NORTHMEN 



NORTH SEA 



525 



ably utilising the Faroe (q.v.) and Shetland (q.v.) 

 Islands as resting-stages. They sacked lona ( Hy ) 

 in 802 and again in 806, slaying most of the monks. 

 Their visits to Ireland were particularly numerous 

 after 807, and brought great woes upon the un- 

 happy island. A chief named Torgisl, a Norseman, 

 conquered most of north Ireland shortly after 840. 

 In or a little before 852 a fleet of Danes arrived and 

 disputed fiercely with the Norsemen, or, as the 

 Irish called them, the Eastmen ; but in the year 

 quoted Olaf the White of Norway founded the 

 Scandinavian (chiefly Danish) kingdom of Dublin, 

 which lasted three centuries or more, whilst two of 

 his followers created the separate kingdoms of 

 Waterford and Limerick (see IRELAND, Vol. VI. 

 p. 203). The Faroe, Orkney, and Shetland Islands 

 seem to have been frequently visited by Norsemen 

 after 825, and were permanently colonised during 

 the next quarter of a century. Iceland (q.v.) was 

 discovered and colonised by the same people 

 between the middle and end of the century ; 

 and from Iceland they ventured still farther 

 west, and made settlements in Greenland (q.v.), 

 and even visited Vinland (q.v.) in North 

 America. The viking raids on England were 

 incessant after 833, but were checked for a time 

 by the great slaughter inflicted on them by Ethel- 

 wulf at Ockley (Surrey) in 851. Fifteen years 

 later they began again, and this time assumed the 

 character of a serious invasion, the invaders being 

 almost exclusively Danes. They made themselves 

 alisolute masters of the northern, and more especi- 

 ally the eastern, portions of the island, notwith- 

 standing the heroic efforts of Alfred and his son 

 Edward. The struggle is sketched under England 

 (q.v.). 



By the middle of the 8th century the Norwegians 

 had discovered the sea-route to the White Sea by 

 rounding the North Cape. On several occasions 

 down to 1222 they sailed up the Northern Dwina 

 and plundered the people of Bjarmeland or Permia. 

 The most important event in viking history on the 

 east side of the Baltic hap|>ened in 862. The Slav 

 (perhaps rather Germanic Kussi) tribes who dwelt 

 south of Lake Ladoga as far as the Southern Dwina 

 invited three Scandinavian chiefs (proliably from 

 Sweden), brothers, of whom Rurik became the 

 most influential, to go and rule over them. They 

 established themselves at Holmgaard (Novgorod") 

 and laid the foundations of the kingdom of Gar- 

 darike, out of which grew the sulmeqnent Russia 

 (q.v.), that was ruled over by Kurik's descendants 

 down to 1598. Contemporaneously with this two 

 other Scandinavian chiefs formed the nucleus of 

 another state at Kttnugaard ( Kietf) ; and, sailing 

 thence down the Dnieper, they threatened Con- 

 stantinople, which was only saved by a sudden 

 torm scattering the fleet of the Northmen or 

 Viirings (Varangians), as they were called by 

 thf Slavic Russians and the Greeks. Three times 

 during the first half of the 10th century these 

 adventurers appeared before the capital of the 

 Eastern empire, and on two occasions (907 and 

 945) went away carrying with them heavy sums, 

 the price paid by the emperors to save the 

 city from assault. Igor, the son of Rnrik, who 

 commanded two of these expeditions, even launched 

 his fleet on the waters of the Caspian, and carried 

 the terror of the Northmen's name among the 

 Mohammedan dwellers on its shores. The expedi- 

 tions of the Viirings gradually ceased after Vladimir 

 introduced Christianity into his dominions in 988. 

