Scandinavian-Britain

THE DOWNFALL OF THE DANELAW 173Harald fell, his daughter Mary died " in the Orkneys :"it is said they had but one life," adds the saga.Two miles from Riccall, where the ships and alltheir gear were laid, a curious relic exists, which mustsurely in some way be a monument of the battle. Onthe ancient door of the church at Stillingfleet arefigures wrought in iron after the fashion of early Norsework ;interlaced plaits in thick wire, dragons, and aswastika of .barbed spear-points (a design to be seenalso at Versaas in Vestrgfttland) with two quaint menand a dragon-headed Viking boat with its ruddershipped, but mastless and oarless, and its forepartbroken away. It almost seems intended as a symbolof the wreck of this enterprise, the last great adventureof the Vikings in England.Compared with Harald Hardradi's invasion thelanding of troops from Denmark two years later wasof littleimportance, except as part of a disastrousmovement, the history of which must be sketchedbecause it leads to the ravaging of Northumbria andthe ultimate rearrangement of population in the northof England. In 1068, William had not as yet conqueredmore than the south, though in so doing hedestroyed the centralising machinery which was theonly connexion between the Scandinavian north andthe old realm of Alfred's family. He had appointedGospatric as earl of Bernicia, and Merlesvein as sheriffof Yorkshire, but even this concession to local feelingand even the fact that Normans had once beenNorthmen, which has sometimes been erroneouslyimagined to have had weight with both parties could