fränkische Reich, 799–911 (1906); F. Chalandon, La Dominion
normande en Italie et Sicile, 1009–1194 (Paris, 1907); F. Lot, “La
Grande Invasion normande, 856–862,” in t. 69 of the Bibliothèque
de l’École des Charles (Paris, 1908).
NORMANTON, a town of Normanton county, Queensland,
Australia, on the river Norman, 25 m. E. by S. of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and 1382 m. direct N.W. of Brisbane. Pop. (1901) 838. It is the centre of the Carpentaria district, one of the chief sheep and cattle farming districts in the colony. Normanton is also the outlet of the Croydon and Etheridge goldfields, and of the Cloncurry copper mines. It is the terminus of the
railway to Croydon, and has large meat-packing works.
NORMANTON, an urban district in the Normanton parliamentary
division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England,
on the river Calder, 3 m. N.E. of Wakefield on the Midland,
North Eastern and Lancashire & Yorkshire railways. Pop.
(1901) 12,352. The church of All Saints is Norman and Perpendicular,
with a square tower rebuilt in 1717, and contains
a number of interesting monuments; the ancient stained glass
is good. The grammar-school was founded about the end of the
16th century. Traces remain of a moat surrounding the town.
A mound in the neighbourhood called Haw Hill is supposed
to be a barrow. Altofts, a neighbouring parish, was the home of
Sir Martin Frobisher in the 16th century. There are numerous
Collieries in the neighbourhood.
NORNS (O. Norse, Nornir), in Northern mythology, the
female divinities of fate, somewhat similar to the Gr. Μοῖραι
and the Roman Parcae. Like them they are generally represented
as three in number, and they are said to spin, or weave,
the destiny of men. Their dwelling is beside the “Spring of fate,”
beneath the “world-tree,” Yggdrasil’s ash, which they water
with draughts from the spring. In some cases the Norns are
not easily to be distinguished from the Valkyries (q.v). Sometimes
again they appear as prophetesses (völur) at the birth of
children, whose destiny they foretell. The most famous of
these stories is contained in the Tháttr af Nornagesti, and has
a curious resemblance to the Greek legend of Althaea and
Meleager. Similar beings seem to have been known among
other Teutonic peoples in early times. (See Teutonic Peoples
§ 7).
(H. M. C.)
NORRIS, FRANK (1870–1902), American novelist, was born
in Chicago, Illinois, on the 5th of March 1870. He studied art
in Paris in 1887–1889; studied at the University of California
(1890–1894), and at Harvard University (1894–1895); in 1895–1896
served in South Africa as war correspondent for the
San Francisco Chronicle; in 1896–1897 was associate editor of
the San Francisco Wave; and in 1898 was sent to Cuba as
war correspondent for McClure’s Magazine. He died in San
Francisco on the 25th of October 1902. He wrote A Deal in
Wheat, and Other Stories (1903), Responsibilities of the Novelist,
and Other Literary Essays (1903), and the following novels:
Moran of the Lady Letty (1898), a story of adventure off the
California coast; McTeague (1899), a story of the San Francisco
slums; Blix (1899), a love story; A Man’s Woman (1900);
The Octopus (1901) and The Pit (1903). The last two were
powerful stories, which made his reputation. The Octopus deals
with wheat-raising in California and with the struggle between
the growers and the railroad trust; The Pit with wheat-speculation
in the Chicago market. His complete works were published
in seven volumes in 1903.
NORRIS, HENRY NORRIS or Norreys, Baron (c. 1525–1601),
belonged to an old Berkshire family, many members of which
had held positions at the English court. His father, Henry
Norris, was a grandson of Sir William Norris, who commanded
the royal troops against Lambert Simnel at the battle of Stoke
in 1487. Like his brother John (d. 1564), the elder Henry
Norris obtained a post at the court of Henry VIII.; he gained
the king’s favour and was rewarded with many lucrative offices.
He belonged to the party which favoured the elevation of
Anne Boleyn; but in May 1536 he was arrested on the charge
of intriguing with her, and though he was probably innocent
of any serious offence he was beheaded on the 17th of May 1536.
