Vikings

"In this year [793] dire portents appeared over Northumbria and sorely frightened the people. They consisted of immense whirlwinds and flashes of lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine immediately followed those signs, and a little after that in the same year, on 8 June, the ravages of heathen men miserably destroyed God's church on Lindisfarne, with plunder and slaughter."

"Norwegian pirates, buccaneering Danes, Whose red-haired offspring ev’rywhere remains."

"With Hengist, Saxons, Danes with Sueno came, In search of plunder, not in search of fame."

"Lie still! Thy mother-land herself Would know thee not again: no more The Raven from the northern shore Hails the bold crew to push for pelf, Though fire and blood and slaughter’d kings ’Neath the black terror of his wings."

"Thorkill and Thorston from Jutland came To torture us Saxons with sword and flame."

"Bring me my armour, Sigurd, I'll die as my fathers died, Not like a wolf in a shepherd's trap, But in all a warrior's pride. Strike on the brazen targets, And let our clarions ring; I'll meet this Death they talk of, As a King should meet a King."