or complexions may have come into England—viz., as thralls among the Norse invaders. In his translation of ‘Orosius,’ King Alfred inserts the account which Othere, the Norse mariner, gave him of the tribute in skins, eiderdown, whalebone, and ropes made from whale and seal skins, which the Northern Fins, now called Lapps, paid to the Northmen. Their descendants are among the darkest people of Europe, and as they were thralls, some of them may have accompanied their lords. The Danes and Norse, having the general race characteristics of tall, fair men, must have been sharply distinguished in appearance from Vikings, such as those of Jomborg, for many of these were probably of a dark complexion. There is an interesting record of the descent of dark sea-rovers on the coast of North Wales in the ‘Annales Cambriæ,’ under the year 987, which tells us that Gothrit, son of Harald, with black men, devastated Anglesea, and captured two thousand men. Another entry in the same record tells us that Meredut redeemed the captives from the black men. This account in the Welsh annals receives some confirmation in the Sagas of the Norse Kings, one of which tells us that Olav Trygvesson was for three years, 982-985, King in Vindland—i.e., Wendland—where he resided with his Queen, to whom he was much attached; but on her death, whose loss be greatly felt, he had no more pleasure in Vindland. He therefore provided himself with ships and went on a Viking expedition, first plundering Friesland and the coast all the way to Flanders. Thence he sailed to Northumberland, plundered its coast and those of Scotland, Man, Cumberland, and Bret1and—i.e., Wales—during the years 985-988, calling himself a Russian under the name of Ode.[1] From these two separate accounts there can be but little doubt, notwithstanding the differences in the names, of the descent on the coast of
- ↑ ‘The heimskringla,’ translated by S. Laing, edited by Anderson, ii. 110, 111.
