Sea-robber volunteers so especially
abounding in that time, one perceives how easily the Jomsburgers could
recruit themselves, build or refit new robber fleets, man them with
the pick of crews, and steer for opulent, fruitful England; where,
under Ethelred the Unready, was such a field for profitable enterprise
as the viking public never had before or since.
An idle question sometimes rises on me,--idle enough, for it never can
be answered in the affirmative or the negative, Whether it was not
these same refitted Jomsburgers who appeared some while after this at
Red Head Point, on the shore of Angus, and sustained a new severe
beating, in what the Scotch still faintly remember as their "Battle of
Loncarty"? Beyond doubt a powerful Norse-pirate armament dropt anchor
at the Red Head, to the alarm of peaceable mortals, about that time.
It was thought and hoped to be on its way for England, but it visibly
hung on for several days, deliberating (as was thought) whether they
would do this poorer coast the honor to land on it before going
farther. Did land, and vigorously plunder and burn south-westward as
far as Perth; laid siege to Perth; but brought out King Kenneth on
them, and produced that "Battle of Loncarty" which still dwells in
vague memory among the Scots.
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