With the opportunity
came the man, and Harold was accompanied on his return by Anskar, who
more than any other deserves to be called “Apostle of the Scandinavian
North. ” Leaving his monastery at Corvey (Corbie) in Saxony, and filled
with zeal to preach the gospel to the heathen, Anskar made many converts,
but Harold's ill-success in regaining the sovereignty injured his mission
in Denmark and, two years later, at the request of the Swedes themselves,
he preached the gospel in Sweden, receiving a welcome at Birca (Björkö)
from the Swedish king Bern (O. N. Björn). After a year and a half's mission
in Sweden, Anskar was recalled and made Archbishop of Hamburg and
given, jointly with Ebbo, jurisdiction over the whole of the northern
realms. Gautbert was made first bishop of Sweden and founded a church
at Sigtuna, but after a few years' work he was expelled in a popular
rising Little progress was made in Denmark. No churches were
established, but Anskar did a good deal in training Danish youths in
Christian principles at his school in Hamburg.
Anskar's position became a very difficult one when the lands from which
his income was derived passed to Charles the Bald, and still more so when
the seat of his jurisdiction was destroyed by the Danes in 845. Louis
the German made amends by appointing him to the bishopric of Bremen,
afterwards united to a restored archbishopric of Hamburg. Anskar
now set himself to the task of gaining influence first with King Horic,
and later with his successor Horic the Younger. He was so far success-
ful that the first Christian church in Denmark was established at Slesvík,
followed soon after by one at Ribe. He also concerned himself with
Sweden once more, gaining authority for his mission by undertaking
embassies from both Horic and Louis. He obtained permission for the
preaching of Christianity and continued his activities to the day of his
death in 865. Anskar had done much for Christianity in the North.
His own fiery zeal had however been ill supported even by his chosen
followers, and the tangible results were few. Christianity had found a
hearing in Denmark and Sweden, but Norway was as yet untouched. A
few churches had been built in the southern part of both countries, a
certain number of adherents had been gained among the nobles and
trading classes, but the mass of the people remained untouched. The
first introduction of Christianity was too closely bound up with the
political and diplomatic relations of Northern Europe for it to be
## p. 315 (#361) ############################################
Viking raids on Frankish territory
315
otherwise, and the episcopal organisation was far more elaborate than
was required.
With the death of Louis the Pious in 840 a change took place in
the relations between Danes and Franks. In the quarrels over the
division of the Empire Lothar encouraged attacks on the territory of
his rivals. Harold was bribed by a grant of the island of Walcheren
and neighbouring district, so that in 842 we find him as far south as the
Moselle, while Horic himself took part in an expedition up the Elbe
against Louis the German. In 847 when the brothers had for the time
being patched up their quarrels, they stultified themselves by sending
embassies to Horic, asking him to restrain his subjects from attacking
the Christians. Horic had not the power, even if he had the desire, but,
fortunately for the Empire, Denmark was now crippled by internal
dissensions. This prevented any attack on the part of the Danish
nation as a whole, but Viking raids continued without intermission.
The first sign of dissension in Denmark appeared in 850, when Horic
was attacked by his two nephews and compelled to share his kingdom
with them. In 852 Harold, the long-exiled King of Denmark, was slain
for his treachery to Lothar, and two years later a revolution took place.
We are told that after twenty years' ravaging in Frankish territory
the Vikings made their way back to their fatherland, and there a dispute
arose between Horic and his nephew Godurm (O. N. Guðormr). A dis-
astrous battle was fought and so great was the slaughter that only one
boy of the royal line remained. He became king as Horic the Younger.
Encouraged by these dissensions, Roric and Godefridus, brother and son
respectively to Harold, attempted in 855 to win the Danish kingdom
but were compelled to retire again to Frisia. Roric was more successful
in 857 when he received permission from Horic to settle in the part of
his kingdom lying between the sea and the Eider, i. e. perhaps in North
Frisia, a district consisting of a strip of coast-line between the town of
Ribe and the mouth of the Eider, with the islands adjacen
We have now carried the story of the relations between Denmark
and her continental neighbours down to the middle of the ninth
century, the same period to which we have traced the story of the Viking
raids in England and Ireland. Before we tell the story of the trans-
formation which those raids underwent just at this time, we must say
something of Viking attacks on the maritime borders of the Continent.
The first mention of raids on the coast of Western Europe is in 800,
when Charles the Great visited the coast-line from the Somme to the Seine
and arranged for a fleet and coast-guard to protect it against Viking
attacks. In 810, probably under direct instruction from the Danish
king Godefridus, a fleet of some 200 vessels ravaged Frisia and its
islands. Once more Charles the Great strengthened his feet and the
guarding of the shores, but raids continued to be a matter of almost
yearly occurrence. The Emperor Louis pursued the same policy as his
CH. XIII.
## p. 316 (#362) ############################################
316
The Vikings in Spain
father, nevertheless by 821 the Vikings had sailed round Brittany and
sacked monasteries in the islands of Noirmoutier and Rhé. From 814-
833 attacks were almost entirely confined to these districts, and it is
possible that these Vikings had their winter quarters in Ireland, where
they were specially active at this time. At any rate it was to Wexford
that one of these feets returned in 820. The later years of Louis's
reign (from 834) were troubled ones. The Empire was weakened by the
Emperor's differences with his sons, and the Vikings had laid a firm hold
on Frisia. They were attracted by its rich trade and more especially by
the wealth of Dorestad, one of the most important trading cities of the
Empire. Before the death of the Emperor in 840, Dorestad had been
four times ravaged and the Vikings had sailed up the chief rivers,
burning both Utrecht and Antwerp. Their success was the more rapid
owing to the disloyalty of the Frisians themselves and possibly to help
given them by Harold and his brother Roric, but the exact attitude of
these princes and of the Danish king himself toward the raiders it is
difficult to determine. There are rather too many protests of innocence
on the part of Horic for us to believe in their entire genuineness.
After 840 the quarrels between the heirs of Louis the Pious laid
Western Europe open to attack even more than it had been hitherto.
In that year the Vikings sailed up the Seine for the first time as far as
Rouen, while in 843 they appeared for the first time on the Loire.
Here they were helped by the quarrels over the Aquitanian succession,
and it is said that pilots, lent by Count Lambert, steered them up
the
Loire. They then took up their winter quarters on the island of Noir-
moutier, where they seemed determined to make a permanent settlement.
The invasionsin France had reached the same stage of development to which
we have already traced them in England and Ireland. It is in connexion
with this expedition that we have one of the rare indications of the
actual home of the invaders. They are called “Westfaldingi,” and must
herefore have come from the Norwegian district of Vestfold, which,
as we have seen, formed part of the Danish kingdom about this
time.
In 843 the Northmen advanced a stage further south. Sailing past
Bordeaux they ravaged the upper basin of the Garonne. In the next
year they visited Spain. Repelled by the bold defence of the Asturians,
they sailed down the west coast of the peninsula and in September
appeared before Lisbon. The Moors offered a stout resistance and the
Vikings moved on to Cadiz, whence they ravaged the province of Sidonia
in southern Andalusia. Penetrating as far as Seville, they captured
that city, with the exception of its citadel, and raided Cordova. In the
end they were out-generalled by the Musulmans and forced to retreat
with heavy loss. Taking to their ships once more they ravaged the
coast as far as Lisbon, and returned to the Gironde before the end of
the year. It was probably on this expedition that some of the Vikings
## p. 317 (#363) ############################################
Olaf the White
317
a
66 after
made a raid on Arzilla in Morocco. After the expedition embassies were
exchanged between the Viking king and the Emir ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān II.
The Moorish embassy would seem to have found the king in Ireland, and
it is possible that he was the great Viking chief Turgeis, of whom we
must now speak.
We have traced the development of Viking activity in Ireland and
England, for Ireland down to the year 834. It was just at this time that
the great leader Turgeis (? O. N. Thorgestr) made his appearance in North
Ireland and attempted to establish sovereignty over all the foreigners in
Erin and gain the overlordship of the whole country. He conquered
North Ireland and raided Meath and Connaught, while his wife Ota (O. N.
Auðr) gave audience upon the altar of Clonmacnois. His power cul-
minated in 841, when he usurped the abbacy of Armagh. In 845 he was
captured by the Irish and drowned in Lough Owel. By this time so
numerous were the invading hosts that the chroniclers tell us
this there came great sea-cast floods of foreigners into Erin, so that
there was not a point without a fleet. ” In 849 the invasions developed
a new phase. Hitherto while the Irish had been weakened by much
internecine warfare their enemies had worked with one mind and heart.
