[Lordmagic]

A Little known History Lesson:

AD 937, Here Athelstan,king of the earls the lord,
rewarder of heroes, and his brother eke,
Edmund atheling, elder ot the ancient race, slew in the fight,
with the edge of their swords, the foe at Brunanburgh!
The sons of Edward their board-walls clove,
and hewed their banners,with the wrecks of their hammers.
So they were taught by kindred zeal,
that they at camp oft against any robber
their land should defend,their hoards and homes.
Pursuing fell the Scottish clans;
the men of the fleet in numbers fell;
amidst the din of the field the warrior swate.
Since the sun was up in morning-tide,gigantic light!
glad over grounds, Gods candle bright,eternal Lord!-
until the noble creature sat in the western main:
there lay many of the Northern heroes under a shower of arrows, shot over shields;
and Scotlands boast, a Scythian race, the mighty seeds of Mars!
With chosen troops, throughout the day,
the West-Saxons fierce pressed on the loathed bands; hewed down the fugitives,
and scattered the rear, with strong mill-sharpened blades.
The Mercians too the hard hand-play,
spared not to any of those with Anlaf,
over the briney deep in the ships bosum
sought this land for the hardy fight.
Five kings lay on the field of battle,
in the bloom of youth, pierced with swords.
So seven eke of the earls of Anlaf;
and of the ships crew unnumbered crowds.
There was dispersed the little band of hardy Scots, the dread of northern hordes; urged to the noisy deep by unrelenting fate!
The king of the fleet with hie slender craft
escaped with his life on the felon flood;-
and so to Constantine, the valiant chief,
returned to the north in hasty flight.
The hoary Hildrinc cared not to boast among his kindred.
Here was the remnant of relations and friends
slain with the sword in the crowded fight.
His son too he left on the field on battle,
mangled with wounds, young at the fight.
The fair-haired youth had no reason to boast
of the slaughtering strife.
Nor old Inwood and Anlaf the more
with the wrecks of their army could laugh and say,
that they on the field of stern command better workmen were,
in the conflict of banners, the clash of spears,
the meeting of heroes, and the rustling of weapons, which they on the field of slaughter
played with the sons of Edward.
The northmen sailed in their nailed ships,
a dreary remnant, on the roaring sea; over deep water
Dublin they sought, and Irelands shores, in great disgrace.
Such then the brothers, both together king and atheling,
sought their country, West-Saxon land, in fight triumphant.
They left behind them, raw to devour,
teh sallow kite, the swarthy raven with horny nib,
and the hoarse vulture, with the eagle swift to consume his prey;
the greedy gos-hawk, and that grey beast the wolf of the weald.
No slaughter yet was greater made ever on this island, of people slain, before this same,
with the edge of the sword;
as the books inform us of the old historians;
since hither came from the eastern shores
the Angles and the Saxons, over the broad sea, and Britain sought,-
and gained the land.