Scandinavian-Britain

144 SCANDINAVIAN BRITAINthe lists of witnesses to royal charters. Eadgar's lawsleft the Northumbrian Danes in possession of theirold rights and usages, and his policy encouragedintercourse with foreigners ;so much mdeed thatboth the old poem quoted in the Chronicle and theaccount of his reign by William of Malmesbury makeagainst him the charge, so often repeated in Englishhistory, that " outlandish men he hither enticed,and harmful people allured to this land." It wassaid that when Eadred held his court at Abingdonthe Northumbrian visitors became so drunk bynightfall that they had to retire and; that, underEadgar, the Saxons "though they were free fromsuch propensities before that time " learned drunkennessfrom the Danes. On the other hand, Johnof Wallingford's story of the reason why the Danes"were hated is not without significance:they werewont, after the fashion of their country, to combtheir hair every day, to bathe every Saturday "Laugardag, " "bath-day," to change their garmentsoften, and set off their persons by many such frivolousdevices. In this manner they laid siege to the virtueof the women." Freeman always represents theNorthumbrian Danes as barbarians, but it does notappear that the charge is justified.5.SVEIN ANDThe story of Scandinavian England in the eleventhcentury divides itself naturally into two parts theinvasion of Svein and Knut \and the fruitless attempt