Now we read: “A naval expedition of seven score of the Foreigners
came to exercise power over the Foreigners who were before them, so
that they disturbed all Ireland afterwards. ” This means that the Danes
were now taking an active part in the Scandinavian invasions of Ireland,
and we soon find them disputing supremacy with the earlier Norwegian
settlers. At the same time we have the first mention of intrigues
between Irish factions and the foreign invaders, intrigues which were
destined to play an important part in the Irish wars of the next fifty
years. For a time Dublin was in the hands of the Danes, but in 853
one Amhlaeibh (i. e. Olaf), son of the king of Lochlann (i. e. Norway),
came to Ireland and received the submission of Danes and Norsemen
alike, while tribute was given him by the native Irish. Henceforward
Dublin was the chief stronghold of Norse power in Ireland.
This Amhlaeibh was Olaf the White of Norse tradition, the repre-
sentative of that branch of the Yngling family who, according to Ari
Fróði, settled in Ireland. Affairs were now further complicated by the
fact that many Irish forsook Christianity and joined the Norsemen
in their plunderings. These recreant Irish, who probably intermarried
with the Norsemen, were known as the Gall-Gaedhil, i. e. the foreign
Irish, and played an important part in the wars of the next few
years. One of their leaders was Caitill Find, i. e. Ketill the White,
à Norseman with an Irish nickname. Usually they fought on the
side of the Norsemen but at times they played for their own hand.
Olaf was assisted by his brothers Imhar (O. N. Ívarr) and Auisle (O. N.
Auðgísl), and married the daughter of Aedh Finnliath (MacNiall), King
of all Ireland. Dublin, Waterford, Limerick and occasionally Cork
CH. XIII.
## p. 318 (#364) ############################################
318
Ragnarr Loðbrók
were the centres of Norse activity at this time, but there seems to have
been no unity of action among their forces. In 866 Olaf and Auðgísl
made a successful expedition to Pictland, and again in 870–1 Olaf and
Ívarr made a raid on Scotland. Olaf now returned to Norway to assist
his father Goffraidh (O. N. Guðfriðr) and possibly to take part with him
in the great fight at Hafrsfjord against Harold Fairhair. We hear
nothing more of Olaf, and two years later Ívarr, “ king of the Norsemen
of all Ireland and Britain," ended his life.
There now appear on the scene Viking leaders of a different family,
which seems to have over-shadowed that of Olaf. They were the sons of
one Raghnall, who had been expelled from his sovereignty in Norway.
Raghnall had remained in the Orkneys, but his elder sons came to the
British Isles, “being desirous of attacking the Franks and Saxons. ”
Not content with this they pushed on from Ireland across the Canta-
brian sea until they reached Spain. After a successful campaign
against the Moors in Africa they returned to Ireland and settled in
Dublin. So runs the story in the Fragments of Irish Annals edited by
Dugald MacFirbis, and there can be little doubt of its substratum of
truth or of the identification of this Raghnall and his sons with the well-
known figures of Ragnarr Loðbrók and his sons. In 877 Raghnall's son
Albdann (O. N. Halfdanr) was killed on Strangford Lough, while
fighting against the Norse champion Baraidh (O. N. Barðr) who was
attached to the house of Olaf.
At this point the Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gall notes a period
of rest for the men of Erin, lasting some forty years and ending in 916.
This statement is substantially true. We do not hear of any large fleets
coming to Ireland, and during these years Viking activity seems chiefly
to have centred in Britain. Trouble was only renewed when the success
of the campaigns of Edward the Elder in England once more drove the
Vikings westward.
We have traced the history of the Vikings in England down to
the first settlement in 851 and 855. During the years which followed
there were raids on the south made by Vikings from Frankish territory,
but the great development took place in 866, when a large Danish army
took up its quarters in East Anglia, whence they advanced to York in
867. Northumbria was weakened by dissension and the Danes captured
York without much trouble. This city was henceforward the stronghold
of Scandinavian power in Northern England, and the Saxon Eoforwíc
soon became the Norse Jórvík or York. The Danes set up a puppet
king Ecgberht in Northumbria north of the Tyne and reduced Mercia
to submission. Thence they marched into East Anglia as far as Thetford,
and engaged the forces of Edmund, King of East Anglia, defeating and
slaying him, but whether in actual battle or, as popular tradition would
have it, in later martyrdom is uncertain. The death of St Edmund
soon became an event of European fame, and no event in the Danish
## p. 319 (#365) ############################################
Settlement of the Danelaw
319
invasions was more widely known and no Danish leader more heartily
execrated than Ívarr, their commander on this occasion. After their
victory in East Anglia the Danes attacked Wessex. Their struggle with
Aethelred and his brother Alfred was long and fierce. In the end Danes
and English came to terms by the peace of Wedmore (878), and the
ensuing “ peace of Alfred and Guthrum” (885) defined the boundary
between Alfred's kingdom and the Danish realm in East Anglia. It ran
by the Thames estuary to the mouth of the Lea (a few miles east of
London), then up the Lea to its source near Leighton Buzzard, then east-
wards along the Ouse to Watling Street, somewhere near Fenny or Stony
Stratford. The northern half of Mercia was also in Danish hands, their
authority centring in the Five Boroughs of Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby,
Leicester and Stamford. Northumbria was at the same time under Viking
rule, its king until 877 being that Halfdanr (Halfdene) who was killed
on Strangford Lough. There can be little doubt that the chief Viking
leaders during these years (Halfdanr, Ívarr and Ubbi) were sons of
Ragnarr Loðbrók, the greatest of Viking heroes in Scandinavian tradition,
but it is impossible to say how much truth there may be in the story
which makes their attacks part of a scheme of vengeance for the torture
and death of Ragnarr at the hands of Aella, King of Northumbria.
One incident is perhaps of interest in connexion with the family of
Loðbrók. When Ubbi was fighting in Devonshire in 878 the English
captured from him a raven-banner which, say the Annals of St Neot,
was woven for the sons of Loðbrók by their sisters.
Though Alfred had secured an enlarged and independent kingdom,
his troubles were not at an end, and during the years from 880-896
England suffered from attacks made by raiders issuing from their
quarters on the Seine, the Somme and other Continental rivers. The
Northumbrian and East Anglian settlers remained neutral on the
whole, but they must have been much unsettled by the events of these
years, and when they commenced raiding once more, Alfred built a
fleet of vessels to meet them, which were both swifter and steadier than
the Danish ships. After 896 the struggle between English and Danes
was confined almost entirely to those already settled in the island, no
fresh raiders being mentioned until 921.
During all this time the Vikings were almost continuously active on
the Continent; raids on Frankish territory continued without cessation,
and it was only on the Eider boundary that a permanent peace was
established by a treaty between Louis the German and King Horic. In
845 a Danish fleet of some 120 vessels sailed up the Seine under the
leadership of Reginherus, i. e. probably Ragnarr Loðbrók himself. Paris
was destroyed and the Viking attack was only bought off by the pay-
ment of a large Danegeld. The years from 850–878 have been said, not
without justice, to mark the high tide of Viking invasion in Western
Frankish territory. We find Danish armies taking up more or less
a
CH. XIII.
## p. 320 (#366) ############################################
320
The Vikings in France, Spain and Italy
permanent quarters on the Rhine, the Scheldt, the Somme, the Seine,
the Loire and the Garonne, prominent among their leaders being one
Berno, or Björn Jarnsíða (Ironside), another son of Ragnarr Loðbrók.
A curious light is thrown on the effect of these raids upon the peasantry
by an incident in 859, when we hear of a rising of the populace between
the Seine and the Loire in the hope of expelling the Danes. The annals
are not quite clear as to whether it was the Frankish nobles or the
Danes who crushed the rising, but the outbreak indicates dissatisfaction
with the half-hearted defence of the country by the nobility.
In the years 859-862 a second great expedition to Spain and the
Mediterranean took place. Sailing from the Seine under the leadership
of Björn Jarnsíða and Hasting (O. N. Hásteinn), they made an unsuc-
cessful attack on Galicia and sailed round the coast through the
straits of Gibraltar. They attacked Nekur on the coast of Morocco.
