FEUDALISM AND THE MONARCHY 954-1071 [Sidenote: Absorption of the Northmen] The fierceness of the northman's onset had hidden the real character of his attack.

To the men who first fronted the pirates it seemed as though the story of the world had gone back to the days when the German barbarians first broke in upon the civilized world.

It was so above all in Britain.

All that tradition told of the Englishmen's own attack on the island was seen in the northmen's attack on it.

Boats of marauders from the northern seas again swarmed off the British coast; church and town were again the special object of attack; the invaders again settled on the conquered soil; heathendom again proved stronger than the faith of Christ.