T HE vikings are still awaiting their English historian. I
do not mean that there is no full account of their doings
in Great Britain, for of course there are many excellent
books by Englishmen dealing with this special aspect of viking
history, and among them are the well-known works of Palgrave,
Freeman, Oman, and Hodgkin; I mean that there is no sub-
stantial book in English exclusively devoted to the vikings and
setting forth the whole of their activities not only in the west
and the far north, but in the east and south-east as well; for
Paul du Chaillu's ¹ long and discursive book The Viking Age
can hardly rank as serious history, interesting and informative
though it is, and I am confident that Professor Allen Mawer
would want his admirable little work The Vikings to be regarded
only as a brief and introductory sketch. I know, needless to
say, that there is one important English book concerned with
our subject in its larger aspect and that is The Vikings in Western
Christendom, by Charles Francis Keary, a fine work of real beauty
and a masterpiece of expositional style which I take a special
pleasure in praising since Keary was once, as I am now, a member
of the staff of the British Museum ² ; this classic work was pub-
lished as long ago as 1891, but by common consent it is still,
and will long remain, the most valuable study of viking history
in our tongue; nevertheless, as the title explains, its scope
embraces western Europe only, and therefore I repeat that the
northern peoples have not yet found an English historian to
record within the compass of a single book the full story of their
achievements in the Viking Period.

For my part, I must explain that I have not set myself the
task of writing the English history of the vikings that I should
like to read, for it should be a great and gallant book, not over-

-v-