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religion and of a more or less centralised Roman
government, the Scandinavians conquered and
occupied more than half of England, the islands and
part of the coast of Scotland, and the harbours
and adjacent country in Ireland. They founded a
remarkable colony in Iceland, whence, later,
Greenland and certain coasts of North America (“Vinland
the good,” as it is called in Icelandic books) were
discovered. From Sweden, Scandinavian warriors
founded and ruled the states which later developed
into the Russian Empire, whence their fleets went
down to Constantinople and the Caspian Sea; while
at the same time other fleets were descending on the
Spanish peninsula, Morocco, and other Mediterranean
countries. Indeed the Scandinavian race, always
strong in its freedom, became almost irresistible when
it had learnt the arts of more modern warfare from
the nations with whom it came into contact. Their
most remarkable contribution to mediaeval
civilisation was Normandy, the colony which they finally
formed, after much devastation, and some other more
short-lived settlements, on the coast of France. The
Franco-Norman descendants of these colonists not only
conquered England, crossed over to Ireland, and
organised Scotland, but also, after founding
highly-civilised kingdoms in Southern Italy and Sicily, and
thence making further conquests in the Balkan
peninsula, in Africa, and even in Asia Minor, were the
leaders in the greatest and most wonderful movement
of mediæval times, the Crusades.
About a hundred years before the first Scandinavians
spread westwards, the Finns had moved into what is
now known as Finland. They came from the heart
of Russia, where they had been settled north of the
central Volga. There were two tribes, differing in
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