“Ivar Vidfadmi (wide-fathomer) subdued the whole of Sviaveldi (the Swedish realm); he also got Danaveldi (Danish realm) and a large part of Saxland, and the whole of Austrriki (Eastern realm, including Russia, &c.) and the fifth part of England. From his kin have come the kings of Denmark and the kings of Sweden who have had sole power in these lands” (Ynglinga Saga, c. 45).
The above is corroborated by another quite independent source.
“Ivar Vidfadmi ruled England till his death-day. As he lay on his death-bed he said he wanted to be carried to where the land was exposed to attacks, and that he hoped those who landed there would not be victorious. When he died it happened as he said, and he was mound-laid. It is said by many men that when King Harald Sigurdsson came to England he landed where Ivar’s mound was, and he was slain there. When Vilhjálm Bastard came to the land he broke open the mound of Ivar and saw that the corpse was not rotten; he made a large pyre, and had Ivar burned on it; then he went up on land and got the victory” (Ragnar Lodbrók’s Saga, c. 19).
We find that not only did the Norwegians call themselves Northmen, but that both Danes and Sueones were called Northmen in the Frankish Chronicles.[[18]]
“The Danes and Sueones, whom we call Northmen, occupy both the northern shore and all its islands.”
So also Nigellus (in the reign of Louis Le Debonnaire).[[19]]
“The Danes also after the manner of the Franks are called by the name of Manni.”
The time came when the people of the North, continuing their expeditions to Britain, attacked their own kinsmen. After the departure of the Romans the power of the new comers increased, and as they became more numerous, they became more and more domineering: the subsequent struggles were between a sturdy race that had settled in the country and people of their own kin, and not with Britons, who had been so easily conquered by the Romans, had appealed to them afterwards for protection, and had for a long period been a subject race. It is not easy to believe that the inhabitants of a servile Roman province could suddenly become stubborn and fierce warriors, nor are there any antiquities belonging to the Britain of yore which bear witness to a fierce and warlike character displayed by the aboriginal inhabitants.
From the preceding pages we see that Franks and Saxons are continually mentioned together, and it is only in the North we can find antiquities of a most warlike and seafaring people, who must have formed the great and preponderating bulk of the invading host who conquered Britain.
Britain after a continuous immigration from the North, which lasted several hundred years, became the most powerful colony of the Northern tribes, several of whose chiefs claimed a great part of England even in the seventh century. Afterwards she asserted her independence, though she did not get it until after a long and tedious struggle with the North, the inhabitants and kings of which continued to try to assert the ancient rights their forefathers once possessed. Then the time came when the land upon which the people of these numerous tribes had settled became more powerful and more populous than the mother country; a case which has found several parallels in the history of the world. To-day the people of England as they look over the broad Atlantic may perhaps discern the same process gradually taking place. In the people of the United States of North America, the grandest and most colossal state founded by England or any other country of which we have any historical record, we may recognise the indomitable courage, the energy and spirit which was one of the characteristics of the Northern race to whom a great part of the people belong. The first settlement of the country, territory by territory, State by State—the frontier life with its bold adventures, innumerable dangers, fights, struggles, privations and heroism—is the grandest drama that has ever been enacted in the history of the world. The time is not far distant, if the population of the United States and Canada increases in the same ratio as it has done for more than a hundred years, when over three or four hundred millions of its people will speak the English tongue; and I think it is no exaggeration to say that in the course of time one hundred millions more will be added, from Australia, New Zealand and other colonies which to-day form part of the British Empire, but which are destined to become independent nations. In fact we hesitate to look still further into the future of the English race, for fear of being accused of exaggeration.