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show more than passing visits of the Northmen to the
country they knew as Bretland, the land of the Britons.
From the Welsh annals and various sources we can
gather the frequency of their incursions, and perhaps
deduce the nature of their settlements.
Their first appearance in Glamorgan, 795, does not
seem to have been followed by any attack until about
838, the time of Hengston Down; and then again
there was peace until 860, when they entered Gower
and were again repulsed. Then Ubbi spent some
time in Pembroke before meeting his fate at the Arx
Cynuit (878). About this time, as Asser the Welshman
tells us, King Hemeid of Demetia (S.W. Wales)
"often plundered the monastery and parish of St.
Degui" (St. Davids); we may infer that Welsh
kings, like Irish kings, attacked churchmen. Northmen
may have been already settled in that district,
but in this case they are not named as the plunderers.
The next attack was the disastrous raid of Ottar
and Hroald (915), in which St. Davids again suffered,
as well as the diocese of Llandaff and both shores
of the Bristol Channel. Then in 955 we find
a king Siferth among the Welsh princes attesting a
charter of King Eadred, and in 962
"King Sigferth
killed himself, and his body lies at Wimborne."
Florence of Worcester is no doubt wrong in resuscitating him to row Eadgar on the Dee in 973, but he is
an historical king, with a Scandinavian name, Sigfrith,
and the fact points to a substantial Viking colony
somewhere in Wales.
By this time we have saga-notices of the fact, which,
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