126 REPORT—1874. 
Scandinavians or Norsemen—The Pagan Sea-Kings who made inroads on our 
coasts, despoiled our churches and monasteries, but at the same time, it must be con- 
fessed, helped to establish the commercial ‘we ethe of some of our cities and towns 
from 795 to the time of the battle of Clontarf, a.p. 1014, when the belligerent 
porticn of the Scandinavians were finally expelled the country. During the time I 
havo specified, Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford belonged to these northern people. 
Th. y not only coasted round the island and never lost an opportunity of pillage 
ary] plunder, but they passed through the interior and carried their arms into the 
very centre of the land. The Danes left us very little ornamental work beyond 
what they lavished upon their swords and helmets ; but, on the other hand, it should 
be borne in mind that there are no Irish antiquities, either social, warlike, or eccle- 
siastical, in the Scandinavian Museums. 
Concerning their ethnological characters I must again refer to the ‘ Crania Bri- 
tannica.’ In the records they were designated strangers, foreigners, pagans, gentiles, 
and also white and black foreigners ; so that there were undoubtedly two races—the 
dark, and the fair or red, like as in the case of the Firbolgs or Dannans. They 
were also styled “Azure Danes,” probably on account of the shining hue of their 
armour. 
I believe the fair section of that people to have been of Norwegian origin, while 
the dark race came from Jutland and the coast of Sweden ; and both by the Orkneys, 
the coasts of Scotland, and the Isle of Man. Their skulls were large and well- 
formed ; they had a thorough knowledge of metal work, and especially iron ; and, as I 
have shown elsewhere, their swords and spears were of great size and power, the 
former wielded as a slashing-weapon, while those of their early opponents were of 
bronze, weak, and intended for stabbing. In nowhere else in Europe (that I am 
aware of) have these rounded, pointed, or bevelled heavy iron swords been found 
except in Ireland and Norway. 
Large quantities of Danish remains have been discovered in deep sinkings made 
in Dublin ; and several weapons, tools, and ornaments, believed to be of Scandinavian 
origin, have been found within a few inches of the surface on one of the battle- 
fields on the south side of the Liffey, within the last few years. Upon most of 
these I have already reported and given illustrations. I may mention one circum- 
stance connected with this race. I never examined a battle-field of the Danes, nor 
a collection of Danish weapons or implements, that I did not find the well-adjusted 
scales and weights which the Viking had in his pocket for valuing the precious 
metals he procured either by conquest or otherwise. 
Although considered hostile, these Scandanavians Vikings must have frater- 
nized with the Irish. We know that they intermarried ; for, among many other 
instances that might be adduced, I may mention that during the battle of Clontarf, 
when Sitric, the Danish king of Dublin, looked on the fight from the walls of the 
city, he was accompanied by his wife, the daughter of the aged king, known as 
“‘ Brian the Brave.” 
When, however, the Irish chieftains were not fighting with one another, they 
were often engaged in petty wars with the Scandinavians, who, in turn, were 
attacked by their own countrymen, the “ Black Gentiles,” especially on the plain 
of Fingall, stretching from Dublin to the Boyne, and which the white race chiefly 
occupied. It must not be supposed that the battle of Clontarf ended the Danish 
occupation of Ireland ; they still held the cities of Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford 
at least, and largely promoted the commercial’ prosperity in these localities—a pros- 
perity which has not yet quite departed. I should like to present you with some 
remains of the Scandinavian language, but the materials are very scanty. 
We are now coming to a later period. The Romans had occupied Britain, 
the Saxons followed ; the Danes had partial possession for a time; the Heptarchy 
prevailed, until Harold, the last of the Saxon kings, fell at Hastings, and 
Hingland bowed beneath that mixture of Norman, Gaulish, Scandinavian, and 
general Celtic blood that William brought with him from the shores of France. 
The Saxon dynasty was at an end, but the Britons of the day accepted their fate ; 
and not only the soldiers, but the Norman Barons fused with the people of that 
kingdom, and largely contributed to make it what it now is. This fusion of races, 
this assimilation of sentiments, this interchange of thought, this kindly culture, 
