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

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

d 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

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.

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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 298; 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.

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.

IRELAND.

A.D. 795. “The Pagans first came to Ireland, and Racline was destroyed!."

This is the first recorded hostile visit of the Northmen to Ireland, but it is probable that their merchants had established themselves in the country before. Certain it is, that various Ostman settlements existed along the coast a few years after, but quarrelling among themselves1 they were subjugated by the natives about the year 850. In 853, Anlaf arrived with a powerful fleet at Dublin, was acknowledged as chief by all the Ostmen, and so firmly established their power, that from that period to the time of the English conquest, not only from Irish authorities, but by their coins, a constant succession of their kings can be traced in Dublin, and for a great part of the time also in Waterford, Cork, and Limerick. They speedily became Christian, and had bishops of their own, who received consecration at Canterbury, while the native Irish prelates acknowledged the supremacy of the archbishop of Armagh.

The Ostman settlements are still the most important and commercial cities of Ireland, and indeed they would seem to have been selected rather with mercantile than political views. Each "kingdom" appears to have consisted

i Chronicle of Wales. Racline, now Raghlin, an island on the north-east coast of Ireland, had a celebrated monastery, said to have been founded by St. Columba in the fifth century.

Ostman, or Eastman, probably as coming from the opposite coasts of England and Scotland, rather than direct from the North. 'An Irish Chronicle mentions, under the year 845, that the Dark strangers came to Dublin, destroyed the colony of the Fair strangers, and carried many of them into captivity; other contests of the Dubhgalls and Finngalls (see p. 76,) occur at later dates.

of but a single town and a small surrounding district, strongly fortified, and its power was chiefly maritime; although from being better furnished with arms and more skilled in their use, its people possessed an influence over the adjacent country somewhat similar to that of European colonies in the East in more recent times.

A.D. 796. Cynulf of Mercia ravages Kent; he takes Præn prisoner, and mutilates him.

A.D. 797. Siric, tributary king of East Anglia, goes to Rome.

A.D. 798. Wada, having rebelled against Eardwulf, is defeated and put to flight at Hwealleage or Billingahoth (Whalley, in Lancashire,) April 2.

London burnt.

A.D. 800. Brihtric of Wessex diesm; Egbert is chosen to succeed him.

The Empire of the West re-established by the coronation of Charlemagne, Dec. 25.

EGBERT.

EGBERT, the fourth in descent from Ingils, brother of

Arms ascribed to Egbert.

m

Ina, being banished by Brihtric,

sought refuge at the court of Charlemagne, and was in his company at Rome when the French king received the dignity of emperor of the West. On the death of Brihtric Egbert was recalled to Wessex, and ascended the throne. He warred successfully with

He was poisoned by his wife Edburga. She retired first to France, then to Italy, and died miserably at Pavia.

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