was demolished; and on a subsequent occasion Scotland was ravaged to the borders of the Highlands, while Athelstan's fleet spread terror and dismay to the extremities of Caithness. Anlaf fled to Dublin, where he was acknowledged as chief of the Anglo-Danes established on the east coasts of Ireland; and Godfrid, after being given up to Athelstan by Constantine, king of Scotland, escaped from court and betook himself to a life of piracy on the seas. "But Athelstan," as Sharon Turner remarks, "was not permitted to enjoy his triumph unmolested. The Northern chieftains saw that the progress of Athelstan's power was advancing to their complete subjection. The states on the Baltic were still full of fierce and active adventurers, who had to seek fame and fortune in other regions; and descendants of Ragnar Lodbrog yet existed, both enterprising and popular." Constantine was preparing for retaliation, and Anlaf was planning to regain his power in Northumbria. "In Wales, the princes humbled by Athelstan, were ready to co-operate for the diminution of his strength. The Anglo-Danes, in Northumbria and East Anglia, beheld with displeasure the preponderance of the Saxon sovereign, and the petty state of Cumbria had no choice but to follow the impulse of the potent neighbours that surrounded it. All these powers confederated against Athelstan, and the united mass of their hostilities was increased by fleets of warriors from Norway and the Baltic.

England had never been assailed before with a confederacy of so much power; formed with so much skill; and consisting of so many parts. Athelstan prepared to meet the storm with firmness and energy; and, to multiply his own means of defence, he circulated promises of high reward to every warrior who should join his standard. Thorolf and Egils, two of those navigating Vikingr whose weapons were ready for any enterprise, heard the tidings as they sailed by Saxony and Flanders. They came in the autumn with three hundred companions, to proffer their services to Athelstan, who gladly received them; and Rollo assisted him from Normandy."t

"Anlaf commenced the warfare by entering the Humber with a fleet of 615 ships. The governors whom Athelstan had left in Northumbria, together with their forces, were soon overpowered. Gudrekr fell, and Alfgeirr fled to his sovereign with the tidings." This sudden and formid

• Turner's Anglo-Saxons, vol. ii. p. 175. + Ibid, page 177. Ibid, page 178.

able invasion found Athelstan comparatively unprepared for effective resistance. He consequently had recourse to negotiations and fictitious offers of money in order to buy off his assailants, and to gain time, till all his own forces could be assembled. When all his preparations were completed, Athelstan closed the intercourse with Anlaf by informing him that Northumbria could not be ceded; but that he might withdraw from the country unmolested upon restoring the plunder he had secured, and acknowledging himself a subject of the Saxon king. Anlaf rejected the terms with disdain, and on a council of war being held it was decided that the Welsh and Danish leaders, Adalis and Hryngr, should make a night attack upon the advanced portion of Athelstan's army under the command of Alfgeirr and Thorold. "At night Adalis and Hryngr embodied their forces and marched on the Saxon camp. Werstan, Bishop [of Sherborne, who had replaced Athelstan in this portion of the camp] was the victim of the surprise. But Thorolf and Alfgeirr, who commanded in the district, roused their warriors and supported the attack. Adalis assaulted the division of Alfgeirr, and Hryngr directed himself to the allied vikingr. Vanquished by the impetuosity of his assailant, Alfgeirr fled from the field, and eventually the country. Adalis, flushed with his victory, turned on the others. Thorolf directed his colleague Egils to meet him; he exhorted his troops to stand close, and if overpowered to retreat to the wood. Egils obeyed, though with a force far inferior. The battle became warm. Thorolf fought with all the fury of valour, which was the pride of the day; he threw his shield behind him, and grasping his huge weapon with both hands, he prostrated his enemies with an irresistible strength. He forced his way at last to the standard of his adversary; he reached and killed him. His success animated his followers, and Adalis, mourning the death of Hryngr, gave way, and the combat discontinued."*

Great commanders, however, seldom choose to harass their forces by ineffectual skirmishing. They prefer to trust the whole to the chances of a single battle rather than incur the risk of ultimate defeat in a series of minor engagements. During the conflict just described, Anlaf was in hopes of deciding the contest by cutting off his antagonist by a night attack. He had ascertained the position of Athelstan's tent, and would no doubt have accomplished his object, if his design had not been penetrated by one of

• Turner's Anglo-Saxons, vol. ii. pp. 180, 181.

