Bourne Archive: FNQ: Hereward XIV

Bourne Archive: Hereward: XIV

http://boar.org.uk/ariwxo3FNQsupXIV.htm Latest edit 12 Aug 2009.

The Bourne Archive

FNQ

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De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis.

Quomodo in patriam et ad paternam domum reversus est, ubi fratrem suum hesterna die ibi occisum reperit, quod statim nocte eadem magnifice ultus est.

Quum igitur Herwardus illis in locis paucis diebus quieti aliquantum vacaret¹, apud se hoc execrandum judicans discessit, ac in Angliam statim profectus est, visitare paternam domum et patriam volens, externorum ditioni nunc subjectam et multorum exactionibus pene subversam, si forte ullo in loco aliqui amicorum vel propinquorum adhuc respirarent, ferre opem eis volens, ubi, solummodo proprio servo comite Martino cognominato Levipes, duobus suis præfatis nepotibus, Siwardo Albo et Siwardo Rufo, cum uxore prædicta² quam dudum acceperat, relictis, ab alienigenis repererit. At quodam vespertino tempore tum ad sui patris mansionem quandam quæ vocatur Brunne³ recessit, et a Piro cujusdam sui patris milite, Aseredum nomine, in extremis ejusdem villæ hospitatus est⁴, ubi eum patrem familias et vicinos valde mæstos, omnique dolore plenos invenit alienigenarum subjectioni se traditos graviter metuentes. Et illud equidem quod ipsis gravius præ cunctis erat, plangebat quia ipsis servirent, qui filium domini sui adolescentulum innocenter pridie occiderunt⁵. Mox igitur Herwardus quasi extraneus interrogat, quisve nunc sit illorum dominus, vel qui filii domini sui mortis auctores, et causam ; cui responderunt : Ejus opis est et solatii in tristitia dolorem retexere, nec te nostris calamitatibus inclytum virum ut videmus innectere, cum quo magis hospitalitatis ex gratia oporteret gaudere. Sed tamen quia præclarum virum in cunctis appares et inclytum, nostri vos æstimamus doloris aliquod remedium, unde libenter vobis illius explanemus propositum. Adolescentulus domini nostri quidam filius nobiscum erat, quem pater ipsius suis et matrem et viduam moriens commendaverat, futurus hæres, si frater eius Herwardus nomine et vir strenuissimus omni virtute perspicuus non reverteretur, quem pro correptione a facie sua pater ipsius adhuc puer expulserat. Nunc ergo nudiustertius quidam hæreditatis ejus ex consensu regis invadentes, sibi eam acceperunt, lucernam nostram filium domini nostri et hæredem occidentes, quum matrem viduam ab ipsis protegeret, exquirentes ab ea paternas divitias et thesauros, ac tamen ex causa quod illos duos qui eam inhoneste detrectaverant interfecit. Et caput illius abscidentes super portam domus, quasi pro vindicta, quod duos Francigenos occiderat, statuerunt, ubi adhuc stat. Heu ! nobis miseris ex hoc, quoniam manus ulciscendi nobis non est ! Utinam prædictus frater ejus Herwardus nunc ut sæpe audivimus vir magnificus nobiscum adesset, vere unusquisque ex ipsis, antequam luna deficeret et sol lucis suæ radios effunderet, sicut filius domini nostri morti⁶ subjacerent. Herwardus vero hæc audiens et in semetipso suspirans, valde ingemuit. Tandem post verba soporati omnes strata petivere, et modicum in lecto Herwardus recumbens, audivit eminus psallentium voces et cythari sonum et phiali atque plaudentium lætitiam. Verum accersito puero Herwardus interrogat, quidnam sonus est qui aures eorum reverberabat. Qui statim judicabat esse plaudentium lætitiam ad convivium novi ingressus in hæreditatem filii domini sui, hesterna die ab illis occisi⁷.

