Editorial note — APPENDIX.

Elfric is represented as a valiant youth, although he was in training for a sacred vow, and a saintly life,—and not for “carnal warfare.” The conflict in which he was engaged, was not even one where Christian resisted Pagan: it was the struggle of “a house divided against itself”—among Saxons and Normans, men professing a common faith. The novice however was of a spirit fitted for those boisterous times; and in the sequel we shall find that he may never have intended to pass beyond the novitiate. Ælfric was a favourite name. In the tenth century an Archbishop of Canterbury (Ælfric) wrote homilies still in use by learners of the Anglo-Saxon language. (See quotation on p. 278.)