BoAr: FNQ: Hereward XXX

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FNQ

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De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis.

XXX.

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Nec dum enim ibi tres dies commoratus, audivit quendam inimicum suum Herwardus in prædicta villa fore, qui sæpe eum perdere et inimicis tradere temptaverat, licet dudum illi ex fide fracta fuissent, ubi ad explorandum cum his auditus tantum cum duobus viris processit, et agnito illo in via fugæ statim consuluit. Quem e vestigio repente sequutus est Herwardns [sic] 1 de domo ad domum, de horto ad hortum, cum nudo ense et ancile in manu, usque intro ad atrium magnum, ubi ad agapem multi ex comprovincialibus congregati sunt. Et quum non haberet ibi ubi se verteret, imminente semper super eum Herwardo, in interiorem domum fugiens discessit, ubi in foramine sellæ super latrinam caput imposuit, misereri sibi exorans. Et liberalitate animi motus, sicut erat in omni suo opere liberalissimus, non eum ibi tetigit nec quicquid molestiæ in verbo nec in facto ei intulit, sed uti venerat, confestim per mediam domum rediens transibat. Nec enim aliquis ex convivantibus saltem mutire vel aliquid ei importune de eo stupefacti dicere audebant, et nihil præ manibus nisi cornua habentes et calices meri.

The Exploits of Hereward the Saxon.

XXX.

Hereward had not stayed there three days when he heard that an enemy of his would be in the aforesaid town2, a man who had often attempted to ruin him and deliver him to his enemies, although lately they had been faithless (?) ; whereupon to find out the certainty of what he had heard he set out with only two men, and when the man recognised Hereward on the road he immediately consulted his safety by flight. Hereward directly followed on his track, from house to house, from garden to garden, with his naked sword and a small shield in his hand, right into a great hall, where many men of his own district were assembled at a love-feast. And when he had nowhere to turn, Hereward being ever close upon him, he fled into the inner part of the house, and there put his head through an aperture*  3 . . . and besought him to have mercy. Moved by generosity, as he was always most liberal in all his doings, he did not touch him there, nor did he inflict any damage in word or deed, but in the same way as he had come in he returned and passed out through the middle of the house. And no man of those that were feasting, all being stupefied, ventured even to grumble, or to say anything opprobrious to him about the occurrence, as they had nothing to hand except drinking-horns and wine-cups.

Commentary.

?        The query is Sweeting’s insertion. He was clearly baffled by the un-clarity of the Latin: ‘et inimicis tradere temptaverat, licet dudum illi ex fide fracta fuissent,’: ‘and had attempted to betray him to his enemies, though that was a little time ago as they had broken faith towards him’. This interpretation of licet is indicated by the subjunctive mood of the verb (Langenscheidt). In other words, the man had given a Norman information about Hereward and not received an expected reward for it.

*          [Sweeting’s note] See the Latin.

1.       This is a printer’s error, an inverted u rather than strictly, an n.

2.       Stamford (TF0307).

3.       This is Sweeting, the Victorian vicar, being coy. He is being very delicate in not translating all the words ‘ubi in foramine sellæ super latrinam caput imposuit’: ‘where he put his head into the hole in the seat over the privy’. In other words, Hereward caught the informant in the act of investigating the possibility of hiding in the pit below the lavatory seat. Latrina is a Latin contraction of the word lavatrina which in turn, derives from lavare, to wash (OED). It is therefore much the same in derivation as well as meaning, as ‘lavatory’. Without seeing Robert of Swaffham’s book, it is not possible to be sure but this Victorian coyness probably accounts for the lack of a summarizing heading for this chapter. FNQ was a magazine available to the public. The chapter’s descriptive title has been omitted altogether, so was probably more explicit than the text, where the Latin remains presented for the supposedly sober scholar, while Sweeting has bowdlerized the English translation. For an English translation which is more faithful to the Latin at this point, than Sweeting’s, see Hereward  on the TEAMS site.

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