Et post modicum Herwardus servum vocat et induit et silicet tunica, loricam et galeam nigro panno detectam sub pallio quidem ancillæ cum gladio accepit, et sic eum⁸ servo levi armatura protecto ad convivas nunc ebrietate devinctos processit, superpropinare eis, pro fratris morte, potum arundinis et vina doloris. Ubi accedens super portam fratris caput invenit⁹. Quo accepto, deosculabatur et involutum pannis abscondit. Hoc autem facto, post ostium domus explorare convivas accessit, ubi secus ignem ebrietate deditos omnes conspexit, ac milites in sinu mulierum recumbentes¹⁰. Quidam enim joculator intererat psallendo, exprobrans genti Anglorum et in medio domus incompositos quasi Angligenos figens saltus. Hic denique pro mercede omnia genitalia parentum memorati pueri hesterna die occisi a domino illorum petivit. Quæ verba quædam ex convivantibus puellis non ferens respondit, Superest adhuc quidam insignis miles frater pueri hesterna die occisi, ex nomine Herwardus, et in nostra patria (videlicet in Flandria) satis notus, qui si adesset, omnia ista antequam sol lucis suæ radios effunderet ita non remanerent. Quibus verbis indignans dominus domus sic intulit, Nam novi hominem et etiam sceleratissimum, qui dona principi patriæ nostræ a Scandemariland [sic] missa furto abstulit et inique distribuit, quum magister militium¹¹ ab eo constitutus esset. Nam crucis patibulo officeretur, ni ex fuga suæ saluti provideret, in nulla terra nisi trans Alpos ausus habitare. Hoc namque audito joculator sæpe repetendo illud exprobabat psallens. Quod tandem ferre non valens Herwardus prosiluit, et illum uno ictu gladii transverberavit, et sic convivas aggressus est. Alios ebrios nec erigere se valentes, aliosque ferre sibi auxilium nudi surrepti non valentes, XIV. et dominum eorum prostravit, cum solo servo quem ad ostium atrii constituerat, ut quicunque effugeret manum ejus, caderet in manu ipsius. Quorum capita nocte eadem super portam ubi sui fratris caput erat positum, constituit, gratias agens quidem universæ gratiæ largitori, nunc in fratris sanguine ulto.¹²

The Exploits of Hereward the Saxon.

XIV.

How he returned to his country and to his father’s house, where he found that his brother had been slain the day before, and of the grand vengeance he took the same night.

When therefore Hereward spent a few days of idleness in those places ¹ thinking this disgraceful, he went away, and forthwith set out for England, desiring to visit his father’s house and his country, now subject to the rule of foreigners, and almost ruined by the exactions of many men, if perchance in any place any of his friends or neighbours might be still alive, desiring to help them. And he took with him as his only companion his own servant Martin surnamed Lightfoot, and left his two nephews aforesaid Siward the White and Siward the Red, with the wife above named ² whom he had lately taken. And then one evening he arrived at his father’s mansion, called Bourne ³, and was hospitably entertained by a certain Pirus, a soldier of his father’s ⁴, Asered by name, in the suburbs of the same town, where he found him, the father of a family, and the neighbours very sorrowful, and full of all grief, greatly fearing that they were delivered over to the dominion of foreigners. And what was more grievous to them than all else, they were bewailing that they would be in subjection to the men who had the day before slain the innocent young son of their lord ⁵. Immediately therefore Hereward, as if a stranger, asked who now was their lord, and who were the authors of the death of their lord’s son, and the reason for it ; and they answered him : “It is to a certain extent a help and a comfort in sadness to disclose our grief ; but not to involve you, a noble man, as we see, in our misfortunes ; with whom rather we ought to make merry for hospitality’s sake. But yet since you seem in everything a famous and noble man, we regard you as some remedy to our sorrow, and therefore we gladly explain the whole matter to you. There was with us a certain youthful son of our lord’s whom his father at his death had commended to his people, with his widowed mother ; and he would be his heir, if his brother named Hereward, a man most vigorous and conspicuous in every kind of valour, should not return, whom, while still a lad, his father had driven from his face for his misdoings. And now, three days ago, some men with the consent of the king attacked his inheritance, and took it for themselves, killing our very light, the son and heir of our lord, while he was protecting his widowed mother against them, as they demanded from her his father’s riches and treasures, as well as because he slew those two who had handled her discourteously. And they cut off his head, and set it up over the gate of the house, by way of revenge, because he had killed two Frenchmen ; and there it still remains. Alas ! wretched men that we are, in that we have no means of vengeance ! Would that his brother aforesaid, now, as we have often heard, a very great man were here : for then, of a truth, every one of those men, before the moon set and the sun brought forth the rays of its light, would be lying dead ⁶ like that son of our lord’s !” But Hereward hearing these words, and sighing to himself, groaned deeply. At length after their conversation, all being sleepy went to bed ; and Hereward, after lying a little while on his bed, heard at a distance the voices of persons singing, and the sound of the harp and viol, and the merriment of those applauding. Summoning a boy, Hereward asked him what the sound was that beat against their ears. And he immediately pronounced that it was the merriment of persons applauding at the banquet, on the occasion of the entering into the inheritance of their lord’s son, who was yesterday killed by them.⁷

