74 Norivay ajid the Norivegians 



about A.D. 1000, introduced the first native coinage into 

 Ireland ; till which date such a medium of exchange was 

 almost unknown in this backward country. 



There were other peculiarities which distinguished 

 the history of the Norse conquerors. The only contact 

 which these had with Christendom was in the form of 

 contact with the Celtic populations of the west, almost 

 exclusively with the Gaels or Goidhels, the Celts of the 

 Scottish Hidilands and of Ireland. Even the Norse- 

 men in Strathclyde were in a country chiefly Celtic 

 but British. From this contact between the Norsemen 

 and the Celts there" arose many consequences which 

 we shall have to detail in the next chapter. 



We shall have, too, in the next chapter, to trace the i 



Norsemen in a new and somewhat different sphere of 

 activity. But we will devote the rest of this chapter to 

 following in brief outline the doings of the Vikings upon 

 the Continent. These Vikings, we have already said, 

 were chiefly Danes ; and therefore their history has not 

 so much concern with the history of Norway. But it 

 would be impossible to leave out altogether the career 

 of these Vikings on the Continent, which went on while 

 the Norsemen were establishing their power in Scotland 

 and in Ireland. 



On the Continent — as no doubt the reader knows — _ 

 the mighty empire of the Franks, founded by Charle- 

 magne, embraced almost the whole of western Christen- 

 dom of those days. It included the kingdoms of the 

 East and West Franks, or what were beginning to be 

 known as Francia (France) and Germania (Germany). 

 The southern part of what is now France kept a sepa- 

 rate name — its old Latin one, Provincia or Provence. 



