Besides, they liked to make their fortunes by getting what they could
from their neighbors. Nobody was thought brave or worthy, in Norway
or Denmark, who had not made some voyages in a "long keel," as a ship
was called, and fought bravely, and brought home gold cups and chains
or jewels to show where he had been. Their captains were called Sea
Kings, and some them went a great way, even into the Mediterranean
Sea, and robbed the beautiful shores of Italy. So dreadful was it
to see the fleet of long ships coming up to the shore, with a serpent
for the figure-head, and a raven as the flag, and crowds of fierce
warriors with axes in their hands longing for prey and bloodshed, that
where we pray in church that God would deliver us from lightning and
tempest, and battle and murder, our forefathers used to add, "From
the fury of the Northmen, good Lord deliver us."

To England these Northmen came in great swarms, and chiefly from
Denmark, so that they were generally call "the Danes." They burnt
the houses, drove off the cows and sheep, killed the men, and took
away the women and children to be slaves; and they were always most
cruel of all where they found an Abbey with any monks or nuns,
because they hated the Christian faith. By this time those seven
English kingdoms I told you of had all fallen into the hands of one
king. Egbert, King of the West Saxons, who reigned at Winchester,
is counted as the first king of all England. His four grandsons had
dreadful battles with the Danes all their lives, and the three eldest
all died quite young. The youngest was the greatest and best king
England ever had--Alfred the Truth-teller. As a child Alfred excited
the hopes and admiration of all who saw him, and while his brothers
were busy with their sports, it was his delight to kneel at his
mother's knee, and recite to her the Saxon ballads which his tutor
had read to him, inspiring him, at that early age, with the ardent