A.D. 779. "In the summer the Welsh devastated the territory of Offa, and Offa caused a dike to be made as a boundary between him and Wales, to enable him the more easily to withstand the attack of his enemies; and that is called Offa's dike from that time to this day. And it extends from one sea to the other, from the south near Bristol towards the north above Flint, between the monastery of Basingwerk and Coles

hillz."

A.D. 784. Cynewulf of Wessex is killed at Merton, by the brother of Sigebert, Cyneheard, who is himself killed shortly after. Brithric succeeds.

A.D. 785. A synod held at Calchythea, when Lichfield is raised to the dignity of an archbishopric.

A.D. 787. Brithric of Wessex marries Edburga, daughter of Offa of Mercia.

The Northmen commence their ravages in England b.

A.D. 788. A synod held at Pincanheale, in Northumbria, (probably Finchale, in Durham), September 2.

A.D. 789. Alfwold of Northumbria is slain, Sept. 24. Osred, son of Alchred, succeeds.

A.D. 790. Osred of Northumbria driven out; Ethelred resumes the government.

A.D. 791. Alfwold's sons put to death.

Chronicle of the Princes of Wales.

a The place is uncertain; Chalk, in Kent, and Culcheth, in Lancashire, have been named.

The expression in the Saxon Chronicle is merely, "in his days first came three ships of Northmen, out of Hæretha-land," but as the event is mentioned under the year 787, writers are generally agreed in assigning it to that dato.

A.D. 792. Ethelbert of East Anglia slain, and his dominions seized by Offa of Mercia.

Osred attempts to regain the Northumbrian crown ; he is slain, Sept. 14.

THE NORTHMEN.

A.D. 794. The church at Lindisfarne destroyed by the Northmen, Jan. 8.

"The heathens ravaged among the Northumbrians, and plundered Egfrid's monastery at Donemouth (Monks' Wearmouth), and there one of their leaders was slain, and also some of their ships were wrecked by a tempest, and many of them were there drowned, and some came on shore alive, and they were soon slain at the river's mouth."

These acts of mutual atrocity were the commencement of the deadly struggle which convulsed England for the remainder of the Saxon rule; a struggle, however, which is often misunderstood. Notwithstanding the invectives and almost abject complaints of the Saxon Chronicle, there seems no good reason for supposing that the Northmen committed greater devastation than the heathen Saxons themselves had done three centuries before; but as Anglo-Saxon literature survived the tempest, whilst the British generally speaking did not, a more detailed account of the Northmen's excesses has come down to us. Indeed, an inference directly contrary to the received opinion has been drawn by a distinguished Danish writer, from the fact that very

• See pp. 113--126.

many of the vikings not only embraced Christianity in England, but laboured to diffuse its light on their return to their own countriesd.

The cotemporary accounts of the appearance, the arms, and equipments of the men who now began so signally to influence the fortunes of England are but few, and antiquaries are by no means agreed in their interpretation of them. Anglo-Saxon MSS. abound with illuminations in which figures of armed men appear, but it is not often clear whether Saxons or Northmen are meant, and the reference sometimes made to the Bayeux tapestry is beside the question, the work being centuries too late.

The Irish Chronicles (much nearer in point of time than the Icelandic Sagas) contain many notices of the invaders, and speak of them as consisting of two distinct classes, Dubhgalls (Dark strangers) and Finngalls, (Fair strangers); these terms are pretty generally agreed to mean the Danes and the Norwegians, but whether they refer to the different complexions of the two peoples, or imply that the one had black equipments, black

a

Among them may be mentioned Hacon, who had dwelt in the court of Athelstan, and who returning to Norway laboured unsuccessfully to introduce Christianity, but was killed in 960; and Anlaf Tryggveson, who applied himself to the same end with more zeal than discretion, and also lost his life in the attempt. His great counsellor was Thangbrand, who, calling himself a Christian priest, went about with a shield on which was embossed a representation of the crucifixion, and repaid the taunts of the idolaters by killing several of their number. He sold his shield to Anlaf, by whom it was regarded as a kind of talisman, and also imparted some knowledge of Christianity to that king before his expedition to England in the year 994.

They also established themselves in Ireland, and in the Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides, and Man, but their frequent attempts on the mainland of Scotland were less successful.

ships, and black sails, and the others appeared in lighter colours, is a point not settled.

There are, however, to be found in most early writers phrases which shew that the Northmen were supposed to owe much of their success to the superiority of their weapons, and such would appear really to have been the case. It was, in heathen times especially, a very common custom to bury his arms with the warrior; and as numberless graves have been opened whose nation and era can from various circumstances be accurately ascertained, we thus get unimpeachable evidence as to the arms of the vikings.

In England the vikings' tombs are with difficulty to be distinguished from those of their opponents, but such is not the case in Scandinavia, nor in Ireland. Confining our attention to recent discoveries in the latter country, we learn that the vikings carried heavy axes, spears and swords of large size, as well as daggers, bows and arrows; the swords are furnished with a guard, often inlaid with gold, and sometimes have runic inscriptions; shields too are found of wood strengthened with an iron boss, often ornamented with lines curved and curiously interlaced, but of defensive armour there appears little tracef. It is stated in the Sagas that the

f In tombs in Denmark are found bronze armlets of a spiral form a foot long, which appear strong enough to resist a sword cut, and are believed to have been worn coiled round the arm for that purpose.

chiefs had coats of chain-mail sewn on leather, and helmets with nose-pieces; the common men seem to have been protected only by pieces of hide sewn on their ordinary coarse clothing.

The ships of the vikings were probably at first not at all superior to those of the early Saxons, but before the time that the Northmen established their sway in England they were possessed of vessels in which certainly Iceland and Greenland, and probably the American continent, could be reached in safety. Their kings, too, if we could trust the glowing descriptions of the Sagas, had their Long Snakes and Dragons adorned with carving, and magnificently ornamented with gilded masts, embroidered sails, and purple cordage; but it is probable that this rather represents the royal vessels of more southern nations some three or four centuries later, than any thing that was seen in the North before the abandonment of the vikings' expeditions.

A.D. 794. Offa of Mercia dies July 25, or 29′; Egferth succeeds, but dies the same year; Cynulf becomes king.

Edbert, surnamed Præn, becomes king in Kent.

A.D. 795. Ethelred of Northumbria is killed by Wada and others, April 19. Eardwulf succeeds to the kingdom, May 14h; is crowned at York, May 26.

8 The Chronicle of the Princes of Wales gives 796 as the date of his death, as do some MSS. of the Saxon Chronicle.

In the interval, Osbald, a noble, had usurped the throne, but after a reign of 27 days he was driven out, and obliged to submit to the tonsure.