 Nevertheless for many years these Scandinavian 

 rulers in Russia surrounded themselves with stout 

 and trusty warriors from the north, their position 

 being precisely analogous to that of the Manchu 

 eiii[i>-ron in China. From the end of the 10th 

 century the emperors of Constantinople had, till 



the fall of the city in 1453, a picked bodyguard of 

 Varangians. The men of the north esteemed it a 

 high honour to have served in this chosen cohort 

 at Myklegaard (i.e. 'the Great City') ; and doubt- 

 less they carried back to their countrymen at home 

 many elements or traits of the civilised refinement 

 of the Byzantine court. After the Norman Con- 

 quest of England large numbers of English North- 

 men made their way to Constantinople and enlisted 

 in the Varangian guard ; these were the only men 

 whose battle-axes cost Robert Guiscard and his 

 Normans trouble at the great battle of Dyrrha- 

 chium (1082). 



See Steenstrnp, Nitrmannme (4 vols. 1876-82); G. 

 Storm, Kritiskc Bidrari til Vikttiiictidmi Historie 

 (1878); Hunch, Del Nortke Fulkt Historie (7 vols. 

 1852-6S); Keary, Vikinyi in Wettcrn Christendom, 789- 

 SSS (1S91); Du Chaillu, Viking Aye (2 vols. 1890); 

 Barlow, History of Normani in South Europe (1886); 

 Count Scliack, Normannen in Sicilien (2 vols. 1889); 

 Delarc, Let Normandi en Ilalie (18S3); also the older 

 books Worsaae, Danes and Norireyiam in England, etc. 

 (1852); Strinnholm, Wikingaiige (2 vols. 1839-41); 

 Wheaton, Hutiirii of Nortlimen (1H31); and Depping, 

 HMoire det Expeditions de Normnndi (2 vols. 1826). 

 See also the books quoted umler NoitMANDT, and the 

 articles IRELAND, NAMES, SHIPBUILDING. For the 

 language, see ICELANDIC; and see also SCANDINAVIAN 

 MYTHOLOGY. 



North Sea. The North Sea, or German Ocean, 

 is a southern extension of the Arctic Ocean (q.v.). 

 It communicates freely with that part of the Arctic 

 Ocean lying between Iceland and Norway which 

 has received the name of the Norwegian Sea. Its 

 northern lioundarv would lie represented by a line 

 drawn from the Shetland Islands to the opposite 

 coast of Norway, and its southern boundary is the 

 Strait of Dover ; on the west it is bounded by the 

 east coast of Great Britain, and on the east by the 

 coasts of Norway, Denmark, Germany, Holland, 

 and Belgium. 'VV'ith the North Atlantic Ocean it 

 has communication through the Strait of Dover 

 and the English Channel on the south, and on the 

 north by the Pentland Firth and the channel 

 l>etween the Orkney and Shetland Islands ; with 

 the Arctic Ocean as already stated ; and with 

 the Baltic by the Skagerrack and Cattegat. The 

 North Sea is over 600 miles in length and alraut 

 400 miles in greatest width, and its area is 

 estimated at over 160,000 sq. m. By far the 

 greater proportion of this area is less than 100 

 fathoms in depth, the only part where deeper 

 water is found Being off the coast of Norway ( the 

 Norwegian Gully or Norwegian Deep, as it has 

 been called), where a depth of 360 fathoms has 

 been recorded ; the mean depth of the whole area 

 is estimated at 61 fathoms. The sea is very 

 shallow towards the south and east, and the coasts 

 in this direction are low and flat, being in some 

 places lielow the level of the sra, whereas to the 

 north and west, where the water is deeper, the 

 seacoast is high, and the deep Norwegian Gully is 

 faced by the high and l>old cliffs of Norway. The 

 sea-liottom is very irregular, a number of banks 

 running across from the Yorkshire coast towards 

 the . Skagerrack, the most important of which is 

 the Dogger Bank (q.v.), and there are also depres- 

 sions like the Silver Pit ; off the low-lying coasts of 

 Holland, Belgium, and Britain there are numerous 

 shoals and sandbanks formed of the materials 

 brought down by the rivers. The North Sea is 

 surrounded by continental land and receives the 

 waters of numerous rivers, the principal of which 

 are the Thames, Ouse, Humber, lyne, Tweed, 

 Forth, and Tay, the Scheldt, Rhine, Weser, and 

 Ellw. The deposits forming on the bottom conse- 

 quently belong to the class called ' terrigenous," 

 consisting in the shallower water of sands and 

 gravels and in the deeper water of muds and clays, 



