Book: Harold, Book 12.

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[67] Siward was almost a giant (pene gigas statures). There are some
curious anecdotes of this hero, immortalised by Shakspere, in the
Bromton Chronicle. His grandfather is said to have been a bear, who
fell in love with a Danish lady; and his father, Beorn, retained some
of the traces of the parental physiognomy in a pair of pointed ears.
The origin of this fable seems evident. His grandfather was a
Berserker; for whether that name be derived, as is more generally
supposed, from bare-sark,--or rather from bear-sark, that is, whether
this grisly specimen of the Viking genus fought in his shirt or his
bearskin, the name equally lends itself to those mystifications from
which half the old legends, whether of Greece or Norway, are derived.

[68] Wace.

[69] See Note (E), at the end of the volume (foot-note on the date of
William's marriage).

[70] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

[71] Some writers say fifty.

[72] Hovenden.

[73] Bodes, i.e. messengers.

[74] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

[75] Or Fleur-de-lis, which seems to have been a common form of
ornament with the Saxon kings.

[76] Bayeux Tapestry.

[77] See note (F), at the end of the volume.

[78] The York Chronicle, written by an Englishman, Stubbs, gives this
eminent person an excellent character as peacemaker. "He could make
the warmest friends of foes the most hostile." "De inimicissimis,
amicissimos faceret." This gentle priest had yet the courage to curse
the Norman Conqueror in the midst of his barons. That scene is not
within the range of this work, but it is very strikingly told in the
Chronicle.

[79] Heralds, though probably the word is Saxon, were not then known
in the modern acceptation of the word. The name given to the
messenger or envoy who fulfilled that office was bode or nuncius. See
Note (G), at the end of the volume.

[80] When the chronicler praises the gift of speech, he unconsciously
proves the existence of constitutional freedom.

[81] Recent Danish historians have in vain endeavoured to detract
from the reputation of Canute as an English monarch. The Danes are,
doubtless, the best authorities for his character in Denmark. But our
own English authorities are sufficiently decisive as to the personal
popularity of Canute in this country, and the affection entertained
for his laws.

[82] Some of our historians erroneously represent Harold as the
eldest son. But Florence, the best authority we have, in the silence
of the Saxon Chronicle, as well as Knyghton, distinctly states Sweyn
to be the eldest; Harold was the second, and Tostig was the third.
Sweyn's seniority seems corroborated by the greater importance of his
earldom. The Norman chroniclers, in their spite to Harold, wish to
make him junior to Tostig--for the reasons evident at the close of
this work. And the Norwegian chronicler, Snorro Sturleson, says that
Harold was the youngest of all the sons; so little was really known,
or cared to be accurately known, of that great house which so nearly
founded a new dynasty of English kings.

[83] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A. D. 1043. "Stigand was deposed from
his bishopric, and all that he possessed was seized into the King's
hands, because he was received to his mother's counsel, and she went
just as he advised her, as people thought." The saintly Confessor
dealt with his bishops as summarily as Henry VIII. could have done,
after his quarrel with the Pope.

[84] The title of Basileus was retained by our kings so late as the
time of John, who styled himself "Totius Insulae Britannicae
Basileus."--AGARD: On the Antiquity of Shires in England, op. Hearne,
Cur. Disc.

[85] Sharon Turner.

[86] See the Introduction to PALGRAVE's History of the Anglo-Saxons,
from which this description of the Witan is borrowed so largely, that
I am left without other apology for the plagiarism, than the frank
confession, that if I could have found in others, or conceived from my
own resources, a description half as graphic and half as accurate, I
would only have plagiarised to half the extent I have done.

[87] Girald. Gambrensis.

[88] Palgrave omits, I presume accidentally, these members of the
Witan, but it is clear from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that the London
"lithsmen" were represented in the great National Witans, and helped
to decide the election even of kings.

[89] By Athelstan's law, every man was to have peace going to and
from the Witan, unless he was a thief.--WILKINS, p. 187.

[90] Goda, Edward's sister, married first Rolf's father, Count of
Nantes; secondly, the Count of Boulogne.

[91] More correctly of Oxford, Somerset, Berkshire, Gloucester, and
Hereford.

[92] Yet how little safe it is for the great to despise the low-born.
This very Richard, son of Scrob, more euphoniously styled by the
Normans Richard Fitz-Scrob, settled in Herefordshire (he was probably
among the retainers of Earl Rolf), and on William's landing, became
the chief and most active supporter of the invader in those districts.
The sentence of banishment seems to have been mainly confined to the
foreigners about the Court--for it is clear that many Norman
landowners and priests were still left scattered throughout the
country.

