400 



Mr. Gait on the Saxon Chronicle. 



[Juno 1, 



" This year King Athelstone, the 

 Lord of Earls, the giver of bracelets 

 to the nobles, and his brother Edmund 

 the Atheling, the elder, the survivors of 

 their race,the children of Edward, won 

 lasting glory with the edge of the sword, 

 in battle at Bruuauburh. Tliey clave 

 the wooden walls, they hewed down the 

 tall banners, for it was the portion of 

 their lineage, that oft in the field they 

 should defend their lands, tlieir trea- 

 sures, their homes against the enemy. 

 T!ie Scot and the sliijtman fell on every 

 side — the din of arms resounded sith 

 the sun in the morning-tide rose glad 

 over the earth, greatest of the stars, 

 bright candle of God, the Lord Eternal, 

 till tlie noblest of things created sank 

 in the west. There, struck down with 

 darts, lay many a warrior, — North- 

 men pierced over their sliields, — Scots 

 the savages of war, — (he West Saxons, a 

 chosen band, pressed the live-long day 

 upon the hated people. Sternly they 

 smote down the flying multitudes witli 

 swords well sharpened at the stone. 

 The Mercians shrank not from the 

 hard play of hands. Safety there was 

 none for the companions of Aulaf, for 

 those who sought the land for deadly 

 fight over the bellowing sea bosomed in 

 ships. Five young kings lay on the 

 battle field, put to sleep by the sword. 

 So also seven earls of Aulaf, and of the 

 host from the fleet, and of the Scots 

 more than can be numbered. The 

 King of the Northmen with his little 

 troop fled in his terror to the voice of 

 the ship ; the King of the fleet, with 

 one ship's crew, living, escaped over 

 the yellow deep. So also the roiited 

 Constantine returned a fugitive to his 

 northern hills. The hoary warrior 

 needed not to exult in the conflict of 

 swords. He was the remnant of his 

 race. His kinsmen were heaped on 

 the field — slain in battle. He left his 

 son on the place of blood, covere<l with 

 wounds. Young in war, though old in 

 wisdom, the fair-haired youth was staid 

 in his glory by the bill of slaughter. 

 Neither could Aulaf and his broken 

 army boast tiiat they were better in 

 works of battle ; at the fall of ban- 

 nei-s, at the meeting of darts, in the 

 conflict of men, in the exchange of 

 weapons, M'hen they had played with 

 file children of Edward in the field of 

 death. The Northmen, the sorrowful 

 few spared by the darts, departed in 

 their nailed ships over tlie roaring sea, 

 over the deep wateis. They sailed for 

 Dublin, antt disgracetl their land. — 



Then the brothers, the king, and ths 

 Atheling, returned to their country, 

 the West Saxon land. They left be- 

 hind them the screamers of war, the 

 bii-ds of prey. The sallow kite and the 

 black raven, with the horny beak and 

 the hoarse-voiced eagle devouring the 

 white flesh — with the battle-hawk and 

 the grey beast the woM of the wood. 

 Never in this island had a greater de- 

 struction of men been worked by the 

 edge of the sword, say the books of the 

 wise elders, since the Saxons and the 

 Angles came from the East to Britain 

 over the broad sea — since those glorious 

 Earls, who smote the Welch on the 

 anvil of battle and obtained their 

 lands." 



The whole of this passage is in a 

 strain so different from the other com- 

 position of the work, that we are dis- 

 posed to consider it as a quotation from 

 some cotemporary poem, and if so, 

 it is one of the very earliest specimens 

 yet obtained of our national poetry. 



Although historians have been in the 

 practice of considering Egbert the first 

 King of England, it would perhaps be 

 more proper to speak of him as the first 

 King only of the English ; for in the 

 year 973, that is, nearly a hundred and 

 fifty years after the time that Egbert 

 is said to have declared himself King 

 of England, it appears by this venera- 

 ble Chronicle that Edgar was only called 

 the ruler of the English, and was in 

 that year crowned King at Bath. 



" There was," says tlie Chronicle on 

 that occasion, " a multitude of priests 

 and a great throng of monks, wise men 

 in my mind, gathered together. At 

 that time ten hundred years were 

 reckoned to have passed away since the 

 oath of the King of Glory, the Keeper 

 of Light, excepting only, that as writers 

 say, twenty-seven winters were want- 

 ing thereto. So nearly was the thou- 

 sandth year of our conquering Lord 

 completed when this event took place." 



This little extract draws attention, 

 not only on account of the composition, 

 which aspires to eloquence, but is curi- 

 ous in apprising us that the seven and 

 twenty years alluded to are not consi- 

 dered in the Saxon Chronicle. It 

 would appear, therefore, that in this, 

 and, of course, in all subsequent in- 

 stances, the Chronicle, probably dated 

 from the crucifixion, and not from the 

 birth of Christ. 



In the year 978, notice is taken of an 

 extraordinary event : " All the chief 

 of the Wifan (a parliaivent) of the Eng- 

 lish 



