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love of adventure and plunder, with the hope of finding a home elsewhere than on the waves, drove them to the desperate resolution of making a new incursion into the heart of England. They confided their families, ships and booty to their friends and countrymen in East Anglia, and marched rapidly across the country, until they reached and fortified Chester. Here Hastings was besieged by Alfred, but at last broke away from his confinement, pushed into North Wales, and after plundering the country, returned by a circuitous route, through Northumbria and East Anglia to his original position at Mersey in Essex. Having dragged his barks from the Thames up the Lea, he built a fortress for their protection on the latter stream, twenty miles from London, near Hartford or Ware. Here Alfred blockaded them, and obstructed the navigation of the river so as to render the vessels useless. Finding that they had thus lost their barks, the Northmen again sent their wives and children to East Anglia, and suddenly breaking up their encampment, fled through the heart of the kingdom from the Lea to the Severn, and entrenched themselves at Bridgnorth. Here they remained undisturbed the whole winter, but the citizens of London seized and carried of, or destroyed their vessels on the Lea.

(896.) Hastings had now contended for three years against Alfred, but at last indignantly yielded to the superior genius and fortune of his illustrious enemy. He disbanded his despairing followers, some of whom retired to the Danish colonies in Northumbria and East Anglia; others crossed the seas in search of new adventures. (897.) Those who had retreated to the north of England, soon after fitted out a naval expedition against the coasts

of Wessex. To encounter them with advantage, Alfred · caused ships to be built larger than theirs, and of a construction superior to the vessels, both of the Danes and the Frisians, who excelled all other nations in naval architecture. With these means he at last succeeded, though not without some disasters, in ridding himself of the remnant of the Vikingar, who had so long harassed his people.*

Hastings soon after left England, but his subsequent life and adventures are covered with a thick veil of oblivion. Had he encountered a foe inferior in resources of mind to Alfred, he might perhaps have anticipated the fortune of that Norman, whose invasion of England was afterwards crowned with success. The fame of his exploits was appealed to by William the Conqueror to kindle the valour of his troops before the battle, which proved so fatal to the Saxon name and nation but the wild and savage glory of Hastings fades before that of Alfred,-the light of his age,-the morning star of civilization.

* Turner, vol. ii. pp. 211–242. Lingard, vol. i. pp. 262–269. Palgrave's History of England, vol. i. pp. 137-141.

CHAPTER XI.

Reign of Harald Harfager in Norway.-Battle of Hafursfjord.—His intercourse with king Athelstane.-Endeavours to extirpate piracy.-Battle of Brunaburgh.-Anglo-Saxon lay.-Egill's Saga.-Norman invasions of France continued.-Siege of Paris.

ALFRED was succeeded in the throne of the West Saxons by his son Edward the Elder. His pretensions were questioned by Ethelwald, one of the children of Alfred's elder brother Ethelbald, who refused to submit to the decision of the Vitena-gemot, fled to the Northumbrian Danes, and excited their sympathy to that degree, that they are said to have elected him their king at York. (905.) He afterwards became a sea-king, and, joining his forces to the East Anglian Danes, ravaged Mercia. He was at last slain in battle with the men of Kent, and his death became the means of effecting a peace between the Anglo-Saxons and the Anglo-Danes. But the inextinguishable hatred between the two nations soon broke out into fresh hostilities. (910.) They ravaged alternately each other's territories, until the Northmen were at last surprised by Edward and defeated, with the slaughter of many thousands. In this battle fell many Jarls with Halfdan and Eowills, two brothers of the famous Inguar. (918). Edward protected his dominions against the

incursions of the Anglo-Danes, by a chain of fortifications drawn across the island, and the Northmen were defeated in an attempt to invade by sea. (920.) The Anglo-Saxon monarchy received new strength and security from the re-union of Mercia to Wessex, which was effected on the death of Ethelfleda, the daughter of Alfred. The EastAnglian and Northumbrian Danes ultimately submitted to his paramount authority, and were contented to enjoy in peace and tranquillity the territories they had acquired and colonized in England.*

The revolution which had been effected in Norway in the latter part of the ninth century, by Harald Harfager, had an important influence on the spirit of maritime enterprize. Previously to the reign of that monarch, Norway, like all the other countries of Scandinavia, was divided into a great number of independent districts or tribes, each of which was governed by its petty chieftain, Jarl, or king. Each had also its own separate popular assembly, or Thing, and furnished a certain number of barks and men for any maritime expedition undertaken by all the tribes in common, or for the general defence of the country. Harald was descended from the ancient race of the Ynglings in Sweden, and the foundations of his ascendancy over the other petty kings of Norway, were laid by his father, Halfdan, king of Westfold. Harald subdued them all successively, and reduced under his dominion the whole country from Finnmark to the Naze of Norway. The last effort made by the enemies of Harald to oppose the progress

• Turner, vol. iii. pp. 1-18. Lingard, vol. i. pp. 272-278. Palgrave, vol. i. pp. 195-199.

of his ascendancy, was the result of a general confederacy among all the independent Norwegian chieftains. The contest was terminated in favor of Harald by a naval battle at Hafursfjord, a bay of Norway, now called Stavengerfjord. This sea-fight is celebrated in the Northern Sagas and songs as decisive of the fate of Norway. Both parties were aided by numerous bands of Berserker and Vikingar, of heroic champions and piratical sea-rovers, who swarmed in the seas of the North, and crowded, on this eventful occasion, to either standard, as they were stimulated by revenge, or the love of adventure, and the hope of reward. The struggle was maintained with obstinate fury on both sides, until Harald, whose lofty ship, with its dragon's beak, bearing his royal banner, was stationed in the centre of his fleet, sent against the enemy his select corps of body guards and champions. Two of the confederated kings perished in the fight; the rest fled, and finally submitted to the victorious Harald, or were driven into exile.*

Snorre quotes, on this occasion, the historical lay composed on this battle by one of Harald's Icelandic Skalds, named Thornbiorn Hornkloft.

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'Loud in Harfur's echoing bay,
Heard ye the din of battle bray,
'Twixt Kiotve rich, and Harald bold?
Eastward sail the ships of war;

The graven bucklers gleam afar,

And dragon's heads adorn the prows of gold.

Snorre, Haralds Saga ens Harfagra, cap. xix. Schoning, Norges Riges Historie, tom. ii. p. 91.

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