The Northmen were very intelligent They soon learned to speak the language of their subjects and gave up the uncivilised ways of the early Vikings (or Sea-Kings who had been very picturesque but also very unwashed and terribly cruel.
这些北欧人异常聪明。他们很快学会讲被征服民族的语言，抛弃了早期维京人（也是海盗）外表肮脏粗野、行为凶残野蛮的不文明习俗。
Early in the tenth century a Viking by the name of Rollo had repeatedly attacked the coast of France. The king of France, too weak to resist these northern robbers, tried to bribe them into "being good." He offered them the province of Normandy, if they would promise to stop bothering the rest of his domains. Rollo accepted this bargain and became "Duke of Normandy."
公元10世纪初期，一个叫罗洛的维京人多次侵扰法国海岸地区。当时的法国国王懦弱无能，无法抵御这些来自北方的凶悍强盗。于是，他想出一个法子，准备贿赂他们"做良民"。他允诺，如果他们保证不再骚扰他的其余属地，他就把诺曼底地区奉送给他们。罗洛同意了这笔交 易，定居下来作了"诺曼底大公"。
But the passion of conquest was strong in the blood of his children. Across the channel, only a few hours away from the European mainland, they could see the white cliffs and the green fields of England. Poor England had passed through difficult days. For two hundred years it had been a Roman colony. After the Romans left, it had been conquered by the Angles and the Saxons, two German tribes from Schleswig. Next the Danes had taken the greater part of the country and had established the kingdom of Cnut.
不过，罗洛征服的热情一直延续到他子孙后代的血液中。面朝狭窄的海峡，在不到几小时的航程之外，就是他们能够清楚遥望到的英格兰海岸的白色岩壁和碧绿田野。可怜的英格兰经历了多少不堪回首的困难岁月啊！先是作了200年罗马帝国的殖民地。罗马人走后，它又被来自欧洲北部石勒苏益格的两个日尔曼部族，盎格鲁人和撒克逊人征服。随后，丹麦人越海而来，攻占了英格兰的大部分土地，建立起克努特王国。到公元11世纪，经过长期的抗争，