58_The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 3 (of 5)

Ther was no freke that ther wolde flye,

But styffely in stowre can stond,

Ychone hewyng on other whyll they myght drye,

Wyth many a bayllefull bronde.

Ther was slayne vpon the Skottës syde,

For soth and sertenly,

S_yr_ James a Dowglas ther was slayne,

That day that he cowde dye.

The yerlle of Mentaye he was slayne,

Grysely groned vpon the growynd;

S_yr_ Davy Skotte, S_yr_ Water Stewarde,

S_yr_ Jhon of Agurstoune.

S_yr_ Charllës Morrey in that place,

That never a fote wold flee;

S_yr_ Hewe Maxwell, a lorde he was,

W_y_t_h_ the Dowglas dyd he dye.

Ther was slayne vpon the Skottës syde,

For soth as I yow saye,

Of fowre and forty thowsande Scott_es_

Went but eyghtene awaye.

Ther was slayne vpon the Ynglysshe syde,

For soth and sertenlye,

A gentell knyght, S_yr_ Jhon Fechewe,

Yt was the more pety.

S_yr_ James Hardbotell ther was slayne,

For hym ther hartes were sore;

The gentyll Lovell ther was slayne,

That the Perssys standerd bore.

Ther was slayne vpon the Ynglyssh perte,

For soth as I yow saye,

Of nyne thowsand Ynglyssh men

Fyve hondert cam awaye.

The other were slayne in the fylde;

Cryste kepe ther sowlles from wo!

Seyng ther was so fewe fryndes

Agaynst so many a foo.

Then on the morne they mayde them beerys

Of byrch and haysell graye;

Many a wydowe, w_y_t_h_ wepyng teyres,

Ther makes they fette awaye.

Thys fraye bygan at Otterborne,

Bytwene the nyght and the day;

Ther the Dowglas lost hys lyffe,

And the Perssy was lede awaye.

Then was ther a Scottysh p_ri_soner tayne,

S_yr_ Hewe Mongomery was hys name;

For soth as I yow saye,

He borowed the Perssy home agayne.

Now let vs all for the Perssy praye

To Jh_es_u most of myght,

To bryng hys sowlle to the blysse of heven,

For he was a gentyll knyght.

#a.# Herd’s MS., I, 149, II, 30; Herd’s Scottish Songs, 1776, I,

153. #b.# Scott’s Minstrelsy, I, 31, 1802, “corrected” from Herd,

1776, “by a MS. copy.”

It fell and about the Lammas time,

When husbandmen do win their hay,

Earl Douglass is to the English woods,

And a’with him to fetch a prey.

He has chosen the Lindsays light,

With them the gallant Gordons gay,

And the Earl of Fyfe, withouten strife,

And Sir Hugh Montgomery upon a grey.

They have taken Northumberland,

And sae hae they the north shire,

And the Otter Dale, they hae burnt it hale,

And set it a’into fire.

Out then spake a bonny boy,

That servd ane o Earl Douglass kin;

Methinks I see an English host,

A-coming branken us upon.

‘If this be true, my little boy,

And it be troth that thou tells me,

The brawest bower in Otterburn

This day shall be thy morning-fee.

‘But if it be fase, my little boy,

But and a lie that thou tells me,

On the highest tree that’s in Otterburn

With my ain hands I’ll hing thee high.’

The boy’s taen out his little penknife,

That hanget low down by his gare,

And he gaed Earl Douglass a deadly wound,

Alack! a deep wound and a sare.

Earl Douglas said to Sir Hugh Montgomery,

Take thou the vanguard o the three,

And bury me at yon braken-bush,

That stands upon yon lilly lee.

Then Percy and Montgomery met,

And weel a wot they warna fain;

They swaped swords, and they twa swat,

And ay the blood ran down between.

‘O yield thee, yield thee, Percy,’ he said,

‘Or else I vow I’ll lay thee low;’

‘Whom to shall I yield,’ said Earl Percy,

‘Now that I see it maun be so?’

‘O yield thee to yon braken-bush,

That grows upon yon lilly lee;

. . . . . . .

‘I winna yield to a braken-bush,

Nor yet will I unto a brier;

But I would yield to Earl Douglass,

Or Sir Hugh Montgomery, if he was here.’

