THE NORSE OCCUPATION. n 



Gall-gaidel," the mixed race of Norwegians and Celts who 

 inhabited the South Hebrides. The Irish called the 

 Hebrides " Innsigall," or Islands of the Foreigners, thus 

 indicating the predominance of the Norsemen. Up to this 

 period, the Northmen had come to the Hebrides chiefly, if 

 not entirely, as roving bands in search of plunder, but we 

 find them soon afterwards as exiles from the Mother-land, 

 seeking permanent settlements in a new country. 



The Battle of Hafursfiord, which was fought in the year 

 885 (or according to some historians in 872), was fraught 

 with important issues. The results of that great sea-fight 

 were the invasion of Russia and Normandy, the depreda- 

 tions on the coast of Britain, Ireland, and Spain, and the 

 colonisation of Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Shetlands, 

 the Orkneys, and the Hebrides, by Norwegian adventurers. 

 By the victory which he gained over the coalition of petty 

 kings who had rebelled against his absolutism, Harald 

 Harfager consolidated his sovereignty over the whole of 

 Norway, and established a monarchy which brooked no 

 rivals. The piratical-patriarchal era in Norway was for 

 ever past ; the iron hand of the conqueror pressed heavily 

 on ancient institutions ; the system of government was 

 revolutionised ; the independence of the jFy/to'-kings was 

 for ever broken ; and the reins of supreme power were 

 grasped by a man whom, if tradition is to be believed, the 

 sneer of a woman launched upon a career of ambition and 

 despotism, which had previously no parallel in Norwegian 

 history. A strong man was this fair-haired Harald ; but 

 so were the piratical princes whom he dispossessed of their 

 ancient privileges. Disdaining to lick the hand that had 

 smitten them, they preferred, like the Pilgrim Fathers if 

 the irony of the comparison be permitted to leave the 

 land of their forbears, and carve out for themselves fresh 

 fortunes in the land of the stranger, where their intense 

 love of liberty and, it may be added, their predatory 

 instincts were to receive freer play than was possible 

 under the new monarchy. And so it came to pass that 

 the rebellion against Harald, which culminated in the 



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