Scandinavian-Britain

THE EARLIEST RAIDS 6 1chronicles (A.-Sax. Chron. under 982). It is found in theEpinal Glossary, and therefore was known long beforethe Scandinavian invasions (W. H. Stevenson, Eng.Hist. Rev. xix., p. 143). Dr. Lawrence has suggestedthat it comes from the Anglo-Saxon wlgan, wfgian, tofight, from which the usual substantive is wiggend orivigend, a warrior. Li*6vicingas occurs in " Widsith"corresponding to the Icelandic Lf&ungar^ the men fromLid in the Vik of Norway, though the reading of oneMS. in the chronicles (A.D. 885) of Lidwicingas forLidwiccas suggests that Bretons might be meant inthis case. English historians usually assume that"Vikings" meant "men from the Vik" of Norway;but the word does not seem to have been used inthis sense by saga-writers, who calledthe dwellers inVikin Vikverskar or Vikverjar, though in the mediaevalIcelandic Bishops' sagas Sif&vikingr means a man fromSii^avik, Vest/aiding a man from Vestfold, and so on.The word vikingr means in the Sagas any pirate, ofwhatever nationality. For instances, the rather earlyKormdks-saga, relating adventures of a party ofIcelanders and a German, calls them all " vikings,"%x\&Landndmabdk gives the name to any Scandinaviansea-rovers. Nor does it mean "haunting the creeksof England, the lochs of Scotland and the loughs of"Ireland ; for itthoughis true that there is no wordaustr-viking (piracy in the east) parallel to vestr-viking(piracy in the west), still EgiPs saga (chap. 36) tellshow "they went in viking on the eastern way," toRussia. The word viking (feminine) means thelife of a pirate, a free-booting voyage; "to go in