[93] SENECA, Thyest. Act ii.--"He is a king who fears nothing; that
kingdom every man gives to himself."

[94] Scin-laeca, literally a shining corpse; a species of apparition
invoked by the witch or wizard.--See SHARON TURNER on The
Superstitions of the Anglo-Saxons, b. ii. c. 14.

[95] Galdra, magic.

[96] Fylgia, tutelary divinity. See Note (H), at the end of the
volume.

[97] Morthwyrtha, worshipper of the dead.

[98] It is a disputed question whether the saex of the earliest Saxon
invaders was a long or short curved weapon,--nay, whether it was
curved or straight; but the author sides with those who contend that
it was a short, crooked weapon, easily concealed by a cloak, and
similar to those depicted on the banner of the East Saxons.

[99] See Note (K), at the end of the volume.

[100] Saxon Chronicle, Florence Wigorn. Sir F. Palgrave says that
the title of Childe is equivalent to that of Atheling. With that
remarkable appreciation of evidence which generally makes him so
invaluable as a judicial authority where accounts are contradictory,
Sir F. Palgrave discards with silent contempt the absurd romance of
Godwin's station of herdsman, to which, upon such very fallacious and
flimsy authorities, Thierry and Sharon Turner have been betrayed into
lending their distinguished names.

[101] This first wife Thyra, was of very unpopular repute with the
Saxons. She was accused of sending young English persons as slaves
into Denmark, and is said to have been killed by lightning.

[102] It is just, however, to Godwin to say, that there is no proof
of his share in this barbarous transaction; the presumptions, on the
contrary, are in his favour; but the authorities are too
contradictory, and the whole event too obscure, to enable us
unhesitatingly to confirm the acquittal he received in his own age,
and from his own national tribunal.

[103] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

[104] William of Malmesbury.

[105] So Robert of Gloucester says pithily of William, "Kyng Wylliam
was to mild men debonnere ynou."--HEARNE, v. ii. p. 309.

[106] This kiss of peace was held singularly sacred by the Normans,
and all the more knightly races of the continent. Even the craftiest
dissimulator, designing fraud, and stratagem, and murder to a foe,
would not, to gain his ends, betray the pledge of the kiss of peace.
When Henry II. consented to meet Becket after his return from Rome,
and promised to remedy all of which his prelate complained, he struck
prophetic dismay into Becket's heart by evading the kiss of peace.

[107] SNORRO STURLESON's Heimskringla.--Laing's Translation, p. 75-
77.

[108] The gre-hound was so called from hunting the gre or badger.

[109] The spear and the hawk were as the badges of Saxon nobility;
and a thegn was seldom seen abroad without the one on his left wrist,
the other in his right hand.

[110] BED Epist. ad Egbert.

[111] TEGNER's Frithiof.

[112] Some of the chroniclers say that he married the daughter of
Gryffyth, the king of North Wales, but Gryffyth certainly married
Algar's daughter, and that double alliance could not have been
permitted. It was probably, therefore, some more distant kinswoman of
Gryffyth's that was united to Algar.

[113] The title of queen is employed in these pages, as one which our
historians have unhesitatingly given to the consorts of our Saxon
kings; but the usual and correct designation of Edward's royal wife,
in her own time, would be, Edith the Lady.

[114] ETHEL. De Gen. Reg. Ang.

[115] AILRED, De Vit. Edward Confess.

[116] Ingulfus.

[117] The clergy (says Malmesbury), contented with a very slight
share of learning, could scarcely stammer out the words of the
sacraments; and a person who understood grammar was an object of
wonder and astonishment. Other authorities, likely to be impartial,
speak quite as strongly as to the prevalent ignorance of the time.

[118] House-carles in the royal court were the body-guard, mostly, if
not all, of Danish origin. They appear to have been first formed, or
at least employed, in that capacity by Canute. With the great earls,
the house-carles probably exercised the same functions; but in the
ordinary acceptation of the word in families of lower rank, house-
carle was a domestic servant.

[119] This was cheap. For Agelnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, gave
the Pope 6000 lb. weight of silver for the arm of St. Augustine.--
MALMESBURY.

[120] William of Malmesbury says, that the English, at the time of
the Conquest, loaded their arms with gold bracelets, and adorned their
skins with punctured designs, i.e., a sort of tattooing. He says,
that they then wore short garments, reaching to the mid-knee; but that
was a Norman fashion, and the loose robes assigned in the text to
Algar were the old Saxon fashion, which made but little distinction
between the dress of women and that of men.

[121] And in England, to this day, the descendants of the Anglo-
Danes, in Cumberland and Yorkshire, are still a taller and bonier race
than those of the Anglo-Saxons, as in Surrey and Sussex.