There was fierce fighting with the Moors but in the end the Vikings were
victorious, and many of the “Blue-men," as they called the Moors, were
ultimately carried off prisoners to Ireland, where we hear of their fate in
the Fragments of Irish Annals. Returning to Spain they landed at
Murcia and proceeded thence to the Balearic Islands. Ravaging these
they made their way north to the French border, landed in Roussillon,
and advanced inland as far as Arles-sur-Tech. Taking to their ships,
they sailed north along the coast to the mouth of the Rhone and spent
the winter on the Island of Camargue in the Rhone delta. Plundering
the old Roman cities of Provence, they went up the Rhone as far as
Valence. In the spring they sailed to Italy, where they captured several
towns including Pisa and Luna, at the mouth of the Magra, south of
the bay of Spezia. The conquest of Luna was famed both in Norman
and Scandinavian tradition.
It is represented as the crowning feat of
the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók, who captured it under the delusion that
they had reached Rome itself. From Luna they sailed back through
the straits of Gibraltar and finally returned to Brittany in the spring of
862. The Vikings had now all but encircled Europe with their raids,
for it was in the year 865 that the Swedish Rôs (Russians) laid siege to
Constantinople.
In France itself the tide began to turn by the end of 865. In
November of that year the Vikings finally abandoned Aquitaine, and in
the next year
the Seine was for a time left free. The tide had now set
towards England, and at the same time the Franks commenced fortifying
their towns against Viking attack, a policy which was pursued a little
later by Edward the Elder in England. For our knowledge of this
period we have to rely almost entirely upon the chronicles of various
monastic writers compiling their records in isolation from one another,
so that it is almost impossible to trace any definite or general design in
Viking attacks. The leaders change continually and almost the only
constant figure is that Roric, brother of Harold, who was settled in
## p. 321 (#367) ############################################
The Vikings in France and England
321
Friesland. For some forty years he remained there, now in friendly,
now in hostile relations with both Charles the Bald and Louis the
German, and he does not disappear from our records until after 873.
About the same time Horic the Younger must have died, for we find two
new kings reigning simultaneously in Denmark, the brothers Sigefridus and
Halbdenus. Both were probably sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók, the former
being the famous Sigurðr Snake-eye and the latter the already-mentioned
Halfdanr.
In the year 879 the tide of invasion turned once more towards France,
chiefly owing to two causes. The great attack on England had failed
or at least had led to a peaceful settlement, which furnished no outlet for
Viking energy,
while at the same time affairs in France were once more
unsettled. Charles the Bald died in 877, followed 18 months later by
his son Louis the Stammerer, who left two youthful children, Louis and
Carloman, and a posthumous son Charles. Factions arose and the
Vikings were never slow to hear and take advantage of them. When a
great fleet which had wintered at Fulham found no opening in England,
it crossed to France. There the young Louis won a decisive victory over
a
it at Saucourt on the Somme, and the victory finds its record in the well-
known Ludwigslied. An attack by the Northmen on Saxony and the
lower Rhine was more successful. In a great fight which took place
somewhere on the Lüneburg Heath 2 February 880, there fell Duke Bruno
of Saxony together with two bishops, eleven counts and eighteen royal
vassals. In 882 the Emperor Charles the Fat came to terms with the
Viking leaders, Sigefrid and Guðröðr. King Guðröðr, who was probably
a son of the Harold of Mayence, himself accepted Christianity and
was granted lands on the lower Rhine, and at the same time undertook
to defend Charles's territory from attack. King Sigefrid retired with a
heavy payment of money. Guðröðr received his lands on much the same
conditions as Charles the Simple granted Normandy to Rollo, but
intriguing with the enemies of Charles he aroused hostility and was slain
in 885. He had thrown away the chance of establishing a Normandy in
the Low Countries. Viking rule was now brought to an end in Frisia,
and henceforward we hear only of sporadic attacks which continued into
the tenth century. So also from 885 Saxony was free from attack, and
when trouble was renewed in the tenth century the attack was not made
by sea but across the Eider boundary.
The West Frankish kingdom was still in the midst of the storm.
Louis III and Carloman and the local magnates offered a stout resistance,
but it seemed impossible to throw off the yoke of the here which ravaged
the whole country between the Rhine and the Loire. The contest cul-
minated in the great siege of Paris by King Sigefrid in 885–7. The
Viking army numbered some 40,000 men with 700 vessels, and it was only
through the stout resistance of Count Odo, and Bishop Joscelin and the
withdrawal of the Vikings to Burgundy by an arrangement with Charles
21
C. MED. H. VOL. III. CH. XIII.
## p. 322 (#368) ############################################
322
Founding of Normandy
the Fat, that the siege was raised. With the overthrow of Charles in
887 the West Frankish realm fell into anarchy, and the Vikings ravaged
Burgundy and eastern France almost without a check, while Brittany and
the Cotentin fared no better. Finally the great here concentrated its
attack on the valley of the Scheldt. In the autumn of 891 they were
defeated on the banks of the Dyle in Brabant by the new King Arnulf,
and after more desultory fighting they sailed for England in the autumn
of 892. They had been in France some thirteen years, ravaging and
plundering, and now for the first time since 840 France was free of the
Northmen. In England, after three years' hard fighting, the greater
number settled down to a peaceful existence in East Anglia and North-
umbria, but a few in whom the spirit of roving was still strong returned
to the Seine in 896. Twenty-five years earlier the Vikings had seemed
in a fair way to conquer Europe, but now the battle of Edington in
England (878), the siege of Paris in France (885–7) and the battle of
the Dyle in Germany (891), were significant of failure in these three
kingdoms alike.
The West Frankish realm was weakened by the dissensions of the
rival kings Odo and Charles the Simple, and soon all the old troubles
were renewed. Unfortunately the Annals provide us with very meagre
information about events during the next fifteen years, and we know
almost nothing about the critical period immediately preceding the
cession of Normandy to the Northmen. The Vikings would seem to have
settled themselves in the lower basin of the Seine, with Rouen as their
centre, and by 910 they appear under the leadership of the famous Rollo
(O. N. Hrollaugr). This Viking was probably of Norse origin (the Heims-
kringla describes him as one Hrólfr, son of Rögnvaldr, earl of Möre), though
the main body of the settlers were certainly Danes, and he had already
made himself a name in England, where he was closely associated with
Guthrum of East Anglia. He probably came to France soon after 896 and
gradually became the chief person among that band of equals. For some
time he carried on a hard struggle with Charles the Simple, and then,
towards the end of 911, each party frankly recognised the other's strength.
Charles could not oust the Northmen from the Seine valley, while they were
unable permanently to extend their settlement, so at St Clair-sur-Epte
it was agreed that the part of the Seine basin which includes the
counties of Rouen, Lisieux and Evreux, together with the country lying
between the rivers Bresle and Epte and the sea, should be left in the hands
of the Northmen on condition that they defended the kingdom against
attack, received baptism and did homage to Charles for their lands.
To these were added in 924 the districts of Bayeux and Séez, and in 933
those of Avranches and Coutances, thus bringing the Normans right up
to the Breton border. With the establishment of Normandy, Viking
activity was practically at an end in the Frankish kingdom : there were
still Northmen on the Loire who ravaged far inland, while the settlers
## p. 323 (#369) ############################################
Scandinavian kings in Northumbria
323
a
in Normandy freely raided Brittany, but no fresh settlements were made
and the Viking here had become a recognised part of the Frankish ost.
We must now turn our attention to the Danish settlements in
England. We have seen that already by the year 880 they had attained
the same measure of independence which was granted to Normandy in
911, but their later fortunes were by no means so peaceful or uneventful.
The Danes in East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria were not willing to
confine themselves to their settlements, and soon Edward the Elder and his
sister Aethelfleda, the “Lady of the Mercians,” established a line of fortified
towns in Southern Mercia preparatory to an advance on Danish territory.
By the year 917 all was ready. Derby fell in that year and Leicester in
918 before the advance of Aethelfleda, while in the same years
Northampton, Stamford and Nottingham were captured by Edward, and
East Anglia made its submission. By the end of his reign Edward was
master of the whole realm, including English, Danes and Norwegians.
