Wulfric the Weapon Thane: A Story of the Danish Conquest of East Anglia, Whistler [best ebook reader for laptop .TXT] 📗

How fared Ingvar I know not, for soon the incoming tide of Danes slackened, and I heard no news of him; and, as he said, never did he set foot on English shores again.

Egfrid and Eadgyth are happy in their place at Hoxne, and on them at least has fallen no shadow of misfortune from that which came of their passing over the Bridge of the Golden Spurs--the Golden Bridge as our folk call it now.

Yet it needed no words of Ingvar's to keep the memory of that day's work alive in the minds of our people. Never so long as the Gold Brook flows beneath that bridge will a bridal pass churchwards over its span, for there, but for such a crossing, Eadmund the king might have bided safely till Ingvar the Dane had passed and gone.

Little use is there in grieving over what might have been, but this I know, that in days to come forgotten will be Ingvar, and English will have become his mighty host, but in every English heart will live the name of Eadmund, who died for faith and country.

i Ran: the sea goddess or witch of the old mythology, by whose nets drowning men were said to be entangled.

ii The Jarl ranked next to the king, and was often equally powerful. Our English title "Earl" is derived from this.

iii A small wharf.

iv A lay brother of the monastery of Hackness, near Whitby, who rendered the Sacred Histories into verse about A.D. 680.

v Now Whitby. The present name was given by the Danish settlers.

vi As if under the shadow of coming death.

vii The Viking ship of war, or "long ship".

viii The usual Scandinavian and Danish greeting: "Health".

ix After expulsion from his bishopric of York by King Egfrid.

x Mail shirt.

xi The fine allowed as penalty for killing an adversary in a quarrel, or by mischance. The penalty for wilful murder was death.

xii Nidring, niddering, or nithing, may be beet expressed by "worthless ". It was the extreme term of reproach to a Saxon.

xiii The "Lodbrokar-Quida", which is still in existence. By some authorities Ragnar is said to have been the father of Ingvar and Hubba, but the dates are most uncertain.

xiv "The Fates" of the Northern mythology.

xv St. Ansgar, or Ansgarius, built the first church in Denmark at Hedeby, now Slesvig, in 840 A.D.

xvi The "twilight of the Gods", when the Asir were to fight against the powers of evil, and a new order should commence.

xvii The Danes traced their origin back to a great migration from the East, under Odin. Their priesthood was vested in the head of the tribe after the ancient patriarchal custom.

xviii The great representative Council from which our Parliament sprang.

xix Four degrees of kingship are spoken of in the Sagas, the highest being the overlord, to whom the lesser kings paid tribute. The "kings of the host" came third in rank, the "sea kings" last, these being usually sons of under kings, to whom a ship or two had been given.

xx Now Peterborough.

xxi Tribute.

xxii "The King's Guardian."