[122] Very few of the greater Saxon nobles could pretend to a
lengthened succession in their demesnes. The wars with the Danes, the
many revolutions which threw new families uppermost, the confiscations
and banishments, and the invariable rule of rejecting the heir, if not
of mature years at his father's death, caused rapid changes of dynasty
in the several earldoms. But the family of Leofric had just claims to
a very rare antiquity in their Mercian lordship. Leofric was the
sixth Earl of Chester and Coventry, in lineal descent from his
namesake, Leofric the First; he extended the supremacy of his
hereditary lordship over all Mercia. See DUGDALE, Monast. vol. iii.
p. 102; and PALGRAVE's Commonwealth, Proofs and Illustrations, p. 291.

[123] AILRED de Vit. Edw.

[124] Dunwich, now swallowed up by the sea.--Hostile element to the
house of Godwin.

[125] Windsor.

[126] The chronicler, however, laments that the household ties,
formerly so strong with the Anglo-Saxon, had been much weakened in the
age prior to the Conquest.

[127] Some authorities state Winchester as the scene of these
memorable festivities. Old Windsor Castle is supposed by Mr. Lysons
to have occupied the site of a farm of Mr. Isherwood's surrounded by a
moat, about two miles distant from New Windsor. He conjectures that
it was still occasionally inhabited by the Norman kings till 1110.
The ville surrounding it only contained ninety-five houses, paying
gabel-tax, in the Norman survey.

[128] AILRED, de Vit. Edward. Confess.

[129] "Is it astonishing," asked the people (referring to Edward's
preference of the Normans), "that the author and support of Edward's
reign should be indignant at seeing new men from a foreign nation
raised above him, and yet never does he utter one harsh word to the
man whom he himself created king?"--HAZLITT's THIERRY, vol. i. p. 126.

This is the English account (versus the Norman). There can be little
doubt that it is the true one.

[130] Henry of Huntingdon, etc.

[131] Henry of Huntingdon; Bromt. Chron., etc.

[132] Hoveden.

[133] The origin of the word leach (physician), which has puzzled
some inquirers, is from lids or leac, a body. Leich is the old Saxon
word for surgeon.

[134] Sharon Turner, vol. i. p. 472.

[135] Fosbrooke.

[136] Aegir, the Scandinavian god of the ocean. Not one of the Aser,
or Asas (the celestial race), but sprung from the giants. Ran or
Rana, his wife, a more malignant character, who caused shipwrecks, and
drew to herself, by a net, all that fell into the sea. The offspring
of this marriage were nine daughters, who became the Billows, the
Currents, and the Storms.

[137] Frilla, the Danish word for a lady who, often with the wife's
consent, was added to the domestic circle by the husband. The word is
here used by Hilda in a general sense of reproach. Both marriage and
concubinage were common amongst the Anglo-Saxon priesthood, despite
the unheeded canons; and so, indeed, they were with the French clergy.

[138] Hilda, not only as a heathen, but as a Dane, would be no
favourer of monks; they were unknown in Denmark at that time, and the
Danes held them in odium.--Ord Vital., lib. vii.

[139] Chron. Knyghton.

[140] Weyd-month. Meadow month, June.

[141] Cumen-hus. Tavern.

[142] Fitzstephen.

[143] William of Malmesbury speaks with just indignation of the
Anglo-Saxon custom of selling female servants, either to public
prostitution, or foreign slavery.

[144] It will be remembered that Algar governed Wessex, which
principality included Kent, during the year of Godwin's outlawry.

[145] Trulofa, from which comes our popular corruption "true lover's
knot;" a vetere Danico trulofa, i.e., fidem do, to pledge faith.--
HICKE's Thesaur.

"A knot, among the ancient northern nations, seems to have been the
emblem of love, faith, and friendship."--BRANDE's Pop. Antiq.

[146] The Saxon Chronicle contradicts itself as to Algar's outlawry,
stating in one passage that he was outlawed without any kind of guilt,
and in another that he was outlawed as swike, or traitor, and that he
made a confession of it before all the men there gathered. His
treason, however, seems naturally occasioned by his close connection
with Gryffyth, and proved by his share in that King's rebellion. Some
of our historians have unfairly assumed that his outlawry was at
Harold's instigation. Of this there is not only no proof, but one of
the best authorities among the chroniclers says just the contrary--
that Harold did all he could to intercede for him; and it is certain
that he was fairly tried and condemned by the Witan, and afterwards
restored by the concurrent articles of agreement between Harold and
Leofric. Harold's policy with his own countrymen stands out very
markedly prominent in the annals of the time; it was invariably that
of conciliation.

