BoAr:Hereward:XVI

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De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis.

XVI.

Qua de causa miles Anglico more1 fieri voluit et ubi factus est.

Igitur Herwardus dum se talium virorum præceptorem conspiceret ac dominum et quotidie ex effugatis et præjudicatis et ab exhæreditatis manum suam non minime crescere cerneret, in memoriam habuit morem suæ gentis gladio nec balteo militari præcinctum se non fuisse, unde cum duobus ex suis præclarissimis viris, unus Wynter nomine et alter Gaenoch ad abbatem de Burch vocabulo Brant valde nobilis genere perrexit, ut eum militari gladio et balteo Anglico more præcingeret, ne multorum princeps et ductor factus quasi non miles incolæ patriæ exprobrarent. Et in natali apostolorum Petri et Pauli ab abbate militare honore functus est, et ob illius honorem quidem Elyensis monachus, Wiltunus nomine, qui et præpositus erat et patrio Herwardi amicus et ex fide frater, suos sodales milites fecit. Idcirco enim a monachis se et suos milites fieri voluit, et quomodo a Francigenis constitutum audierat, quod si quis a monacho vel a clerico seu ab aliquo infra sacros ordines constituto militem fieret non humilitatem inter milites haberi debere, sed quasi adulteratus eques et abortivus. Huic igitur consuetudini repugnans Herwardus, pene omnes sibi servientes et obedientes a monachis milites fieri voluit, ut si non aliter saltem a monacho, si quis eum serviret, gladium sicut militaris mos exigit acciperet, sæpe adjungens, quod si quis a servo dei et a milite regis cœlestis gladium militarem acceperit, hunc servum suam virtutem excellenter in omni tirocinio agere scio ut sæpe expertus sum. Ex hoc enim consuetudo apud Elienses ortus est, quod si quis ibi miles fieret, semper nudum ensem super altare inter magnam missam eodem die offerre deberet, et a monacho qui missam cantaret postevangelium sic accipi imposito nudo collo gladio cum benedictione, isto modo tironi tradens ensem eques sit factus emeriter. Mos enim his in temporibus abbatum fuit, ex quo Herwardus insulam ingressus est, ut eam contra regem Willelmum cum habitatoribus illius defensaret, qui tunc pene omnem terram sibi subjecerat, de quo seorsim gesta rerum recensebimus, et loco suo inseremus.

XVI.

For what reason he wished to be made a knight in the English manner1, and where he was made a knight.

Therefore Hereward, when he perceived himself to be the leader and lord of such men, and how he saw his band largely increasing every day by fugitives, and men condemned and disinherited2, called to mind that he had never been according to the custom of his nation, girt with a sword and belt of a knight : and so, with two of the most eminent of his men, one named Wynter and the other Gaenoch, he went to the Abbot of Burgh, whose name was Brant, a man of very noble birth, that he might gird him with the sword and belt of a knight, after the English practice, lest, after becoming the chief and leader of many men, the inhabitants of the country should find fault with him for being no knight. And on the Feast of the Nativity of the Apostles Peter and Paul3 he obtained the honour of knighthood at the hands of the Abbot : and for his honour a monk of Ely, Wilton by name, who was also warden (?) and a friend of Hereward’s father, and faithful as a brother, made his comrades knights. For so he wanted himself and his men to be made knights ; as he had heard it had been ruled by the Frenchmen that if any one were made a knight by a monk or a clerk or by any ordained minister,* he ought not to be reckoned among true knights, but as a false knight and born out of due time. Hereward, out of opposition to this rule, desired nearly all the men that served him and were under his rule to be made knights by the monks, so that if any one would serve him he should receive the sword as knightly custom demands at least from a monk, if from no other. And he often said, “If any man received the knightly sword from a servant of God and a knight of the kingdom of heaven, I know that such a servant displays his valour in every sort of military service, as I have often found by experience.” And hence arose the custom among the monks of Ely, that if any man there would be made a knight, he ought always on the same day to offer his naked sword upon the altar at high mass, and receive it again from the monk that was singing the mass, after the gospel, the sword being put on his bare neck with benediction, and in that way, by delivering the sword to the recruit, he was made full knight. And this was the practice of Abbots in those times. Afterwards he entered the Isle of Ely and defended it with its inhabitants against King William, who then had subjected almost all the land ; and his different achievements we shall recount and describe in their place4.

Commentary.

*             [Sweeting’s note] Latin manifestly corrupt.

?          [Sweeting’s query]. [Præpositus means ‘preferred’ or ‘placed in charge’ (Langenscheidt). ‘And on the feast of the birth of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the honour of knighthood was performed by the abbot and before this honour indeed, the Ely monk called Wilton, who was placed in charge and who was a friend of Hereward’s father and by faith, a brother, made his companions knights.’ RJP]

1. ↑      We have met more danico, ‘by Danish custom’: here we have more anglico, ‘by English custom’. Sweeting’s translation, using ‘in’ gives the meaning without pedantic attention to accuracy. The use of a capital A for Anglico is an example of more anglico and will have been Miller’s insertion.

2. ↑      This short list gives an indication of what was driving the revolt alluded to at the end of the chapter.

3. ↑      The feast day of SS Peter and Paul is 29 June. The calendar in the Luttrell Psalter makes no mention of a feast of their nativity. Baldwin V died on 1 September 1067 so this is probably the end of June in 1068, when Hereward was close to thirty years old. His view that an English form of knighthood would be preferable is as near as the text comes to expressing Anglo-Saxon nationalism.

4. ↑      This is one of the clearer examples of a narrative link between chapters. It seems to have been the paucity of such linking material which has given people the impression that the text relates a series of invented stories. Episodes of events from the revolt follow in later chapters but the writer keeps to his plan of reporting examples of Hereward’s skill, fortitude, magnanimity – illustrations of the several aspects of his character. It is not planned as a social or political history.

Contents      Chapter XVII