The strife between Briton and Englishman was in fact a strife between men of different races, while the strife between northman and Englishman was a strife between men whose race was the same.

The followers of Hengest or of Ida were men utterly alien from the life of Britain, strange to its arts, its culture, its wealth, as they were strange to the social degradation which Rome had brought on its province.

But the northman was little more than an Englishman bringing back to an England which had drifted far from its origin the barbaric life of its earliest forefathers.

Nowhere throughout Europe was the fight so fierce, because nowhere else were the fighters men of one blood and one speech.

But just for this reason the union of the combatants was nowhere so peaceful or so complete.