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not to skulk to their ships, but to meet their enemy manfully. At this moment the two armies seem to have been separated by an estuary on the Northumbrian coast; and the tide was so high, that they could not immediately reach each other. Their impatience during this period is graphically described: if they could not cast the javelin across the stream, an arrow could be made to fly, and sometimes to do execution. At length the tide ebbed, so as to permit them to throw a hasty bridge -probably of long planks-over the now diminished bed of the estuary.* For a few moments the passage was defended against the pirates; but the earl, in the consciousness of his bravery, and the magnanimity of his character, soon suffered them to advance without hinderance. His son, Wulfstan, who inherited his fearless intrepidity no less than his generosity, cried out from the brink of the estuary, "Warriors, come on! here is an open field for you. Advance quickly with all your might! God only can know which of us is to remain master of the field of slaughter!" The Danes needed little provocation to the combat:

"Then the wolves of slaughter advanced across the waters; unimpeded the host of the vikings, passed over the river and its clear stream: the men of the sea carried their shields to the land, and bore their linden buklers. There against these fierce ones Brithnoth and his warriors stood prepared: he bade his men raise with their shields the fence of war, and to maintain themselves firmly against their enemies. The conflict, the glory of the chiefs †, drew nigh: the hour was come when the doomed warriors must fall. The shout arose; the ravens flocked together, and the eagle, greedy for his prey: a cry was on the earth. They darted from their hands many a stout spear; the sharpened arrow flew; the bows were continually bent; the buckler received the weapon's point: keen was the fight; on both sides fell the brave; the youths lay slain. Wulfmaer was wounded; he sought rest from the battle; yea the kinsman of

*Briege healdan, literally to defend the bridge. But if there were a bridge there already, why wait for the receding of the tide? It doubtless means, as Mr. Conybeare suspects, to establish a bridge- to throw some beams or planks across the stream.

+ Da waes foht neh, tir aet getohte. May not the last member of the sentence also signify, the line of chiefs?

Brithnoth, his sister's son, was much mangled with the axe; but for this meet reward was returned to the vikings.”

Anxious to revenge his nephew, Brithnoth encouraged his men to a terrific charge on the pirates; but he himself was met by the Danish leader, who wounded him with a dart: he returned the wound, however, and, with a second thrust, pierced the pirate's heart." Then was the earl blithe; the stern warrior laughed, and uttered thanks to his Creator for the work of that day, which the Lord had given him.” * The joy of Brith noth, however, was not to be long: he was pierced by a dart. But even in death he was not to be insulted; for when a pirate approached to plunder him of his jewels, he struck the fellow with his battle-axe such a blow, that he was glad to escape a second; and even when his stiffening hand had no longer strength to grasp his weapon, he bade his men march forward with daunt less hearts. When he could no longer support himself standing or sitting,

"He looked towards heaven: I thank thee, Lord of nations for all the prosperity which I have enjoyed on earth. Now, most mild Creator! much need have I that thou shouldst grant me thine aid, that my soul may take its departure in peace, and proceed to Thee, to thy keeping, Lord of Angels! Let not, I beseech Thee, the destruction of hell overwhelm it!"

Seeing the fall of their chief, some of the Saxon thanes, even those who held land of him by military service, fled, leaving his corpse to be mangled by the victors. His domestics, however, were eager to avenge his fall. The exhortation of one of them, Alfwine, is characteristic of the people:

"Let us now remember the times when we were wont to converse over our mead cups, when our warriors assembled in the hall, raised the boast around the benches. Now, in the fierce strife, let it be seen who is truly brave. Before you all will I

* A similar passage occurs in the Chronicle of the Cid:-"Send me another of your sons; for I have killed two already, thanks be to God!" "On, Stanley, on!" The poet, like his great Saxon predecessor, was true to human nature.

prove that I am descended from noble blood, from a high Mercian race for Ealhelm was the ancestor of my sires, a skilful chief and prosperous in the world. Never shall the thanes of this people have cause to reproach me that I sought a shelter from the conflict, when my chief lies mangled on the ground he, heaviest of afflictions! - at once my kinsman and my lord!"

The exhortation of Alfwine infused new courage into the more devoted of the deceased Brithnoth's vassals. Offa, shaking his ashen shaft, said,

"How well, Alfwine, hast thou encouraged our warriors, now that our chief lieth a corse, -our noble earl, on the cold ground. Needful is it that all of us should animate each other to continue the strife, so long as we can grasp battle-axe, dart, or sword."

