THE DANES BET\VKK\ T.I ( TTI 'X .1 \l> < 'HA II I. KMAGNE. '1 \ 



England, and hears the appearance of contradiction and 

 confusion in regard to names of people and facts. 



We must remember that the Sueones are not mentioned from 

 the time of Tacitus to that of Charlemagne (772-814), and 

 certainly they had not disappeared in the meantime. 



What were the Danes doing with their mighty fleets before 

 this? Had their ships been lying in port for centuries? 

 Had they been built for simple recreation and the pleasure of 

 looking at them, or did their maritime power arise at once as 

 if by magic ? Such an hypothesis cannot stand the test of 

 reasoning. The turning of a population into a seafaring 

 nation is the work of time. Where in the history of the world 

 can we find a parallel to this story of a people suddenly 

 appearing with immense navies ? Let us compare by analogy 

 the statement of the chronicles with what might happen to 

 the history of England in the course of time. 



v O 



Suppose that for some reason the previous history of England 

 were lost, with the exception of a fragment which spoke of her 

 enormous fleet of to-day. Could it be reasonably supposed 

 that this great maritime power was the creation of a few years ? 



A few years after the time fixed as that of their first supposed 

 appearance we find these very Danes swarming everywhere witli 

 their fleets and warriors, not only in England, but in Gaul, in 

 Brittany, up the Seine, the Garonne, the Rhine, the Elbe, on 

 the coasts of Spain, and further eastward in the Mediterranean. 



The Sueones, or Swedes, reappear at the close of the eighth 

 and commencement of the ninth centuries by the side of the 

 Danes, and both called themselves Northmen. Surely the 

 maritime power of the Sueones, described by Tacitus, could 

 not have been destroyed immediately after his death, only to 

 reappear in the time of Charlemagne, when it again becomes 

 prominent in the Frankish annals. 



A remarkable fact not to be overlooked is that, in the time 

 of Charlemagne, the Franks and Saxons were not a seafaring 

 people, though their countries had an extensive coast with 

 deep rivers. The Frankish annals never mention a Frank or 

 Saxon fleet attacking the fleets of the Northmen, or preventing 

 them from ascending their streams, though Charlemagne 

 ordered ships to be built in order to resist their incursions. 



