66 Norway and the Norwegians 



A custom obtained very much in the Christian 

 Europe of those days for the pious, who raised mon- 

 asteries in honour of God and the saints, to choose 

 for the sites of these either islands in the sea or some 

 promontory which was washed by the waves : it was 

 done upon something of the same principle, it may be, 

 which caused the Greeks to dedicate so many temples 

 to Apollo (the most national of their gods) upon islands, 

 or upon headlands along the coast. ' The high watches 

 pleased him, and the rivers that run into the deep, 

 and the shores stretching down to the sea, and the 

 sea's harbours,' as the Homeric hymn to Apollo says. 



And for the same reason, namely, that tliese places 

 at the edge of all earthly kingdoms belonged especially 

 to the god, were the early religious houses of Christen- 

 dom so often built upon islands or by the sea-shore. 

 In Enfdand one of the most fanrous of these establish- 

 ments was Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, a foundation of 

 St. Cuthbert. This was the next place attacked by a 

 Viking fleet. The pirates slew or made captive all the 

 monks, and the monastery itself was rifled and then 

 burnt. This was in a.d. 793. 



Then the pirates appeared on the south coast of 

 Wales; and after that they sailed thence across to 

 Ireland, and found another island monastery near to 

 Dublin Bay, which they plundered and burnt, in the 

 same way that their brother Vikings had plundered 

 and burnt Lindisfarne. We soon find them sailing to 

 Man; and next round to the west coast of Ireland, 

 and plundering all that side of the island ; or what 

 seemed more impious still, sailing to the west coast of 

 Scotland and plundering lona, that famous foundation 