Another hero, Leofsuna, raising high his linden buckler, thus replied:

"Pledge give I thee, that I will not flee one step, but that I will advance to avenge my beloved chief. Never shall the steadfast warriors have need to reproach me for want of steadiness; that when my lord is low, I flee chieftainless from the fight; but I will rush on the opposing weapons the axe and the spear."

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Leofsuna nobly fulfilled his pledge by immediately advancing against the victors. A fourth hero, Dunnere, no sluggish earl was he," brandished his weapons, and shouted aloud, "Let not him care for life who hath to avenge a lord!". The battle was renewed with tenfold vigour; cloven were bucklers, loudly clanged weapons, "and the hauberk sang a strain of terror." Offa fell, but not until he had sent before him many men of the sea. "Stern was the meeting; firmly stood the warriors, or fighting they sunk, exhausted with wounds. Brithwold spoke (he was an aged man): he raised his shield, brandished his ashen spear, and said,

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"Our spirit shall be the hardier, our courage the keener, our heart the greater, the more our comrades fall. Here lieth our chief, all mangled — the brave one in the dust; for ever

may he rue his shame who thinketh to fly from the strife of weapons. Old am I in years, yet will I not stir hence; but I expect to lie by the side of my lord-by that much-loved

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Godric, the son of Ethelgar, cheered them all to the conflict. "Oft he poured forth his darts, and sped He hewed and

the death-spear against the pirates. slaughtered them till they fell in the fight."

Here the fragment abruptly terminates. That Brithnoth was a character truly historic, rests not only on the Saxon chronicle, but on the Historia Elyensis, which is lavish in his praise, and minute in describing the battle of Meldune. The fragment is as valuable as it is genuine. It has more strength than almost any other poetical relic of the Saxon times; and it is remarkably free from that wearisome and unmeaning periphrasis which disfigures the metrical compositions of our ancestors. As a picture of manners, it is still more valuable. It proveswhat some superficial enquirers into our early history have been so bold as to deny that the feudal system had made considerable progress in this island long before the Norman conquest. How, indeed, it could escape the relations and obligations of that system, when other European nations were subject to them, for Spain, though the fact has been denied, was in this respect situated just like the Saxon kingdom, nobody has thought proper to explain. The Normans might confirm, or even extend, but they could not introduce, a policy which was inherent in all the nations of Germanic origin.*

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Another fragment, the battle of Finsborough, we shall lay before the reader. This is not historic; it is evidently legendary, founded on some tradition which, though originally derived, perhaps, from a real transaction, had been greatly distorted by successive scalds. It affords internal proof of a high antiquity, and of manners wholly pagan :

* Conybeare's Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, Introduction, p. xc.

The Battle of Finisborough.

"The sun had climb'd the eastern sky,—
But not by day the youthful band
May hear their leader's battle cry,

Nor yet in Finsburg's fatal strand
The warrior's winged serpent fly;

Pauses from blood the foeman's hand,
Nor strives he yet to fire yon hall's proud canopy.

"Sweetly sang the birds of night,

The wakeful cricket chirrup'd loud,
And now the moon, serenely bright,
Was seen beneath the wandering cloud;
Then roused him swift the deadly foe
To deeds of slaughter and of woe :
Now beneath the javelin's stroke
The buckler's massy circle rang.
Anon the chains of slumber broke
That chieftain great and good,
He, whose high praise fills every tongue,
First in valour as in blood,

The matchless Hengist to the battle woke.

"Up rose in that eventful tide

Full many a warrior brave;

And don'd his armour's golden pride,
And girt his glittering glaive.
At the high hall's portal wide,
Foremost of the noble band,

Sigvart and ha proudly stand:
Where other pass the foe might find

Ordlof watch'd with Guthlaf join'd;

Garulf, next with fiery speed,

Roused Guthere from the slumberer's bed.

No care of dress their steps delay'd,

Each grasp'd in haste his shining blade,

And fierce the brother warriors flew
To guard the hall's high avenue.
He that prides him in the fight
Had joy'd to see that gallant sight.

"And now in accents loud

The foeman's chieftain bold and proud
Sought what thane or battle lord

At the high gate kept watch and ward;

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