THE NORTHMEN AND OTHER INVADERS 225 Byzantine emperor. To the markets of the South and East they brought furs and crowds of Slavs, or slaves, — for such 1 seems to be the origin of the word, — and took away with ! them articles of luxury, silks, gold and silver. Such objects i of personal adornment and luxury may still be seen in pro- fusion in the national museums at the three Scandinavian capitals, but many of them represent the workmanship of native artists and not trade or plunder from other lands. Fiends of destruction as the first vikings had seemed, and fatal as their incursions had been to government, religion, economic prosperity, and monastic culture in i n fl ue nce the lands they invaded, when once they began of the North- 111 11 i'ii men u PO n to occupy the land permanently, they displayed European a remarkable capacity for adapting themselves clvlllzatlon I to the customs of the countries where they settled. In 'England they formed one nation with the Anglo-Saxons; in I Normandy they adopted the language and manners of the J Romance peoples and became French of the French; in i Scotland and in Ireland they were absorbed in each case by the native population; in Russia they were Slavized. Those who stayed at home in Scandinavia did not develop any high culture of their own, although by the eleventh century I they had become Christians like their fellows in other lands. Indeed, their vigor both physical and intellectual seems to ihave declined with their conversion. This was, however, .perhaps due to other causes, such as the emigration of the most ambitious and energetic to foreign lands. Those who colonized in other countries not merely took on whatever culture they found there; they also contributed something, as has already been shown in the case of the Danes in Eng- land. In general we may say that the Northmen contributed to the countries they invaded and settled the following things. First, their vigorous blood and seafaring instincts and spirit of enterprise. This we may see still at work in later movements such as the Norman conquest of England, the Norman conquests of Sicily and southern Italy, and the crusades. Second, a commerce and connection with other lands which tended to break the isolation and broaden the
