Though the Anglo-Saxon race continued thus to evince in all their transactions the same extraordinary spirit and energy, and met generally with the same success that had characterized them at the beginning, they seemed at length to find their equals in the Danes.  These Danes, however, though generally designated by that appellation in history, were not exclusively the natives of Denmark.  They came from all the shores of the Northern and Baltic Seas.  In fact, they inhabited the sea rather than the land.  They were a race of bold and fierce naval adventurers, as the Anglo-Saxons themselves had been two centuries before.  Most extraordinary accounts are given of their hardihood, and of their fierce and predatory habits.  They haunted the bays along the coasts of Sweden and Norway, and the islands which encumber the entrance to the Baltic Sea.  They were banded together in great hordes, each ruled by a chieftain, who was called a sea king, because his dominions scarcely extended at all to the land.  His possessions, his power, his subjects pertained all to the sea.  It is true they built or bought their vessels on the shore, and they sought shelter among the islands and in the bays in tempests and storms; but they prided themselves in never dwelling in houses, or sharing, in any way, the comforts or enjoyments of the land.  They made excursions every where for conquest and plunder, and were proud of their successful deeds of violence and wrong.  It was honorable to enter into their service.  Chieftains and nobles who dwelt upon the land sent their sons to acquire greatness, and wealth, and fame by joining these piratical gangs, just as high-minded military or naval officers, in modern times, would enter into the service of an honorable government abroad.

Besides the great leaders of the most powerful of these bands, there was an infinite number of petty chieftains, who commanded single ships or small detached squadrons.  These were generally the younger sons of sovereigns or chieftains who lived upon the land, the elder brothers remaining at home to inherit the throne or the paternal inheritance.  It was discreditable then, as it is now in Europe, for any branches of families of the higher class to engage in any pursuit of honorable industry.  They could plunder and kill without dishonor, but they could not toil.  To rob and murder was glory; to do good or to be useful in any way was disgrace.

These younger sons went to sea at a very early age too.  They were sent often at twelve, that they might become early habituated to the exposures and dangers of their dreadful combats, and of the wintery storms, and inured to the athletic exertions which the sea rigorously exacts of all who venture within her dominion.  When they returned they were received with consideration and honor, or with neglect and disgrace, according as they were more or less laden with booty and spoil.  In the summer months the land kings themselves would organize and equip naval