These last were settled chiefly in Northumbria, where we find towards
the close of the ninth and in the early years of the tenth century a line
of kings closely associated with the Norse kingdom of Dublin. The
Norsemen were often in alliance with the Scots, and matters came to
a crisis in 937 when a great confederation of Scots, Strathclyde Welsh,
and Norsemen was formed against Aethelstan. The confederates were
defeated in the famous battle of Brunanburh (perhaps the modern
Birrenswark in Dumfriesshire), and England was freed from its greatest
danger since the days of King Alfred and his struggle with Guthrum
(O. N. Guðormr) and the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók. The Norse leaders
retired for a time, but trouble was renewed in 940 by an Anlaf (? Olaf
Guðfridson)'. Next year the famous Anlaf Sihtricsson (O. N. Olafr Sig.
tryggson), nicknamed “Cuaran," is found at York. He marched south and
endeavoured to conquer the district of the Five Boroughs. King Edmund
advanced to their help, and soon drove Anlaf out of Northern Mercia
and relieved the Danish boroughs from Norse oppression. During the
next twelve years Northumbria was in a state of anarchy. At times
Anlaf was acknowledged as king, at others English sovereignty was
recognised.
the duchies with the Crown unless he saw good reason for the contrary.
Hence he gave away one great duchy after another when it seemed good.
He gave Bavaria to Henry of Luxemburg when it was threatened by
Obo of Hungary; Swabia to the Lorrainer Otto when Godfrey was
troubling the neighbouring Lorraine. And he did not fear to raise
houses that might become rivals in the Empire if they served the present
use. It was so with his patronage of Luxemburgers and of Babenbergs.
And yet it must be confessed that Henry's dealings with the duchies
were not happy. Bavaria and Carinthia he left largely hostile to the
Crown. Lorraine was torn by rebellion because in the case of Godfrey
Henry had misjudged his man. Personal genius was lacking, too, in his
dealings with the border-land states, although with Bohemia and Hungary
he could claim success. And in Burgundy, if anywhere, he did succeed.
Upon internal order he had set his heart. We recall his “Declarations
of Indulgence" and the “ peace undreamt of through the ages” which
followed. Yet the peace was itself precarious, though his example was
fruitfully followed afterwards; and Germany, breathing awhile more
CH. XII.
202
## p. 308 (#354) ############################################
308
Henry's character
peacefully during recurring “Landfrieden," had cause to bless the day at
Constance.
In himself he seems to have lacked breadth and geniality: with
humble fidelity he took up the task of his inheritance: his single-minded-
ness and purity of character are testified to by all: there were great men
whom he chose out or who trusted him: Herman of Cologne, Bruno of
Toul (Leo IX), Peter Damiani. Yet he could fail with great men as
with smaller: Leo IX towards the end, and Wazo of Liège he misjudged;
the difficult Godfrey of Lorraine, whom he failed to understand, wellnigh
wrecked his Empire. It was this personal weakness that made him, in his
last years, fall below his own high standard, unable to cope with the
many difficulties of his Empire. He seems weary when he comes to die.
Germany looked back to him, not for the good that he had done, but
for the evil which came so swiftly when his day was over.
In Germany he did not build to stand. One great thing he did to
change history, and in doing it he raised up the power that was to cast
down his son and destroy his Empire. His tomb and his monument
should be in Rome.
## p. 309 (#355) ############################################
309
CHAPTER XIII.
THE VIKINGS.
The term Viking is a derivative of the Old Norse Vik, a creek, bay
or fjord, and means one who haunts such an opening and uses it as a base
whence raids may be made on the surrounding country. The word is
now commonly applied to those Norsemen, Danes and Swedes who harried
Europe from the eighth to the eleventh centuries, and in such phrases as
“the Viking age," "Viking civilisation,” is used in a still wider sense as a
convenient term for Scandinavian civilisation at a particular stage in its
development. It is in this larger sense that the term is used in the
present chapter, covering the activities of the Northmen in peace as well
as in war. The term Viking in its narrower sense is no more descriptive
of this age than “ Buccaneering” would be of the age of Elizabeth. .
Except along the narrow line of the Eider, Scandinavia has no land-
boundaries of importance and is naturally severed from the rest of Europe.
Though known to Greek and Roman geographers and historians, it was
almost entirely unaffected by Roman civilisation. It was not till the
Scandinavian peoples were driven by stress of circumstance to find fresh
homes, that they found that the sea instead of dividing them from the
rest of Europe really furnished them with a ready and easy path of attack
against those nations of North-West Europe who had either neglected
or forgotten the art of seamanship.
The history of the Teutonic North from the middle of the sixth to
the end of the eighth century is almost a blank, at least in so far as
history concerns itself with the record of definite events. During the
first half of the sixth century there had been considerable activity in
Denmark and Southern Sweden. About the year 520 Chocilaicus, King
of the Danes, or, according to another authority, of the Getae (i. e. Götar)
in South Sweden, made a raid on the territory of the Franks on the Lower
Rhine, but was defeated and slain by Theudibert, son of the Frankish king
Theodoric, as he was withdrawing from Frisia with extensive plunder.
This expedition finds poetic record in the exploits of Hygelac, King of
the Geats, in Beowulf. Some forty years later there is mention of them
in Venantius Fortunatus's eulogy of Duke Lupus of Champagne. They
a
a
CH. XI.
## p. 310 (#356) ############################################
310
Causes of Viking activity
were now in union with the Saxons and made a raid on Western Frisia,
but were soon driven back by the Franks. From this time until the first
landing of Vikings near Dorchester (c. 787), the earliest attacks on the
coast of France against which Charles the Great made defence in 800,
and the first encounter between the Danes and Franks on the borders of
Southern Denmark in 808, we know almost nothing of the history of
Scandinavia, at least in so far as we look for information in the annals or
histories of the time.
The story of these two hundred years has to some extent been pieced
together from scraps of historical, philological and archaeological evi-
dence. Professor Zimmer shewed that it was possible, that the attacks of
unknown pirates on the island of Eigg in the Hebrides and on Tory
Island off Donegal, described in certain Irish annals of the seventh
century, were really the work of early Viking invaders, and that the
witness of Irish legends and sagas tends to prove that already by the end
of the seventh century Irish missionaries were settled in the Shetlands and
Faroes, where they soon came into contact with the Northmen. Evidence
for the advance from the other side, of the Northmen towards the West
and South, has been found by Dr Jakobsen in his work on the place-names
of the Shetlands. He has shewn that many of these names must be due
to Norse settlements from a period long before the recognised Viking
movements of the ninth century. Archaeological evidence can also be
adduced in support of this belief in early intercourse between Scandinavia
and the islands of the West. Sculptured stones found in the island of
Gothland shew already by 700 clear evidence of Celtic art influence.
Indeed archaeologists are now agreed that in the eighth century and
even earlier there were trade connexions between Scandinavia and the
West. Long before English or Irish, Franks or Frisians, knew the
Northmen as Viking raiders, they had been familiar with them in peace-
ful mercantile intercourse, and it is probable that in the eighth century
there were a good number of Scandinavian merchants settled in Western
Europe. Their influence on the trade of the West was only exceeded
by that of the Frisians, who were the chief trading and naval power of
the seventh and eighth centuries, and it is most probable that it was the
crushing of Frisian power by Charles Martel in 734 and their final sub-
jection by Charles the Great towards the close of the eighth century
which helped to prepare the way for the great Viking advance.
About the year 800 the relations between the North and West
Germanic peoples underwent a great change both in character and extent.
We find the coasts of England, Ireland, Frisia and France attacked by
Viking raiders, while on the southern borders of Denmark there was
constant friction between the kings of that country and the forces of the
Empire. The question has often been asked: What were the causes of
this sudden outburst of hostile activity on the part of the Northmen?
Monkish chroniclers said they were sent by God in punishment for the
## p. 311 (#357) ############################################
Early raids on England and Ireland
311
a
sins of the age ; Norman tradition as preserved by Dudo and William of
Jumièges attributed the raids to the necessity for expansion consequent
on over-population. Polygamy had led to a rapid increase of population,
and many of the youth of the country were driven forth to gain fresh
lands for themselves elsewhere. Polygamy does not necessarily lead to
over-population, but polygamy among the ruling classes, as it prevailed
in the North, means a large number of younger sons for whom provision
must be made, and it is quite possible that stress of circumstance caused
many such to visit foreign lands on Viking raids. Of the political condition
of the Scandinavian countries we know very little at this time. We hear
however in Denmark in the early years of the ninth century of long
disputes as to the succession, and it is probable that difficulties of this
kind may have prompted many to go on foreign expeditions. In Norway
we know that the growth of the power of Harold Fairhair in the middle
portion of the ninth century led to the adoption of a Viking life by many
of the more independent spirits, and it is quite possible that earlier
efforts towards consolidation among the petty Norwegian kings may have
produced similar effects. Social and political conditions may thus have
worked together, preparing the ground for Scandinavian activity in the
ninth century, and it was perhaps, as suggested above, the destruction
of Frisian power which removed the last check on the energy of the
populous nations of the North.
