LEGBARROW AND LEGBURTHWAITE.
All that year king Constantine and king Owain were quiet, and held to the
peace of Dacor. But king Guthferth Ivarson of Dublin, to whom Olaf Cuaran
had fled, was not in the treaty, and thought himself in no way bound to
refrain from attacking the realms of Britain, but quite otherwise.
For it was an old use and wont of the heathen vikings to plunder
Christians whenever they got the chance: and there was now not only the
open door to York, but friends within, the party of Sigtrygg’s sons,
bidding him to come over.
So king Guthferth and his nephew Olaf Cuaran and their host crossed the
sea, and landed, as our story has it, at Ellenburg by the mouth of the
river Ellen in Cumberland, where now stands Maryport, and before those
times stood some old Roman city. Thence there was the good road that the
Romans had made, straight through the fells and between the two waters
of Bassenthwaite and Derwent, and so to Penrith, and over the Keel. In
a week or so they were again in York: but not for long. For as soon as
Athelstan heard of it he went Northward, and drove them home by the way
they came. There was a deal of confused fighting, of which folk never
will know, and maybe never did know, the rights. And sorely he blamed
Owain for giving the Danes passage through his kingdom. But Owain came
off this time with the excuse that in Strathclyde he had enough on his
hands, and could not be answerable for vikings who forced their way
through the extremest borders of his dominion. Yet when the same thing
happened again and again and every time the viking host left behind it
stragglers and settlers to hold strong places and good lands on the
Cumberland coasts, as a flood tide leaves its wreckage on the shore, then
the English king was forced to take stronger measures with the Cumbrians,
as the tale tells in the end.
Meanwhile Athelstan held counsel about that borderland which lay around
Morecambe Bay, where our Northmen lived. Neither Swein nor any of his
neighbours had come in to him, ready to be baptized and to take his
service: or maybe he might have set one of them over these parts as Thane
or Earl, to rule the country in his name. On the other hand, the land
of Cartmel was already in the holding of the priests at York, and they
no doubt were instant in their claims to take under them the whole of
which they held a part. So Athelstan, for the good of his soul, and for
the souls of the Northmen who should be brought into the fold, and for
the better ruling of these outlying borders, gave to the priests of York
Minster all Amounderness—that is, the land of Lancaster and the shores of
Morecambe, being Lunesdale and Kentdale and Hougun, and the coast about
Duddon and Eskmouth.
After a while came the summoner from York church, to take tithe and tax
from the Northmen, as he was wont to do from the Cartmel people. But
they made short work of him, before ever he got so far as Greenodd: and
when next there was a meeting at Legbarrow, loud talk was held about the
matter. Even Swein Biornson, though he had loved Athelstan when he saw
him at Dacor, was angry with him now, for giving away what was not his
own to give, and lands that he never had so much as set eyes on.
Then stood up one and said, “News, friends! I have been lately seafaring
by way of the South-isles and thereabouts: and wherever I came the talk
was that Olaf Cuaran had gone over from Dublin to Scotland, and that
Constantine the king had received him as guest: and more than that, had
given him his daughter to wife. Now, what think you of that, friends?”
There was a great hubbub when this came out, for not a man of them but
knew what it meant and they were glad to think that if they themselves
had a quarrel with Athelstan, friends would be easy to find. For by
giving his daughter to Olaf the heathen, Constantine had already broken
the peace of Dacor.
Well, some were for war, and some for waiting; and they talked it over
this way and that, until Swein, who was their lawman at that meeting on
his own law-stead, bade them have peace. “For,” said he, “I know this
Athelstan, that he is a brisk man and full of good counsel: and I know
the Saxons that they are not to be despised. If we alone set ourselves up
to make war we shall be fools: for they have men enough to sweep us off
the face of the earth, as a thrall sweeps out a byre with a besom. But if
Constantine and Owain and our kinsmen in the north are agreed, and come
together to invade the south country, well and good. My rede is to lie
still and watch the weather.”
Now Mistress Unna was all this while in the house, cooking the supper for
Swein and the chief men of the Thing, and little did she know that all
the Northmen of Amounderness were being ruled by her counsels.
“To lie still and watch the weather,” says Swein, and nodded his head and
looked wisely round from the law-mount on the brink of Legbarrow. “But,”
says he, “pity we sit so far away from those kinsmen of ours across
the fells in the north: better it were for us if we could take counsel
with them now and then, and shape our plans together. For when we were
called to Bakewell, I mind me that we knew nothing of what was forward.
