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FROM ENGLISH CHRONICLERS 63<br />
served and magnified, when once the Scots crossed the river<br />
Tweed with an <strong>in</strong>numerable host, and wasted the land of St.<br />
Cuthbert, and despoiled the monastery of L<strong>in</strong>disfarne, which<br />
had never before been violated. 1<br />
And hear<strong>in</strong>g <strong>this</strong> k<strong>in</strong>g Guthred, to avenge the holy confessor,<br />
hastened thither with a very small band, and met them<br />
at the end of the day <strong>in</strong> the place which is called Mund<strong>in</strong>gdene.<br />
And thus the battle was not begun.<br />
And when night supervened, and k<strong>in</strong>g Guthred had fallen<br />
asleep through the excess and diversity of his cares, <strong>in</strong> great<br />
fear and anxiety because he had a very small army while the<br />
enemy, who was now at close quarters, had a very large one,<br />
and thus he could neither fight nor escape ; behold, Christ's<br />
soldier Cuthbert appeared to him pla<strong>in</strong>ly,<br />
raised his fallen spirits.<br />
" Fear not," said he, " because I am with thee ;<br />
and with these words<br />
and despair<br />
not of the fewness of thy soldiers, because my foes, though still<br />
alive, are al<strong>read</strong>y <strong>in</strong> God's sight dead, and will not be able to<br />
oppose thee, because they have not feared to violate God's<br />
peace and m<strong>in</strong>e. In the dawn rise quickly and fall upon them<br />
with confidence, because at once <strong>in</strong> the first conflict the earth<br />
will open, and drop them alive <strong>in</strong>to hell."<br />
After these words he departed ; and the k<strong>in</strong>g awoke.<br />
Spr<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g up t<strong>here</strong>fore he assembled his army, and publicly<br />
related all <strong>this</strong> to all men. And immediately at dawn he fell<br />
but, accord<strong>in</strong>g to the word of the man of<br />
God, at once <strong>in</strong> the first conflict the earth yawned and swallowed<br />
them alive, and he found them not, the ancient miracle<br />
be<strong>in</strong>g t<strong>here</strong> wondrously renewed, when " the earth opened and<br />
upon the enemy ;<br />
S.C., u.s., 241, " "<br />
when no great time had passed after Olafbald's blasphemy<br />
and death, which followed the battle of Corbridge, A.D. ? 915, q.v. It<br />
happened " some .considerable time hav<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>tervened " after the grant by<br />
k<strong>in</strong>g Guthred to the Cuthbert<strong>in</strong>es of the land between Tyne and Wear,<br />
accord<strong>in</strong>g to S. of D., H.D.E., i, 71, 70 ; and <strong>this</strong> grant is placed under 883<br />
by S. of D., H.R., ii, 114-115.<br />
Guthred^ became**k<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> 883 ; S. of D., H.R., ii, 114, and an <strong>in</strong>sertion<br />
<strong>in</strong> ii, 86 ; cf. H.D.E., i, 68-69, without date. He died <strong>in</strong> 894, accord<strong>in</strong>g to<br />
S. of D., i, 71 ; ii, 92 ; <strong>in</strong> 896, August 24, accord<strong>in</strong>g to Ethelw., <strong>in</strong> M.H.B.,<br />
518-519 ; while De Pr. Sax. Adv., <strong>in</strong> S. of D., ii, 377, says that he reigned<br />
fourteen years.<br />
1 L<strong>in</strong>disfarne had, <strong>in</strong> fact, been sacked twice by the Danes, <strong>in</strong> 793 and<br />
<strong>in</strong> 875 ; S. of D., H.D.E., i, 50-51, 58.<br />
Here De Mir. et Tr. S.C. strikes a chord frequently repeated <strong>in</strong> later<br />
"<br />
writers ; S. of D., i, 241 :<br />
. . . the nation of the Scots gat<strong>here</strong>d an <strong>in</strong>numerable<br />
army and crossed the river Tweed, which is the northern boundary<br />
of the land of St. Cuthbert, and harried every place with slaughter, fire and<br />
rap<strong>in</strong>e. They spared not rank, nor age, nor sex, but cut down all like cattle<br />
with equal and unheard-of cruelty."