Edwy the Fair or the First Chronicle of Aescendune Part 40

In this famous battle, the English, under their warlike king, defeated a most threatening combination of foes; Anlaf, the Danish prince, having united his forces to those of Constantine, King of the Scots, and the Britons, or Welsh of Strathclyde and Cambria. So proud were the English of the victory, that their writers break into poetry when they come to that portion of their annals. Such is the case with the writer of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, from whom the following verses are abridged. They have been already partially quoted in the text.

Here Athelstane king, Of earls the lord, To warriors the ring-giver, Glory world-long Had won in the strife, By edge of the sword, At Brunanburgh.

The offspring of Edward, The departed king, Cleaving the shields.

Struck down the brave.

Such was their valour, Worthy of their sires, That oft in the strife They shielded the land 'Gainst every foe.

The Scottish chieftains, The warriors of the Danes, Pierced through their mail, Lay dead on the field.

The field was red With warriors' blood, What time the sun, Uprising at morn, The candle of G.o.d, Ran her course through the heavens; Till red in the west She sank to her rest.

Through the live-long day Fought the people of Wess.e.x, Unshrinking from toil, While Mercian men, Hurled darts by their side.

Fated to die Their ships brought the Danes, Five kings and seven earls, All men of renown, And Scots without number Lay dead on the field.

Constantine, h.o.a.ry warrior, Had small cause to boast.

Young in the fight, Mangled and torn, Lay his son on the plain.

Nor Anlaf the Dane With wreck of his troops, Could vaunt of the war Of the clashing of spears.

Or the crossing of swords, with the offspring of Edward.

The Northmen departed In their mailed barks, Sorrowing much; while the two brothers, The King and the Etheling, To Wess.e.x returned, Leaving behind The corpses of foes To the beak of the raven, The eagle and kite, And the wolf of the wood.

The Chronicle simply adds, "A.D. 937.--This year King Athelstan, and the Etheling Edmund, his brother, led a force to Brimanburgh, end there fought against Anlaf, and, Christ helping them, they slew five kings and seven earls."

v Murder of Edmund.

A certain robber named Leofa, whom Edmund had banished for his crimes, returning after six years' absence, totally unexpected, was sitting, on the feast of St. Augustine, the apostle of the English, and first Archbishop of Canterbury, among the royal guests at Pucklechurch, for on this day the English were wont to regale, in commemoration of their first preacher; by chance, too, he was placed near a n.o.bleman, whom the king had condescended to make his guest. This, while the others were eagerly carousing, was perceived by the king alone; when, hurried with indignation, and impelled by fate, he leaped from the table, caught the robber by the hair, and dragged him to the floor; but he, secretly drawing a dagger from its sheath, plunged it with all his force into the breast of the king as he lay upon him. Dying of the wound, he gave rise over the whole kingdom to many fictions concerning his decease. The robber was shortly torn limb from limb by the attendants who rushed in, though he wounded some of them ere they could accomplish their purpose.

St. Dunstan, at that time Abbot of Glas...o...b..ry, had foreseen his ign.o.ble end, being fully persuaded of it from the gesticulations and insolent mockery of a devil dancing before him. Wherefore, hastening to court at full speed, he received intelligence of the transaction on the road. By common consent, then, it was determined that his body should be brought to Glas...o...b..ry, and there magnificently buried in the northern part of the tower. That such had been his intention, through his singular regard for the abbot, was evident from particular circ.u.mstances. The village, also, where he was murdered, was made a offering for the dead, that the spot, which had witnessed his fall, might ever after minister aid to his soul,--William of Malmesbury, B, ii. e. 7, Bohn's Edition.

vi A. D. 556--Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

vii Wulfstan, and the See of Dorchester.

