339 



was aDane, but the ancient coins which have been discovered in 

 this country fully bear him out in what he has stated. We do 

 not find any particular Irish coins before the invasion of the 

 Norsemen; but immediately after that event we see a great 

 number of " Hiberno-Danish" coins, which were imitations of 

 Saxon and other coins. A number of Arabian or Cufic coins 

 have also been found in Ireland, a circumstance which could 

 only be accounted for by the commerce with the Northmen. 

 Arabian coins of the same kind have been found, with silver 

 ornaments, in great abundance in Scandinavia, particularly in 

 Sweden, on the island Gotland, upon the shores of the Baltic, 

 and in Russia along the rivers as far as the Caspian sea, which 

 shewed the course of trade with the East at that remote time. 

 There is every reason to believe that the Norsemen, who 

 were the only sailing people at that period, and who had con- 

 nexions not only with Scandinavia, but with Russia, Scotland, 

 England, Holland, Germany, and France, had highly im- 

 proved the trade of Ireland. When we consider, moreover, 

 that the Northmen had beautiful ornaments and well-made 

 swords, inlaid with silver and gold, — that they could build 

 vessels, in which, several centuries before Columbus, they 

 sailed across the Atlantic, — we find strong arguments support- 

 ing the assertion, that the Northmen at that time were not so 

 rude or so injurious to the civilization of Ireland as is generally 

 supposed. 



But what most sustains Mr. Worsaae's opinion is the old Ice- 

 landic literature. The Irish and Icelandic literature are so far 

 alike, that they were written in the native tongue, the reason of 

 which probably was, that Ireland and Iceland, in their re- 

 moteness, were unaffected by the many movements of Europe. 

 -But between them there was this great difference, that the Irish 

 literature, and especially the historical part of it, was, for the 

 most part, written by the clergy; but the Icelandic sagas or his- 

 torical works are more characteristic monuments of the spirit 

 of the people in the Pagan time. They preserve all the old re- 



