Scandinavian-Britain

12 SCANDINAVIAN BRITAINII.MOTHER-LAND AND PEOPLESEx hac igitur Scandza insula quasi officina gentium aut certevelut vagina nationum . . .quondam memorantur egressi.JORDANIS, De Get., cap. 4.EVER since we have any historic record of itsexistence, we are told by successive historians andpoets how the Scandinavian peninsula sent forthswarm after swarm of itspure-blooded, tall, fairhaired,white-skinned children, southward over theBaltic, to seek warmer and more fertile homes.These migrations followed two main routes in earlytimes, the East way and the South way. Over theEast way went the Goths, by Wilna along the broadriver-plains to Uampa-stead (as they called Kiev),around which Giberic and Ermanaric built up thefirst great Teutonic Empire. On the South way,by the peninsula we now call Denmark, and up therivers that run into the North Sea, there had probablypassed tribe after tribe in migrations of which wehave no written record. In the fifth century a newroute seems to have been struck, the West way, andfrom the beech-clad islands and sandy links of theDanish peninsula, and the broad flat pastures aboutthe river mouths between Elbe and Rhine, theresailed westward many a ship-load of armed emigrantsfrom the great tribal leagues, Eotish, English, andSaxon. For they had heard the news that there