The first definite record of Viking invasion is probably that found in
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (s. a. 787), which tells of the coming of Danish
ships to England in the days of Beorhtric, King of Wessex. They
landed in the neighbourhood of Dorchester and slew the king's reeve.
Certain versions of the Chronicle call them ships of the Northmen and
tell us that they came from “Herethaland. ” There can be little doubt that
this is the West Norwegian district of Hörthaland, and that “ Northmen"
here, as elsewhere in the Chronicle, means Norwegians? . The term
“ Danish” is probably generic for Scandinavian, the chronicler using the
name of the nationality best known to him. In June 793 the church at
Lindisfarne was destroyed, and a year later the monastery of St Paul at
Jarrow. In 795 Vikings landed in Skye and visited Lambay Island off
Dublin, and in 798 the Isle of Man. These invaders were certainly
Norse, for the Irish annalists mention expressly the first arrival of the
Danes in Ireland in 849, and draw a rigid distinction between the Nor-
wegian or “white” foreigners and the Danish or "black" ones.
England was not troubled again by Viking raiders until 835, but the
attacks on Ireland continued almost without cessation.
lona was
72
1
Attempts have been made to identify Herethaland with the district of Har-
desyssel in Jutland and to prove that these Northmen were Danes, but the weight
of evidence seems to the present writer to be all in favour of the identification with
Hörthaland. The name Hiruath commonly given to Norway by Gaelic writers is
another version of the same name,
CH. XIII,
## p. 312 (#358) ############################################
312
The Danish kingdom
destroyed in 802; by 807 the invaders had penetrated inland as far as
Roscommon, and four years later they had made their way round the
west coast of Ireland as far as Cork. In 821 the Howth peninsula was
plundered and during the next few years the rich monasteries of North Ire-
land were destroyed. By the year 834 the Northmen had visited nearly
the whole of the island and no place was safe from their raids. About this
time there came a change in the character of the attacks in that large
fleets began to anchor in the loughs and harbours and estuaries with
which the coast of Ireland abounds. Thence they made lengthy raids
on the surrounding country, often staying the whole winter through,
instead of paying summer visits only as they had done hitherto. At
the same time they often strengthened their base by the erection of
forts on the shores of the waters in which they had established them-
selves.
When the Viking raids were resumed in England in 835 it is fairly
certain that they were the work of Danish and not of Norwegian
invaders. The Norsemen had found other fields of activity in Ireland,
while the Danes who had already visited the chief estuaries of the Frankish
coast now crossed to England. At first their attacks were directed
towards the southern shores of Britain, but by 841 they had penetrated
into Lindsey and East Anglia. London and Rochester were sacked in
842. In 851 the Danes wintered in Thanet and four years later they
stayed in Sheppey. The Danish fleet in this year numbered some 350
ships. It was probably this same fleet, somewhat reduced in numbers,
which in 852 sailed round Britain and captured Dublin. With the
winterings in Thanet and Sheppey the Viking invasions of England had
reached the same stage of development as in Ireland. We have passed
from the period of isolated raids to that of persistent attacks with a
view to permanent conquest.
The mainland of Western Europe was also exposed during these
years
to attacks of a twofold character. In the first place, trouble arose
on the boundary between Southern Denmark and Frankish territory owing
to the desire of the Danish kings to extend their authority southward :
in the second, constant raids were made along the whole of the shores of
Europe from Frisia to Aquitaine.
The friction between the Danes and their neighbours on the south
was continuous through the last years of the eighth and the greater part
of the ninth century. Charles the Great by his campaigns against the
Saxons and Nordalbingians had advanced towards the Danish boundary
on the Eider, and the Danes first gave offence in 777 when their king
Sigefridus (Old Norse Sigurðr) gave shelter to the Saxon patriot Widukind.
Gradually the Frankish power advanced, and in 809 a fort was established
at Itzehoe (Esesfeld) on the Stör, north of the Elbe. The Danes also made
advances on their side and in 804 their king Godefridus (O. N. Guðröðr)
collected a fleet and army at Slesvík (Schleswig). In 808 after a successful
## p. 313 (#359) ############################################
Preaching of Christianity
313
campaign against the Obotrites, a Slavonic people in modern Meck-
lenburg, he constructed a boundary wall for his kingdom, stretching
from the Baltic to the Eider. He received tribute not only from the
Obotrites but also from the Nordalbingians and Frisians. He was pre-
paring to attack Charles the Great himself when he died suddenly by the
hand of a retainer in 810. There can be little doubt that this Godefridus
is to be identified with the Gotricus of Saxo Grammaticus and Guðröðr
the Yngling of Scandinavian tradition. If that is so, Guðröðr-Gode-
fridus was slain in Stifla Sound (probably on the coast of Vestfold), and
was king not only of Denmark, but also of much of Southern Norway,
including Vestfold, Vingulmörk, and perhaps Agðir, as well as of Verm-
land in Sweden.
Later events confirm the evidence for the existence of a Dano-
Norwegian kingdom of this kind. In 812 a dispute as to the succession
arose between Sigefridus, “nepos” to king Guðröðr, and Anulo (O. N.
Óli), “nepos” to a former king Herioldus (O. N. Haraldr) or Harold
(probably the famous Harold Hyldetan slain at the battle of Bravalla).
Both claimants were slain in fight but the party of Anulo were victorious.
Anulo's brothers, Harold and Reginfredus (O. N. Ragnfröðr), became joint
kings, and soon after we hear of their going to Vestfold, “the extreme
district of their realm, whose people and chiefs were refusing to be made
subject to them. ” Fortune fluctuated between Harold and the sons of
Godefridus during the next few years, but Harold secured the support of
the Emperor when he accepted baptism at Mayence in 826, with his wife,
son and nephew. After his baptism he returned to Denunark through
Frisia, where the Emperor had granted him Riustringen as a retreat in
case of necessity. An attempt to regain Denmark was frustrated, and
Harold probably availed himself of his Frisian grant during the next few
years. The next incident belongs to the year 836, when Horic (O. N.
Hárekr), one of the sons of Godefridus, sent an embassy to Louis the
Pious denying complicity in the Viking raids made on Frisia at that time,
and these denials continued during the next few years. In 837
Hemmingus (O. N. Hemmingr), probably a brother of Harold, and himself
a Christian, was slain while defending the island of Walcheren against
pirates. These two incidents are important as they tend to shew that
the Vikiny raids were rather individual than national enterprises and
that there was an extensive peaceful settlement of Danes in Frisia. In
addition to the grant of Riustringen the Emperor had assigned (826)
another part of Frisia to Roric (O. N. Hrærekr), a brother of Harold, on
condition that he should ward off piratical attacks.
It was during these years that the influence of Christianity first made
itself felt in Scandinavia. The earliest knowledge of Christianity
probably came, as is so often the case, with the extension of trade.
Danes and Swedes settled in Friesland and elsewhere for purposes of
trade, and either they or their emissaries must have made the “ white
CH. XIII.
## p. 314 (#360) ############################################
314
St Anskar
Christ” known to their heathen countrymen. The first definite mission
to the North was undertaken by St Willibrord at the beginning of the
eighth century. He was favourably received by the Danish king
Ongendus (O. N. Angantýr), but his mission was without fruit. In 822
Pope Paschal appointed Ebbo, Archbishop of Rheims, as his legate
among the northern peoples. He undertook a mission to Denmark in
823 and made a few converts. But it was in 826, when King Harold was
baptised and prepared to return to Denmark, that the first opportunity
of preaching Christianity in Denmark really came. With the opportunity
came the man, and Harold was accompanied on his return by Anskar, who
more than any other deserves to be called “Apostle of the Scandinavian
North. ” Leaving his monastery at Corvey (Corbie) in Saxony, and filled
with zeal to preach the gospel to the heathen, Anskar made many converts,
but Harold's ill-success in regaining the sovereignty injured his mission
in Denmark and, two years later, at the request of the Swedes themselves,
he preached the gospel in Sweden, receiving a welcome at Birca (Björkö)
from the Swedish king Bern (O. N. Björn). After a year and a half's mission
in Sweden, Anskar was recalled and made Archbishop of Hamburg and
given, jointly with Ebbo, jurisdiction over the whole of the northern
realms. Gautbert was made first bishop of Sweden and founded a church
at Sigtuna, but after a few years' work he was expelled in a popular
rising Little progress was made in Denmark. No churches were
established, but Anskar did a good deal in training Danish youths in
Christian principles at his school in Hamburg.
