In Russia the Northmen were called Varangians, or sea-rovers. Kurik, a Northman, occupied Novgorod in 862, and founded the dynasty which gave sovereigns to Kussia until 1598. About 865 the Varangians ap- peared with a fleet before Constantinople, and it was not until an alhance was made between Vladimir the Great, who adopted Christianity, and the Greek emperor (988) that the incursions ceased. Soon afterwards a Varan- gian body-guard was adopted at Constantinople, and from that time till the fall of the Eastern empire the Byzantine sovereigns trusted their lives to no other household troops. The Codex Flateyetisis of Iceland gives the number of the Varangian Guard in the 11th century at 300. Among the antiquities in the Museum of Christiania are Byzantine coins of 842-867, found in ploughing the lields of Aggerhuus, in Norwaj'.
The invasions of the Normans in Southern Italy dur- ing the 11th century are of no special interest, from an ecclesiastical standpoint, as these invaders were already Christians. We must only notice that by their recog- nition of the papal supremacy over Naples and Sicily, as also by the aid they gave to the Roman see against the Roman -German empire, they signallj' contributed to establish and increase the temporal power of the popes. See Maurer, BeJcehrung d. Norwecjischen Stammes z. Christenthuin (Munich, 1855, 1856, 2 vols.); Palgrave, The History of Normandy and of Enghvnd (Lond. 1851- 1857, 2 vols.) ; Depping, Histoire des Expeditions Mari- tiines des Normands et de leur Etablissement en France an 10''* Si'ecle (2d ed. 1843, 2 vols.) ; Wheaton, History of the Northmen from the Eiirliest Times to the Conquest of England (Lond. 1831) ; Worsase, Minder om de Datiske og Normdndene i England, Skoiland, og Jrland (Copenh. 1851) ; Lappenberg, Gesch. von England (Hamb. 1834:- 1837) ; Hardwick, Ch. Hist. M. A. p. 103, 105, 106, 129- 131 ; Milman, Hist. Lat. Christianity, vol. iii and iv (see Index in vol. viii) ; Hill, Engl. Monasticism, p. 222-224:, 247, 267 ; Maclear, Hist. Christian Missions in the M. A . p. 229-301, 276, 277. (J. H. W.)
Noruae, or, as they are also termed, the Parcm of the Northern mj-thologj-, were three young women, by name Urd, Verdande, and Skuld, i. e. Past, Present, and Future. They sit b}' the Urdar-wells under the world- tree Yggdrasil, and there determine the fate both of gods and men. Every day they draw water from the spring, and with it and the clay that lies around the wells spriidile the ash-tree Yggdrasil, that its branches may not rot and wither away. Besides these three great norns, there are also many inferior ones, both good and bad; for, says the prose Edda, when a man is born there is a norn to determine his fate ; and the same authority tells us that the unequal destinies of men in the world are attributable to the different dispo- sitions of the norns. These lesser norns corresponded to the genii of classic mythology. Women who pos- sessed the power of prediction or magic also bore this name. — Chambers's Cyclojicedia, s. v. See Nokse My- thology.
Norojentzi, a sect of dissenters from the Russo- Greek Church (q. v.), who are strongly in favor of mar- riage, in opposition to those who prefer a life of celibacy.
Norrie, Robkkt, an Anglican divine who flourished in Scotland near the opening of the 18th centurv as pastor at Dundee, in the diocese of Brechin, is noted for VII.— M
his severity against Presbyterianism and all advocates of the Kirk. He was at one time recommended for the bishopric as successor to Falconer (q.v.), but this scheme failed. He was, however, afterwards made bishop of Angus, and as such flourished until about 1750. He found much opposition in his diocese, and died respected by a few, but hated by many. See Stephens, Hist, of the Church of Scotland, iv, 203, 207, 222-224.
Norris, EdTvard, a divine of American colonial days, was born in England about 1589, and came to this country in 1639. In the mother country he had been a teacher and minister in Gloucester; in the colonies he devoted himself entirely to pulpit labors. In 1640 he was made pastor at Salem, Mass., and served that charge until his death, April 10, 1659. He was tolerant, did not join in the persecution of (iorton and the Anabap- tists, and withstood the witchcraft delusion of 1651-54:; but in 1653 he wrote in favor of making war with the Dutch. He published in London in 1636 a treatise on A skingfo?; Temporal Blessings, and The Neiv Gospel not the True Gospel, etc. (1638, 4to), a reply to John Trask's True Gospel Vindicated (Lond. 1636). See Drake, Diet, of Amer. Biog. p. 662.
Norris, Edwin, an eminent English ethnological and philological writer, was born at Taunton Oct. 24, 1795. In 1814, immediately after the restoration of peace, he travelled for some time on the Continent as private tutor in a family, chiefly in the south of Italy. After his return to England he was appointed in 1826 to a post in the East India House, from which he re- tired with a pension in 1836, in consequence of the ar- rangements connected with the renewal of the charter. In the same year his extensive knowledge of languages led to his election as assistant secretary to the Royal Asiatic Society, an office which involved the chief share in the editorship of the society's Transactions. In 1847 he received from government the appointment of trans- lator to the Foreign Office. He was appointed in 1856 principal secretary to the Royal Asiatic Society. A short time before he had been made editor of the Eth- nographical Library, undertaken in 1853, to embrace accounts of voj^ages to savage countries and other con- tributions to ethnographical science. The last edition of Prichard's Natural History of Man appeared with additions under his superintendence in 1855. A Gram- mar of the English Language, from a MS. by the Rev. R. M. Macbrair in the British Museum, is also " edited with additions by E. Norris," and a Grammar of the Bornu or Kapuri Language (Lond. 1853, 8vo) was de- veloped by him from a series of dialogues sent home from Bornu by Richardson, the African traveller, who died before his return to England. In addition to these acknowledged works, ftlr. Norris was frequently en- gaged in superintending the publications of the Bible Society in the Tahitian and other languages, and was a contributor to the Penny Cyclopcedia, the Penny Mag- azine, and other works of large circulation. His rep- utation is, however, chiefly founded on papers which appeared in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic So- ciety. In one, in 1845, "On the Kapur-di-Giri Rock Inscription," he pointed out the method of deciphering an alphabet which was previously unknown, and the discovery was characterized by Prof. H. H. Wilson, in a paper which accompanied that of Mr. Norris, as "an unexpected and interesting accession to our knowledge of the palaeography and ancient history of India." A paper " On the Assyrian and Babylonian Weights," and another " On the Scy thic Version of the Behistun In- scription," are also of peculiar value. The whole of Sir Henry Rawlinson's papers on tlie cuneiform inscriptions, sent from Persia and published in the society's Trans- actions, passed through Mr. Norris's hands as editor. The chief result, however, of his Oriental studies is his Assyrian Dictionary. Three volumes of this work were published in 1868, 1870, and 1872 respectively, com- prising the letters Aleph to Nun. Much of the con-