New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-04-19

Putnam's Sons.
The period with which Mr. Keary has to do is
one Of the most difficult TO treat historically The
records of that time Of struggle between ChrlsteD-
dom and Heathendom are fatally defective. All
of them proceed from one side, and it is only
from the Christian chroniclers, mostly monks or
priests, that any data can be obtained concerning
the Vikings, whose fierce onslaughts came more
and more to terrify Western Christendom from
the ninth century onward. When we CONSIDER,
moreover, that those were days when all unknown
regions and peoples were invested with super
natural atmosphere, the trustworthiness Of the
old chronicles becomes still more doubtful. They
were writing of enemies, not only to themselves,
but to their religion. In fact, the hatred OF the
Northern pirates to Christianity was the doml-
nant note in their proceedings Wherever they
landed their first act TO plumber and burn
the churches and monasteries and kill the priests
and monks The religion Of the North was not
less aggressive than that of the West, and as
Dtiless. Charlemagne, in his German wars, showed
that the spirit of the Old, rather than that oil
the New Testament, inspired the champions OF
Christendom in that age; and the Norsemen, with
all their ferocity, could not have waded deeper In
blood than did their adversaries when opportunity
offered
Because of the mist and fog which overhang
to present even q conjcctural view of their move
ments which is not liable TO serious anachronisms,
and which does not rest mainly upon the repre-
sensations Of their bitter and nl-informed foes.
Moreover, such presentation must be CLEANED
largely from more or less fragmentary and casual
references; for the internal affairs of England and
the Continent so absorbed the historians of the
period that, notwithstanding the ever-growing
Importance Of the Viking raids, they are alluded
to only cursoriy, and as side-issues Mr.. keary
has made a courageous and laborious effort to
break through the obscurity of the Viking age,
and to make the action and influence of the North
ern people upon Christendom clear Nothing can
exceed his industry OF the patient thoroughness
of his research and il the results are not all that
could be desired, the reader should ascribe any
falling short to the insuperabe difficulties inner
ent in the subject. For it must be realized that
the sources of information regarding the history
of Christendorn during the ninth century are only
less imperfect than those concerning Scandinavia.
After the death of Charlemagne the whole CONT
nent tended to anarchy. The Empire crumbled
Usurpations, rebellons, revolutions, consH raciss
treasons, battles, murders, massacres, succeeded
one another in a confused and endless procession
To disentangle all these elements of disorder, to
distinguish purposeful Misrepresentation from true
reports, to keep track of the Viking raids in the
crowd Of other raids which were not made by
the Vikings, is often impossible.
Take, for example, the case Of Ireland in the
ninth century. There were certainly Viking raids
during this period; but Ireland was rent with
civil war at the time, and so exactly did the
methods Of the Irish kings and those Of the
Vikings resemble one another that even in the
case of plunderings of churches and monasteries
and slaughter of missionaries and monks Mr..
Keary often finds it impossible to say whether
these things were done by foreign invaders or
domestic dictionaries. The case of Ireland is no
doubt an extreme instance, for nowhere else did
anarchy reach so wild pitch. But nowhere, save
perhaps in the England of Alfred, was there any
enduring security from invasion or civil war, and
the normal state of Europe may be said to have
been that of conflict. Whether there really was
ut any time danger Of the overflow of Christianity
by Heathenism remains an open question, we
think though Mr.. Keary appears inclined to think
that the possibility existed. OF course the leu
tonic Heathenism must be considered. as well as
that of the Vikings, but the former was the less
aggressive of the two, and fought generally in
self-defence alone. Whether, indeed, there was
any thought of proselytism in the Viking raids is
at least predetermined. They were not religious
race and while they always attacked Christianity
when they encountered it, it may easily be be-
lieved that their primary object the rich plum
der they had learned to look for in Christian
churches and monasteres AS for killing the
priests, they killed everybody No distinction of
persons is known to have been made by these red
handed rovers, to whom every stranger was foe.
1t may have been necessary that the blood of
these pirates should minge with that of our
ancestors to constitute the civilization of the
present; but it will have TO be admitted that
more repulsive people never figured in history. and
that the bravery which seems to have been their
sole virtue was neither more nor less than the
bravery of the red Indian. They appear to have
first organized their raids on being expelled from
Scandinavia as surplus population. When the
Norsemen found their numbers increasing beyond
the means of subsistence they banished per.
centage Of their young men, or turned them out to
shift for themselves giving them free pasture over
the rest of the world The emigrants had simple
programme. They took ship, made for the nearest
land, went on shore and killed burned and harried
the surrounding country. Later, some of them
elected to stay where the new conditions seemed
hopeful. Colonies were thus started along the
Irish coast, and also in England. After time
the Norsemen ceased to fight with the natives, and
intermarried with them, and the amalgamation
proceeded. But at the outset the Vikings thought
of nothing but blood and pillage, and so terrible
were their arms that they became a terror as well
as curse to all Europe. 1t is evident that there
was one way whereby they might have been
checked. and the tide possibly turned, but no
Continental ruler seems to have thought of this.
Our English Alfred was the one man who did think
Of it. He built navy. met the pirates on their
own element and beat them there so badly that for
many years they let him alone The successors Of
Charlemagne could have done the same, but they
were all fighting among themselves. and the feudal
chiefs who were rising into greater prominence
every year cared nothing about the sufferings of
the people, whoa a rule bore the burden Of the
Viking descents: Charles the Bold was the first
to make any serious attempt to check these raids,
by throwing bridges over the Seine at Paris. But
IL Is one of the most CURIOUS signs of the times that
30 little effort was made TO arrest the steadily grow
ing evil, the Significance Of which was so COM
pletely missed that in the civil bros the Vikings
hY SIDE.