fective than the first, it gradually superseded it.

The Saxons always fought on foot. They wore helmets and rude,
flexible armor, formed of iron rings, or of stout leather covered with
small plates of iron and other substances. They carried oval-shaped
shields. Their chief weapons were the spear, javelin, battle-ax, and
sword. The wars of this period were those of the different tribes
seeking to get the advantage over each other, or of the English with
the Danes.

97. The Navy.

Until Alfred's reign the English had no navy. From that period they
maintained a fleet of small warships to protect the coast from
invasion. Most of these vessels appear to have been furnished by
certain ports on the south coast.

IV. Literature, Learning, and Art

98. Runes.

The language of the Saxons was of Low-German origin. Many of the
words resemble the German of the present day. When written, the
characters were called runes, mysteries or secrets. The chief use of
these runes was to mark a sword hilt, or some article of value, or to
form a charm against evil and witchcraft.

It is supposed that one of the earliest runic inscriptions is the
following, which dates from about 400 A.D. It is cut on a drinking
horn,[1] and (reproduced in English characters) stands thus:

EK HLEWAGASTIR - HOLTINGAR - HORNA - TAWIDO

I, Hlewagastir, son of Holta, made the horn

[1] The golden horn of Gallehas, found on the Danish-German frontier.

With the introduction of Christianity the Latin alphabet, from which
our modern English alphabet is derived, took the place of the runic
characters, which bore some resemblance to Greek, and English
literature began with the coming of the monks.

99. The First Books.

One of the first English books of great value was the "Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle," a history covering a period beginning 1 A.D. and ending in
1154. The work was probably written by the monks in Canterbury,
Peterborough, and other monasteries. It may be considered as an
annual register of iportant events. Thorpe says of it, "No other
nation can produce any history written in its own vernacular, at all
approaching the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" either in antiquity,
truthfulness, or extent, the historical books of the Bible alone
excepted."

Though written in prose, it countains various fragments of poetry, of
which the following (rendered into modern English), on the death of
Edward the Confessor (1066), may be quot