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often did them dishonour. If a hundred met one of them, 
evil arose if they did not how themselves to him; and if 
they" came upon a bridge, they were required to wait : it was 
a crime if they moved before the Dane passed. In passing, 
every one inclined himself, whoever did not, if he were taken, 
was shamefully beaten. In such vileness were the English.” 
— Gaimar. 
“It must be recollected that these strangers made the 
country entirely their own. Halfdene divided Northumbria 
amongst his followers, who tilled and sowed the lands which 
they had won. . . . The conquest of the Anglo-Saxons 
by the Danes appears to have been as complete as that which 
was effected at a subsequent period by the Normans .” — Rise 
and Progress of the English Commonwealth , by Palgrave. 
“The old Anglo-Saxon names gave place to Danish 
appellations.” — William of Malmesbury. 
Then recollect there were two parties of these conquerors 
in England. The Norwegians, who for the most part occu- 
pied the North, and the Danes, who, monopolising the name 
of both in after writings, generally speaking, were the 
masters of the South. At home, in Norway and Denmark, 
as all the Sagas witness, they had ever and always a duel 
going on ; for a time they might lay aside their enmities, 
and make a joint cruise or descent upon some unguarded 
shore, but the normal state of these two nations was one of 
constant hostility. As at home, so abroad ; as they fought 
against and devoured one another in their fatherland, so also 
they did in their land of adoption. You cannot read English 
history aright, at least that deeply interesting part which 
preceded the coming of William, without taking this with 
you as a clue whereby to unravel the twisted skein. Put out 
of your thoughts the enslaved and conquered English, the 
battle for dominion was fought out between the partisans of 
the Northmen and the Danes.-— War of the Gaedhill with 
