The world was old and had worn out many nations, when out of the north, liberated from the snow and ice of Ultima Thule, there came the Norseman like the very whirlwind from his frozen home. He was like naught that the world had seen in all the ages before his time. His joy and happiness he found in battle, his sweetest pleasure in a violent death, for only through this portal could he hope to enter the company of heroes who dwelt with Odin in the glory of Valhalla, and there continue the joys of earth in daily battles and nightly feasting. "Is there any people," says Taine, "Hindu, Persian, Greek or Gaelic which has founded so tragic a conception of life? Is there any which has filled its infantine mind with such gloomy dreams? Is there any which has so entirely banished the sweetness from enjoyment, the softness from pleasure. Energy, tenacious and mournful energy, such was their chosen condition." The individuality of that vigorous race stamped its mark upon every nation which it conquered, and upon every institution which it touched. Scarcely a nation in the Europe of that time but felt their influence, and scarcely one on the continent to-day who is not indebted to them. But the influence which the Scandinavians had upon the Anglo-Saxon race can be traced more clearly still than its effect upon continental nations. The name of England or Englaland came from the North, from the province of Angeln, which was a part of Denmark until our own times. The Angles gave to the land their language also, which was further strengthened by a later infusion of the Danish tongue; so that wherever the English language shall be spoken until the end of time, there will men mould their thoughts in the forms which the Vikings used, and express the keenest feelings of their inmost hearts in the vigorous speech which the Norsemen taught us, years before the Norman conquest.