We went out for war, and found the rest of them jogging along as to a
quiet and peaceable Thing-mote. And then again when we went to Dacor we
knew nothing, and were but made fools of, and much better had stayed at
home. Now if we fixed some place of meeting with Ketel and the others in
the north, we should learn the news of those kings from time to time,
and talk over the affairs of our whole kindred, as we do here among
ourselves.”
Then stood out one and said, “Swein Biornson and all, I have a friend
from over the seas, new come from Iceland. Now in Iceland, mayhappen you
know, there are many of our kindred who live as we do upon the lands they
have taken, and owe no more than we owe to any man, least of all to kings
in other parts. For their worship and sacrifices they have temple-steads
as we have, here and there: and for the punishment of evil doers and the
atonement of quarrels, the godi of each temple-stead sees to it. But it
appears that of late things have come to such a pass, that manslayers who
have been outlawed from one country-side have fled to another, and have
been kept there as guiltless men, and thence have returned to do what
harm they might on their old neighbours. And so there has been fighting
and unpeace stirred up, and the authority of the godi set at nought, as
if there were no law in the land. Therefore all the men of Iceland have
taken counsel together, and hallowed one Thing-stead in the midst of
the land; and at mid-summer they are to meet there, the chiefs all and
all the free men, under one law-speaker. And if any man has a grievance
that cannot be settled at a Thing by his own godi, there at the Althing
it will be judged by Raven Ketelson the law-speaker over all. And there
also they are to fix the feasts and seasons for the year that is to be:
and if any new law or custom is to be made, there will they make it:
so that the whole land may be under one law, and be of one mind, and at
peace within itself. Now it seems to me that if the Icelanders, being men
famous for their wisdom, have taken this counsel, we too should do well
to take the counsel of Swein Biornson, and join with our brethren of the
north across the fells in such a spot as we may find convenient, mid-way
between them and us; to talk over our common matters, and especially how
we may ward the land we have made our own, against all its foes and ours.”
With that they took their weapons and shouted aye to this advice: and
Swein said “Friends, since we have agreed that there should be this
Althing established, it remains only to mark the place of it, and to bid
our brethren in the north to meet us there. This place here we find good
for a meeting because it is midmost of all our land to the south of the
wild fells: and he who comes from Lunesdale on the east has no longer
journey than he who comes from Eskdale on the west: and to Kentdale and
to Dunnerdale the ways are equal: and across the bay it is not far to
go, whether by the sands or by the sea. Now, when we were coming home
from Dacor, we started in the company of Ketel and his men, and when we
parted from him they had still a day and a half to go before they were
home, while we had two days and a half: though doubtless on kenned roads,
and if we had nothing to carry nor any hindrance by the way, we might
make shorter work of it. But I say that if we went a two days’ journey
from here, and if they came a two days’ journey from their home, and met
upon the great road that leads through the heart of the fell country,
that meeting-place should be our Thing-stead. And I think it would not
be far from a little dale you remember well, near the foot of the mere
with the wath in it, and at a spot where four dales met. A fair place it
was, with a likely howe and a conny bit of flat that offered well for a
Thing-field, and everything else fit for our purpose.”
So, to make matters short, they sent the arrow, by which men were bid
to a meeting, round the sea-coast until it came to Ketel’s holm and to
Sölvi’s holm higher up the firth of Eden. The Northmen thereaway met
together and agreed on their part to set off on the day appointed: Swein
and his neighbours set off on the same day: and their two companies
fell in with one another by Thirlmere, which they thenceforward called
Brackmere, from the Thing-brekka or hill of assembly, which they hallowed
at Legburthwaite, as we still call the place, forgetting maybe that we
say Law-burg-field, being the midmost spot in all Lakeland from Solway
to Morecambe. And having hallowed the place and held their meeting, they
made their tryst for next mid-summer, and went their ways home.
Lucky it was for our Northmen that they took Unna’s counsel, and
listened to Swein when he told them of the briskness of Athelstan. For
Constantine, who had received Olaf Cuaran and given him his daughter,
before ever he could draw his host together to invade England, while he
was yet preparing for war, saw the ships of Athelstan bear down upon his
coast; and fleeing inland, whom should he meet but Athelstan himself with
an army, come through Northumberland to avenge the peace of Dacor. And
great mischief was done before the English went home with pledges of a
new peace wrung from the Scots, who for their part had no mind to keep
it, any more than their oaths of seven years ago, and only waited for the
day when they might take their revenge.
But if the York priests complained of their new liege-men, and told
Athelstan on his way home how their summoner had been treated; and if
Athelstan laughed and bade them study to be quiet, as the epistle says,
and mind their own business: it is no more than was likely. For he had
enough to do without taking his host across the Keel to gather tithes
from the Northmen of Amounderness.