Anskar's position became a very difficult one when the lands from which
his income was derived passed to Charles the Bald, and still more so when
the seat of his jurisdiction was destroyed by the Danes in 845. Louis
the German made amends by appointing him to the bishopric of Bremen,
afterwards united to a restored archbishopric of Hamburg. Anskar
now set himself to the task of gaining influence first with King Horic,
and later with his successor Horic the Younger. He was so far success-
ful that the first Christian church in Denmark was established at Slesvík,
followed soon after by one at Ribe. He also concerned himself with
Sweden once more, gaining authority for his mission by undertaking
embassies from both Horic and Louis. He obtained permission for the
preaching of Christianity and continued his activities to the day of his
death in 865. Anskar had done much for Christianity in the North.
His own fiery zeal had however been ill supported even by his chosen
followers, and the tangible results were few. Christianity had found a
hearing in Denmark and Sweden, but Norway was as yet untouched. A
few churches had been built in the southern part of both countries, a
certain number of adherents had been gained among the nobles and
trading classes, but the mass of the people remained untouched. The
first introduction of Christianity was too closely bound up with the
political and diplomatic relations of Northern Europe for it to be
## p. 315 (#361) ############################################
Viking raids on Frankish territory
315
otherwise, and the episcopal organisation was far more elaborate than
was required.
With the death of Louis the Pious in 840 a change took place in
the relations between Danes and Franks. In the quarrels over the
division of the Empire Lothar encouraged attacks on the territory of
his rivals. Harold was bribed by a grant of the island of Walcheren
and neighbouring district, so that in 842 we find him as far south as the
Moselle, while Horic himself took part in an expedition up the Elbe
against Louis the German. In 847 when the brothers had for the time
being patched up their quarrels, they stultified themselves by sending
embassies to Horic, asking him to restrain his subjects from attacking
the Christians. Horic had not the power, even if he had the desire, but,
fortunately for the Empire, Denmark was now crippled by internal
dissensions. This prevented any attack on the part of the Danish
nation as a whole, but Viking raids continued without intermission.
The first sign of dissension in Denmark appeared in 850, when Horic
was attacked by his two nephews and compelled to share his kingdom
with them. In 852 Harold, the long-exiled King of Denmark, was slain
for his treachery to Lothar, and two years later a revolution took place.
We are told that after twenty years' ravaging in Frankish territory
the Vikings made their way back to their fatherland, and there a dispute
arose between Horic and his nephew Godurm (O. N. Guðormr). A dis-
astrous battle was fought and so great was the slaughter that only one
boy of the royal line remained. He became king as Horic the Younger.
Encouraged by these dissensions, Roric and Godefridus, brother and son
respectively to Harold, attempted in 855 to win the Danish kingdom
but were compelled to retire again to Frisia. Roric was more successful
in 857 when he received permission from Horic to settle in the part of
his kingdom lying between the sea and the Eider, i. e. perhaps in North
Frisia, a district consisting of a strip of coast-line between the town of
Ribe and the mouth of the Eider, with the islands adjacen
We have now carried the story of the relations between Denmark
and her continental neighbours down to the middle of the ninth
century, the same period to which we have traced the story of the Viking
raids in England and Ireland. Before we tell the story of the trans-
formation which those raids underwent just at this time, we must say
something of Viking attacks on the maritime borders of the Continent.
The first mention of raids on the coast of Western Europe is in 800,
when Charles the Great visited the coast-line from the Somme to the Seine
and arranged for a fleet and coast-guard to protect it against Viking
attacks. In 810, probably under direct instruction from the Danish
king Godefridus, a fleet of some 200 vessels ravaged Frisia and its
islands. Once more Charles the Great strengthened his feet and the
guarding of the shores, but raids continued to be a matter of almost
yearly occurrence. The Emperor Louis pursued the same policy as his
CH. XIII.
## p. 316 (#362) ############################################
316
The Vikings in Spain
father, nevertheless by 821 the Vikings had sailed round Brittany and
sacked monasteries in the islands of Noirmoutier and Rhé. From 814-
833 attacks were almost entirely confined to these districts, and it is
possible that these Vikings had their winter quarters in Ireland, where
they were specially active at this time. At any rate it was to Wexford
that one of these feets returned in 820. The later years of Louis's
reign (from 834) were troubled ones. The Empire was weakened by the
Emperor's differences with his sons, and the Vikings had laid a firm hold
on Frisia. They were attracted by its rich trade and more especially by
the wealth of Dorestad, one of the most important trading cities of the
Empire. Before the death of the Emperor in 840, Dorestad had been
four times ravaged and the Vikings had sailed up the chief rivers,
burning both Utrecht and Antwerp. Their success was the more rapid
owing to the disloyalty of the Frisians themselves and possibly to help
given them by Harold and his brother Roric, but the exact attitude of
these princes and of the Danish king himself toward the raiders it is
difficult to determine. There are rather too many protests of innocence
on the part of Horic for us to believe in their entire genuineness.
After 840 the quarrels between the heirs of Louis the Pious laid
Western Europe open to attack even more than it had been hitherto.
In that year the Vikings sailed up the Seine for the first time as far as
Rouen, while in 843 they appeared for the first time on the Loire.
Here they were helped by the quarrels over the Aquitanian succession,
and it is said that pilots, lent by Count Lambert, steered them up
the
Loire. They then took up their winter quarters on the island of Noir-
moutier, where they seemed determined to make a permanent settlement.
The invasionsin France had reached the same stage of development to which
we have already traced them in England and Ireland. It is in connexion
with this expedition that we have one of the rare indications of the
actual home of the invaders. They are called “Westfaldingi,” and must
herefore have come from the Norwegian district of Vestfold, which,
as we have seen, formed part of the Danish kingdom about this
time.
In 843 the Northmen advanced a stage further south. Sailing past
Bordeaux they ravaged the upper basin of the Garonne. In the next
year they visited Spain. Repelled by the bold defence of the Asturians,
they sailed down the west coast of the peninsula and in September
appeared before Lisbon. The Moors offered a stout resistance and the
Vikings moved on to Cadiz, whence they ravaged the province of Sidonia
in southern Andalusia. Penetrating as far as Seville, they captured
that city, with the exception of its citadel, and raided Cordova. In the
end they were out-generalled by the Musulmans and forced to retreat
with heavy loss. Taking to their ships once more they ravaged the
coast as far as Lisbon, and returned to the Gironde before the end of
the year. It was probably on this expedition that some of the Vikings
## p. 317 (#363) ############################################
Olaf the White
317
a
66 after
made a raid on Arzilla in Morocco. After the expedition embassies were
exchanged between the Viking king and the Emir ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān II.
The Moorish embassy would seem to have found the king in Ireland, and
it is possible that he was the great Viking chief Turgeis, of whom we
must now speak.
We have traced the development of Viking activity in Ireland and
England, for Ireland down to the year 834. It was just at this time that
the great leader Turgeis (? O. N. Thorgestr) made his appearance in North
Ireland and attempted to establish sovereignty over all the foreigners in
Erin and gain the overlordship of the whole country. He conquered
North Ireland and raided Meath and Connaught, while his wife Ota (O. N.
Auðr) gave audience upon the altar of Clonmacnois. His power cul-
minated in 841, when he usurped the abbacy of Armagh. In 845 he was
captured by the Irish and drowned in Lough Owel. By this time so
numerous were the invading hosts that the chroniclers tell us
this there came great sea-cast floods of foreigners into Erin, so that
there was not a point without a fleet. ” In 849 the invasions developed
a new phase. Hitherto while the Irish had been weakened by much
internecine warfare their enemies had worked with one mind and heart.
Now we read: “A naval expedition of seven score of the Foreigners
came to exercise power over the Foreigners who were before them, so
that they disturbed all Ireland afterwards. ” This means that the Danes
were now taking an active part in the Scandinavian invasions of Ireland,
and we soon find them disputing supremacy with the earlier Norwegian
settlers. At the same time we have the first mention of intrigues
between Irish factions and the foreign invaders, intrigues which were
destined to play an important part in the Irish wars of the next fifty
years. For a time Dublin was in the hands of the Danes, but in 853
one Amhlaeibh (i. e. Olaf), son of the king of Lochlann (i. e. Norway),
came to Ireland and received the submission of Danes and Norsemen
alike, while tribute was given him by the native Irish. Henceforward
Dublin was the chief stronghold of Norse power in Ireland.