As soon as he knew it was Montgomery,

He stuck his sword’s point in the ground,

And Sir Hugh Montgomery was a courteous knight,

And he quickly broght him by the hand.

This deed was done at Otterburn,

About the breaking of the day;

Earl Douglass was buried at the braken-bush,

And Percy led captive away.

Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1833, I, 345. #B# completed by

two copies “obtained from the recitation of old persons residing at

the head of Ettrick Forest.”

It fell about the Lammas tide,

When the muir-men win their hay,

The doughty Douglas bound him to ride

Into England, to drive a prey.

He chose the Gordons and the Græmes,

With them the Lindesays, light and gay;

But the Jardines wald not with him ride,

And they rue it to this day.

And he has burnd the dales of Tyne,

And part of Bambrough shire,

And three good towers on Reidswire fells,

He left them all on fire.

And he marchd up to Newcastle,

And rode it round about:

‘O wha’s the lord of this castle?

Or wha’s the lady o’t? ’

But up spake proud Lord Percy then,

And O but he spake hie!

I am the lord of this castle,

My wife’s the lady gay.

‘If thou’rt the lord of this castle,

Sae weel it pleases me,

For, ere I cross the Border fells,

The tane of us shall die.’

He took a lang spear in his hand,

Shod with the metal free,

And for to meet the Douglas there

He rode right furiouslie.

But O how pale his lady lookd,

Frae aff the castle-wa,

When down before the Scottish spear

She saw proud Percy fa.

‘Had we twa been upon the green,

And never an eye to see,

I wad hae had you, flesh and fell;

But your sword sall gae wi me.’

‘But gae ye up to Otterbourne,

And, wait there dayis three,

And, if I come not ere three dayis end,

A fause knight ca ye me.’

‘The Otterbourne’s a bonnie burn;

’Tis pleasant there to be;

But there is nought at Otterbourne

To feed my men and me.

‘The deer rins wild on hill and dale,

The birds fly wild from tree to tree;

But there is neither bread nor kale

To fend my men and me.

‘Yet I will stay at Otterbourne,

Where you shall welcome be;

And, if ye come not at three dayis end,

A fause lord I’ll ca thee.’

‘Thither will I come,’ proud Percy said,

‘By the might of Our Ladye;’

‘There will I bide thee,’ said the Douglas,

‘My troth I plight to thee.’

They lighted high on Otterbourne,

Upon the bent sae brown;

They lighted high on Otterbourne,

And threw their pallions down.

And he that had a bonnie boy,

Sent out his horse to grass;

And he that had not a bonnie boy,

His ain servant he was.

But up then spake a little page,

Before the peep of dawn:

‘O waken ye, waken ye, my good lord,

For Percy’s hard at hand.’

‘Ye lie, ye lie, ye liar loud!

Sae loud I hear ye lie:

For Percy had not men yestreen

To dight my men and me.

‘But I have dreamd a dreary dream,

Beyond the Isle of Sky;

I saw a dead man win a fight,

And I think that man was I.’

He belted on his guid braid sword,

And to the field he ran,

But he forgot the helmet good,

That should have kept his brain.

When Percy wi the Douglas met,

I wat he was fu fain;

They swakked their swords, till sair they swat,

And the blood ran down like rain.

But Percy with his good broad sword,

That could so sharply wound,

Has wounded Douglas on the brow,

Till he fell to the ground.

Then he calld on his little foot-page,

And said, Run speedilie,

And fetch my ain dear sister’s son,

Sir Hugh Montgomery.

‘My nephew good,’ the Douglas said,

‘What recks the death of ane!

Last night I dreamd a dreary dream,

And I ken the day’s thy ain.

‘My wound is deep; I fain would sleep;

Take thou the vanguard of the three,

And hide me by the braken-bush,

That grows on yonder lilye lee.

‘O bury me by the braken-bush,

Beneath the blooming brier;

Let never living mortal ken

That ere a kindly Scot lies here.’

He lifted up that noble lord,

Wi the saut tear in his ee;

He hid him in the braken-bush,

That his merrie men might not see.

The moon was clear, the day drew near,

The spears in flinders flew,

But mony a gallant Englishman

Ere day the Scotsmen slew.

The Gordons good, in English blood

They steepd their hose and shoon;

The Lindsays flew like fire about,

Till all the fray was done.

