|The Story of Europe|
|by H. E. Marshall|
|Presents the broader movements of European history, emphasizing the main factors which have gone into the formation and development of the various European states from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Reformation. The history of England is included only when that country plays a prominent part in the politics of Europe. A full treatment of the period immediately following the fall of the Roman Empire is given, since that period provides the necessary key to future developments. For smoother reading, dates are relegated to the margin for the most part. Maps, timelines, and genealogy charts of the various royal houses of Europe contribute to making this book an excellent resource for the study of the Middle Ages in Europe. Ages 14-18 |
THE COMING OF THE NORTHMEN
IN the last chapter we saw the dim beginnings of France, Italy, and Germany. But hundreds of years were to
pass before these kingdoms really became settled. The period
 which followed the Treaty of Verdun was one of constant turmoil and bloodshed, for the kings were often
feeble, sometimes bad, and their subjects were turbulent and rebellious. Even a strong king had endless
difficulties to face.
First, there was the lack of roads. One of the first things the Romans did in a conquered country was to build
roads. They knew that roads were great conquerors and great civilizers. But the barbarians who split up the
Roman Empire did not know the value of roads, so the wonderful Roman highways were allowed to fall into
disrepair. In Saxony, which the Romans had never conquered, there were no roads at all. The difficulties,
therefore, of travelling from one part of the kingdom to another were immense, the transport of an army
extremely difficult. Without roads, too, commerce languished.
Secondly, the king was almost always poor, for the system of taxation was very imperfect. Being unable quickly
to travel all over the kingdom himself, the king was obliged to depute much of his authority to dukes and
counts. Having little money, he paid them for their services in land, and their possessions often became so
great that they were really more powerful than the king himself, and rebelled against his authority. So civil
wars were constant.
Besides these and other internal disturbances, there were frequent attacks from without to be repelled, and
these alone were enough to prevent Europe from settling into peace.
Soon after the death of Charlemagne the Saracens seized the island of Sicily, overran a great part of the
south of the Italian Peninsula, and even threatened Rome itself. Avars and Hungarians from the wilds of Asia
swept over Germany and northern Italy, and reached even to the borders of France, and at length settled in the
land which is now called Hungary. And lastly,
there came the Northmen.
They were the last of the German tribes
to attack the civilization
 of Europe, and they left more impression on it than almost any other, although they themselves became absorbed
in the peoples they conquered.
The Home of the Northmen
Of their early history we know little or nothing. For while in southern and central Europe new kingdoms were
being hammered out of the old Roman Empire, Europe beyond the Baltic was a region unknown. Until the end of
the eighth century we know almost nothing of Scandinavia. Nearly all the Teutonic tribes, it is true, who took
possession of the Empire came, or had traditions of having come, from the far north. They came from beyond the
sluggish sea where dwelt a mighty people well skilled in the building of boats; they came "from the edge of
the world." But little was known of this far-distant country.
Those of you who have read the "Germania" of Tacitus may remember how he speaks of these northern peoples and
their land. "They live on islands in the sea," he says. "Their strength lies not in military forces only, but
also in their ships. . . . Beyond the islands there is another sea which is sluggish, and nearly always still.
It is believed to encircle the earth, for here the light of the setting sun lasts until the sun rises again,
and the light is bright enough to make pale the stars. Moreover, it is said that you can hear the sea hiss as
the sun rises out of it and see the god's face, and the halo about his head. This is the end of the world, it
is said, and it may well be so."
The Northmen as Raiders
Hundreds of years passed, and people knew little more about this strange northern country than they did in the
time of Tacitus. At length, however, towards the end of the eighth century, driven by poverty and the
necessity of finding new homes, or merely by the love of adventure, the heathen
 Northmen began to sail forth from their bays and fiords, and attack the Christian kingdoms of Europe. They
came from what are now Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, but in those days men called them all indiscriminately,
Danes, Northmen, Vikings, or men of the bays and fiords. The English chronicles generally call them Danes, the
French chronicles generally call them Northmen. But, by whatever name they were known, they made themselves
for a hundred years the terror of seaboard Europe.
For the attacks of the Northmen differed from those of any other barbarian people in that they came from the
sea, and not from the land. They sailed in long, narrow vessels, capable of holding fifty or sixty men. Bow
and stern were alike, so that the ship could be steered either way, and they were decorated with the head of a
swan or dragon, or some other animal. But the dragon was the favourite. Rowers sat along the sides of the
vessels, and there was also one large sail.
Used as we are now to great sea-going monsters, the Viking ships seem the merest cockle-shells, and we marvel
how men could venture forth upon the stormy North Sea in such frail craft. But venture forth they did, even
upon the pathless ocean, and there seems now little doubt that five hundred years before Columbus the hardy
Norsemen had landed upon the shores of North America.
These dragon-ships became the pest of the seas and a terror to all seaboard dwellers. It was a new terror,
too. For hitherto there had been peace upon the seas. Huns, Avars, Bulgars, Goths, Vandals, Franks, Lombards,
and all the other lesser tribes which had swept over Europe in turn, had made their attacks by land. Except
for Saracen or Vandal pirates, the seas had still remained the peaceful routes of trade. Now that was changed.
War and bloodshed came from the sea, just when it seemed as if the beginnings of peace might dawn on land.
 The sea was the Northman's element. Yet, born sailor although he was, he seemed equally at home on land, where
he proved himself a skilful, cunning, and absolutely cold-blooded fighter. They were blue-eyed, fair-haired,
tall, and sinewy men. They wore their hair in long plaits, and dressed in gay colours, scarlet being much
loved by them. They wore coats of mail and great horned helmets, and were armed with bow and arrows, hatchet,
spear, and sword.
They loved war and the ways of war and the weapons of war. Their songs were all of war and the mighty blows of
heroes, and in these songs they gave poetic names to their ships and weapons. But more than any other weapon
they loved their swords, and to them they gave the most poetic names, such as "the lightning of war," "the
thorn of shields," "the helmet biter." The hilts and scabbards of these swords were often beautifully inlaid
with gold and studded with jewels, and were handed on from hero to hero, and prized as no other gift was
Armed, then, at all points, these joyous, blood-thirsty pirates set forth in their dragon-ships. Along the
sides they hung their gaily painted shields, ringed and bossed with metal, and leaning upon their spears, they
stood in the prow, while the short oars flashed, and the wind sang through the sail. When storm winds blew and
others sought the shelter of the shore, the dragon-ship sped forth, spurning as if in joy the foaming waves.
Then, as day dawned, some sleeping village would hear the Viking battle-cry. Then bright swords gleamed, and
sparing neither man nor woman, these Northmen plundered at will. At length, their fury and their greed sated,
they mounted into their ship once more and sped away as swiftly as they had come, leaving behind them only
smoking, blood-stained ruins where, but a few hours before, peaceful homes had stood.
The first of these attacks of which we have any record was upon England, towards the end of the eighth
 But soon England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy all knew and dreaded the terrible
Northmen. Their coasts were dotted with ruins, the bones of the dead lay bleaching on a thousand battlefields,
and a new petition was added to men's prayers, "From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord deliver us."
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