75 
1799 A.D., in the custody of your courteous postmaster, you 
will find the district and every place and all connected with 
it, time after time called Greave field, Greave, Greave lane ; 
and in a map, many years of older date, done for the Marquis 
of Rockingham, with the ancient roads and names of this 
part of Yorkshire, in the possession of Earl Fitzwilliam, 
I find the same testimony — the same spelling of the Norse- 
word Greave. " This happened toward evening, and the 
darkness fell before the slaughter ended," is the simple, but 
pathetic statement of the author of the ]N'orwegian Saga. 
But why was that triumph so long delayed? William of 
Malmesbury — "However reluctantly posterity may believe 
it, a single Norwegian for a long time delayed the triumph 
of so many and great men ; for, standing on the entrance of 
a bridge called Standford Brigge, after having killed several 
of our party, he prevented the whole £rom passing over. He 
reproached them as cowards, and, finally, while vapouring 
about was transfixed by an iron javelin." The army 
immediately passed over without opposition, and destroyed 
the dispersed and flying Norwegians. Now mark: when 
the bridge was forced they came upon the " dispersed 
and flying Norwegians." This shows that Harold God- 
winson's forces were in two divisions, and that one 
had already dispersed the Norwegians on the other side 
of the river. This entirely overturns the fiction that the 
Norwegians were this side of the river between York and 
Stamford Bridge. To this agree the several accounts from 
the difierent MSS. of the Saxon chronicle — " The English 
hotly slew them from behind until they came to their ships." 
Another account, whilst stating that Harold had come upon 
the Norwegians " unawares from beyond the bridge, and that 
they were fighting boldly long in the day, and that the 
Northmen fled," goes on to give the story of " one of the 
Norwegians who withstood the English folk, so that they 
could not pass over the bridge to obtain the victory.'' 