And after a little while Hereward calls for his servant and puts on his tunic, and took a breastplate and helmet from beneath the black cloth under the cloak of a maid-servant, together with a sword ; and so, with ⁸ his servant in light armour, he proceeded to the guests now overcome with drunkenness, designing to pledge them, for his brother’s death, in a draught of a spear-shaft, and in wine of sorrow. As he approached he found his brother’s head over the gate.⁹ Taking it down, he kissed it, and wrapped it up in a cloth. After doing this, he advanced behind the door of the building to search for the guests, and there by the fireside he beheld them all overcome with intoxication, and the soldiers reclining on the women’s laps ¹⁰. And there was amongst them a jester, singing to a lute, abusing the nation of the English, and in the middle of the room performing ungainly antics, meant in imitation of English dancing. And at last he demanded for pay from their lord, something belonging to the parents of the famous youth yesterday slain. But one of the girls at the banquet, not enduring these words, made answer, “There is still surviving a famous soldier, brother of the youth yesterday slain, by name of Hereward, and well known in our country, that is in Flanders ; and if he were here, not one of these things would be left here by day break.” Indignant at these words the lord of the house thus replied, “I know the man, and a thorough scoundrel he is, for he stole the gifts which were sent to the prince of our country from Scandemariland [sic], and distributed them unfairly, when he had been by him appointed master of the soldiers¹¹. For he would have suffered death upon a gibbet, if he had not provided for his safety by flight, not venturing to dwell in any land this side of the Alps.” On hearing this the jester repeatedly abused him as he sang. But at last Hereward could endure this no longer, and leapt upon him and slew him with a single stroke of his sword, and then attacked the guests. He laid low fourteen of them, and their lord ; some being unable to rise from being intoxicated, and others being unable to go to their help from being taken unarmed : and this with the assistance of a single servant, whom he had set at the door of the hall, so that whoever escaped the hand of Hereward, might fall into the hands of the servant. And their heads the same night he set up over the gate where his brother’s head had been placed, giving thanks to the Giver of all grace that his brother’s blood was now avenged.¹²

Commentary.

1. ↑ It appears then, that this chapter follows on from the last, after only a few days’ interval but Hereward will have needed to arrange precautions against discovery, if he were to enter England. He was still an exile so could not simply get on the next boat. Nonetheless, these events will probably have occurred late in 1067 or perhaps in 1068. Baldwin died 1 September 1067 (Dutch Wikipedia).

2. ↑ Turfrida.