When Athelstane was dead, the Danes, both in Northumberland and Mercia, revolted against the English rule, and made Anlaf their king. Archbishop Wulfstan, then of York, sided with them, perhaps being himself of Danish blood. The kingdom was eventually divided between Edmund and Aulaf, until the death of the latter. When Edred ascended the throne--after the murder of Edmund, who had, before his death, repossessed himself of the whole sovereignty--the wise men of Northumberland, with Wulfstan at their head, swore submission to him, but in 948 rebelled and chose for their king Eric of Denmark. Edred marched at once against them, and subdued the rebellion with great vigour, not to say riqour. He threw the archbishop into prison at Jedburgh in Bernicia. After a time he was released, but only upon the condition of banishment from Northumbria, and he was made Bishop of Dorchester, a place familiar to the tourist on the Thames, famed for the n.o.ble abbey church which still exists, and has been grandly restored.

Although Dorchester is now only a village, it derives its origin from a period so remote that it is lost in the mist of ages. It was probably a British village under the name Cair Dauri, the camp on the waters; and coins of Cun.o.belin, or Ca.s.sivellaunus, have been found in good preservation. Bede mentions it as a Roman station, and Richard of Cirencester marks it as such in the xviii. Iter, under the name Durocina.

Its bishopric was founded by Birinus, the apostle of the West Saxons; and the present bishoprics of Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Bath and Wells, Worcester and Hereford, were successively taken from it, after which it still extended from the Thames to the Humber.

Suffering grievously from the ravages of the Danes, it became a small town, and it suffered again grievously at the Conquest, when the inhabited houses were reduced by the Norman ravages from 172 to 100, and perhaps the inhabitants were reduced in proportion. In consequence, Remigius, the first Norman bishop, removed the see to Lincoln, because Dorchester, on account of its size and small population, did not suit his ideas, as John of Brompton observes. From this period its decline was rapid, in spite of its famous abbey, which Remigius partially erected with the stones from the bishop's palace.

viii Anglo-Saxon Literature.

In the age of Bede, the eighth century, Britain was distinguished for its learning; but the Danish invasions caused the rapid decline of its renown.

The churches and monasteries, where alone learning flourished, and which were the only libraries and schools, were the first objects of the hatred of the ferocious pagans; and, in consequence, when Alfred came to the throne, as he tells us in his own words--"South of the Humber there were few priests who could understand the meaning of their common prayers, or translate a line of Latin into English; so few, that in Wess.e.x there was not one." Alfred set himself diligently to work to correct this evil. Nearly all the books in existence in England were in Latin, and it was a "great" library which contained fifty copies of these. There was a great objection to the use of the vernacular in the Holy Scriptures, as tending to degrade them by its uncouth jargon; but the Venerable Bede had rendered the Gospel of St. John into the Anglo-Saxon, together with other extracts from holy Scripture; and there were versions of the Psalter in the vulgar tongue, very rude and uncouth; for ancient translators generally imagined a translation could only be faithful which placed all the words of the vulgar tongue in the same relative positions as the corresponding words in the original. An Anglo-Saxon translation upon this plan is extant.

Alfred had taught himself Latin by translating: there were few vocabularies, and only the crabbed grammar of old Priscian. Shaking himself free from the trammels we have enumerated, he invited learned men from abroad, such as his biographer, a.s.ser, and together they attempted a complete version of the Bible. Some writers suppose the project was nearly completed, others, that it was interrupted by his early death. Still, translations were multiplied of the sacred writings, and the rubrics show that they were read, as described in the text, upon the Sundays and festivals. From that time down to the days of Wickliffe, England can boast of such versions of the sacred Word as can hardly be paralleled in Europe.

The other works we have mentioned were also translated by or for Alfred.

"The Chronicle of Orosius," a history of the world by a Spaniard of Seville; "The History of the Venerable Bede;" "The Consolations of Philosophy," by Boethius; "Narratives from Ancient Mythology;" "The Confessions of St. Augustine;" "The Pastoral Instructions of St.

Gregory;" and his "Dialogue," form portions of the works of this greatest of kings, and true father of his people. His "Apologues,"

imitated from Aesop, are unfortunately lost.

ix The Court of Edred.

