A History of England Under the Norman Kings, Or from the Battle of Hastings to the Accession of the House of Plantagenet: To Which Is Prefixed an Epitome of the Early History of Normandy (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A History of England Under the Norman Kings, or From the Battle of Hastings to the Accession of the House of Plantagenet: To Which Is Prefixed an Epitome of the Early History of Normandy

To the Normans has been ascribed the introduction of chivalry into France; and from the foregoing it will, no doubt, appear that the manners and habits of the Scandinavians, rugged and barbarous as they were, had in them something of the knightly character: in their enthusiastic love of valour and glory, tbeir foster-brotherhood, their carrying off of women, their love of heroic poetry, and their indomitable passions, they were in fact knights, though the Moors possessed the same violent passions, which produce extraordinary deeds of heroism. Hence it is difficult to determine, whether the spirit of chivalry spread itself over the middle of Europe from the north or the south; it probably evolved itself there from the same causes that gave it birth among the Moors and Scandinavians. But Christianity and civilization so greatly changed this spirit, that, at least in F rance, it became per fectly different from the rough valour of the barbarian na tions. We have already remarked that the heroic poetry of France had nothing of a Scandinavian character.

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