 | The Poetical Works of Robert Story |  |
XI.
The generous Monarch then, with air benign,Took in his own brave Guthrum's hand and mine,
And pledged us solemnly his kingly troth,
His word confirming by a needless oath—
That fair Northumberland should us obey,
Nor e'en the Humber bound the Danish sway;
Alfred granted them the most liberal terms, giving up to Guthrum, their king, all the territories of East Anglia and Northumbria, to be held tributary upon the easy conditions of his evacuating all the West Saxon dominions, and receiving baptism along with the principal chiefs of his army.—Britton's Beauties of Wiltshire.
For thence to Thames, along the Eastern coast,
Dominion wide should noble Guthrum boast.
Upon the other part, we gladly swore—
At first on ring and bracelet vowed to Thor,
And then on holy relics,
“Godrun,” says Thierry, “with his captains, swore on a bracelet consecrated to their gods, that they would in all good faith receive baptism.” And Asser, in his Life of Alfred, says: “Also they swore an oath over the Christian relics, which with King Alfred were next in veneration after the Deity himself.”
That had, they said, been the Apostle John's,—
To hold of him the Kingdoms he had named;
To rule them by the laws himself had framed;
Embrace the Christian faith; essay to win
Our warlike followers from their rites of sin;
And, lastly, guard the Isle, now common made,
From every power that would its shores invade.
—These were the terms on which we rule obtained,
And these the heralds to the hosts explained.
Nor was it long ere, o'er the glittering fields,
Rung wide the clangour of assenting shields!
| The Poetical Works of Robert Story | |