[147] Saxon Chron., verbatim.

[148] Hume.

[149] "The chaste who blameless keep unsullied fame,
Transcend all other worth, all other praise.
The Spirit, high enthroned, has made their hearts
His sacred temple."

SHARON TURNER's Translation of Aldhelm, vol. iii. p. 366. It is
curious to see how, even in Latin, the poet preserves the
alliterations that characterised the Saxon muse.

[150] Slightly altered from Aldhelm.

[151] It is impossible to form any just view of the state of parties,
and the position of Harold in the later portions of this work, unless
the reader will bear constantly in mind the fact that, from the
earliest period, minors were set aside as a matter of course, by the
Saxon customs. Henry observes that, in the whole history of the
Heptarchy, there is but one example of a minority, and that a short
and unfortunate one; so, in the later times, the great Alfred takes
the throne, to the exclusion of the infant son of his elder brother.
Only under very peculiar circumstances, backed, as in the case of
Edmund Ironsides, by precocious talents and manhood on the part of the
minor, were there exceptions to the general laws of succession. The
same rule obtained with the earldoms; the fame, power, and popularity
of Siward could not transmit his Northumbrian earldom to his infant
son Waltheof, so gloomily renowned in a subsequent reign.

[152] Bayeux Tapestry.

[153] Indeed, apparently the only monastic order in England.

[154] See Note to Robert of Gloucester, vol. ii. p. 372.

[155] The Saxon priests were strictly forbidden to bear arms.--SPELM.
Concil. p. 238.

It is mentioned in the English Chronicles, as a very extraordinary
circumstance, that a bishop of Hereford, who had been Harold's
chaplain, did actually take sword and shield against the Welch.
Unluckily, this valiant prelate was slain so soon, that it was no
encouraging example.

[156] See Note (K), at the end of the volume.

[157] The Normans and French detested each other; and it was the
Norman who taught to the Saxon his own animosities against the Frank.
A very eminent antiquary, indeed, De la Rue, considered that the
Bayeux tapestry could not be the work of Matilda, or her age, because
in it the Normans are called French. But that is a gross blunder on
his part; for William, in his own charters, calls the Normans
"Franci." Wace, in his "Roman de Rou," often styles the Normans
"French;" and William of Poitiers, a contemporary of the Conqueror,
gives them also in one passage the same name. Still, it is true that
the Normans were generally very tenacious of their distinction from
their gallant but hostile neighbours.

[158] The present town and castle of Conway.

[159] See CAMDEN's Britannia, "Caernarvonshire."

[160] When (A.D. 220) the bishops, Germanicus, and Lupus, headed the
Britons against the Picts and Saxons, in Easter week, fresh from their
baptism in the Alyn, Germanicus ordered them to attend to his war-cry,
and repeat it; he gave "Alleluia." The hills so loudly re-echoed the
cry, that the enemy caught panic, and fled with great slaughter. Maes
Garmon, in Flintshire, was the scene of the victory.

[161] The cry of the English at the onset of battle was "Holy Crosse,
God Almighty;" afterwards in fight, "Ouct, ouct," out, out.--HEARNE's
Disc. Antiquity of Motts.

The latter cry, probably, originated in the habit of defending their
standard and central posts with barricades and closed shields; and
thus, idiomatically and vulgarly, signified "get out."

[162] Certain high places in Wales, of which this might well be one,
were so sacred, that even the dwellers in the immediate neighbourhood
never presumed to approach them.

[163] See Note (L), at the end of the volume.

[164] See Note (M), at the end of the volume.

[165] The Welch seem to have had a profusion of the precious metals
very disproportioned to the scarcity of their coined money. To say
nothing of the torques, bracelets, and even breastplates of gold,
common with their numerous chiefs, their laws affix to offences
penalties which attest the prevalent waste both of gold and silver.
Thus, an insult to a sub-king of Aberfraw is atoned by a silver rod as
thick as the King's little finger, which is in length to reach from
the ground to his mouth when sitting; and a gold cup, with a cover as
broad as the King's face, and the thickness of a ploughman's nail, or
the shell of a goose's egg. I suspect that it was precisely because
the Welch coined little or no money, that the metals they possessed
became thus common in domestic use. Gold would have been more rarely
seen, even amongst the Peruvians, had they coined it into money.

[166] Leges Wallicae.

[167] Mona, or Anglesea.

[168] Ireland.

[169] The Welch were then, and still are, remarkable for the beauty
of their teeth. Giraldus Cambrensis observes, as something very
extraordinary, that they cleaned them.

