104 : The Atlantic 



be taken like herself; the cattle taken or killed; there would be fight- 

 ing. What would happen to the village? For her part she would kick 

 and scream, though she had heard of girls who had forgotten to 

 scream and been carried off laughing instead. 



Sometimes it was not a single boat creeping to shore silently in the 

 dawn. Sometimes it was a whole company of ships coming in the 

 evening, with the last of the sunset picking out the strong colors of 

 the sails and glinting on the helmets and arms of the men, with the 

 bellowing sound of horns and wild shouting from ship to ship. That 

 was the worst, with fighting all along the shore and in the fields; the 

 burning villages lighting up the night clouds and smoke still rising 

 when the ships sailed away at dawn. 



Thus, for an age in history, the sailors from the north harried the 

 coasts of Europe. That was the less pleasant phase of their energetic 

 activity, their knowledge of the world, their undoubted ability. To 

 the people they oppressed they seemed like a new visitation of fate 

 but their voyages and their ships had ancient foundations. 



Once the Vikings (also called Norsemen, Normans, etc.) started 

 their voyages they spread far and fast. They came from various parts 

 of Norway, Sweden, Denmark. In theory at least, those from Norway 

 took the outer passage which brought them to the islands, Faeroes, 

 Hebrides, etc., Scotland and Ireland and from Ireland to France; the 

 Danes took the middle passage to the low countries, the east coast of 

 England and France; the Swedes took the eastern passage across the 

 Baltic into Slavic territory where they founded colonies at Novgorod 

 (862) and Kiev (900) and pressed on to Byzantium (Constantinople). 



By the middle passage the Danes made the first recorded attack 

 on England in 787 and within a century Guthrun, the Dane, by 

 the Peace of Wedmore, divided England with Alfred the Great, hold- 

 ing for himself all of England north of Watling Street (London to 

 Chester) and Scotland. 



By the outer passage they swept over the Faeroes, Orkneys, Shet- 

 lands, Hebrides to Scotland and Ireland. They first appeared on the 

 Irish coast about 795 and established colonies and trading posts at 

 Dublin (840), Waterford and Limerick from whence they carried on 

 operations against the French coast — Normandy. 



In practice the orderly scheme suggested above was not strictly ad- 

 hered to; it only represented tendencies. The Viking movements were 

 somewhat confused in origin, route and objective. Yet by 841 they 

 had appeared in the French ports and converged in strength in Nor- 

 mandy. By 845 Hrolf, the Ganger, was engaged in a massive attack 



