APi'i-:\nix. 



scale were organized for the subjection of different countries- 

 armaments and expeditions which could only have "been p<>^il,]r 

 for a people in an advanced state of civilisation. Of thes< , \- 

 peditions the Frankish annals give us the most graphic and 

 detailed accounts. 



The particulars concerning the sieges of towns given in the 

 Sagas are very meagre and very rare. We only know that, the 

 catapult, called val-slongva (war-sling), or manga (" mangonel "), 

 seems to have been used for sieges, &c. 



That these were well known to the Northmen at an early linn-, 

 we have ample proofs. 



Great strength of arm was requisite for their use, as several 

 stones at a time were often shot from one catapult. 



The Frankish annals, describing one of the sieges of Paris by the 

 Northmen, show us how these machines were used by them. \\ > 

 have minute and graphic descriptions of their mode of warfare, 

 and especially the methods they adopted in besieging towns 

 subjects that are very little noticed in the Sagas, which generally 

 give only results, and consequently are not of much value to the 

 student of history. 



We will proceed to quote a few extracts from the writings of 

 Eginhard, the historian of Charlemagne, which bear testimony to 

 the formidable power of the Northmen in his time. 



In 777 Charlemagne had summoned an assembly of chiefs at 



Paderborn. 



"All came before him except Witekind, a Westphalian cliief, who, feeling 

 himself guilty of many crimes, and fearing in consequence to present himself, 

 had fled to Siegfried, king of the Danes." 



788. " An arm of the sea of unknown length [the Baltic], but exceeding 

 nowhere a hundred thousand paces in width, and in many places nm< -h 

 narrower, extends from the western ocean towards the east. Many nations 

 inhabit its shores; the Danes and the Sueones, whom we call Northmen, 

 occupy the northern shore and all the islands; on the southern shore are 

 Sclavuiiians, the Aistes and other people." 



800. "Spring having returned, the king (Charlemagne) quitted Aix 

 Chapelle, about the middle of March, traversed the shore of the Gallic ocean, 

 constructed a fleet on the same ocean, then desolated by the piracies of the 

 Northmen, and placed garrisons along the shores.'' 



804. " At this time Godfrey, king of the Danes, came with .1 fleet and all 

 the horsemen of his kingdom, to a place called Schlesvig, on the borders of his 

 realm and that of Saxony." 



808. " A last war v/cs undertaken against the Northmen, whom we call 

 Danes, and their king, Godfrey, was so inflated with proud hopes, that he 

 promised himself the empire of all Germany. Frisia and Saxony he 

 upon as provinces belonging to himself. 



