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(historik)
cursed viking." But in the tenth century the common
noun had become already a proper name, as did
Dubhgall, Finngall, Lagman, Lochlann, and Sumarlidi ;
there is a place in the south of Iceland called
Víkingslækr, Viking’s brook, named in Landnáma
(v. 5, 6) in connexion with the settlement ; and later
the personal name of Viking is found on runic stones.
The inference is that the English word was adopted
quite early by the Scandinavians to denote the
honourable employment of the free buccaneer and
not as a geographical designation.
The employment was not without honour. To us,
looking back on the weary waste of life and the means
of life, estimating in imagination the wanton destruction
of art and literature, the sufferings of innocent
people massacred or driven into slavery among heathens
and barbarians, or left to struggle and starve in the
ruins of their homes, it is easy to understand the bitterness
with which the Viking attacks were regarded, and
the despair of the litany : "A furore Normannorum,
libera nos, Domine." But it is easy also to forget that
the bitterness was felt because the Vikings were heathen
and barbarians, a despised race, regarded in the ninth
century as, in the twelfth century, Saracens abroad and
Jews at home were regarded. When in Christian Ireland
monks fought with monks, and kings made war
on priests and women, it was the normal course of
nature ; but that Gentiles should come in and poach
upon the preserves of royal sportsmen was the unbearable
shame. In England for many a year stout
resistance was made ; the Vikings were often beaten,
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