294 



nessed the Danish spoils, wondered that so much gold could be col- 

 lected in any northern country,* (" admirati sunt in septentrionalibus 

 terris tantum auri collectum esse.") The Irish Annals, it is true, speak 

 of gold as paid by the ounce, -f- but this would not be conclusive 

 against the assertion of previously coined money. We would rather, 

 however, subscribe to the opinion that the Danes were the first esta- 

 blishers of a mint, and that soon after their conversion to Christianity, 

 at least the earliest of those coins that have been yet discovered, exhi- 

 bit proofs of such an origin. J There are also evidences of a coinage 

 of Ethelred the Second, struck in Dublin at the end of the tenth cen- 

 tury; but for further information on this branch of the subject, the 

 curious reader is referred to Simon's Treatise on Irish Coins, and to 

 Keder's " Nummorum in Hibernia cusorum indagatio." 



Of the dress of the day we have seen that Donatus describes Ire- 

 land as " dives vestis," and the Polychronicon contains a notice§ pre- 

 cisely to the same effect, while the fashion of the garment is suggested 

 in a passage of the Antiquitates Celt. Scand. (p. 246.) (" Haraldus 

 Gillius Hibernico fere utebatur amictu, veste nimirum curt'^ levique.") 

 The last mentioned work also, after furnishing a very curious account 

 of the betrothal and marriage contract of that Olafe before mentionedlf 

 with the daughter of an Irish king, describes several who attended the 

 ceremony as arrayed in most valuable and splendid dresses.** It 

 appears that in the marriages of the Danes, "f-f the bride was con- 



* See also anle, p. 288, as to "nummus aureus." 

 t See Annal. Ulton. ad ann. 1004, 1152, 1157, 1161, &c. 



t See Anth. Hib. vol, iv. p. 106. § Ap. Gale, pp. 179, 180. 



II Ante, p. 262. 

 •* " Vestibus quam pretiosissimis induti, pluresque alii omnes splendide ornati." — Ant. 

 Celt. Scand. p. 73. 



ft See Mallefs Northern Ants. 