The Percy and Montgomery met,

That either of other were fain;

They swapped swords, and they twa swat,

And aye the blood ran down between.

‘Now yield thee, yield thee, Percy,’ he said,

‘Or else I vow I’ll lay thee low!’

‘To whom must I yield,’ quoth Earl Percy,

‘Now that I see it must be so?’

‘Thou shalt not yield to lord nor loun,

Nor yet shalt thou yield to me;

But yield thee to the braken-bush,

That grows upon yon lilye lee.’

‘I will not yield to a braken-bush,

Nor yet will I yield to a brier;

But I would yield to Earl Douglas,

Or Sir Hugh the Montgomery, if he were here.’

As soon as he knew it was Montgomery,

He struck his sword’s point in the gronde;

The Montgomery was a courteous knight,

And quickly took him by the honde.

This deed was done at the Otterbourne,

About the breaking of the day;

Earl Douglas was buried at the braken-bush,

And the Percy led captive away.

Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, I, xviii f; from recitation.

Then out an spak a little wee boy,

And he was near o Percy’s kin:

Methinks I see the English host

A coming branking us upon.

Wi nine waggons scaling wide,

And seven banners bearing high;

It wad do any living gude

To see their bonny colours fly.

Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. lxxi, note 30; from a recited copy.

‘O yield thee to yon braken-bush,

That grows upon yon lilly lie;

For there lies aneth yon braken-bush

What aft has conquerd mae than thee.’

* * * * *

#A. a.#

3^4. many a styrande. “The reading of the MS. is, I suspect,

right; for stage, or staig, in Scotland means a young horse

unshorn of its masculine attributes, and the obvious intention

of the poet is merely to describe that the Scottish alighted

from many a prancing steed, in order to prepare for action.”

_Motherwell, Minstrelsy, p. lxxi, note 30, who would read

accordingly_, [Off] many a styrande stage. _The fourth line, as

amended by Motherwell, would be a superfluity, whereas Percy’s

reading, here adopted, adds a pleasing incident, the rousing of

the deer as the troopers passed their haunts._

20^1. beste, _corrected_ to bent.

22^1. _repeated at the top of fol. 65 back._

31^3. the one; #b#, thy one.

34^2. soth soth.

41^1. #b#, weynde.

46^3. cressawtt#es#.

50^3. schapped: _cf._ 54^1.

60^4. S_yr_ James: _cf._ 28^4.

64^3. Covell.

_Crossed final_ ll, _in_ all, styll, Castell, schall, well, _etc.,

has not been rendered_ ll_e_.

#b.#

A Songe made in R. 2. his tyme of the Battelle at Otterburne

betweene the Lord Henry Percye, Earle of Northomberland, and the

Earle Douglas of Scotland, Anº. 1388.

_Either #b# is a transcript of #a#, or both are from the same

source._

3^2. Redclyffe.

3^4. Many a stirande.

4^4. bound.

7^4. they ranne.

11^1. S^r Henry came.

13^2. wille.

14^2. game and.

15^2. maiste thou.

15^4. Henrye.

20^1. houered vppon the beste bent.

24^4. gare me oute to.

28^4. Aguiston.

31^3. thy one.

35^1. no more.

35^2. cronicles.

37^3. abyde.

39^4. w^{th} thie eye.

40^1. yonde Skotes.

41^1. Ffor yf I weynde.

44^3. my avowe.

46^2. I _wanting_.

49^1. arrowes gan vpe to.

50^3. schapped: swatte.

51^1. from the.

54^1. swotte.

57^1. stonderes; elke syde.

59^3. a _wanting_.

60^4. S^r James.

63^3. Ffitzhughe.

64^1. Harbotle.

64^3. Covelle.

66^4. a _wanting_.

67^1. the morowe.

70^1. Percyes.

_A pencil note on the first leaf of #b# (signed F. M., Sir F.

Madden) states that it is in Ralph Starkey’s hand._

#B. a.#

2^3. Fuife _in my transcript of_ Herd, I; Fyfe in II.

3^3. hae _is omitted in_ II _and the printed copy_.

3^4. _printed_ into a fire.

5^3. bravest _in my transcript of_ Herd, I; brawest, II; _printed_

brawest.

7^3. _The second MS. has_ gae; _printed_ gae.

