-loving race comes some of
the spirit of adventure that has helped so much to build up our own naval
power. When Nelson destroyed and captured the Danish fleet at Copenhagen,
the Danes consoled themselves by saying that only a leader of their own
blood could have conquered them, and that Nelson's name showed he came of
the Viking line.

A chronicler tells how Charlemagne in his old age once came to a village on
the North Sea shore, and camped beside it. Looking to seaward he saw far
out some long low ships, with gaily painted oars, dragon-shaped bows, and
sails made of brightly coloured lengths of stuff sewn together and adorned
with embroidery along the yard. Tears came to his eyes as he said: "These
sea-dragons will tear asunder the empire I have made."

They were Viking cruisers, on their way to plunder some coast town; and the
old Emperor's prophecy was verified when the Norman, who was a civilized
Norseman, became for a while the conquering race of Europe. Even before the
death of Charlemagne the Norse and Danish sea-kings were raiding,
plundering, and burning along the coasts of his Empire. Two hundred years
of our own history is made up of the story of their incursions. England and
Ireland bore the first brunt of their onset, when they found the ways of
the sea. But they ravaged all the western coasts of Europe, and even showed
themselves in the Mediterranean. From the end of the eighth till the
beginning of the eleventh century they were the terror of the western
world, and early in that dark and stormy period their raids had grown into
great expeditions; they landed armies that marched far inland, and they
carved out principalities for themselves.

Western Europe had a brief respite at times when the Vikings fought amongst
themselves. In early days there were frequent struggles for supremacy in
Norway, between local kinglets and ambitious chiefs. Fighting was in the
blood of the Northmen. Two sea-roving squadrons would sometimes challenge
each other to battle for the mere sake of a fight. As Norway coalesced into
a single kingdom, and as the first teachers of Christianity induced the
kings to suppress piracy, there was more of peace and order on the Northern
Seas. But in this transition period there was more than one struggle
between the Scandinavian kingdoms, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. One of the
most famous battles of these northern wars of the sea-kings was fought in
this period, when the old wild days of