BRITAIN A NORSE COLONY. 23 



The above is corroborated by another quite independent 

 source. 



"Ivar Vidfadmi ruled England till his death-day. As 

 he lay on his death-bed he said he wanted to be carried to 

 where the land was exposed to attacks, and that he hoped 

 those who landed there would not be victorious. When he 

 died it happened as he said, and he was mound-laid. It is 

 said by many men that when King Harald Sigurdsson came 

 to England he landed where Ivar's mound was, and he was 

 slain there. When Villijalm Bastard came to the land he 

 broke open the mound of Ivar and saw that the corpse was not 

 rotten ; he made a large pyre, and had Ivar burned on it ; 

 then he went up on land and got the victory " (Ragnar 

 Lodbrok's Saga, c. 19). 



We find that not only did the Norwegians call themselves 

 Northmen, but that both Danes and Sueones were called 

 Northmen in the Frankish Chronicles. 1 



"The Danes and Sueones, whom we call Northmen, occupy 

 both the northern shore and all its islands." 



So also Nigellus (in the reign of Louis Le Debonnaire). 2 



" The Danes also after the manner of the Franks are called 

 by the name of Manni." 



The time came when the people of the North, continuing 

 their expeditions to Britain, attacked their own kinsmen. 

 After the departure of the Romans the power of the new 

 comers increased, and as they became more numerous, they 

 became more and more domineering : the subsequent struggles 

 were between a sturdy race that had settled in the country 

 and people of their own kin, and not with Britons, who had 

 been so easily conquered by the Romans, had appealed to 

 them afterwards for protection, and had for a long period 

 been a subject race. It is not easy to believe that the 

 inhabitants of a servile Roman province could suddenly 

 become stubborn and fierce warriors, nor are there any 

 antiquities belonging to the Britain of yore which bear 



1 " Dani et Sueones, quos North- 

 rnannos vocamus, et Septentrionale litus 

 et omnes in eo insulas tenent " (Vita 

 Caroli Magni, c. 12; Eginhnrd, historian 



and friend of Charlemagne). 



- " Dani more quoque Francisco di- 

 cnntnr nomine Manni." 