This Amhlaeibh was Olaf the White of Norse tradition, the repre-
sentative of that branch of the Yngling family who, according to Ari
Fróði, settled in Ireland. Affairs were now further complicated by the
fact that many Irish forsook Christianity and joined the Norsemen
in their plunderings. These recreant Irish, who probably intermarried
with the Norsemen, were known as the Gall-Gaedhil, i. e. the foreign
Irish, and played an important part in the wars of the next few
years. One of their leaders was Caitill Find, i. e. Ketill the White,
à Norseman with an Irish nickname. Usually they fought on the
side of the Norsemen but at times they played for their own hand.
Olaf was assisted by his brothers Imhar (O. N. Ívarr) and Auisle (O. N.
Auðgísl), and married the daughter of Aedh Finnliath (MacNiall), King
of all Ireland. Dublin, Waterford, Limerick and occasionally Cork
CH. XIII.
## p. 318 (#364) ############################################
318
Ragnarr Loðbrók
were the centres of Norse activity at this time, but there seems to have
been no unity of action among their forces. In 866 Olaf and Auðgísl
made a successful expedition to Pictland, and again in 870–1 Olaf and
Ívarr made a raid on Scotland. Olaf now returned to Norway to assist
his father Goffraidh (O. N. Guðfriðr) and possibly to take part with him
in the great fight at Hafrsfjord against Harold Fairhair. We hear
nothing more of Olaf, and two years later Ívarr, “ king of the Norsemen
of all Ireland and Britain," ended his life.
There now appear on the scene Viking leaders of a different family,
which seems to have over-shadowed that of Olaf. They were the sons of
one Raghnall, who had been expelled from his sovereignty in Norway.
Raghnall had remained in the Orkneys, but his elder sons came to the
British Isles, “being desirous of attacking the Franks and Saxons. ”
Not content with this they pushed on from Ireland across the Canta-
brian sea until they reached Spain. After a successful campaign
against the Moors in Africa they returned to Ireland and settled in
Dublin. So runs the story in the Fragments of Irish Annals edited by
Dugald MacFirbis, and there can be little doubt of its substratum of
truth or of the identification of this Raghnall and his sons with the well-
known figures of Ragnarr Loðbrók and his sons. In 877 Raghnall's son
Albdann (O. N. Halfdanr) was killed on Strangford Lough, while
fighting against the Norse champion Baraidh (O. N. Barðr) who was
attached to the house of Olaf.
At this point the Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gall notes a period
of rest for the men of Erin, lasting some forty years and ending in 916.
This statement is substantially true. We do not hear of any large fleets
coming to Ireland, and during these years Viking activity seems chiefly
to have centred in Britain. Trouble was only renewed when the success
of the campaigns of Edward the Elder in England once more drove the
Vikings westward.
We have traced the history of the Vikings in England down to
the first settlement in 851 and 855. During the years which followed
there were raids on the south made by Vikings from Frankish territory,
but the great development took place in 866, when a large Danish army
took up its quarters in East Anglia, whence they advanced to York in
867. Northumbria was weakened by dissension and the Danes captured
York without much trouble. This city was henceforward the stronghold
of Scandinavian power in Northern England, and the Saxon Eoforwíc
soon became the Norse Jórvík or York. The Danes set up a puppet
king Ecgberht in Northumbria north of the Tyne and reduced Mercia
to submission. Thence they marched into East Anglia as far as Thetford,
and engaged the forces of Edmund, King of East Anglia, defeating and
slaying him, but whether in actual battle or, as popular tradition would
have it, in later martyrdom is uncertain. The death of St Edmund
soon became an event of European fame, and no event in the Danish
## p. 319 (#365) ############################################
Settlement of the Danelaw
319
invasions was more widely known and no Danish leader more heartily
execrated than Ívarr, their commander on this occasion. After their
victory in East Anglia the Danes attacked Wessex. Their struggle with
Aethelred and his brother Alfred was long and fierce. In the end Danes
and English came to terms by the peace of Wedmore (878), and the
ensuing “ peace of Alfred and Guthrum” (885) defined the boundary
between Alfred's kingdom and the Danish realm in East Anglia. It ran
by the Thames estuary to the mouth of the Lea (a few miles east of
London), then up the Lea to its source near Leighton Buzzard, then east-
wards along the Ouse to Watling Street, somewhere near Fenny or Stony
Stratford. The northern half of Mercia was also in Danish hands, their
authority centring in the Five Boroughs of Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby,
Leicester and Stamford. Northumbria was at the same time under Viking
rule, its king until 877 being that Halfdanr (Halfdene) who was killed
on Strangford Lough. There can be little doubt that the chief Viking
leaders during these years (Halfdanr, Ívarr and Ubbi) were sons of
Ragnarr Loðbrók, the greatest of Viking heroes in Scandinavian tradition,
but it is impossible to say how much truth there may be in the story
which makes their attacks part of a scheme of vengeance for the torture
and death of Ragnarr at the hands of Aella, King of Northumbria.
One incident is perhaps of interest in connexion with the family of
Loðbrók. When Ubbi was fighting in Devonshire in 878 the English
captured from him a raven-banner which, say the Annals of St Neot,
was woven for the sons of Loðbrók by their sisters.
Though Alfred had secured an enlarged and independent kingdom,
his troubles were not at an end, and during the years from 880-896
England suffered from attacks made by raiders issuing from their
quarters on the Seine, the Somme and other Continental rivers. The
Northumbrian and East Anglian settlers remained neutral on the
whole, but they must have been much unsettled by the events of these
years, and when they commenced raiding once more, Alfred built a
fleet of vessels to meet them, which were both swifter and steadier than
the Danish ships. After 896 the struggle between English and Danes
was confined almost entirely to those already settled in the island, no
fresh raiders being mentioned until 921.
During all this time the Vikings were almost continuously active on
the Continent; raids on Frankish territory continued without cessation,
and it was only on the Eider boundary that a permanent peace was
established by a treaty between Louis the German and King Horic. In
845 a Danish fleet of some 120 vessels sailed up the Seine under the
leadership of Reginherus, i. e. probably Ragnarr Loðbrók himself. Paris
was destroyed and the Viking attack was only bought off by the pay-
ment of a large Danegeld. The years from 850–878 have been said, not
without justice, to mark the high tide of Viking invasion in Western
Frankish territory. We find Danish armies taking up more or less
a
CH. XIII.
## p. 320 (#366) ############################################
320
The Vikings in France, Spain and Italy
permanent quarters on the Rhine, the Scheldt, the Somme, the Seine,
the Loire and the Garonne, prominent among their leaders being one
Berno, or Björn Jarnsíða (Ironside), another son of Ragnarr Loðbrók.
A curious light is thrown on the effect of these raids upon the peasantry
by an incident in 859, when we hear of a rising of the populace between
the Seine and the Loire in the hope of expelling the Danes. The annals
are not quite clear as to whether it was the Frankish nobles or the
Danes who crushed the rising, but the outbreak indicates dissatisfaction
with the half-hearted defence of the country by the nobility.
In the years 859-862 a second great expedition to Spain and the
Mediterranean took place. Sailing from the Seine under the leadership
of Björn Jarnsíða and Hasting (O. N. Hásteinn), they made an unsuc-
cessful attack on Galicia and sailed round the coast through the
straits of Gibraltar. They attacked Nekur on the coast of Morocco.
There was fierce fighting with the Moors but in the end the Vikings were
victorious, and many of the “Blue-men," as they called the Moors, were
ultimately carried off prisoners to Ireland, where we hear of their fate in
the Fragments of Irish Annals. Returning to Spain they landed at
Murcia and proceeded thence to the Balearic Islands. Ravaging these
they made their way north to the French border, landed in Roussillon,
and advanced inland as far as Arles-sur-Tech. Taking to their ships,
they sailed north along the coast to the mouth of the Rhone and spent
the winter on the Island of Camargue in the Rhone delta. Plundering
the old Roman cities of Provence, they went up the Rhone as far as
Valence. In the spring they sailed to Italy, where they captured several
towns including Pisa and Luna, at the mouth of the Magra, south of
the bay of Spezia. The conquest of Luna was famed both in Norman
and Scandinavian tradition.
