16 ROMAN AND GREEK ACCOUNTS OF THE NORTHMEN. 



well known to everybody, that we have no special description 

 of them in the Sagas, except of their ornamentation ; but in 

 the Saga of Grettir there is a passage which shows that the 

 Sax was single-edged. 



Gretti went to a farm in Iceland to slay the Bondi Thor- 

 bjorn and his son Arnor. We read- 



" When Gretti saw that the young man was within reach he 

 lifted his sax high into the air, and struck Arnor's head with 

 its back, so that his head was broken and he died. Thereupon 

 he killed the father with his sax." 



Whatever may be the origin of local names employed by 

 the Roman writers we must look to the North for the maritime 

 tribes described by them ; there we shall find the home 

 of the earlier English people, to whose numerous warlike 

 and ocean-loving instincts we owe the transformation which 

 took place in Britain, and the glorious inheritance which they 

 have left to their descendants, scattered over many parts of 

 the world, in whom we recognise to this day many of the very 

 same traits of character which their ancestors possessed. 



