United States or Kenya ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Fain would I have been your friend," he said, "but pride would not let me. Yet Eadgyth your sister and Egfrid called me so, and maybe that one deed of ruth may help me. Now go, lest I become weak again. Lonely shall I be, for you take all that I hold dear but even that is well." So he turned from me, and I went out without a word, for he was Ingvar.
So the king had passed by before the procession set out, and I knew not what to think. "What bride?" said Ingvar. And the music answered him, coming nearer and nearer, and now they were crossing Hoxne bridge a bright little array of wedding guests, and in the midst I could see those two, Egfrid and Eadgyth, and after came a crowd of village folk. "See yonder," said a Dane, pointing.
So we rode to Thetford, and how we were received there is no need for me to tell, for I came back as it were from the dead, and Egfrid after years of absence. And there with Eadmund were my father and mother, and Eadgyth, and Lodbrok, and Egfrid's folk also, with many more friends to greet us, and the king would have us keep Yuletide with him.
"That is to be seen," I answered, though I thought it surely would be so. "Now go and see to the arms and all things needful, and send the steward to me, for we have to victual the ship." So I left Thormod with the steward and sought Ingild, telling him what I would do. Whereat he, knowing my trouble, was very glad; and then Egfrid would fain come with me also when he heard.
The miracles worked at the tomb of the murdered King were, according to Asser, so numerous and incredible that Offa, who had appropriated Æthelberht’s kingdom, was induced to send two bishops to Hereford to ascertain the truth of them, and it is generally agreed that about A.D. 825 Milfrid, who was Viceroy to the Mercian King Egbert after the death of Offa and of his son Egfrid, expended a large sum of money in building "Ecclesiam egregiam, lapidea structura" at Hereford, which he consecrated to the martyred monarch, and endowed with lands and enriched with ornaments.
Then I said that if Beorn was ever near Lodbrok, I would be nearer, and so we left the matter. There was one other thing, which was more pleasant, which we spoke about at that time. And it was about the betrothal of my sister Eadgyth. For it had come to pass that Egfrid, my friend, had sought her hand, and the match pleased us all.
So before the king and my father went to Winchester there was high feasting, and those two were pledged one to the other. Then was a new house to be built for them at Hoxne, where the wedding itself should take place. "Maybe Halfden will be here by that time," said Lodbrok to me. "I wish, friend Wulfric, that honest Egfrid had not been so forward, or that you had another fair sister."
The barren rock, about three miles in length, was covered with monastic buildings, and its cemetery was already adorned with the tombs of saints and kings. Five successors of Columbkill slept in peace around their holy Founder, and a sixth, equal in learning and sanctity to any who preceded him, received the remains of King Egfrid from the hands of his conquerors.
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.
And once, when some parish shame was talked of, you never would believe it common, and blamed the Overseer for bringing it to light and vindicated the sex by quoting from Pennant, how St Werberg lived immaculate with her husband Astardus, copying her aunt, the great Ethelreda, who lived for three years with not less purity with her good man Tonberetus, and for twelve with her second husband the pious Prince Egfrid: and the churchwarden left the vestry, lifting up his hands, and saying "Poor gentleman!" and you laughed as if you had never laughed before, when you heard it, and heartily shook him by the hand to convince him you were in your senses; which action he nevertheless put to the credit of the soundness of your heart, and not a bit to that of your head.
Word Of The Day