"Nordic" and "Norse" are,
therefore, much better, because much truer, words than "Anglo-Saxon",
which only names two of the five chief tribes from which most
English-speaking people come, and which is not nearly so true as
"Anglo-Norman" to describe the people, who, once formed in England,
spread over southern Scotland and parts of Ireland, and who have also
gone into every British, American, or foreign country that has ever
been connected with the sea.
When the early Nordics outgrew their first home beside the Baltic they
began sailing off to seek their fortune overseas. In course of time
they not only spread over the greater part of northern Europe but went
as far south as Italy and Spain, where the good effects of their
bracing blood have never been lost. They even left descendants among
the Berbers of North Africa; and, as we have learnt already, some of
them went as far east as the Black Sea. The Belgians, Dutch, and
Germans of Caesar's day were all Nordic. So were the Franks, from whom
France takes its name. The Nordic blood, of course, became more or
less mingled with that of the different peoples the Nordic tribes
subdued; and new blood coming in from outside made further changes
still.
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