Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 2.djvu/323

 and with  benignity  guided  his  people

ever to  righteousness,  and  controlled  the  violent,

and lived  happily  in  the  true  faith

Then at  last  it  befell  that  the  Danish  people

came with  a  fleet,  harrying  and  slaying

widely over  the  land,  as  their  custom  is.

In that  fleet  were  their  chief  men,

Hingwar and  Hubba,  associated  by  the  devil,

and they  landed  in  Northumbria  with  their  ships,

and wasted  the  land  and  slew  the  people.

Then Hingwar  turned  eastward  with  his  ships,

and Hubba  was  left  in  Northumbria,

having won  the  victory  by  means  of  cruelty.

Then Hingwar  came  rowing  to  East  Anglia

in the  year  when  Alfred  the  Ætheling  was  one  and  twenty  years  old,

he who  afterward  became  the  renowned  king  of  the  West-Saxons.

And the  aforesaid  Hingwar  suddenly,  like  a  wolf,

stalked over  the  land  and  slew  the  people,

men and  women,  and  witless  children,

and shamefully  tormented  the  innocent  Christians.

Then soon  afterward  he  sent  to  the  king

a threatening  message,  that  he  must  bow  down

to do  him  homage,  if  he  recked  of  his  life.

So the  messenger  came  to  king  Edmund,

and speedily  announced  to  him  Hingwar's  message.

'Hingwar our  king,  keen  and  victorious

by sea  and  by  land,  hath  rule  over  many  peoples,