lamp of learning* giving light to the Thule of Pytheas, while the rest of Europe was in dismal gloom. The Scandinavian adventurers discovered Greenland, where they also settled. In the year 1001, Heriol and Biarn, natives of Iceland, lanched their daring prows, and, pushing across the Gulf now called Baffin's Bay, discovered North America. Steering to the southward, they coasted along Labrador, till they reached Vinland, which is generally supposed to have been Lower Canada. Torfæus, Vinlandia Antiqua, 1705, 8vo. Northern Antiquities, vol. i. p. 280. The Waregori were a colony planted by the Northmen at the mouth of the Dwina, on the eastern shore of the White Sea, and where Archangel now stands. Before the middle of the 9th century the Vikingur, who delighted in adventure, had doubled the North Cape, and, after coasting Lapland, are supposed to have discovered Nova Zembla; but we have met with no satisfactory evidence of the Scandinavians having sailed so far to the eastward in the Frozen Ocean. Nestor, the Russian annalist, who * Icelandic literature comprehends poems and romances, with works on the sciences, a catalogue of which may be seen in the Sciagraphia literaturæ Islandica. Some morsels only have been published by the Society of Icelandic Literature: though abundantly curious, much progress in the sciences cannot be expected from the efforts of a secluded people. In the 13th century, Snorro Sturleson wrote the history of Sweden, which also relates to Denmark and Norway, in the Icelandic tongue; of which history, a Latin translation has been given by Peringskiold. Unfortunately, not one of the Icelandic pieces, nor any monument whatever of Scandinavian history, is older than the 11th century. Torfæus, the Danish antiquary and historian, wrote from 1695 to 1711, and was profoundly versed in Icelandic literature: he tells us that the Sagas abound so much in allegory, that it is often impossible to distinguish truth from fiction in these productions. wrote about 1100, mentions that, in 862, the Waregori settled on the White Sea; and that this colony consisted of Urmans, Inglani, and Gothi, who are believed to be Normans, Angles, and Jutes,-pronounced Yeuts.* *The Jutes, or Yeuts, were a Gothic tribe who had taken possession of Jutland, to which they gave a general name. A body of these arrived in England, an. 449, and settled in Kent. The Saxons were Gothic tribes who had seized that part of Germany, which extends from the Rhine to the Elbe. They arrived in England, an. 447, and afterward possessed the greater part of that country south of the Humber. The Angles were a Gothic tribe who held the south of Jutland. An. 574, Ida arrived in the north of England with a colony of Angles, and founded the kingdom of Bernicia, which extended from the Tees to the Forth. An. 559, Ella, at the head of another colony of Angles, founded the kingdom of Deira, which included Yorkshire. Forty years afterward, Adelfrid, king of Bernicia, conquered Deira, and his dominions included the country north of the Humber; on the west, extending to the Solway and Whitherne in Galloway; on the north, to the Forth; and Northumbria became the most powerful and famous kingdom of the Heptarchy. Adelfrid was succeeded by Edwin, who, an. 620, conquered Mona and Monæda, or Anglesey and the Isle of Man; the former ever after retaining the name of Anglesey, or English Isle. Edinburgh appears to have derived its name from the most potent of the Northumbrian kings. There is no evidence, that either the Britons or the Romans had availed themselves of the natural advantages of the place; but Edwin fortified the castle, which thenceforth took the name of Edwin's Burg, or Fort; and called by the Celtic inhabitants, Dun Edin, that is, the Castle of Edwin. An. 685, Egfrid, king of Northumbria, carried fire and sword into Pictland; but was defeated and slain by Brudi, king of the Picts, at Dunnichen, as already mentioned, when Brudi took possession of the country down to the Tweed. After this, the Northumbrian power gradually declined, till its final extinction by the Danes, about an. 860, twenty years after the Picts were overthrown at Scone. Bede, and other writers of the Heptarchy, were all of Northumbria; yet its history is obscure. Pinkerton questions if 10,000 Angli were left in England in the 10th century. -Enq. Being invited into Russia, Ruric, their leader, fixed his throne at Novogorod in 864. In the same year, a portion of this colony, under the auspices of Oscold and Dir, defeated the Cosars at Kiow, and reigned there. From Kiow, they sailed down the Boristhenes, and invaded the Eastern Roman Empire. But Ruric was the founder of the Russian State; and his descendants held the sceptre till 1598, or for 700 years.