Scandinavian-Britain

54 SCANDINAVIAN BRITAINsimilar expedition to the western seas from theirheadquarters in Sjseland at Leira, where was theroyal hall, named, from the antlers of deer at itsgables, Heorot) or Hart. Here King Hrodgar (Roar),son of Halfdan, and his nephew Hrolf Kraki, theSkjoldungs, fought the Hadobards from the Eastand drove them away; but in the end misfortunecame to the burg of the Skjoldungs, and Hrolf fellwith his men. Danes and Swedes in the folkwanderingepoch were already conscious of somecollective nationality ;race-union was begun while;the inhabitants of Norway were scattered into separatetribes and petty kingdoms until the beginning ofthe true Viking age. The first steps to extensionof power westward must naturally have been takenrom Denmark as a centre, the Swedes pushing eastto Russia. But Professor A. Bugge also thinks,agreeing with H. Zimmer, that the Norse of Norwayhad found their way across the sea to the Orkneys andShetland a hundred years before the Viking attacks arerecorded in England and Ireland. There seems tobe no reason to doubt that they did adventure on thehigh seas somewhat sooner than the usually assigneddate; for Dicuil, writing about 825, describes islandsdivided by narrow channels and swarming with sheep,which seem to be the Faeroes (sheep-isles), as inhabiteda century before by Irish monks, but thendeserted on account of heathen pirates ; and, in fact,the colony of Grim Kamban was made in 825. Butby then the Viking Age had begun and Prof. A.;Bugge would put their advent in Britain much earlier.