8^3. bring me _in my transcript of_ Herd, I; bury _in the second

MS., and so printed_.

12^2. II, into.

#b.#

1^1. and _wanting_.

2^4. Hugh the.

3^1. have harried.

3^2. they Bambroshire.

3^3. And _wanting_.

3^4. a’in a blaze o fire.

5^1. true, thou little foot-page.

5^2. If this be true thou tells to me.

5^4. This day _wanting_; morning’s.

6^1. thou little.

6^2. lie thou tells to.

6^3. that’s _wanting_.

6^4. hang.

7^1. boy has.

7^2. hung right low.

7^3. gave Lord.

7^4. I wot a.

8^1. Douglas to the Montgomery said.

8^3. me by the.

8^4. that grows.

9^1. The Percy.

9^2. That either of other were fain.

10^1. Yield thee, O yield.

10^4. it must.

Thou shalt not yield to lord nor loun,

Nor yet shalt thou yield to me;

But yield thee to the braken-bush,

That grows upon yon lilye lee.

12^1. I will not.

12^2. I to.

12^4. Hugh the: he were.

13^{1,3}. And the Montgomery.

13^4. And quickly took him.

14^4. the Percy.

#C.#

34^1. _In one copy_: As soon as he knew it was Sir Hugh.

162

THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT

#A.# MS. Ashmole, 48, 1550 or later, Bodleian Library, in Skeat’s

Specimens of English Literature, etc., third edition, 1880, p.

67.[169]

#B. a.# ‘Chevy Chase,’ Percy MS., p. 188, Hales and Furnivall, II, 7.

#b.# Pepys Ballads, I, 92, No 45, Magdalene College, Cambridge,

broadside, London, printed for M. G. #c.# Douce Ballads, fol. 27^b,

Bodleian Library, and Roxburghe Ballads, III, 66, British Museum,

broadside, printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright, #d.# Wood

Ballads, 401, 48, Bodleian Library, broadside, printed for F. Coles,

T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson. #e.# Bagford Ballads, I, No 32, British

Museum, broadside, printed by and for W. Onley. #f.# A Scottish

copy, without printer, Harvard College Library.

#A# was first printed by Hearne in Guilielmi Neubrigensis Historia, I,

lxxxii ff, 1719; then by Percy, Reliques, I, 1, 1765, with a judicious

preface. The whole manuscript, in which this piece is No 8, was edited

by Thomas Wright for the Roxburghe Club in 1860: Songs and Ballads, with

other short Poems, chiefly of the Reign of Philip and Mary.

#B# may probably be found in any of the larger sets of broadsides. It is

included in such collections as Dryden’s Miscellanies, II, 238, 1702;

Pills to purge Melancholy, IV, 289, 1719; Old Ballads, I, 111, 1723;

Percy’s Reliques, I, 235, 1765. #b# has many readings of #a#, the copy

in the Percy MS. There is a second Bagford copy, II, No 37, printed like

#e#, for W. Onley. #f#, the Scottish copy, is probably of a date near

1700. Like the edition printed at Glasgow, 1747, it is, in the language

of Percy, “remarkable for the wilful corruptions made in all the

passages which concern the two nations”: Folio Manuscript, Hales and

Furnivall, II, 1, note, and Reliques, 1765, I, 234. The Scots are made

fifteen hundred, the English twenty, in 6, 13, 53, 54; the speeches of

King James and King Henry are interchanged in 58, 60; 62, 63, are

dropped.

The ‘Hunttis of Chevet’ is among the “sangis of natural music of the

antiquite” mentioned as sung by the “shepherds” in The Complaynt of

Scotland, a book assigned to 1549. It was an old and a popular song at

the middle of the sixteenth century. The copy in the Ashmolean

manuscript is subscribed Expliceth, quod Rychard Sheale, upon which

ground Sheale has been held to be the author,[170] and not, as Percy and

Ritson assumed, simply the transcriber, of the ballad. Sheale describes

himself as a minstrel living at Tamworth, whose business was to sing and

talk, or to chant ballads and tell stories. He was the author of four

pieces of verse in the same manuscript, one of which is of the date 1559

(No 56). This and another piece (No 46), in which he tells how he was

robbed of above three score pound, give a sufficient idea of his dialect

and style and a measure of his ability. This ballad was of course part

of his stock as minstrel; the supposition that he was the author is

preposterous in the extreme.

