Few were his following,

Fled to his warship:

Fleeted his vessel to sea with the king in it, Saving his life on the fallow flood.

IX.

Also the crafty one,

Constantínus,

Crept to his North again,

Hoar-headed hero!

X.

Slender reason had
He to be proud of

The welcome of war-knives

He that was reft of his

Folk and his friends that had

Fallen in conflict,

Leaving his son too

Lost in the carnage,

Mangled to morsels,

A youngster in war!

XI.

Slender reason had

He to be glad of

The clash of the war-glaive

Traitor and trickster

And spurner of treaties—

He nor had Anlaf

With armies so broken

A reason for bragging
That they had the better
In perils of battle

On places of slaughter-
The struggle of standards,
The rush of the javelins,

The crash of the charges,

The wielding of weapons

The play that they play'd with

The children of Edward.

XII.

Then with their nail'd prows

Parted the Norsemen, a

Blood-redden'd relic of

Javelins over

The jarring breaker, the deepsea billow
Shaping their way toward Dyflen again,
Shamed in their souls.

XIII.

Also the brethren,

King and Atheling,

Each in his glory,

Went to his own in his own West-Saxonland,

Glad of the war.

XIV.

Many a carcase they left to be carrion,
Many a livid one, many a sallow-skin—
Left for the white-tail'd eagle to tear it, and
Left for the horny-nibb'd raven to rend it, and
Gave to the garbaging war-hawk to gorge it, and
That gray beast, the wolf of the weald.

XV.

Never had huger
Slaughter of heroes

Slain by the sword-edge—
Such as old writers

Have writ of in histories-
Hapt in this isle, since
Up from the East hither
Saxon and Angle from
Over the broad billow
Broke into Britain with
Haughty war-workers who
Harried the Welshman, when
Earls that were lured by the
Hunger of glory gat

Hold of the land.

TENNYSON (from the Old English).

II.

THE FIGHT OF MALDON.

I.

*

THEN 'gan Brihtnoth

His men to array:

Rode past and rank'd them,

Taught them their places,

Bade them their round shields
Hold fast with hand-grip,

At nothing frighten'd.

When he his folk thus

Had duly order'd,

There down he lighted

'Mid whom he wist

Dearest and faithfullest,

Bands of his hearth.

II.

Then stood forth, stern-voiced, on the river-brink,
Wiking's herald, and thrill'd out a threatening
Sea-folk's errand across to the Earl.

III.

"Me have they hither sent,

They, the swift sea-farers,

Bade me say thus to thee:

'Send, for thy safety's sake,
Bracelets right speedily.;
Better the spear-rush ye
Buy off with gift-money
Than in hard-foughten fight
Slaying where no need is

Either the other.

List ye this thing to do,
Fast shall a peace be made,
Clench'd with the gold.'
Haply thou holdest thee,
Thou that here richest art,
Willing to free thy folk,
Paying the seamen's price,
Peace to win peaceably,-
So with the scot will we
Back to our ships, and sail
Forth on our fleet, and hold
Peace with you still."

IV.

Out spake Brihtnoth,
His shield upheaving,

Shook the slight ash-shaft, and

Fierce and unflinching

With words made answer.