his former followers. The result, although favorable to Athelstan, was sufficient to convince him of the valor and skill of the minstrel commander, and he proceeded to arrange his forces for a decisive struggle. Anlaf did the same. A night of rest, some say two, preceded the awful conflict. Athelstan formed his array of battle. In the front he placed his bravest troops, with Egils at their head. He let Thorolf head his own band, with an addition of Anglo-Saxons, to oppose the irregular Irish, who always flew from point to point; no where steady, yet often injuring the unguarded. The warriors of Mercia and London, who were conducted by the valiant Turketul, the chancellor of the kingdom, he directed to oppose themselves to the national force of Constantine. He chose his own West-Saxons to endure the struggle with Anlaf his competitor. Anlaf observing his dispositious, in part imitated them. He obeyed the impulse of his hopes and his courage, and placed himself against Athelstan. One of his wings stretched to the wood against the battalia of Thorolf; it was very numerous, and consisted

mostly of the disorderly Irish.

BRUNANBURH was the scene of action; and Thorolf began the battle he loved; he rushed forward to the wood, hoping to turn the enemy's flank; his courage was too impetuous and indiscriminate; his eagerness for the fray impelled him beyond his companions. Both were pressing fiercely and blindly onwards when Adalis darted from his ambush in the wood and destroyed Thorolf and his foremost friends. Egils heard the outcries of alarm; he looked to that quarter, and saw the banner of Thorolf retreating. Satisfied from this circumstance that Thorolf was not with it, he flew to the spot, encouraged his party, and renewed the battle. Adalis fell in the struggle.

At this crisis, while the conflict was raging with all the obstinacy of determined patriotism and courageous ambition; when missile weapons had been mutually abandoned; when foot was planted against foot, shield forced against shield, and manual vigour was exerted with every energy of destruction; when chiefs and vassals were perishing in the all-levelling confusion of war, and the numbers cut down were fiercely supplied with new crowds of warriors hastening to become victims; the chancellor Turketul made an attack which influenced the fortune of the day. He selected from the combatants some citizens of London, on whose veteran valour he could rely; to these he added the men of Worcestershire, and their leader, who

is called the magnanimous Singin.

He formed these chosen troops into a firm and compact body, and placing his vast muscular figure at their head, he chose a peculiar quarter of attack, and rushed impetuously on his foe.

The hostile ranks fell before him. He pierced the circle of the Picts and the Orkneymen, and heedless of the wood of arrows and spears which fastened in his armour, he even penetrated to the Cumbrians and the Scots. He beheld Constantine, the king of the Grampian Hills, and he pressed forward to assail him. Constantine was too brave to decline his daring adversary. The assault fell first upon his son, who was unhorsed, and with renovated fury, the battle then began to rage. Every heart beat vehemently; every arm was impatient to rescue or to take the prince. The Scots with noble loyalty, precipitated themselves on the Saxons to preserve their leader. Turketul would not forego the expected prize. Such, however, was the fury of his assailants; so many weapons surrounded the Saxon chancellor, that his life began to be endangered, and he repented of his daring. He was nearly oppressed; the prince was just released, when Singin, with a desperate blow, terminated the contested life. New courage rushed into the bosoms of the Saxons on this event. Grief and panic as suddenly overwhelmed their enemies. The Scots in consternation withdrew, and Turketul triumphed in his hard earned victory.

Athelstan and his brother Edmund, during these events, were engaged with Anlaf. In the hottest of the conflict, the sword of Athelstan broke at the handle, while his enemies were pressing fiercely upon him. He was speedily supplied with another, and the conflict continued to be balanced. After the battle had long raged, Egils and Turketul, pursuing the retreating Scots, charged suddenly upon Anlaf's rear. It was then that his determined bands began to be shaken; slaughter thinned their ranks; many fled, and the assailants cried out victory! Athelstan exhorted his men to profit by the auspicious moment. He commanded his banner to be carried into the midst of the enemy. He made a deep impression on their front, and a general ruin followed. The soldiers of Anlaf fled on every

side, and the death of pursuit filled the plain with their bodies.

Thus terminated this dangerous and important conflict. Its successful issue raised Athelstan to a most venerated dignity in the eyes of Europe. The kings of the continent sought his friendship, and England began to assume a majestic port among the nations of the West. Among the Anglo

Saxons, the victory excited such rejoicings, that not only did their poets aspire to commemorate it, but their songs were so popular that the following is inserted in the Saxon Chronicle as the best memorial or record

* Turner's Anglo-Saxons, vol. ii. pp. 181-185.