His son Henry regained some of his father’s lands and entered
upon court life, being a member of parliament under Edward VI.
During Mary’s reign he was one of those who were entrusted
with the custody of the princess Elizabeth, and when the princess
became queen she amply repaid the kindness which Norris had
shown to her when he was her guardian at Woodstock. In
1566 he was knighted and was sent as ambassador to France,
where he remained until 1570, and in 1572 he was created
Baron Norris of Rycote. He died in June 1601. By his wife
Margaret (d. 1599), daughter of John, Lord Williams of Thame,
Norris had six sons, all of whom distinguished themselves in
the field. The Norris monument, with figures of Lord and Lady
Norris and their six sons, is in St Andrew’s Chapel in Westminster
Abbey.
The eldest son, Sir William Norris, died in Ireland in December 1579, leaving a son Francis (1579–1623), who succeeded to his grandfather’s barony and also to the estates of his uncle Sir Edward Norris. In 1621 Francis was created earl of Berkshire. He left no sons and the earldom became extinct, but the barony descended to his daughter Elizabeth (d. 1645), the wife of Edward Wray (d. 1658). Their daughter Bridget (1627–1657) married as his second wife Montagu Bertie, 2nd earl of Lindsey, and their son James Bertie (1654–1699) became Baron Norris (or Norreys) in 1657, and was created earl of Abingdon in 1682. His descendants the Berties, earls of Abingdon, still hold this barony, and are the present representatives of the family of Norris.
Sir Edward Norris (d. 1603), the 1st Lord Norris’s third son, served with the English troops in the Netherlands from 1585 to 1588. He is chiefly remembered owing to his fierce quarrel with Philip, count of Hohenlohe (1550–1606), called Hollock by the English, in August 1586 at Gertruydenberg (see J. L. Motley, The United Netherlands, vol. ii.). In 1589 he sailed with his brother Sir John and Sir Francis Drake on the expedition to Spain and Portugal, and from 1590 to 1599 he was governor of Ostend.
Sir Thomas Norris (1556–1599), another son of the first lord, went as a soldier to Ireland in 1579 and acted for a few months as president of Connaught. He fought against the Fitzgeralds and also in Ulster; in 1585 he became vice-president of Munster, and in 1597 he succeeded his brother, Sir John Norris, as president. The three remaining brothers were: Sir Henry Norris (1554–1599), who fought in the Netherlands and then in Ireland, where he was killed in 1599; Maximilian Norris, who was killed in Brittany in 1593, and Sir John Norris (q.v.).
Two other members of another branch of this family remain to be mentioned, namely, Sir William Norris and his brother Sir John.
Sir William Norris (c. 1657–1702), having been created a baronet, was sent in 1699 to the Mogul emperor in India to secure trading privileges for the new company which had been just formed to compete with the old East India Company. He reached India in September 1699, and after overcoming many difficulties he arrived at the emperor’s residence in April 1701. The embassy, however, was a total failure; Norris was unable to make terms, and he died on the voyage to England.
Sir John Norris (c. 1660–1749) entered the navy and saw a good deal of service during the war with France under William III. and Anne. Under George I. he was sent several times with a fleet into the Baltic Sea to forward the policy of this king by giving the northern nations some idea of the strength of England. In 1734 he became an admiral and commander-in-chief. Norris, who was known as “foul-weather Jack,” was a member of parliament from 1708 until his death.
NORRIS, JOHN (1657–1711), English philosopher and divine,
was born at Collingbourne-Kingston in Wiltshire. He was
educated at Winchester and Exeter College, Oxford, being
subsequently elected to a fellowship at All Souls’. His first
original work was An Idea of Happiness (1683), in which, with
Plato, he places the highest happiness or fruition of the soul
in the contemplative love of God. Malebranche’s Recherche de
la vérité, which had appeared in 1674, made a strong impression
upon him. Malebranche, he says, “is indeed the great Galileo
of the intellectual world.” He had also studied the works of
Descartes himself, and most of what had been written for and
against Cartesianism. Of English thinkers, More and Cudworth,
