Britain ... - Blue-Lite

NOTES TO THE DEVOTED ONE.
253
an army quite black, calls it an Agmen JEthiopum, p.
we learn the same curious fact from Domesday Book, where
one is mentioned with the Servi in England. In the enumeration
of Glowecestercire, we have eight Servi et anus Afrus,
p. 165. There is also a person called Matthus Mauritania,
p, 170." Hist. Mid. Ag.
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694. But
See instant execution on him done.
And cast his headless carcass in the river. . . p. 198.
" The circumstances of Edric's death are told differently, as
usual. Florence admits that he was killed in the king's palace ;
but one says that he was hanged, another that he was strangled,
another that he was beheaded. Human testimony is characterized
by these petty variations." Hist. Ang.-Sax. v. ii. p. 580.
The glorious uncertainty of history as well as law !
(26)
His form
As few, in my weak judgment, equal, save
Your noble glory p. 200.
"Glory," a Saxon title of royalty.
is such
" The Northerns have
transmitted to us the portrait of Canute : he was large in sta-
ture, and very powerful he was j fair, and distinguished for his
beauty ; his nose was thin, eminent, and aquiline 5 his hair was
profuse j his eyes bright and fierce." Ibid.
,
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the tuneful Scalds
Who throng my court shall to the end of time
Transmit with glory p. 204.
"Of the Scalds who attended him, the names and verses of
many have survived to us. Sighvatr, Ottar the Swarthy, Thordr
Kolbeinson, and Thorarin Loftunga, are among those whose
historical poems or panegyrics have been much cited by Snorre
in his Northern History." Ibid.
"
Every bold adventurer, when he set out on any piratical
or military expedition, if he was not a great poet himself,
which was frequently the case, never neglected to carry with
him the best poets he could procure, to behold and celebrate
his martial deeds. (Olai Wormii Literatura Danica.) We
may be certain, therefore, that all the leaders of the several
armies of Saxons, Angles, Jutes, and Danes, who formed settlements
and erected kingdoms in this island, brought their
poets with them, to sing their exploits and victories." Hist.
Great Brit.