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Updated: June 5, 2025
Two years after the death of Ethelbert, Offa died. His bright young son took the throne, and was gone also in a few months, and then the house of Offa was at an end. An atheling of some younger branch of the Mercian royal line took his place peaceably, and under this king, Kenulf, Mercia was at her greatest. The doom of Offa fell not on him.
Then I lost sight of Kenulf's lights, and as I clung to the rail, my mind was torn with longing to be back in my own ship in this danger, though I knew that Kenulf needed me not, and that, had I been there, it would but have been to obey him with the rest of our crew; yet I think that any man who loves his ship will know what I felt. And of the fury and darkness of that night I will say little.
And, moreover, I think your sons have made you the best boat that ever floated!" "Else had I not been here!" answered the Dane. "They are good shipwrights." Then Kenulf and the men set to work, and it was no easy matter to come by the boat; but it was done at last, and glad was I to see her safely lashed on deck.
That was the business of Ethelred, our overlord, if he cared to mind the doings of one ship. Most of all it was the concern of the sheriff in whose district a landing was made. So messages were sent to old Kenulf, and glad was he to know that we should not have to give up our passage to London, and maybe still more to feel safe in this powerful company from any other such meetings.
So she came slowly over the glassy water of the slack tide, and my men watched her, saying nothing. Soon she came alongside, and at a sign from me Kenulf threw a line which the bowman caught, and I thought that a word or two of wonder passed among her crew.
And Kenulf and most of the men laughed, asking the superstitious man if the ship sank deeper, or seas ran higher for its coming. "Hold you the bird," said my father to me; "see! the boatman makes for us."
Then my father called sharply to Kenulf by name, giving the same order, and the old man answered back: "Bethink you, Thane; it is ill saving a man from the sea to be foe to you hereafter. Let him take his chance." Thereat my father's brow grew dark, for he hated these evil old sayings that come from heathen days, and he cried aloud: "That is not the way of a Christian or a good seaman!
Now nothing would serve Halfden but that I must go with him on board his own ship, there to tell him all I might; and he laughed gaily, saying that he had looked indeed for a rich booty, but had gained that which was more worth to him. Then I told Kenulf that we would bide at anchor till we knew what should be done, thinking it likely that Halfden would wish us to pilot him back to Reedham.
Beginning at the Dean's stall, and proceeding eastwards, the statues on the south side represent the following: Two at the summit of the Dean's stall, SS. Paul and Andrew. S. Peter, the Patron Saint. 2. Saxulf , the first Abbot. 3. Adulf , Abbot, afterwards Archbishop of York. 4. Kenulf , Abbot, afterwards Bishop of Winchester. 5. Leofric , Abbot. 6.
The men forward were silent, and I had thought that I heard the distant sound of voices and oars. It came again in the stillness; a measured beat that one could not well mistake, as of a ship's boat leisurely pulled. Then one of our men began to sing in an undertone, and Kenulf smote his hands together in terror, for the sound would betray us, and he was going forward to stop the song.
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