All the early chroniclers appear to take a similar view of the character and court of Edred. William of Malmesbury says--"The king devoted his life to G.o.d, and to St. Dunstan, by whose admonition he bore with patience his frequent bodily pains, prolonged his prayers, and made his palace altogether the school of virtue." But although pious, he was by no means wanting in manly energy, as was shown by his vigorous and successful campaign in Northumbria, on the occasion of the attempt to set Eric, son of Harold, on the throne of Northumbria. The angelic apparition to St. Dunstan, mentioned in chapter VII, is told by nearly all the early historians, but with varying details. According to many, it occurred while Dunstan was hastening to the aid of Edred. The exigencies of the tale required a slightly different treatment of the legend.

x Confession in the Anglo-Saxon Church.

"On the week next before holy night shall every one go to his shrift (i.e. confessor), and his shrift shall shrive him in such a manner as his deeds which he hath done require and he shall charge all that belong to his district that if any of them have discord with any, he make peace with him; if any one will not be brought to this, then he shall not shrive him; [but] then he shall inform the bishop, that he may convert him to what is right, if he he willing to belong to G.o.d: then all contentions and disputes shall cease, and if there be any one of them that hath taken offence at another, then shall they be reconciled, that they may the more freely say in the Lord's Prayer, 'Forgive us our trespa.s.ses, as we forgive them that trespa.s.s against us,' etc. And having thus purified their minds, let them enter upon the holy fast-tide, and cleanse themselves by satisfaction against holy Easter, for this satisfaction is as it were a second baptism. As in Baptism the sins before committed are forgiven, so, by satisfaction, are the sins committed after Baptism." Theodulf's Canons, A.D. 994 (Canon 36).

It is evident, says Johnson, that "holy night" means "lenten night," as the context shows.

xi Incense in the Anglo-Saxon Church.

Dr. Rock, in his "Hierurgia Anglicans," states that incense was used at the Gospel. In vol. i., quoting from Ven. Bede, he writes--"Conveniunt omnes in ecclesium B. Petri ipse (Ceolfridas Abbas) thure incenso, et dicto oratione, ad altare pacem dat omnibus, stans in gradibus, thuribulum habens in menu." In Leofric's Missal is a form for the blessing of incense. Theodore's Penitential also affixes a penance to its wilful or careless destruction. Ven. Bede on his deathbed gave away incense amongst his little parting presents, as his disciple, Cuthbert, relates. Amongst the furniture of the larger Anglo-Saxon churches was a huge censer hanging from the roof, which emitted fumes throughout the ma.s.s.

"Hic quoque thuribulum, capitellis undique cinctum, Pendet de summo, fumosa foramina pandens: De quibus ambrosia spirabunt thura Sabaea, Quando sacerdotes missas offerre jubentur."

Alcuini _Opera_, B. ii,, p. 550.

xii Psalm xxi. 3.

xiii "All were indignant at the shameless deed, and murmured amongst themselves,"--William of Malmesbury.

xiv The Welsh were driven from Exeter by King Athelstane; before that time, Englishmen and Welsh had inhabited it with equal rights.

xv The earliest inhabitants of Ireland were called Scots.

xvi Legends about St. Dunstan.

"It is a great pity," says Mr. Freeman, in his valuable "Old English History," "that so many strange stories are told about him [Dunstan], because people are apt to think of those stories and not of his real actions." This has indeed been the case to such an extent that his talents, as a statesman and as an ecclesiastical legislator, are almost unknown to many who are very familiar with the story of his seizing the devil by the nose with a pair of tongs. Sir Francis Palgrave supposes that St. Dunstan's seclusion at the time had led him to believe, like so many solitaries, that he was attacked in person by the fiend, and that he related his visions, which were accepted as absolute facts by his credulous hearers. Hence the author has a.s.sumed the currency of some of these marvellous legends in his tale, and has introduced a later one into the text of the present chapter. But the whole life of the saint, as related by his monkish biographers, is literally full of such legends, some terrible, some ludicrous. One of the most remarkable deserves mention, bearing, as it does, upon our tale. It is said that he learned that Edwy was dead, and that the devils were about to carry off his soul in triumph, when, falling to fervent prayer, he obtained his release. A most curious colloquy between the abbot and the devils on this subject may be found in Osberne's "Life of Dunstan."

xvii The Benedictine Rule.

