Young AElfwine heartened them with noble words, and gave them the
example of noble deeds. And Offa, and Leofsunu, and Dunnere, the old
man, fought stubbornly. And a hostage from among the Northumbrian folk,
a man come of gallant kin, helped them; and Edward the Long, and many
another.

Then Bryhtwold spake, that comrade old, he raised the shield on high
He shook the ashwood spear, he taught the men unfearingly:
"The braver must our spirit be, our hearts the stronger far,
The greater must our courage wax, the fewer that we are.
Here lies our prince all pierced and hewn, the good one in the clay;
Aye may he mourn who thinketh now to leave this battle-play.
I am old in life; I will not hence; I think to lay me here,
The rather by my chieftain's side, a man so lief and dear."

And the men grew bold in heart at his words and fought on. Godric full
often sent the spear flying among the vikings, and fought till he too
was laid low in the battle.

'Twas not that Godric who had turned his back upon the fight,

says the poet--and the end is lost! It will help us in appreciating this
poem to remember that the battle of Maldon took place in the reign of
that poor weak king AEthelred, known as the "Unready," or the Man of no
Counsel. As Freeman the historian says, "No doubt he had to struggle
with very hard times, but the times now were no harder than the times
which AElfred had to struggle against, and we know how much he could
do."

CHAPTER XI

The literature of one people owes a debt to that of others.
Help-bringers. Great work of Benedictine monks. Our debt to Ireland.
The English Chronicle's account of the Martyrdom of St AElfeah.

The literature of a country is not merely what the men and women born in
it have written. The thought of one people is fed, or enlarged, or in
some way strengthened by the thought of other peoples; and the
literature of the times we are speaking of could not have been what it
was, had it not had other sources than these purely English to draw
from. And, of all kinds of help-bringers, we owe much to the monks, and
chiefly the great Benedictine order. King Alfred had to do his work at a
time when things were at a low ebb in the English monasteries. You will
remember how he bewailed the poor state of learning in England, and the
ignorance of the clergy; a state very different indeed from that of the
old days of St Bede and Alcuin. After Alfre