Battle of Brunanburh
Battle of Brunanburh
Original Text
Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ballads and other poems (London: C. K. Paul, 1880). PR 5555 B3 1880 ROBA. Alfred lord Tennyson, Works (London: Macmillan, 1891). tenn T366 A1 1891a Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto).
Constantinus, King of the Scots, after having sworn allegiance to Athelstan, allied himself with the Danes of Ireland under Anlaf, and invading England, was defeated by Athelstan and his brother Edmund with great slaughter at Brunanburh in the year 937.
1 Athelstan King,
2 Lord among Earls,
3 Bracelet-bestower and
4 Baron of Barons,
5 He with his brother,
6 Edmund Atheling,
7 Gaining a lifelong
8 Glory in battle,
9 Slew with the sword-edge
10 There by Brunanburh,
11 Brake the shield-wall,
12 Hew'd the lindenwood,
13 Hack'd the battleshield,
14Sons of Edward with hammer'd brands.
15 Theirs was a greatness
16 Got from their Grandsires--
17 Theirs that so often in
18 Strife with their enemies
19Struck for their hoards and their hearths and their homes.
20 Bow'd the spoiler,
21 Bent the Scotsman,
22 Fell the shipcrews
23 Doom'd to the death.
24All the field with blood of the fighters
25 Flow'd, from when first the great
26 Sun-star of morningtide,
27 Lamp of the Lord God
28 Lord everlasting,
29Glode over earth till the glorious creature
30 Sank to his setting.
31 There lay many a man
32 Marr'd by the javelin,
33 Men of the Northland
34 Shot over shield.
35 There was the Scotsman
36 Weary of war.
37 We the West-Saxons,
38 Long as the daylight
39 Lasted, in companies
40Troubled the track of the host that we hated;
41Grimly with swords that were sharp from the grindstone
42Fiercely we hack'd at the flyers before us.
43 Mighty the Mercian,
44 Hard was his hand-play,
45 Sparing not any of
46 Those that with Anlaf,
47 Warriors over the
48 Weltering waters
49 Borne in the bark's-bosom,
50 Drew to this island:
51 Doom'd to the death.
52 Five young kings put asleep by the sword-stroke,
53Seven strong earls of the army of Anlaf
54Fell on the war-field, numberless numbers,
55Shipmen and Scotsmen.
56 Then the Norse leader,
57 Dire was his need of it,
58 Few were his following,
59 Fled to his warship;
60Fleeted his vessel to sea with the king in it,
61Saving his life on the fallow flood.
62 Also the crafty one,
63 Constantinus,
64 Crept to his north again,
65 Hoar-headed hero!
66 Slender warrant had
67 He to be proud of
68 The welcome of war-knives--
69 He that was reft of his
70 Folk and his friends that had
71 Fallen in conflict,
72 Leaving his son too
73 Lost in the carnage,
74 Mangled to morsels,
75 A youngster in war!
76 Slender reason had
77 He to be glad of
78 The clash of the war-glaive--
79 Traitor and trickster
80 And spurner of treaties--
81 He nor had Anlaf
82 With armies so broken
83 A reason for bragging
84 That they had the better
85 In perils of battle
86 On places of slaughter--
87 The struggle of standards,
88 The rush of the javelins,
89 The crash of the charges,
90 The wielding of weapons--
91 The play that they play'd with
92 The children of Edward.
93 Then with their nail'd prows
94 Parted the Norsemen, a
95 Blood-redden'd relic of
96 Javelins over
97The jarring breaker, the deep-sea billow,
98Shaping their way toward Dyflen again,
99 Shamed in their souls.
100 Also the brethren,
101 King and Atheling,
102 Each in his glory,
103Went to his own in his own West-Saxonland,
104 Glad of the war.
105 Many a carcase they left to be carrion,
106Many a livid one, many a sallow-skin--
107Left for the white-tail'd eagle to tear it, and
108Left for the horny-nibb'd raven to rend it, and
109Gave to the garbaging war-hawk to gorge it, and
110That gray beast, the wolf of the weald.
111 Never had huger
112 Slaughter of heroes
113 Slain by the sword-edge--
114 Such as old writers
115 Have writ of in histories--
116 Hapt in this isle, since
117 Up from the East hither
118 Saxon and Angle from
119 Over the broad billow
120 Broke into Britain with
121 Haughty war-workers who
122 Harried the Welshman, when
123 Earls that were lured by the
124 Hunger of glory gat
125 Hold of the land.
Publication Start Year
1880
RPO poem Editors
J. D. Robins
RPO Edition
2RP 2.411.