Norseman was the mune formerly given tx> all who 

 lived on the northeastern coasts of the North sea. Their 

 settlements included the countries now known as Norway, 

 Sweden aaid Denmark, with their neighboring islands; and 

 Iceland, that strange, volcanic island of the North At- 

 lantic. They were seafaring, vigorous people, who some- 

 times made themselves unfavorably known to their British 

 neigbbons. How near akin the two people were by blood 

 relationship is n.ot known. But their intimacy is known, 

 from Norse settlements en some parts of the British 

 islands, and by the fact that antique monuments and 

 rmiio inscriptions of the same kind, are found on both 

 fs^hores of the North sea. That intimacy left marked and 

 indelible traces in British history. Tw'o lines of English 

 kings were of Norse ancestrj^; and three of our wc^x».-days 

 still bea.r the names of deities belonging to the Norse pan- 

 theon. 



Vvlaen, long 3.go, in the ninth century*, Harold Hair-fair 

 laid claim to be sole King of Norway, there were brave 

 men w^ho fought against that claim, and who, wonst-ed in 

 the fight, fled to Iceland, where some of their descendants 

 still live. To their new home they carried in their memory 

 stories from tlie land of tlicir birth, which in speech and 

 substance are deomed trustworthy relics of our remote, 

 rude Teutonic ajice-stors. Among the most interesting of 

 these talcs is a collec-tion called Heimskringla, the round 

 w'orld, or stories of the Kings of Norway. Samuel Laing 

 somo years since Qa,\'e. in English the Danish vemion of 

 this book; and William Idioms and iMagnustson more re- 

 cently translated it into English frojn the Icelandic. 



Some Hcimskringla stories go back to heathen times, 

 and othcm to tlie times when the Noi-se folk w^cro turning 

 from heathendom to Christianity. The skeleton of a story 

 of the latter clarss pictures that time of rcpcllant cruelty : 

 "King Olaf, Christian in name but heathen in heart, 

 fought with Hand the Strong and conquered him. Baud, 

 who lived on an island of the firth in Halogaland, was a 



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