BOOK IV. Here would for me All the sons of Aslauga,55 The bright brands of Hillda awake What a number of snakes Full of venom strike me? I gained a true mother for my children, His strength decreases as he sings: he feels advancing death, yet seems to catch a gleam of pleasure from the hopes of the vengeance which his children will inflict: It flows to my inheritance; Grim dangers surround me from the adder; We hope that soon the staff Of Vithris will stand in Ella's breast. My sons must swell That their father has been thus conquered. Must not the valiant youths Forsake their repose for us?57 THE recollection of his own exploits gives a momentary impulse of new vigour, and the number announces the ferocious activity of his sea-king life: 55 We have a specimen of the traditions of the Norwegians concerning this lady, in Torfæus. He says that in Spangareid, an isthmus in Norway, the greatest part of her history remains uncorrupted. The people of this region relate from the accounts of their ancestors, that a golden harp came on shore in a small bay near them, in which was found a little girl. She was brought up; afterwards kept sheep; became famed for her beauty; married a Danish king, and was called Otlauga. They show a hill, called Otlauga's hill. The bay is named Gull-Siken, or golden bay; and the stream near this is called Kraakabecker, or the rivulet of Kraaka. Torf. ser. Reg. p. 35. Kraka was one of this lady's prior names. 56 St. 26. p. 30. 57 St. 27. p. 30. As the fatal instant presses on, he rouses himself to expire with those marks of exultation which it was the boast of this fierce race to exhibit : We desire this end. The Disir goddesses invite me home; As if from the hall of him rejoicing in spoils, Glad shall I with the Asæ Drink ale in my lofty seat. The hours of my life glide away, THE Sovereign that arose with sufficient ability to meet and change the crisis which these new habits of the Scandinavian nations were bringing on Europe, was Alfred the Great, the son of Ethelwulph, and grandson of Egbert. 58 St. 28. p. 32. 59 St. 29. p. 32. Torfæus supposes two other Lodbrogs. I am not sure that he is not dividing the same person into three parts. But it is clear that the Ragnar Lodbrog, the subject of the Quida, is the person whom Ella of Northumbria destroyed between 862 and 867, and whose children, in revenge, executed that invasion which destroyed the octarchy of England, and dethroned Alfred for a time. IV. CHAP. IV. The Reign of Ethelwulph. — Invasion of the Northmen.—Birth of BOOK THE death of Egbert, in 836, checked for a while the ascendency of the West Saxon power, because 836-856. his sceptre descended to an inferior hand in his son EthelEthelwulph. This prince, who from the failure of wulph's education. other issue became his successor, was then a monk. Educated in the earlier part of his life by Helmstan the bishop of Winchester, he had shared at first in his father's warlike toils. In 823, he had marched with Alstan into Kent after the defeat of Mercia, and was appointed by his father king of that country', but the passive timidity of his disposition alienated him from an ambitious life, and he returned to his preceptor, who recommended him to the care of Swithin, a prior of the monastery at Winchester. From Swithin the prince received not only instruction, but also the monastic habit, and by his first master was appointed a subdeacon.2 THE quiet seclusion which Ethelwulph's slow capacity and meek temper coveted, was not re 66 1 There is a charter of Egbert, dated 823, in which he says of Ethelwulph, quem regem constituimus in Cantia." Thorpe, Reg. Roff. p. 22. 2 Rudborne Hist. Mag. Winton. lib. iii. c. 1. p. 199., published in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, vol. i.-Malmsbury Pontiff. p. 242. Wallingf. 532. No good document authorises us to say that he was made a bishop. 3 fused to him by Egbert, because another son promised to perpetuate his lineage. But life is a mysterious gift, which vanishes at the will of other agencies, whose operations we cannot trace, whose power we cannot limit. The destined heir of Egbert's dignity was in the tomb before his father, and this catastrophe invested Ethelwulph with an importance which his natural character could never have obtained. He became what Egbert had been, the only existing descendant of Cerdic, the revered ancestor of the West Saxon princes. This casualty made the accession of Ethelwulph an object of popular desire; but though sovereigns had often at will descended from the throne to the cloister, it was less easy to quit the cloister for the throne. The papal dispensation was first wanted to release Ethelwulph from his sacerdotal engagement; on its arrival he assumed the crown of Egbert. 4 His indolent, mild, and weak mind was not adequate to the exigencies of the time, but he enjoyed the great advantage which was capable of counteracting the ill effects of his inability, a wise and vigorous minister. Alstan, the bishop of Sherborne, had possessed the favour of Egbert, and on his death became the political and military 3 The expressions of the chroniclers are in general mere negatives, implying that Egbert left no other heir; but the extract which Leland has translated, ex Chronico quodam Vilodunensi Anglicis rithmis scripto, explicitly says, Atwulphus rex Egberti filius secundus. Collectanea, vol iii. p. 219. 4 Wallingford, 532. The name of this king has been disfigured by that variety of orthography which prevailed at this time, and often confuses history. Ethelwulphus, Ethulfus, Athulfus, Adulfus, Aithulfus, Adhelwlfus, Athelwlfus, Atwulfus. 5 Malmsbury's expressions are, natura lenis et qui sub quiete degere quam multis provinciis imperitare mallet-crassioris et hebetis ingenii. p. 37.-mansuetoris ingenii-segnem, P. 247. CHAP. IV. BOOK IV. tutor of Ethelwulph: he was powerful, warlike, and intelligent. He had the good and rare fortune to enjoy his preferments for fifty years. He endeavoured to rouse the king to those exertions which his dignity made a duty. He provided supplies for his exchequer, and he laboured to organise a military force. His wise measures, though sometimes baffled by an incompetent execution, and by the suddenness of aggressions, which no vigilance could prevent, had the general success of punishing many insults, and of preserving the country from a permanent conquest. 6 NOTHING is more curious nor more interesting in history than to remark that when great political exigencies evolve, which threaten to shake the foundations of civil society, they are usually as much distinguished by the rise of sublime characters, with genius and ability sufficient to check the progress of the evil, and even to convert its disasters to benevolent issues. One of these extraordinary persons was ALFRED the Great, and, considered with regard to the time of his appearance, the great ends which he achieved, and the difficulties under which he formed himself, no historical character can more justly claim our attention and admiration than our venerated king. ETHELWULPH had married Osberga, the daughter of Oslac, a man mentioned with an epithet of celebrity, and the king's cup-bearer. Oslac had sprung from the chieftain, who, in the time of Cer 6 Though Alstan had stripped his monastery of some of its advantages, our William, in his history, p. 37., and his Gest. pont. 247., commemorates him with an encomium which is liberal and strongly featured. |