Note 1458 — Chapter XV · THE NORMAN INVASION AND THE CAMPAIGN OF HASTINGS.[1055] (continued 2)

This last scene of the battle is left out by Wace and Guy of Amiens, but it comes out very strongly in William of Poitiers, 137; “Rediit tamen fugientibus confidentia, nactis ad renovandum certamen maximam opportunitatem, prærupti vallis [valli?] et frequentium fossarum.” Orderic (501 D), who partly follows William of Jumièges (vii. 36), is fuller; “Nam crescentes herbæ antiquum aggerem tegebant, ubi summopere currentes Normanni cum equis et armis ruebant; ac sese, dum unus super alterum repente cadebat, vicissim exstinguebant. Ibi nimirum fugientibus Anglis rediit confidentia. Cernentes enim opportunitatem prærupti valli et frequentium fossarum, inopinatò restiterunt, in unum collecti sunt, et Normannis magnam stragem fortiter intulerunt.” He says that fifteen thousand of the Normans were killed at this point, which must surely be the number of the slain in the whole battle. He mentions one only by name, “Eginulfus Aquilensis oppidanus.” The name of Malfosse comes from the Chronicon de Bello, 5. See Appendix KK.

I do not feel at all clear about the reading of the words in Italics. There is a “prærupta vallis,” but the palisade could hardly be called a “vallum,” and I greatly doubt about Orderic’s “antiquus agger.” The gender of “vallis” however in William of Poitiers is odd.