Here in the evening the master supped on a raised platform at one end
of the "hall," while his followers ate at a lower table.
The Saxons were hard drinkers as well as hard fighters. After the
meal, while horns of ale and mead were circulating, the minstrels,
taking their harps, would sing songs of battle and ballads of wild
adventure.
Outside the "hall" were the "bowers," or chambers for the master and
his family, and, perhaps, an upper chamber for a guest, called later
by the Normans a sollar, or sunny room.
If a stranger approached a town, he was obliged to blow a horn;
otherwise he might be slain as an outlaw.
Here in the midst of rude plenty the Saxons, or Early English, lived a
life of sturdy independence. They were rough, strong, outspoken, and
fearless. Theirs was not the nimble brain, for that was to come with
another people (the Normans), though a people originally of the same
race. The mission of the Saxons was to lay the foundation; or, in
other words, to furnish the muscle, grit, and endurance, without which
the nimble brain is of little permanent value.