scire. Then were these things told to Eadward the Etheling, son of King Alfred, then at his work among the South Angles. Next meet they the West Angles, who with stout threats and full muster forlet them at Farnham. Without stop or stay the Saxon youth leap on the foe, being cheered by the coming of their Prince. With glad heart do they spring to arms. Like sheep under ward of their shepherd they delight in their wonted spoil. There is the tyrant wounded; with joy they drive his squalid hordes northward over Thames. The while the Danes are beleaguered in Thornige Island, King Ethelred [of Mercia] aided the Prince, sallying forth from the city of London. The barbarians pray peace-troth, sureties are given, they undertake wholly to forsake the realm of the King aforesaid3; and at once fulfil their words in very deed. In the end they set forth for the land of the East Angles, and then what was left of the host was in the realm of Edmund, King erewhile, and Saint. And their ships, with a furthering breeze, fly round to them from the mouth of the Limne to Mersey, a place in Kent.+

§ 22. In this same year Hæsten breaks out with his savage host from Beamfleet, and cruelly harries the whole land of Mercia, until they come even to the marches of Britain [¿.e., the Welsh border]. The host which was then in the East, and eke that of the Northumbrians, find them in all they need. Then hard upon them followeth the far-famed chieftain, Athelm, with all his horsemen; and yet another leader, Ethelnoth, presseth on their rear with the men of the West Angles. There cometh up also King Ethelred, Lord of the Mercians, and dasheth himself eagerly upon them. Both sides join in battle; the youth on either part mingle in the fray; the English at last win the field. These mighty deeds, as old writers tell, happened at Buttingtune [on the Severn] Yea, moreover, and the utmost efforts of the Danes are found all too weak: once more they make peace, they refuse not sureties, they pledge them to leave those parts. And in the same year the Danish stronghold in Beamfleet is broken up by the strength and goodwill of the folk thereabout, and the wealth therein they part among them.

§ 23. After this, Sigeserth, a pirate, coasteth along Northumbria with a fleet of adventurers, and twice doth he harry that coast, and then bendeth his course to his own settlements. And after two full years came a mighty fleet from Boulogne and reached Limne, a town of the Angles. Then set forth the noble Ethelnoth from the West, and sallied out from the city of York against the foe, who wasted no small tract in the land of Mercia, to the west of Stamford; that is between the bank of the Welland and the thick wood commonly called Ceoftefne [Charnwood] And, one year after, died Guthfrid, King of the Northumbrians, on the birthday of St. Bartholomew, the Apostle of Christ, and his body lieth buried at York,

1 Sussex being part of his appanage, as heir apparent.

This island was at the mouth of the Colne (Asser). See p. 128.

I.., Ethelred, who though only called Alderman was practically under-King of Mercia. See p. 109.

Really in Essex.

in the chief church there. Yet four years after (from the death of the aforesaid King), there arose great and perilous feud among the Angles, for that in Northumbria the foul Danish force abode still.

§ 24. Finally, in the self-same year, the great-hearted Alfred, King of the Saxons, departed from this world :-the steadfast stay of the West Saxons, full of justice, bold in arms, learned of speech, and, beyond all else, filled with lore divine. He had turned into his own tongue from the Latin, with skill of word, an untold number of volumes, of most varied contents; and in such surpassing wise that not only to the learned, but even to the casual hearer, the sad book of Boethius seemeth in some sort to live again.

This King died on the seventh day before the Feast of All Saints, and his body resteth in peace in the city of Winchester. O my reader, pray thou thus:

'Christ, Redeemer, save his soul.'

NOTE, § 23.

This paragraph reads at first sight as a confused repetition of § 20, the SouthSaxon river Limne being mistaken for the East Anglian town Lynn, in Norfolk. But it is possible that Ethelwerd's information (though not in any other writer) may be founded on historical fact. The Danes, who had fled to France (p. 130) may well have tried one more landing at Lynn, and raided thereabout. Nor is it even impossible (strange as it seems) that Ethelnoth, the Alderman of Somerset, may really have been at York about this time. We know that he was at Buttington in North Wales (§ 22), and that the English forces thence pursued the Danes into Northumbria (p. 129).

S'

IV.

SIMEON OF DURHAM.

'THE DEEDS OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND.'

IMEON of Durham, the most picturesque of all our authorities for this period, wrote early in the twelfth century, his history ending in 1129. It is chiefly derived from earlier writers, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Asser, etc., but frequently contains traces of some independent poetical source. The spirit-stirring account of the Battle of Ashdown (§§ 23-31) in particular bears every mark of being founded on an old war-song, such as Macaulay has elaborated from the pages of Livy in the days of Rome.

Simeon gives a double recension of this portion of his history. The following translation is from the first, with the leading additional touches found in the second, which are but few in number.

Only one MS. of the work is known, that in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (No. cxxxix.), which dates from the twelfth century. It has been printed by Twysden in his 'Decem Scriptores,' and (as far as 978) by Petrie and Hardy in their 'Monumenta Britannica.' Translations have been published in Bohn's Historical Series and in The Church Historians of England.'

SIMEON OF DURHAM.

§ 1. In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 849, there sprang up a light out of darkness. Then was born in the town royal, called by the English Wantage, Alfred, King of the English. . . .

...

[Here Simeon gives a long pedigree of Alfred through forty-two descents, up to Adam, dwelling specially on the greatness of Ina, King of Wessex, six generations back.]

§ 2. The mother of King Alfred was named Osburga, a woman deeply devout, and thereto keen of wit withal, great of heart, as high in place; and her father hight Oslac, the true and trusty cup-bearer of King Ethelwulf. . . .

...

[Here follows Oslac's pedigree, from Asser, § 4.]

3. In the year 851 (the third of Alfred's age) . came there a mighty host of Heathen with 350 ships, to Thames mouth. Then sacked they Dorobernia [Canterbury] . . . and, growing ever bolder, gathered all their force in Suthrige [Surrey]. Then did Ethelwulf, the warrior King of the West Saxons, along with his son Ethelbald, likewise get them together no small army, in the place men call Aclea [Ockley], that is, The Oak-Plain. There were seen, in bright and clashing armour, the flower of English folk; and long was the fight between the Danes and the English, who fought the more hardily for seeing their King bear himself so well in fight, and thus showed themselves better men than their foes. Manfully did they strive, for long and long; and bravely and stoutly was the fray kept up by both sides. And the most part of the Heathen horde was utterly overthrown and put to rout, so that never, in any land, either before or since, have so many in one day met their death. Thus, that selfsame day, did the Christians win a glorious victory ; and held the battle-stead ; with hymns and praises giving thanks to God. . . .

[Here follows the fight at Sandwich, from Asser, § 7.]

§ 4. In 853 (the fifth year of Alfred's age) . . . King Ethelwulf sent his son Alfred to Rome, and many a noble knight with him. And the blessed Pope Leo [the IVth] held the Apostolic See as at that time. He, then, hallowed the aforesaid child to King, by anointing; and receiving him for his own child by adoption, gave him Confirmation, and sent him back to his own land and to his father, with the blessing of St. Peter the Apostle...

[Here follows the fight in Thanet, from Asser, § 10.]

...

§ 5. In this year, too, did King Ethelwulf . . . give his daughter to Burghred, King of the Mercians.

Whereupon, being duly wed, gat

§ 6. In 855 (the seventh year of the age of the King aforesaid), the Heathen host wintered in the Island of Sheppey. And at that time did King Ethelwulf tithe the whole land, and freed the tenth part thereof