3. ↑ This is the chapter in which the connection with Bourne is most clearly stated. In its classical Latin root, mansio was a stay, a sojourn but by the first century - well before Hugh Candidus’s time, it had developed the meaning of a place in which to stay; particularly, an Imperial staging post. By Hugh’s time, French influence may have begun to introduce mansion as the English version of it, meaning the principal residence of a lord. (cf. dwelling); See OED: mansion (noun): etymology, but the earliest OED note of this is fourteenth century.

4. ↑ The verb hospito appears not to be a classical Latin one. It does not appear as such in the Langenscheidt or Cassel dictionaries. In medieval Latin, it means ‘I harbour’, that is to say, shelter clandestinely. This would fit Hereward’s circumstances at the time.

As this is translated; we are given two names for the man. It seems however, that his more formal name was Asered. Naming patterns changed from Classical Latin to English of our own time. Earlier, Asered would be a family name; later it would be a christian name. It is likely that, by the date of the story, it would be the latter.

The other name is seen in the form ‘a Piro’ which would be the ablative of the agent (by, with or from Pirus). This would be his cognomen, used to distinguish him from other men called Asered. In French, this would be called a surnom (nickname) which subsequently developed into the English surname. Assuming the name to have come from Latin, it might imply some connection with pears of perry.

5. ↑ Their lord had been Leofric but he had died in 1057. The present events seem to be happening in 1067, after the arrival of the Normans in England. His son, Ælfgar succeeded him as Earl of Mercia but he too had died, in 1062, before the Conquest so it is reasonable to guess that Asered’s lord was one of Ælfgar’s sons. Edwin succeeded him as Earl of Mercia but the Domesday Book (reference) lists the bulk of Bourne as belonging to Ælfgar’s second son, Morcar at the time of King Edward’s death. The dead boy might have been the son of any of these. However, the present text goes on to name Hereward as a son of the lord in question. The boy was therefore Leofric’s son and Hereward’s younger brother. Given that Leofric had only two wives, Godiva and Edith, they would have been brothers by both parents, as Godiva would by then, have been too old to have borne him. As Leofric’s son, the boy would have been something more than ten years old; an age entirely in keeping with his description.

There is one small snag, in that the jester asked for payment in the form of the whole genitals of the lad’s parents (plural). (Hic denique pro mercede omnia genitalia parentum memorati pueri hesterna die occisi a domino illorum petivit.) This evidence might be dismissible as arising from the jester’s ignorance of Earl Leofric’s death or of the boy’s parentage - the men did need to be told by one of the women, of Hereward’s existence. Or, the story may have become garbled to this extent, at some other stage.

6. ↑ The FNQ text says morti though mortui makes better sense.

7. ↑ This looks like a contribution by Hugh’s contemporary informants. Hereward’s arrival on the day after the advent of the Normans and the death of the boy and the retainer’s unwitting telling of the story to Hereward are not impossible but have a feeling of being an adjustment of detail for the sake of narrative effect. However, this does not invalidate the basic report of events.

8. ↑ The FNQ text says eum though cum makes better sense.

9. ↑ From the description, the boy had probably been born after Hereward’s exile began, or at most, he would still have been a baby at that time, so Hereward would not have recognized him without the information from Asered.

10. There are numerous possible ways of translating ac milites in sinu mulierum recumbentes – Langenscheidt lists 22 or 23 possible interpretations of sinus, for example but even if ‘lap’ had been meant, it is singular. The men were ‘in the lap of women’. They were all there together without formalities. However, as well as ‘I lie back’, recumbo means ‘I am at table’. This use of the verb reflects the Classical Roman habit of lying on a couch to dine. Before the end of the Classical period, that habit had died out, so it came to mean ‘to be at table’. In Hereward’s time, recumbens meant ‘seated at table’. The word recumbens appears again in Chapter XXII, when the dining group consists of three earls and an abbot in the refectory of Ely Abbey and with no woman mentioned.

11. Confirmation of the writer’s view of Hereward as the executive officer on the relevant occasion.

12. This is one of the many instances where behaviour which would be grossly reprehensible in the 21^st century is clearly endorsed by the monkish writer in the 12^th.