214 THE KING'S MIRROR 



of your chief, you need to shun manslaying no more 

 than any other deed which you know to be right and 

 good. Show courage and bravery in battle; fight with 

 proper and effective blows, such as you have already 

 learned, as if in the best of humor, though filled with 

 noble wrath. Never fight with feigned strokes, needless 

 thrusts, or uncertain shots like a frightened man. Heed 

 these things well that you may be able to match your 

 opponent's skill in fighting. Be resolute in combat but 

 not hot-headed and least of all boastful. Always re- 

 member that there may be those who can give good 

 testimony in your behalf: but never praise vonr own 

 deeds, lest after a time it should come to piass that jrou 

 are pursued for the slaughter of men whose death js^ 

 \ rated a great loss and the revenge is directed toward 



you by your ownjords. 



If you are fighting on foot in a land battle and are 

 placed at the point of a wedge-shaped column,* it is 

 very important to watch the closed shield line in the 

 first onset, lest it become disarranged or broken. Take 

 heed never to bind the front edge of your shield under 

 that of another, f You must also be specially careful, 

 when in the battle line, never to throw your spear, un- 

 less you have two, for in battle array on land one spear 

 is more effective than two swords. But if the fight is on 

 shipboard, select two spears which are not to be thrown, 

 one with a shaft long enough to reach easily from ship 



baped column (jtfc^yOaif , perhaps so named from a fancied 

 ; to a boar's head) was a common form of battle array among the 

 Northern peoples as wd as among the early Germans generally. 

 t As the shield was bora on the kft arm, the front edge would be the right 



