2 54 Norway and the Noi^wegians 



the borders of the Greater Scandinavia, ahnost within 

 the zone of its influence, between it, one might say, and 

 the rest of Christian Europe. It fluctuated for a long 

 time between two opposing forces. Through the im- 

 mense influx of northern blood which it had experienced 

 in the ninth and tenth centuries it was drawn towards 

 the Scandinavian peoples ; by its old Christianity it 

 was chained to Continental Europe. After the Danish 

 conquest of Cnut it seemed to give way to the former 

 attraction, and to become absorbed among the Scandi- 

 navian States ; but then followed the reign of Edward 

 the Confessor, when the influence of Catholicism and 

 of Catholic Europe again became strong. 



This reign brought in a new element, the Norman 

 or French element, into our history. For, of the Scandi- 

 navian States which, in a former chapter, we counted 

 as having been born from the great Viking outpouring 

 of the ninth century, one (but one only) had been com- 

 pletely withdrawn from its old associations, had utterly 

 broken with its old traditions, Normandy, namely, the 

 Scandinavian settlement in France. Even during 

 Edward the Confessor's reign a reaction began against 

 this Norman influence. It was expressed by the rise 

 of the House of Godwin and the crowning of Harold. 

 The new king's very name is significant of the influ- 

 ences which had affected England ; for this is the first 

 appearance of a thoroughly Scandinavian name borne 

 by a king of English descent. Godwin had married 

 Gyda, the sister of Earl Ulf of Denmark, who himself 

 was the brother-in-law of Cnut; and the infiuence of 

 Godwin's family and of Harold was to bring back, to 

 re-assert, as it were, the Danish element in English life. 



