Then, alas! came the shameful flight of some whom he had loved and trusted, and graced with noble gifts.  One Godric, to whom he had given many a goodly steed, leapt upon the horse in his trappings which his lord had owned, and his two brothers fled with him.

    And with them more than had behoved if these had thought upon
    The gifts and goods so free bestowed by him, their mighty one.

But there were but few cowards and mean.  Of his own hearth-comrades there went forth men, hasting eagerly,

    One of two things their heart’s desire, to avenge their lord or die.

Young AElfwine heartened them with noble words, and gave them the example of noble deeds.  And Offa, and Leofsunu, and Dunnere, the old man, fought stubbornly.  And a hostage from among the Northumbrian folk, a man come of gallant kin, helped them; and Edward the Long, and many another.

    Then Bryhtwold spake, that comrade old, he raised the shield on high
    He shook the ashwood spear, he taught the men unfearingly: 
    “The braver must our spirit be, our hearts the stronger far,
    The greater must our courage wax, the fewer that we are. 
    Here lies our prince all pierced and hewn, the good one in the clay;
    Aye may he mourn who thinketh now to leave this battle-play. 
    I am old in life; I will not hence; I think to lay me here,
    The rather by my chieftain’s side, a man so lief and dear.”

And the men grew bold in heart at his words and fought on.  Godric full often sent the spear flying among the vikings, and fought till he too was laid low in the battle.

    ’Twas not that Godric who had turned his back upon the fight,

says the poet—­and the end is lost!  It will help us in appreciating this poem to remember that the battle of Maldon took place in the reign of that poor weak king AEthelred, known as the “Unready,” or the Man of no Counsel.  As Freeman the historian says, “No doubt he had to struggle with very hard times, but the times now were no harder than the times which AElfred had to struggle against, and we know how much he could do.”

CHAPTER XI

The literature of one people owes a debt to that of others.  Help-bringers.  Great work of Benedictine monks.  Our debt to Ireland.  The English Chronicle’s account of the Martyrdom of St AElfeah.

The literature of a country is not merely what the men and women born in it have written.  The thought of one people is fed, or enlarged, or in some way strengthened by the thought of other peoples; and the literature of the times we are speaking of could not have been what it was, had it not had other sources than these purely English to draw from.  And, of all kinds of help-bringers, we owe much to the monks, and chiefly the great Benedictine order.  King Alfred had to do his work at a time when things were