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Updated: May 1, 2025
Fly! ere the wand of the worker of wonders is uplifted, and destruction come upon thee." The followers of Bethoc quaked with dismay. They turned with her and fled to the tower of Ida. Of their outgoing and their incoming none knew. The maidens of Bernicia wept when the loss of Agitha was known. "Beauty," said they, "hath perished.
Darkness lay heavy on the hills, it concealed the objects on the plains. The seven days, of which the enchantress had spoken, were expired. "Maiden," said the queen unto Agitha, "rise and follow me." Agitha obeyed; for the fear and the commandment of her father were upon her. Two servants, men of the Pictish race, also followed the queen. She went towards the cave of the enchantress.
Thus departed the warrior, and Agitha returned to her maidens; she sat down amongst them and mourned. Gormack, the weird, a thane of the Pictish race, had his dwelling near the giddy cliffs where the young eagles scream to the roar of the dark waters of the Forth. He had a daughter whose beauty was the theme of all tongues.
Terror had entranced the soul of the fair Agitha it had brought a sleep over her senses. The enchantress grasped her hand. She threw her arm around her. "Away, accursed!" she exclaimed unto Bethoc the queen; "fly! lest the power of the enchantment fall upon thee also. Fly! lest it overtake thee as darkness overtaketh the benighted traveller.
He sought Agitha with the rainbow smile, where she sat with her maidens, in the groves of Budle, ornamenting a robe of skins for her father, the mighty Ethelfrith. The sea sang its anthem of power along the shore, and the caves of the rocks resounded with the chorus of the eternal hymn. The farthest branches of the grove bent over the cliff that overhung the sounding sea.
Then, Agitha, while its beams glowed on my father's sword, upon that sword I swore to love thee. But our vows are vain. Daughter of kings! our love is sorrow. Thy father hath vowed, by the mighty Woden, that thou shalt be the wife of a king, and that a kingdom shall be the price of thy hand. Yet will I gather my warriors together. They number a thousand spears; they have a thousand bows.
Dismay and wonder spread over the land for a tale was told of a serpent-worm, fearful in magnitude and of monstrous form, which was seen at Spindleston, by the cave of Elgiva the worker of wonders the woman of power. The people trembled. They said of the monster "It is Agitha, the beloved! the daughter of our king, of conquering Ethelfrith.
Go, find a land to possess; and when with thy sword and with thy bow thou hast done this, return ye to me, bringing a crown in thy left hand, and in thy right will I place the hand of Agitha with the bright hair, whose eyes are as stars."
Elgiva, the daughter of destruction, who communeth with the spirits of the air, and defeateth armies by the waving of her wand, hath done this. She hath cast her enchantments over Agitha, the fairest of women the meekest among the daughters of princes." The bards raised songs of lamentation for her fate.
It was told that the reptiles, the owls, and the raven, were objects of her enchantment warriors, and the daughters of warriors, transformed by the waving of her wand. Now, when Bethoc could find no rest because of the greatness of her hatred for Agitha, and, moreover, as she herself had communed with impure spirits, she overcame the terror which the name of Elgiva spread. She sought her aid.
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