One feature must at once strike the observer who
compares the Viking settlements in Ireland with
those in England, viz. That Viking influence in
Ireland is definitely concentrated in the great coast
towns—Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and
Limerick—and the districts immediately around
them. Ford in Strangford and
Carlingford Loughs, Waterford and Wexford is O.N. Ló, ‘low-lying, flat-grassland, lying by the water’s
edge.’ The O.N. Ey, an island, is found in Lambey,
Dalkey, Dursey Head, Ireland’s Eye (for Ireland’s Ey),
Howth is O.N. Eyrr, ‘a sandy point pushing out[119]
into the sea.’ Smerwick contains the familiar O.N.

• Varka was separated from her people when they were raided on a dark and snowy night.
• Enquiries were made
  and it was found that these ‘Rhôs’ were Swedes.
• Comp Points is another ongoing promotion that our players can’t seem to get enough of.
• If the Re-spin feature is triggered, the leftmost reel will be filed with the Hammer symbols and held in place.
• Setting up a[25]
  puppet king Ecgberht in Northumbria north of the
  Tyne, the Danes next received the submission of
  Mercia and returned to York in 869.

They besieged a fort at ‘Wigingamere’
(unidentified) but were forced to withdraw. Edward
gathered an army from the nearest garrison towns,
besieged, captured, and destroyed Tempsford (915). In the autumn he captured Colchester and a Danish[32]
attempt on Maldon failed. Edward now strengthened
Towcester and received the submission of Earl
Thurfrith (O.N. Ðorröðr) and all the Danes in
Northamptonshire as far north as the Welland. Huntingdon was occupied about the same time and
the ring of forts around East Anglia brought about
the submission of the whole of that district,
Cambridgeshire making a separate compact on its
own account.

OF THE 9TH CENTURY

Interesting
evidence of this eastward movement is also to be
found in the Life of St Anskar. St Anskar himself undertook the
education of many Wendish youths who had been
entrusted to him. Of the Norse settlements in the Hebrides we
have no such definite or continuous record. Mention
is made in Irish annals of the middle of the
9th century of a king in the Hebrides—one Guðröðr
son of Fergus—whose very name shows him to have
been one of the Gaill-Gaedhil. In the latter half of the
9th century Ketill Flatnose was the chief Norse
leader in the Hebrides until his power was destroyed
by Harold Fairhair.

During the same
time the English coast was also unvisited, and it is
probable that the struggles for the succession in
Denmark had for the time being reduced that kingdom
to inactivity. About the year 830 the Danish
king Hárekr seems to have established himself[18]
firmly on the throne, while on the other hand the
emperor Lewis was troubled by the ambition of his
sons Lewis, Pippin and Lothair. It is probably no
chance coincidence that these events synchronised
with the renewal of Viking attacks on Frisia. Throughout slot online their history the Vikings showed themselves
well informed of the changing political conditions
of the countries which they visited and ready
to make the utmost use of the opportunities which
these might give for successful invasion. The Vikings used their longships to travel vast distances and attain certain tactical advantages in battle. They could perform highly efficient hit-and-run attacks, in which they quickly approached a target, then left as rapidly as possible before a counter-offensive could be launched.

The Northmen made no great expeditions between
900 and 910, but maintained a steady hold on the
Lower Seine and the districts of Bessin and Cotentin. They could not extend their territories and the Franks
could not drive them from the Seine. At length, largely
through the intervention of the clergy, a meeting was
arranged between Charles and the Viking leader Rollo
at St Clair-sur-Epte, before the end of 911. Here the
province later known as Normandy (including the
counties of Rouen, Lisieux, Evreux and the district
between the rivers Bresle and Epte and the sea)
was given to Rollo and his followers as a beneficium,
on condition that he defended the kingdom against
attack, and himself accepted Christianity. The Danes
now formed a definite part of the Frankish kingdom
and occupied a position analogous to that of their
countrymen in East Anglia, Northumbria and Mercia
in England, except that the latter after a period
of freedom had in course of time to pass definitely
under English rule. When the Vikings sailed to England and Ireland
in the late 8th and early 9th centuries their most
natural path was by the Orkneys and Shetlands and
round the Western Islands of Scotland.

About This Game

There are many curious coincidences of detail
between these accounts and that given by Ibn
Fadhlan of the burial of a Rûs warrior, and every
detail of them has at one time or another been
confirmed by archaeological evidence. The story of the escape of Hárek of Thjotta
through Copenhagen Sound after the battle of
Helgeäa in 1018 illustrates the difference between
a trading-ship and a ship of war. Hárek struck sail
and mast, took down the vane, stretched a grey
tent-cloth over the ship’s sides, and left only a few
rowers fore and aft. The rest of the crew were
bidden lie flat so that they might not be seen, with
the result that the Danes mistook Hárek’s war-galley
for a trading-vessel laden with herrings or salt and
let it pass unchallenged. Sweden was the most reluctant of the three
northern realms to accept Christianity, and the
country remained almost entirely heathen until the
close of the Viking period.

Another common motive in the burial of[108]
treasure was doubtless the desire to find a place
of security against robbery and plunder. Treasure
thus secreted would often be lost sight of at the
owner’s death. To the burial-customs of the Viking
period also we owe much of our knowledge of their
weapons, clothing, ornaments and even of their
domestic utensils. In the last years of the Viking period ships
increased greatly both in size and number.

Old Norse influence on the English language

The ‘dreng’ was ‘a free
servant of the king endowed with lands’ and the
name still survives in the Yorkshire place-name
Dringhouses. The Five Boroughs formed a loose confederation,
and there can be no question that the districts
which ‘obeyed’ (v. supra, p. 31) the boroughs of Derby,
Leicester, Nottingham, Lincoln (and Stamford) and
Northampton form the modern counties named from
these towns. It is also to Danish influence direct or
indirect that we owe the similar organisation of the
counties of Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire
and Hertfordshire in the old East Anglian
kingdom. Each of these counties had a jarl or earl,
whose headquarters were at the ‘borough.’ He summoned
the here, whether for political or military
purposes, and when these counties passed once more
under English rule he fulfilled the functions of the
older ealdorman. The Norse element remained absolutely distinct,
not only in Dublin but also in the other cities in
which they had settled, right down to the time of
the English invasion in the 12th century. Frequent
mention is made of them in the records of the great
towns, and they often both claimed and received
privileges quite different from those accorded to the[122]
native Irish or to the English settlers.