by A. D. Crake
the eternal victory gained.
We have little more to add to our tale; the remainder is matter ofhistory. The real fate of the unhappy Elgiva is not known, for thelegend which represents her as suffering a violent death at the hands ofthe partisans of Edgar or Odo rests upon no solid foundation, but isrepugnant to actual facts of history. Let us hope that she found theonly real consolation in that religion she had hitherto, unhappily,despised, but which may perhaps have come to her aid in adversity.
The unhappy Edwy sank from bad to worse. When Elgiva was gone he seemedto have nothing to live for; he yielded himself up to riotous living todrown care, while his government became worse and worse. Alas, he neverrepented, so far as we can learn, and the following year he died atGloucester--some said of a broken heart, others of a brokenconstitution--in the twentieth year only of his age.
Poor unhappy Edwy the Fair! Yet he had been his own worst enemy. Wellhas it been written:
"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and walk in the ways of thineheart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou that for all thesethings God will bring thee into judgment."
Edgar succeeded to the throne, and all England acknowledged him as lord;while under Dunstan's wise administration the land enjoyed peace andplenty unexampled in Anglo-Saxon annals. Such was Edgar's power, thatmore than three thousand vessels kept the coast in safety, and eighttributary kings did him homage.
Alfred became in due course Thane of Aescendune, and his widowed motherlived to rejoice in his filial care many a long year, while thedependants and serfs blessed his name as they had once blessed that ofhis father.
"The boy is the father of the man" it has been well said, and it was notless true than usual in this case. A bright pure boyhood ushered in amanhood of healthful vigour and bright intellect.
Children grew up around him after his happy marriage with Alftrude, thedaughter of the thane of Rollrich. The eldest boy was named Elfric, andwas bright and brave as the Elfric of old. Need we say he never went tocourt, although Edgar would willingly have numbered him in the royalhousehold. Truly, indeed, were fulfilled the words which the Elfric ofold had spoken on that Easter eve. To his namesake, and to all thatyounger generation, the memory of the uncle they had never seen wassurrounded by a mysterious halo of light and love; and when they saidtheir prayers around his tomb, it seemed as if he were still one ofthemselves--sharing their earthly joys and sorrows.
And here we must leave them--time passing sweetly on, the current oftheir lives flowing softly and gently to the mighty ocean of eternity:
"Where the faded flower shall freshen,Freshen never more to fade;Where the shaded sky shall brighten,Brighten never more to shade."_Bonar_.
THE END.
i For authorities for his various statements the Authormust beg to refer his readers to the notes at the end of the volume.
ii Homilies in the Anglo-Saxon Church
"The mass priest, on Sundays and mass days, shall speak the sense of theGospel to the people in English, and of the Paternoster, and of theCreed, as often as he can, for the inciting of the people to know theirbelief, and to retain their Christianity. Let the teacher take heed ofwhat the prophet says, 'They are dumb dogs, and cannot bark.' We oughtto bark and preach to laymen, lest they should be lost throughignorance. Christ in His gospel says of unlearned teachers, 'If theblind lead the blind, they both fall into the ditch.' The teacher isblind that hath no book learning, and he misleads the laity through hisignorance. Thus are you to be aware of this, as your duty requires."--23d Canon of Elfric, about A.D. 957.
Elfric was then only a private monk in the abbey of Ahingdon, andperhaps composed these canons for the use of Wulfstan, Bishop ofDorchester, with the assistance of the abbot, Ethelwold. They commence"Aelfricus, humilis frater, venerabili Episcopo Wulfsino, salutem inDomino." Others think this "Wulfsinus" was the Bishop of Sherborne ofthat name. Elfric became eventually Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D.995-1005, dying at an advanced age. No other English name before theConquest is so famous in literature.
iii Services of the Church.
"It concerns mass priests, and all God's servants, to keep theirchurches employed with God's service. Let them sing therein theseven-tide songs that are appointed them, as the Synod earnestlyrequires--that is, the uht song (matins); the prime song (seven A.M.);the undern song (terce, nine A.M.); the midday song (sext); the noonsong (nones, three P.M.); the even song (six P.M.); the seventh or nightsong (compline, nine P.M.)"--19th Canon of Elfric.
It is not to be supposed that the laity either were expected to attend,or could attend, all these services, which were strictly kept inmonastic bodies; but it would appear that mass, and sometimes matins andevensong, or else compline, were generally frequented. And these latterwould be, as represented in the text, the ordinary services in privatechapels.
iv Battle of Brunanburgh.
In this famous battle, the English, under their warlike king, defeated amost threatening combination of foes; Anlaf, the Danish prince, havingunited his forces to those of Constantine, King of the Scots, and theBritons, or Welsh of Strathclyde and Cambria. So proud were the Englishof the victory, that their writers break into poetry when they come tothat portion of their annals. Such is the case with the writer of theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle, from whom the following verses are abridged. Theyhave been already partially quoted in the text.
Here Athelstane king,Of earls the lord,To warriors the ring-giver,Glory world-longHad 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 strifeThey 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 redWith warriors' blood,What time the sun,Uprising at morn,The candle of God,Ran her course through the heavens;Till red in the westShe sank to her rest.Through the live-long dayFought the people of Wessex,Unshrinking from toil,While Mercian men,Hurled darts by their side.Fated to dieTheir ships brought the Danes,Five kings and seven earls,All men of renown,And Scots without numberLay dead on the field.Constantine, hoary warrior,Had small cause to boast.Young in the fight,Mangled and torn,Lay his son on the plain.Nor Anlaf the DaneWith wreck of his troops,Could vaunt of the warOf the clashing of spears.Or the crossing of swords,with the offspring of Edward.The Northmen departedIn their mailed barks,Sorrowing much;while the two brothers,The King and the Etheling,To Wessex returned,Leaving behindThe corpses of foesTo 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, andthe Etheling Edmund, his brother, led a force to Brimanburgh, end therefought against Anlaf, and, Christ helping them, they slew five kings andseven 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, onthe feast of St. Augustine, the apostle of the English, and firstArchbishop of Canterbury, among the royal guests at Pucklechurch, for onthis day the English were wont to regale, in commemoration of theirfirst preacher; by chance, too, he was placed near a nobleman, whom theking had condescended to make his guest. This, while the others wereeagerly carousing, was perceived by the king alone; when, hurried withindignation, and impelled by fate, he leaped from the table, caught therobber by the hair, and dragged him to the floor; but he, secretlydrawing a dagger from its sheath, plunged it with all his force into thebreast of the king as he lay upon him. Dying of the wound, he gave riseover the whole kingdom to many fictions concerning his decease. Therobber 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 Glastonbury, had foreseen his ignobleend, being fully persuaded of it from the gesticulations and insolentmockery of a devil dancing before him. Wherefore, hastening to court atfull speed, he received intelligence of the transaction on the road
. Bycommon consent, then, it was determined that his body should be broughtto Glastonbury, and there magnificently buried in the northern part ofthe tower. That such had been his intention, through his singular regardfor the abbot, was evident from particular circumstances. The village,also, where he was murdered, was made a offering for the dead, that thespot, which had witnessed his fall, might ever after minister aid to hissoul,--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. ArchbishopWulfstan, then of York, sided with them, perhaps being himself of Danishblood. The kingdom was eventually divided between Edmund and Aulaf,until the death of the latter. When Edred ascended the throne--afterthe murder of Edmund, who had, before his death,