[170] I believe it was not till the last century that a good road
took the place of this pass.

[171] The Saxons of Wessex seem to have adopted the Dragon for their
ensign, from an early period. It was probably for this reason that it
was assumed by Edward Ironsides, as the hero of the Saxons; the
principality of Wessex forming the most important portion of the pure
Saxon race, while its founder was the ancestor of the imperial house
of the Basileus of Britain. The dragon seems also to have been a
Norman ensign. The lions or leopards, popularly assigned to the
Conqueror, are certainly a later invention. There is no appearance of
them on the banners and shields of the Norman army in the Bayeux
tapestry. Armorial bearings were in use amongst the Welch, and even
the Saxons, long before heraldry was reduced to a science by the
Franks and Normans. And the dragon, which is supposed by many critics
to be borrowed from the east, through the Saracens, certainly existed
as an armorial ensign with the Cymrians before they could have had any
obligation to the songs and legends of that people.

[172] "In whose time the earth brought forth double, and there was
neither beggar nor poor man from the North to the South Sea."
POWELL's Hist. of Wales, p. 83.

[173] "During the military expeditions made in our days against South
Wales, an old Welchman, at Pencadair, who had faithfully adhered to
him (Henry II.), being desired to give his opinion about the royal
army, and whether he thought that of the rebels would make resistance,
and what he thought would be the final event of this war, replied:
'This nation, O King, may now, as in former times, be harassed, and,
in a great measure, be weakened and destroyed by you and other powers;
and it will often prevail by its laudable exertions, but it can never
be totally subdued by the wrath of man, unless the wrath of God shall
concur. Nor do I think that any other nation than this of Wales, or
any other language (whatever may hereafter come to pass), shall in the
day of severe examination before the Supreme Judge answer for this
corner of the earth!'"--HOARE's Giraldus Cambrensis, vol. i. p. 361.

[174] Gryffyth left a son, Caradoc; but he was put aside as a minor,
according to the Saxon customs.

[175] Bromton Chron., Knyghton, Walsingham, Hoveden, etc.

[176] Bromton, Knyghton, etc.

[177] The word "decimated" is the one generally applied by the
historians to the massacre in question; and it is therefore retained
here. But it is not correctly applied, for that butchery was
perpetrated, not upon one out of ten, but nine out of ten.

[178] The above reasons for Harold's memorable expedition are
sketched at this length, because they suggest the most probable
motives which induced it, and furnish, in no rash and inconsiderate
policy, that key to his visit, which is not to be found in chronicler
or historian.

[179] See Note (N).

[180] Faul was an evil spirit much dreaded by the Saxons. Zabulus
and Diabolus (the Devil) seem to have been the same.

[181] Ygg-drassill, the mystic Ash-tree of Life, or symbol of the
earth, watered by the Fates.--See Note (O.)

[182] Mimir, the most celebrated of the giants. The Vaner, with whom
he was left as a hostage, cut off his head. Odin embalmed it by his
seid, or magic art, pronounced over it mystic runes, and, ever after,
consulted it on critical occasions.

[183] Asa-Lok or Loke--(distinct from Utgard-Lok, the demon of the
Infernal Regions)--descended from the Giants, but received among the
celestial Deities; a treacherous and malignant Power fond of assuming
disguises and plotting evil-corresponding in his attributes with our
"Lucifer." One of his progeny was Hela, the Queen of Hell.

[184] "A hag dwells in a wood called Janvid, the Iron Wood, the
mother of many gigantic sons shaped like wolves; there is one of a
race more fearful than all, named 'Managarm.' He will be filled with
the blood of men who draw near their end, and will swallow up the moon
and stain the heavens and the hearth with blood."--From the Prose
Edda. In the Scandinavian poetry, Managarm is sometimes the symbol of
war, and the "Iron Wood" a metaphor for spears.

[185] "Wolf Month," January.

[186] Bayeux tapestry.

[187] Roman de Rou, see part ii. 1078.

[188] Belrem, the present Beaurain, near Montreuil.

[189] Roman de Rou, part ii. 1079.

[190] William of Poitiers, "apud Aucense Castrum."

[191] As soon as the rude fort of the middle ages admitted something
of magnificence and display, the state rooms were placed in the third
story of the inner court, as being the most secure.

[192] A manor (but not, alas! In Normandy) was held by one of his
cooks, on the tenure of supplying William with a dish of dillegrout.

[193] The Council of Cloveshoe forbade the clergy to harbour poets,
harpers, musicians, and buffoons.

[194] ORD. VITAL.

[195] Canute made his inferior strength and stature his excuse for
not meeting Edward Ironsides in single combat.

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