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Updated: June 2, 2025
All the necessary preparations for departure were shortly made the theows and ceorls were collected together, beasts of burden selected to carry the necessary baggage, the wallets filled with provisions. Before the third hour of the day all had been done which the simple habits of the time required, and only the sorrowful leave takings remained.
But their dogs were awake, and saluted us with a vociferous barking, and would not allow us to land until they were driven away by the oars which our theows used with much effect upon their hides. At last a window was thrown open above. "Who are you who travel at this time of night?" said a voice, which tried to be firm. "The poor brethren of St. Benedict from Aescendune."
We crossed the drawbridge, and entered the courtyard under the gateway; before us was the door of the great hall, merrily illumined by its blazing fire. There, then, was the supper table bountifully spread, and the theows and ceorls awaiting the arrival of their lord. We entered, Elfwyn and I, and soon after Bertric, Ethelgiva, and Alfgar followed. A loud horn was blown upon the battlements.
The two theows who were in front paused at the ford till their lords came up, and then pointed to the ground with a terrified aspect. Alfgar gazed and started, as did Bertric. There were the footmarks of a large number of horses, evidently belonging to a body of horsemen who must have crossed the ford since they passed it in the morning. "Can my father have returned unexpectedly?" said Bertric.
Cuthbert, I have ordered every one of my theows and ceorls to be obedient to your warning if they wish to preserve their allegiance to Aescendune, or to escape chastisement, and I think none of them are likely to be abroad tonight." "Can you not find out what the sheriff has told them? I saw him speaking to one or two." "I will try. You must be my guest tonight, or at least for a few hours."
Close by the path they took, the hall was rapidly rising to more than its former beauty, for not only had the theows and ceorls all shown great alacrity in the work, but all the neighbouring thanes had lent their aid. "It will be more beautiful than ever," said Alfred, "but not quite so homelike. Still, when you come of age, Elfric, it will be a happy home for you."
Two young theows, whose fathers had gone to the war, but who had been left behind as being too young to share its dangers, although in the flush of early youth, accompanied them, and were soon loaded with the lighter game their masters had killed, while a deer they had slain was hung in the trees, where a wolf could not reach it, and where wayfarers were not likely to pass until the sportsmen should return for their own.
We, in England, had the same distinction between 'Laet, or 'villains' settled on the land, glebae adscripti, and mere thralls or theows, slaves pure and simple.
So thither flocked the young and the old: the wood rangers and hunters from the forests of Newenham, where Herstan had right of wood cutting; the men who wove baskets and hurdles of osier work from the river banks; the theows who cultivated the home farm; the ceorls who rented a hide of land here and a hide there all, the grandfather and the grandson, accepted the invitation to feast.
It was a scene Salvator Rosa would have loved to paint: the firelight bringing out in strong relief the huge limbs of the oak trees, the bronzed faces of those dread warriors, which no pitiful or tender feelings ever seemed to visit. The theows had fortunately, being behind, taken the alarm in time, and escaped unnoticed by the Danes.
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