Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Excerpt from The Place-Names of Cumberland and Westmorland Turning to the Irish annals and Scandinavian sagas, we learn that at the end of the ninth century the Vikings appeared for the first time in the Bristol Channel. They landed first in Glamorganshire, but, being repulsed by the Welsh, crossed over to Ireland, the wealth of whose monasteries was famed far and wide. The numerous Irish kings and chiefs, being ever at war with each other, could offer no effectual resistance to the invaders, and thus began the harrying of Ireland by fleet after fleet from Scandinavia, which lasted over a generation. The later invaders were Norwegians, the finn-gaill, or Fair strangers, ' of the Irish annals. They pushed into the interior and set up kingdoms of their own, and it was not until the decisive battle of Clontarf, in 1014, that the Irish finally regained the mastery in their own land. The coasts of Scotland also suffered from incursions, while the islands were completely taken possession of and settled by Norwegians. For centuries they were counted as Norse colonies, a Norway beyond the seas.' About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.