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nominally under the rule of the Christian emperor.
The first viking raids were not a war of heathenism in
revenge for the oppression of the Old Saxons ; they
were a new form of sport, at the back of which were
"business interests ;" and Danes, not Norse, were
concerned.
Next year ’’the aforesaid Pagans" tried to repeat
their success. They returned and ravaged Ecgfrid’s
port and the monastery at Done-mouth—Jarrow,
where the little Don joins the Tyne. "But St.
Cuthbert did not let them depart unpunished.
Indeed their chief was slain by the English on the
spot with a cruel death, and after a short space of
time the violence of a tempest shook, ruined and
brake to pieces their ships ; and very many the sea
overwhelmed. Some were cast ashore, and soon
killed without pity. And this served them right for
doing grave harm to those who had never done them
harm" (Symeon).
Under 792 (correctly 794) the Ulster Annals note
with evident exaggeration, "all the coast of Britain
ravaged by the foreigners ;" and, two years later,
"the foreigners ravage Fortrenn (central Scotland) and
distress the Picts." This may mean that, in spite
of the reverse at Jarrow, the raids were pushed
farther north, up the east coast of Britain. It is not
proved that Vikings had reached the south-west of
Scotland in 796.
The year 795, in which the Vikings did not venture
back to the scene of the disaster of 794, was spent in
an attempt in another direction. A party sailed round
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