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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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95 “Lo, whoso will speak sooth, can say one thing: That, when he gave ye good gear, he, your Lord and King, Gave the battle-harness ye are standing in, He threw away those war- weeds, unto shame and sin, When the fight befell him-and oft enough withal Bestowed he at the ale-bench on sitters in the hall, This King unto his clansmen, helm and byrnie-gear, The finest he could find for ye, from afar or near. In sooth had he, your Folk-King, little cause to vaunt Of comrades in this conquest! But God was kind to grant, The Wielder over victories, that with knife, alone, When he had need of valor, he laid the Monster prone. Little could I offer of aid at the fight, Yet I helped my Kinsman beyond my might. When I struck the deadly Foeman with my sword, Thereby was he the weaker and the slower poured The fire from the wits of him. Of helpers, small the sum That thronged around the Chieftain when his hour had come. How shall fail forever for your Kin abhorred The getting of the gold-rings, the gifting of the sword, All the mirth of land of birth. Every man shall roam, Beggared of his freehold, from his burg and home, When aethelings from far away shall hear your deed of blame, This your flight, ye cowards. For one of jarlman’s name, Death itself is better than a life of shame.” |
