Note 1026 — Chapter XIV · THE NORWEGIAN INVASION AND THE CAMPAIGN OF STAMFORDBRIDGE.[928]
Reading edition
This famous saying is proverbial. We find it applied to William in the Peterborough Chronicle, 1087; “Se þe wæs ærur rice cyng and maniges landes hlaford, he næfde þa ealles landes buton seofon fot mæl.” It was also long after applied to Charles the Bold by the Bernese historian Valerius Anshelm (i. 143); “Der Herzog ... ward von verachter Macht mit sieben Schuh Erdrychs zu Ruw gesetzt und vernügt.” It is the same general idea as the Æschylean lines,
χθόνα ναίειν διαπήλας,
ὁπόσαν καὶ φθιμένοισι κατέχειν,
τῶν μεγάλων πεδίων ἀμοίρους.
Sept. c. Theb. 713.