CHAPTER III. THE
ANGLO-NORMAN PERIOD
(1066-1350)
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
THE NORMANS.The name Norman, which is a softened
form of Northman, tells its own story. The men who bore the
name came originally from Scandinavia,–bands of big, blond,
fearless men cruising after plunder and adventure in their
Viking ships, and bringing terror wherever they appeared. It
was these same "Children of Woden" who, under the Danes’
raven flag, had blotted out Northumbrian civilization in the
ninth century. Later the same race of men came plunder-
ing along the French coast and conquered the whole north-
ern country; but here the results were altogether different.
Instead of blotting out a superior civilization, as the Danes
had done, they promptly abandoned their own. Their name
of Normandy still clings to the new home; but all else that
was Norse disappeared as the conquerors intermarried with
the native Franks and accepted French ideals and spoke the
French language. So rapidly did they adopt and improve the
Roman civilization of the natives that, from a rude tribe of
heathen Vikings, they had developed within a single century