great expedition is on foot, it gathers recruits from all quarters. When an army suffers a repulse in one direction, the pirate world turns its attention with impartial rapacity to another. Events on the Loire have an immediate effect on England, and vice versa.

The invasion of England by the Danes, which had now begun, has some characteristic features which differentiate it from previous marauding incursions. The early marauders came from the fjords and glens of Norway, where nature had decreed that settlements of men should be small in size, and far between. The Danes had been members of a larger and more closely linked community, and brought the more ordered consciousness which grows from sharing a common life with many others. The Northmen from Norway were the Fin - Gaill, or White Strangers, marked by characteristic light hair, reddish beards, and blue eyes, which, in their descendants, still indicate where they settled. The type may be found, not seriously altered in externals, in some of the fishing villages on the Norfolk coast. The Danes were Dubhgaill-the common Scottish Dougal-or "dark strangers," darker, at least in eyes and complexion than their predecessors.

The difference in geographical origin and physical appearance corresponded to a difference in character

between the two families of the same race. The first-comers of the Northmen were strictly pirates. They came for booty, and did not intend to fight for land on which to make permanent settlements. The different groups had only the kind of cohesion which belongs to a fishing fleet made up of boats, and groups of boats, from many quarters; and within the groups the only government was obedience freely rendered to a good skipper. Each sea king, with his own fleet, did that which was right in his own eyes, but many fleets would unite for a big cruise or foray.

The Danish invasion, on the other hand, has more of the character of a conquest by an army which accepts the responsibilities of victory. They fight under Skioldungs of royal race, who have under them earls commanding organised detachments of the hosts. It is true that in the initial stages the external features of the invasions are much the same. There is the same dependence on dominion at sea, the same use of rivers as natural highways into the enemy's country. On landing, their tactics were similar, though probably carried out by the Danes on a more extensive scale. Each host would seize a headland, or a strip of land at a river mouth, an island, or a few acres enclosed by a bend in the river, then draw a trench and earthworks across the side which was

most accessible, and haul up its boats within the camp. This secured their retreat, if retreat became necessary. It also gave them a base from which sharp, well-directed blows might be struck into the enemy's country. The camp was easily defended if attacked, and, when a sufficient guard had been told off for the defence, and the rest of the invading army had been turned into horsemen, they had at their service an extremely mobile force, unhampered by commissariat, and as daring in inventing plans of campaign as it was rapid and destructive in executing them.

But when the Danes had once secured a footing, these initial points of similarity gave way to striking points of difference. Instead of retreating bootyladen to their ships after they had harried the coasts and looted the monasteries, they struck at the centres of authority, the kings and capitals. When they were masters of a kingdom, their favourite plan was to set up a puppet king who would pay tribute to them, and undertake to abdicate when they found it convenient that he should do so. 1 In some places they settled in considerable numbers, and became the folk of the district, as happened in the case of the Danes under Guthrum. In other places they simply

1 This plan was also followed by Halfdene the Northman when it suited him.

F

removed the chief man of the village or district, and established a Danish earl in his place.

A great deal of ingenuity has been expended, both in ancient and modern times, on the question: "What was the cause of the Danish invasion ?" There are, at least, three stories which obtained currency, and these are found in several different versions. One tells how Ragnar Lodbroc, a famous Wiking, was shipwrecked and seized by Ælla, King of the Northumbrians, and thrown into a pit full of serpents; and how, while he was dying of the bites of the serpents, he sang a weird and wonderful death - song, telling of all his old battles, and bequeathing to his sons the duty of avenging him. The song was carried to Denmark, and brought his sons to England to exact vengeance. Another account says that the same Lodbroc was driven by a storm to the coast of East England, and, on landing, was slain by Beorn, the huntsman of King Edmund. The pious king, as a punishment, put Beorn into a boat and let it drift to sea. The boat drifted to Denmark. There Beorn told his own version of the story, and made the sons of Lodbroc believe that it was King Edmund who had slain their father, and invited them to come and avenge him. A third story

tells how Osberht, King of Northumbria, had robbed one of his nobles, Beorn Butsecarl, of his

wife, and how Beorn, to revenge himself, invited the Danish Guthrum to invade Northumbria, and promised to help him. But before the Danes came, Osberht had been deposed, and Ella set in his place.

It is possible that there is some element of truth in these traditions, though it is certain that none of them are exactly true as they stand. Incidents like these may have had to do with one or other of the many expeditions which left the shores of Denmark for England. In any case, they supply. rather the occasion than the causes of the invasions from the north. The true causes must be sought elsewhere the shore settlements of Norway were liable to famine, and population was constantly pressing on the means of subsistence. The increase of shipping made it easy to take to the sea and piracy for the livelihood which the land would barely yield. Some of the leaders who became Wiking chiefs were local earls, who found themselves crowded out by the new fashion of extended kingship which was beginning to obtain in Norway and Denmark. History connects this new and disturbing fashion with the ambition of a woman. Harold of Norway asked the maiden Gyda to be his wife. "She answered that she would never sacrifice her maidenhood and take for husband a king who governed no more of a