St. Benedict, the founder of the great Benedictine Order, was born in the neighbourhood of Nursia, a city of Italy, about A.D. 480. Sent to study at Rome, he was shocked at the vices of his fellow students, ran away from the city, and shut himself up in a hermitage, where he resigned himself to a life of the strictest austerity. Three years he spent in a cave near Subiaco, about forty miles from Rome, where he was so removed from society that he lost all account of time. He did not, however, lead an idle life of self contemplation; he instructed the shepherds of he neighbourhood, and such were the results of his instruction that his fame spread widely, until, the abbot of a neighbouring monastery dying, the brethren almost compelled him to become their superior, but, not liking the reforms he introduced, subsequently endeavoured to poison him, whereupon he returned to his cave, where, as St. Gregory says, "he dwelt with himself" and became more celebrated than ever. After this the number of his disciples increased so greatly, that, emerging from his solitude, he built twelve monasteries, in each of which he placed twelve monks under a superior, finally laying the foundation of the great monastery of Monte Ca.s.sino, which has ever since been regarded as the central inst.i.tution of the order.

Here was drawn up the famous Benedictine rule, which was far more adapted than any other code to prevent the cloister from becoming the abode of idleness or lascivious ease. To the three vows of poverty, chast.i.ty, and obedience, was added the obligation of manual labour, the brethren being required to work with their hands at least seven hours daily. The profession for life was preceded by a novitiate of one year, during which the rule was deeply studied by the novice, that the life vow might not be taken without due consideration. The colour of the habit was usually dark, hence the brethren were called the Black Monks.

St. Benedict died of a fever, which he caught in ministering to the poor, on the eve of Pa.s.sion Sunday, A.D. 543. Before his death, the houses of the order were to be found in all parts of Europe, and by the ninth century it had become general throughout the Church, almost superseding all other orders.

xviii The Roman Roads.

Roman roads were thus constructed: Two shallow trenches were dug parallel to each other, marking the breadth of the proposed road; the loose earth was removed till a solid foundation was reached, and above this were laid four distinct strata--the first of small broken stones, the second of rubble, the third of fragments of bricks or pottery, and the fourth the pavement, composed of large blocks of solid stone, so joined as to present a perfectly even surface. Regular footpaths were raised on each side, and covered with gravel. Milestones divided them accurately. Mountains were pierced by cuttings or tunnels, and arches thrown over valleys or streams. Upon these roads, posting houses existed at intervals of six miles, each provided with forty horses, so that journeys of more than 150 miles were sometimes accomplished in one day.

From the arrival of our uncivilised anceators, these magnificent roads were left to ruin and decay, and sometimes became the quarry whence the thane or baron drew stones for his castle; but they still formed the channels of communication for centuries. Henry of Huntingdon (circa 1154) mentions the Icknield Street, from east to west; the Eringe, or Ermine Street, from south to north; the Watling Street, from southeast to northwest; and the Foss Way, from northeast to southwest, as the four princ.i.p.al highways of Britain in his day. Once ruined, no communications so perfect existed until these days of railroads.

xix The Rollright Stones.

These stones are still to be seen in the parish of Great Rollright near Chipping Norton, Oxon, anciently Rollrich or Rholdrwygg. They lie on the edge of an old Roman trackway, well defined, which extends along the watershed between Thames and Avon. The writer has himself heard from the rustics of the neighbourhood the explanation given by Oswy, while that put in the mouth of Father Cuthbert is the opinion of the learned.

xx For this new translation of Urbs beata the author is indebted to his friend the Rev. Gerald Moultrie.

xxi The reader will remember the strong feeling of animosity then existing between seculars and regulars.

xxii This demoniacal laughter is one of the many legends about St. Dunstan.