The song “which is commonly sung of the Hunting of Chiviot,” says Hume

of Godscroft, “seemeth indeed poeticall and a meer fiction, perhaps to

stirre up vertue; yet a fiction whereof there is no mention, neither in

the Scottish nor English chronicle”: p. 104. To this the general

replication may be made that the ballad can scarcely be a deliberate

fiction. The singer is not a critical historian, but he supposes himself

to be dealing with facts; he may be partial to his countrymen, but he

has no doubt that he is treating of a real event; and the singer in this

particular case thought he was describing the battle of Otterburn, the

Hunting of the Cheviot being indifferently so called: st. 65. The

agreement to meet, in #A#, st. 9, corresponds with the plight in

Otterburn, st. 16; 17^4 corresponds to Otterburn 12^4, 30^4; 47, 56, 57,

are the same as Otterburn 58, 61, 67; 31, 32, 66, are variants of

Otterburn 51, 52, 68; Douglas’s summons to Percy to yield, Percy’s

refusal, and Douglas’s death, 33^1, 35–37^2, may be a variation of

Otterburn, 51^3, 55–56; Sir John of Agarstone is slain with Percy in 52,

and with Douglas in Otterburn 60; Sir Hugh Montgomery appears in both.

The differences in the story of the two ballads, though not trivial, are

still not so material as to forbid us to hold that both may be founded

upon the same occurrence, the Hunting of the Cheviot being of course the

later version,[171] and following in part its own tradition, though

repeating some portions of the older ballad. According to this older

ballad, Douglas invades Northumberland in an act of public war;

according to the later, Percy takes the initiative, by hunting in the

Scottish hills without the leave and in open defiance of Douglas,

lieutenant of the Marches. Such trespasses,[172] whether by the English

or the Scots, were not less common, we may believe, than hostile

incursions, and the one would as naturally as the other account for a

bloody collision between the rival families of Percy and Douglas, to

those who consulted “old men” instead of histories: cf. stanza 67. The

older and the later ballad concur (and herein are in harmony with some

chroniclers, though not with the best) as to Percy’s slaying Douglas. In

the older ballad Percy is taken prisoner, an incident which history must

record, but which is somewhat insipid, for which reason we might expect

tradition to improve the tale by assigning a like fate to both of the

heroic antagonists.

The singer all but startles us with his historical lore when he informs

us in 63 that King Harry the Fourth “did the battle of Hombylldown” to

requite the death of Percy; for though the occasion of Homildon was

really another incursion on the part of the Scots, and the same Percy

was in command of the English who in the ballad meets his death at

Otterburn, nevertheless the battle of Homildon was actually done

fourteen years subsequent to that of Otterburn and falls in the reign of

Henry Fourth. The free play of fancy in assigning the cause of Homildon

must be allowed to offset the servility to an accurate chronology; and

such an extenuation is required only in this instance.[173] Not only is

the fourth Harry on the throne of England at the epoch of Otterburn, but

Jamy is the Scottish king, although King James I was not crowned until

1424, the second year of Henry VI.

But here we may remember what is well said by Bishop Percy: “A

succession of two or three Jameses, and the long detention of one of

them in England, would render the name familiar to the English, and

dispose a poet in those rude times to give it to any Scottish king he

happened to mention.” The only important inference from the mention of a

King James is that the minstrel’s date is not earlier than 1424.

The first, second, and fourth James were contemporary with a Henry

during the whole of their reign, and the third during a part of his;

with the others we need not concern ourselves. It has given satisfaction

to some who wish to reconcile the data of the ballad with history to

find in a Scottish historiographer a record of a fight between a Percy

and a Douglas in 1435 or 1436, at the very end of the reign of James I.

Henry Percy of Northumberland, says Hector Boece, made a raid into

Scotland with four thousand men (it is not known whether of his own

motion or by royal authority), and was encountered by nearly an equal

force under William Douglas, Earl of Angus, and others, at Piperden, the

victory falling to the Scots, with about the same slaughter on both

sides: Scotorum Historia, 1526, fol. ccclxvi, back. This affair is

mentioned by Bower, Scotichronicon, 1759, II, 500 f, but the leader of

the English is not named,[174] wherefore we may doubt whether it was a

Percy. Very differently from Otterburn, this battle made but a slight

impression on the chroniclers.

