THE RAVEN-STANDARD 137 



because of the damage they had done for they had 

 disappeared, almost as soon as they had appeared 

 but because he foresaw the trouble they would 

 cause, when his active brain no longer guided, 

 and his strong hand no longer guarded, his vast 

 dominions. Well might people hope that the end of 

 the world was drawing near, in this, its thousandth 

 year, and look forward to it as a deliverance, at all 

 events, from the evils of the present. Things 

 might be better ; they could not well be worse, 

 after the Great Assize. Well too might a new 

 and lamentable petition be added to their solemn 

 litanies : 



"A furore Normannorum liber a nos, Domine" 

 " From the raging of the Northmen, good Lord, deliver us." 



" Woe to the realms which he coasted ! for there 

 Was shedding of blood and rending of hair ; 

 Rape of maiden and slaughter of priest, 

 Gathering of ravens and wolves to the feast : 

 Where he hoisted his standard black, 

 Before him was battle, behind him wrack ; 

 And he burned the churches, that heathen Dane, 

 To light his band to their barks again." 



Hated before, the raven was doubly hated and 

 feared now by the panic-stricken peoples whose 

 coasts 



"The Norsemen trained to spoil and blood, 

 Skilled to prepare the ravens food," 



