In a.d. 515, a Danish ruler called Chochilaicus raided Frankish territory in the Low Countries. (Chochilaicus may have been the model for King Hygelac, king of the Geats and uncle of the eponymous hero in the great medieval epic poem Beowulf.) Yet until the eighth century, glimpses of the Northmen had been just that: few, far between, and fleeting. Although the northern world was linked to trade routes that connected ultimately with the Silk Roads, the links were relatively weak and had been severely disrupted by the barbarian migrations of the fifth and sixth centuries a.d.
