The Norse Vikings 69 



sweep upon western Europe, and almost to iDiing back 

 this portion of Christendom into the reign of chaos, out 

 of which it had emerged. 



The earlier Viking piracies, of which we have given a 

 slight sketch, proceeded, as would appear, rather from 

 Denmark, or at any rate from the Baltic and its mouth, 

 than from the western coasts of Norway. But it was 

 not very long before another route was discovered for 

 the pirate cruisers. This one led the way from the 

 western fjords, probably straight across the North Sea to 

 the Shetlands, and thence due south to the Orkneys and 

 to the mainland of Scotland. The name of the county 

 of Sutherland is a reminiscence of the settlement of the 

 Northmen in these regions. For who but they could 

 have named almost the most northern county of Scot- 

 land the southern land ? In the same way they called 

 the Hebrides the South Islands ; south, that is to 

 say, as compared to the Shetlands and the Orkneys, the 

 islands in which the northern pirates first settled. The 

 name South Islands — Sudreyar in Norse — became, as the 

 reader most likely knows, corrupted into Sodor, and 

 remains to this day in the title of the Bishop of Sodor 

 and Man. 



In these modern days a returning stream of in- 

 vaders traverses in an opposite direction the route which 

 the Vikings first laid open — the invading stream of 

 tourists, many of whom come in steamers, which take 

 this northern route from Scotland to the Orkneys 

 and Shetland, and thence to Norway. 



Other streams of northern pirates may have crossed 

 the sea (in the opposite direction) along the route which 

 is covered by the Hull and Bergen steamers of to-day. 



