All his life long has Dudda the Collier bided with me, serving well and
roughly, but in all most faithfully, as is his wont. And not many days
after we came homewards he brought me the berserk's axe to hang in hall,
for he had taken it and hidden it when we left the battlefield on the
day after the fight. So there it is now, and beside it hangs the raven
flag of the largest ship, for he must needs go with the fishers across
to the holms, and bring me back the tale of how the last of the Danes
had perished.
And now what am I to say of the years since our hall was built again?
Long have they been, and not all happy, for many a time have I had to
bear the standard of Wessex against the Danes. Yet Stert fight won us
six years of peace, and after that the Earl Ceorle and I led our levies
and conquered at Wenbury. But that was Wulfhere's last fight, for of his
wounds he might not recover, though we bore him back and tended him
carefully for a month or more. So he lies in God's Acre at Cannington,
and is at rest.
Then came long years of fighting, and ever I bore the banner, and ever
Alswythe set me forth most lovingly, with brave words that should bide
with me till I came back to her. And all the time our hall was safe, for
beyond Parret the Danes came not again.
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