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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.
這些北歐人異常聰明。他們很快學會講被征服民族的語言，拋棄了早期維京人（也是海盜）外表骯臟粗野、行為兇殘野蠻的不文明習俗。
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世紀初期，一個叫羅洛的維京人多次侵擾法國海岸地區。當時的法國國王懦弱無能，無法抵御這些來自北方的兇悍強盜。于是，他想出一個法子，準備賄賂他們"做良民"。他允諾，如果他們保證不再騷擾他的其余屬地，他就把諾曼底地區奉送給他們。羅洛同意了這筆交 易，定居下來作了"諾曼底大公"。
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.
不過，羅洛征服的熱情一直延續到他子孫后代的血液中。面朝狹窄的海峽，在不到幾小時的航程之外，就是他們能夠清楚遙望到的英格蘭海岸的白色巖壁和碧綠田野。可憐的英格蘭經歷了多少不堪回首的困難歲月??！先是作了200年羅馬帝國的殖民地。羅馬人走后，它又被來自歐洲北部石勒蘇益格的兩個日爾曼部族，盎格魯人和撒克遜人征服。隨后，丹麥人越海而來，攻占了英格蘭的大部分土地，建立起克努特王國。到公元11世紀，經過長期的抗爭，