-Muller, Samlang Russ; Gesch, Parerga Hist. Dantisici, 1782, 4to. In 787, the Danes first made a descent upon England; and at 793, we read in the Annals of Ulster, "The wasting of all the islands of Britain, by the gentiles," (Pagans, or Northmen ;) at 794, "Burning of Rechrin (Rathlin) by gentiles ;" and at 797, "Spoils of the sea, between Ireland and Scotland, by gentiles ;" at 801, "Aoi of Columcille (Hyona) burnt by the gentiles;" at 805, Familia Aoi occisa est a gentibus ad vol. ii. sup. p. 229. That the Angli were so reduced in number, appears to us equally improbable, as the extirpation of the Picts; a story incredible, and which Pinkerton himself has demonstrated to be without foundation. The Angles had possessed Northumbria for upwards of 300 years, before they submitted to the Danes; and there seems no reason to suppose, that they did not continue to constitute the most numerous portion of the population, intermixed with the offspring of those Britons who might remain in the country when subdued by the Angles. The Gothic tribes of Jutes, Saxons, and Angles, with the remains of the Aborigines, were the progenitors of the mass of English people; the inhabitants of Wales, and some other districts, excepted. Chalmers has clearly shewn, in his Caledonia, vol. i. books ii. and iv. that the Anglo-Saxons were the fathers of the mass of Scotch Lowlanders, with the exception of the northern extremity of the island, which was colonized by Scandinavian Goths. The Anglo-Saxon, and Scandinavian progeny, however, is doubtless blended with the descendants of Britons, Picts, and other Aborigines. lxviii. "The fraternity at Hyona, slain by the gentiles to the number of 68;" at 824, "The martirizing of Blachmac MacFlain, in Aoi Colum Cille, by the gentiles;" at 838, "The overthrow of the Picts, already related;" at 852, "Aulaiv, king of Lochlin, came into Ireland; and all the foreigners of Ireland submitted to him, and had rent from the Irish." Aulaiv, and his successors, established the seat of their government at Dublin, which became a nest of pirates; and for 150 years, numerous fleets commanded by daring Vikingur, issued from the ports of Ireland to prey upon North and South Britain. They took possession of the Hebudes and the Isle of Man. Aulaiv, or Olave, was confederate with his brother Ivar, or Hivar, and their descendants ruled in Dublin; while a third brother Sitric, or Sigtrig, seized upon Limerick, and held the country at the mouth of the Shannon, on the west coast of Ireland. According to the Genealogical Table of Langebek, tom. ii. p. 415, Olave, Ivar, and Sitric were the offspring of the celebrated Regner Lodbrog; (see note, page 61;) this lineage, however, appears doubtful. These invaders were also called Ostmen, or Eastmen ; and they continued to hold the best part of Ireland in subjection from 852 to 1014, when they were overthrown by Brian Boromhe in the battle of Clontarf. -Ware's Antiq. chap. xxiv. p. 106-8. It was about 900, that Harold Harfagre (fair-haired,) having subdued several petty states, became master of all Norway, and established regular government in that country. He is said to have discouraged piracy; but many Norwegians disdained to submit to the dictates of the conqueror. He banished a powerful Iarl, called Ganga Hrolf, or Rollo the Walker, who received this surname because no horse could support the weight of his gigantic stature. This Rollo was a famous sea king, and had ravaged Vika, a territory on the south of Norway, of which Harold claimed the sovereignty: on being driven from his country, he passed to the western isles of Scotland: being there joined by numbers of his discontented countrymen, who regarded Harold as a tyrant and usurper, he invaded England: but not meeting with the success he expected in that quarter, Rollo at last set sail for Neustria, a province in the north of France. After ravaging this fine province, and besieging Paris, a treaty was at length concluded, in 912, by which Neustria was ceded to Rollo and his followers. The province thenceforth was called Normandy, from its being possessed by the Northmen. Rollo lived to a great age, and left the province to his descendants, one of whom was afterward to ascend the throne of England.- Torfæus, Hist. Norv. tom. ii. Normandy was reunited to France by Philip Augustus, an. 1205. No country suffered more than England from the destructive ravages of the Northmen, who ravened like wolves throughout her fertile territories; but, as these things are related in the History of England, we shall only glance at them here for the sake of connexion. From the first appearance of the Vikingr on the English shore 787, there was many a bloody field before Alfred the Great mounted the throne 872. He is said to have succeeded in destroying the Danish power in England 893; yet, the Danes continued to hold Northumbria, from 860 to 953; and this period of English history still requires investigation. An. 1017, Canute the Great, king of Denmark, ascended the throne of |