WESSEX AND THE NORTHMEN 796-947 [Sidenote: The Northmen] The union which each English kingdom in turn had failed to bring about was brought about by the pressure of the Northmen.

The dwellers in the isles of the Baltic or on either side of the Scandinavian peninsula had lain hidden till now from Western Christendom, waging their battle for existence with a stern climate, a barren soil, and stormy seas.

It was this hard fight for life that left its stamp on the temper of Dane, Swede, or Norwegian alike, that gave them their defiant energy, their ruthless daring, their passion for freedom and hatred of settled rule.
Forays and plunder raids over sea eked out their scanty livelihood, and at the close of the eighth century these raids found a wider sphere than the waters of the northern seas.

Tidings of the wealth garnered in the abbeys and towns of the new Christendom which had risen from the wreck of Rome drew the pirates slowly southwards to the coasts of Northern Gaul; and just before Offa's death their boats touched the shores of Britain.
To men of that day it must have seemed as though the world had gone back three hundred years.

The same northern fiords poured forth their pirate-fleets as in the days of Hengest or Cerdic.