The early history of the settlements in Man is equally obscure. At first the island suffered from repeated raids, then about the middle of the 9th century it passed under the authority of the kings of Dublin and remained so until, with the Hebrides and Western Scotland generally, it was conquered by Sigurd the Orkney-earl. From the Orkney-earls it passed to the great conqueror Godred Crovan--the King Gorry or Orry of Manx tradition--who came from the Hebrides, and his successors down to the cession of the islands in 1266 were known as kings of Man and the Isles. Of the details of the settlement of the Scottish mainland, of Caithness, Sutherland, and Galloway, of the occupation of Cumberland and Westmorland we know almost nothing, but when we speak later of Norse influence in these districts we shall realise how strong was their hold on them. Our knowledge of the Norse occupation of Man and the Islands is somewhat scanty in detail, but there can be no question that their settlements in lands often closely resembling in physical features their own home-country were of the highest importance. FOOTNOTES: [10] English translation by Sir G. W. Dasent. [11] They were pledged by Christian I of Denmark and Norway for the payment of the dowry of his daughter Margaret to James III in 1460 and the pledge was never redeemed. CHAPTER VII THE VIKINGS IN BALTIC LANDS AND RUSSIA The activities of the Northmen during the Viking age were not confined to the lands west and south of their original homes: the Baltic was as familiar to them as the North Sea, to go 'east-viking' was almost as common as to go 'west-viking' and Scandinavian settlements were founded on the shores of the Baltic and far inland along the great waterways leading into the heart of Russia. As was to be expected from their geographical position it was Danes and Swedes rather than Norwegians who were active in Baltic lands, the Danes settling chiefly on the Pomeranian coast among the Wends, while the Swedes occupied lands further east and founded the Scandinavian kingdom of Russia. Already in the early years of the 9th century we find the Danish king Guðröðr now making war against his Slavonic neighbours in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, now intriguing with them against the emperor. Mention is made of more than one town on the southern coast of the Baltic bearing an essentially Scandinavian name, pointing to the existence of extensive settlements. Interesting evidence of this eastward movement is also to be found in the _Life of St Anskar_. There we learn how, soon after 830, a Danish fleet captured a city in the land of the Slavs, with great riches, and we hear in 853 how the Swedes were endeavouring to reconquer Kurland which had been under their rule, but had now thrown off the yoke and fallen a prey to a fleet of Danish Vikings--possibly the one just mentioned. St Anskar himself undertook the education of many Wendish youths who had been entrusted to him.