CHAPTER III. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF BRITAIN BY NORTHMEN. 



The Notitia Probable origin of the name England Jutland The language 

 of the North and of England Early Northern kings in England Danes 

 and Sueones Mythical accounts of the settlements of England. 



BRITAIN being an island could only be settled or conquered 

 by seafaring tribes, just in the same way as to-day distant 

 lands can only be conquered by nations possessing ships. 

 From the Roman writers we have the only knowledge we 

 possess in regard to the tribes inhabiting the country to 

 which they gave the vague name of German ia. From the 

 Roman records we find that these tribes were not civilised 

 and that they were not a seafaring people. 



Unfortunately the Roman accounts we have of their conquest 

 and occupation of Britain, of its population and inhabitants, 

 are very meagre and unsatisfactory, and do not help us much 

 to ascertain how the settlement in Britain by the people of the 

 North began. Our lack of information is most probably due 

 to the simple reason that the settlement, like all settlements 

 of a new country, was a very gradual one, a few men coming 

 over in the first instance for the purpose of trade either 

 with Britons or Romans, or coming from the over-populated 

 Northto settle in a country which the paucity of archaeological 

 remains shows to have been thinly occupied. The Romans 

 made no objection to these new settlers, who did not prove 

 dangerous to their power on the island, but brought them 

 commodities, such as furs, &c., from the North. 



We find from the Roman records that the so-called Saxons 

 had founded colonies or had settlements in Belgium and 

 Gaul. 



Another important fact we know from the records relating 



VOL. I. O 



