sheds on the international character of Viking trade. Once, in the market on the Götaelv, the Icelander Höskuldr bought a female slave from the merchant Gille (a Celtic name), surnamed the Russian (because of his journeys to that country). The slave proved to be an Irish king's daughter made captive by Viking raiders. The Scandinavian countries, like Rome, are very rich in Anglo-Saxon coins, and though many of these must represent our Danegeld, the fact that they are most frequent in Eastern Sweden, on the shores of Lake Mälar and in the neighbourhood of the great waterways connecting Sweden and the Baltic, but above all on the islands of Öland and Gothland, whence, in all probability, very few of the Viking raiders came, would seem to shew that there was extensive peaceful intercourse with England in Viking days. Yet more interesting are the frequent finds of Oriental coins. They first made their way to Scandinavia about the end of the ninth century, and are most common in Sweden. There can be no doubt that the vast majority of these coins reached Sweden overland through Russia, where extensive finds of Arabian coins mark the route along which trade at that time travelled from Asia to the north. The greater number of these coins were minted at Samarcand and Bagdad.
In social organisation the Viking communities were aristocratic. The famous answer of the followers of Rollo when asked who was their lord: "We have no lord, we are all equal," was essentially true, but with their practical genius the Vikings realised that leadership was necessary if any military success was to be gained, and we find throughout their history a series of able leaders, sometimes holding the title of jarl, but, if of royal birth, commonly known as kings. That the title did not have its full modern connotation is evident from their numbers and from the frequency with which they changed. When, however, the Vikings established permanent settlements, hereditary kingship became common, and royal houses bore sway in Dublin and other Irish towns: thence a hereditary line of kings was introduced into Northumbria. The rulership of Normandy was hereditary and so possibly was the kingship in East Anglia, but in the districts grouped round the Five Boroughs the organisation was of a different kind, the chief authority resting with the Lawmen. We find frequent mention of these Lawmen both in Scandinavia itself and in those countries where Scandinavian influence prevailed. Originally men skilled in the law, who could state and interpret it when required, they often presided in the Thing or popular assembly and represented the local or provincial community as against the king or his officers, though they do not themselves seem to have exercised judicial functions. They are usually mentioned in the plural number and probably acted as a collective body. In England and the Western Islands they attained a position of yet greater importance. In Man and the Hebrides they became actual chieftains and are mentioned side by side with the kings, while it is probable that they were the chief judicial