Sidney’s words, though perhaps a hundred times requoted since they were

cited by Addison, cannot be omitted here: “Certainly I must confesse my

own barbarousnes. I never heard the olde song of Percy and Duglas that I

found not my heart mooved more then with a trumpet; and yet is it sung

but by some blinde crouder, with no rougher voyce then rude stile:

which, being so evill apparrelled in the dust and cobwebbes of that

uncivill age, what would it worke trymmed in the gorgeous eloquence of

Pindar!”[175] Sidney’s commendation is fully justified by the quality of

The Battle of Otterburn, but is merited in even a higher degree by The

Hunting of the Cheviot, and for that reason (I know of no other) The

Hunting of the Cheviot may be supposed to be the ballad he had in mind.

The song of Percy and Douglas, then, was sung about the country by blind

fiddlers about 1580 in a rude and ancient form, much older than the one

that has come down to us; for that, if heard by Sidney, could not have

seemed to him a song of an uncivil age, meaning the age of Percy and

Douglas, two hundred years before his day. It would give no such

impression even now, if chanted to an audience three hundred years later

than Sidney.[176]

#B# is a striking but by no means a solitary example of the impairment

which an old ballad would suffer when written over for the broadside

press. This very seriously enfeebled edition was in circulation

throughout the seventeenth century, and much sung (says Chappell)

despite its length.[177] It is declared by Addison, in his appreciative

and tasteful critique, Spectator, Nos 70, 74, 1711, to be the favorite

ballad of the common people of England.[178] Addison, who knew no other

version, informs us that Ben Jonson used to say that he had rather have

been the author of Chevy Chase than of all his works. The broadside copy

may possibly have been the only one known to Jonson also, but in all

probability the traditional ballad was still sung in the streets in

Jonson’s youth, if not later.

#A# 3. By these “shyars thre” is probably meant three districts in

Northumberland which still go by the name of _shires_ and are all in the

neighborhood of Cheviot. These are Islandshire, being the district so

named from Holy Island; Norehamshire, so called from the town and castle

of Noreham or Norham; and Bamboroughshire, the ward or hundred belonging

to Bamborough castle and town. Percy’s Reliques, 1794, I, 5, note.

15. Chyviat Chays, well remarks Mr Wheatley in his edition of the

Reliques, I, 22, becomes Chevy Chace by the same process as that by

which Teviotdale becomes Tividale, and there is no sufficient occasion

for the suggestion that Chevy Chase is a corruption of chevauchée, raid,

made by Dr. E. B. Nicholson, Notes and Queries, Third Series, XII, 124,

and adopted by Burton, History of Scotland, II, 366.

38 f. “That beautiful line _taking the dead man by the hand_ will put

the reader in mind of Æneas’s behavior towards Lausus, whom he himself

had slain as he came to the rescue of his aged father” (Ingemuit

miserans graviter, dextramque tetendit, etc., Æn. X, 823, etc.):

Addison, in Spectator, No 70.

54^{3,4}, and #B# 50^{3,4}. Witherington’s prowess was not without

precedent, and, better still, was emulated in later days. Witness the

battle of Ancrum Muir, 1545, or “Lilliard’s Edge,” as it is commonly

called, from a woman that fought with great bravery there, to whose

memory there was a monument erected on the field of battle with this

inscription, as the traditional report goes:

“Fair maiden Lilliard lies under this stane;

Little was her stature, but great her fame;

On the English lads she laid many thumps,

And when her legs were off, she fought upon her stumps.”[179]

The giant Burlong also fought wonderfully on his stumps after Sir

Triamour had smitten his legs off by the knee: Utterson’s Popular

Poetry, I, 67, 1492–94, cited by Motherwell; Percy MS., Hales and

Furnivall, II, 131. Sir Graysteel fights on one leg: Eger and Grine,

Percy MS., I, 386 f, 1032, 1049. Nygosar, in Kyng Alisaunder, after both

his armes have been cut off, bears two knights from their steeds “with

his heved and with his cors”: 2291–2312, Weber, I, 98 f. Still better,

King Starkaðr, in the older Edda, fights after his head is off:

Helgakviða Hundingsbana, ii, 27, Bugge, p. 196.[180]