It is represented as the crowning feat of
the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók, who captured it under the delusion that
they had reached Rome itself. From Luna they sailed back through
the straits of Gibraltar and finally returned to Brittany in the spring of
862. The Vikings had now all but encircled Europe with their raids,
for it was in the year 865 that the Swedish Rôs (Russians) laid siege to
Constantinople.
In France itself the tide began to turn by the end of 865. In
November of that year the Vikings finally abandoned Aquitaine, and in
the next year
the Seine was for a time left free. The tide had now set
towards England, and at the same time the Franks commenced fortifying
their towns against Viking attack, a policy which was pursued a little
later by Edward the Elder in England. For our knowledge of this
period we have to rely almost entirely upon the chronicles of various
monastic writers compiling their records in isolation from one another,
so that it is almost impossible to trace any definite or general design in
Viking attacks. The leaders change continually and almost the only
constant figure is that Roric, brother of Harold, who was settled in
## p. 321 (#367) ############################################
The Vikings in France and England
321
Friesland. For some forty years he remained there, now in friendly,
now in hostile relations with both Charles the Bald and Louis the
German, and he does not disappear from our records until after 873.
About the same time Horic the Younger must have died, for we find two
new kings reigning simultaneously in Denmark, the brothers Sigefridus and
Halbdenus. Both were probably sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók, the former
being the famous Sigurðr Snake-eye and the latter the already-mentioned
Halfdanr.
In the year 879 the tide of invasion turned once more towards France,
chiefly owing to two causes. The great attack on England had failed
or at least had led to a peaceful settlement, which furnished no outlet for
Viking energy,
while at the same time affairs in France were once more
unsettled. Charles the Bald died in 877, followed 18 months later by
his son Louis the Stammerer, who left two youthful children, Louis and
Carloman, and a posthumous son Charles. Factions arose and the
Vikings were never slow to hear and take advantage of them. When a
great fleet which had wintered at Fulham found no opening in England,
it crossed to France. There the young Louis won a decisive victory over
a
it at Saucourt on the Somme, and the victory finds its record in the well-
known Ludwigslied. An attack by the Northmen on Saxony and the
lower Rhine was more successful. In a great fight which took place
somewhere on the Lüneburg Heath 2 February 880, there fell Duke Bruno
of Saxony together with two bishops, eleven counts and eighteen royal
vassals. In 882 the Emperor Charles the Fat came to terms with the
Viking leaders, Sigefrid and Guðröðr. King Guðröðr, who was probably
a son of the Harold of Mayence, himself accepted Christianity and
was granted lands on the lower Rhine, and at the same time undertook
to defend Charles's territory from attack. King Sigefrid retired with a
heavy payment of money. Guðröðr received his lands on much the same
conditions as Charles the Simple granted Normandy to Rollo, but
intriguing with the enemies of Charles he aroused hostility and was slain
in 885. He had thrown away the chance of establishing a Normandy in
the Low Countries. Viking rule was now brought to an end in Frisia,
and henceforward we hear only of sporadic attacks which continued into
the tenth century. So also from 885 Saxony was free from attack, and
when trouble was renewed in the tenth century the attack was not made
by sea but across the Eider boundary.
The West Frankish kingdom was still in the midst of the storm.
Louis III and Carloman and the local magnates offered a stout resistance,
but it seemed impossible to throw off the yoke of the here which ravaged
the whole country between the Rhine and the Loire. The contest cul-
minated in the great siege of Paris by King Sigefrid in 885–7. The
Viking army numbered some 40,000 men with 700 vessels, and it was only
through the stout resistance of Count Odo, and Bishop Joscelin and the
withdrawal of the Vikings to Burgundy by an arrangement with Charles
21
C. MED. H. VOL. III. CH. XIII.
## p. 322 (#368) ############################################
322
Founding of Normandy
the Fat, that the siege was raised. With the overthrow of Charles in
887 the West Frankish realm fell into anarchy, and the Vikings ravaged
Burgundy and eastern France almost without a check, while Brittany and
the Cotentin fared no better. Finally the great here concentrated its
attack on the valley of the Scheldt. In the autumn of 891 they were
defeated on the banks of the Dyle in Brabant by the new King Arnulf,
and after more desultory fighting they sailed for England in the autumn
of 892. They had been in France some thirteen years, ravaging and
plundering, and now for the first time since 840 France was free of the
Northmen. In England, after three years' hard fighting, the greater
number settled down to a peaceful existence in East Anglia and North-
umbria, but a few in whom the spirit of roving was still strong returned
to the Seine in 896. Twenty-five years earlier the Vikings had seemed
in a fair way to conquer Europe, but now the battle of Edington in
England (878), the siege of Paris in France (885–7) and the battle of
the Dyle in Germany (891), were significant of failure in these three
kingdoms alike.
The West Frankish realm was weakened by the dissensions of the
rival kings Odo and Charles the Simple, and soon all the old troubles
were renewed. Unfortunately the Annals provide us with very meagre
information about events during the next fifteen years, and we know
almost nothing about the critical period immediately preceding the
cession of Normandy to the Northmen. The Vikings would seem to have
settled themselves in the lower basin of the Seine, with Rouen as their
centre, and by 910 they appear under the leadership of the famous Rollo
(O. N. Hrollaugr). This Viking was probably of Norse origin (the Heims-
kringla describes him as one Hrólfr, son of Rögnvaldr, earl of Möre), though
the main body of the settlers were certainly Danes, and he had already
made himself a name in England, where he was closely associated with
Guthrum of East Anglia. He probably came to France soon after 896 and
gradually became the chief person among that band of equals. For some
time he carried on a hard struggle with Charles the Simple, and then,
towards the end of 911, each party frankly recognised the other's strength.
Charles could not oust the Northmen from the Seine valley, while they were
unable permanently to extend their settlement, so at St Clair-sur-Epte
it was agreed that the part of the Seine basin which includes the
counties of Rouen, Lisieux and Evreux, together with the country lying
between the rivers Bresle and Epte and the sea, should be left in the hands
of the Northmen on condition that they defended the kingdom against
attack, received baptism and did homage to Charles for their lands.
To these were added in 924 the districts of Bayeux and Séez, and in 933
those of Avranches and Coutances, thus bringing the Normans right up
to the Breton border. With the establishment of Normandy, Viking
activity was practically at an end in the Frankish kingdom : there were
still Northmen on the Loire who ravaged far inland, while the settlers
## p. 323 (#369) ############################################
Scandinavian kings in Northumbria
323
a
in Normandy freely raided Brittany, but no fresh settlements were made
and the Viking here had become a recognised part of the Frankish ost.
We must now turn our attention to the Danish settlements in
England. We have seen that already by the year 880 they had attained
the same measure of independence which was granted to Normandy in
911, but their later fortunes were by no means so peaceful or uneventful.
The Danes in East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria were not willing to
confine themselves to their settlements, and soon Edward the Elder and his
sister Aethelfleda, the “Lady of the Mercians,” established a line of fortified
towns in Southern Mercia preparatory to an advance on Danish territory.
By the year 917 all was ready. Derby fell in that year and Leicester in
918 before the advance of Aethelfleda, while in the same years
Northampton, Stamford and Nottingham were captured by Edward, and
East Anglia made its submission. By the end of his reign Edward was
master of the whole realm, including English, Danes and Norwegians.
These last were settled chiefly in Northumbria, where we find towards
the close of the ninth and in the early years of the tenth century a line
of kings closely associated with the Norse kingdom of Dublin. The
Norsemen were often in alliance with the Scots, and matters came to
a crisis in 937 when a great confederation of Scots, Strathclyde Welsh,
and Norsemen was formed against Aethelstan. The confederates were
defeated in the famous battle of Brunanburh (perhaps the modern
Birrenswark in Dumfriesshire), and England was freed from its greatest
danger since the days of King Alfred and his struggle with Guthrum
(O. N. Guðormr) and the sons of Ragnarr Loðbrók. The Norse leaders
retired for a time, but trouble was renewed in 940 by an Anlaf (? Olaf
Guðfridson)'. Next year the famous Anlaf Sihtricsson (O. N. Olafr Sig.
tryggson), nicknamed “Cuaran," is found at York. He marched south and
endeavoured to conquer the district of the Five Boroughs. King Edmund
advanced to their help, and soon drove Anlaf out of Northern Mercia
and relieved the Danish boroughs from Norse oppression. During the
next twelve years Northumbria was in a state of anarchy. At times
Anlaf was acknowledged as king, at others English sovereignty was
recognised.
