Note 1042 — Chapter VII · (continued 2)

Wace has a good deal of vivid description at this stage, but this specially stirring picture, which almost suggests a ballad, comes from William of Malmesbury (v. 395); “Quapropter ipse provincialium fidei gratus et saluti providus, plerumque cuneos circuiens, docebat quomodo militum ferociam eludentes, clypeos objectarent et ictus remitterent, quo effecit ut ultroneis votis pugnam deposcerent, in nullo Normannos metuentes.”

This is really almost a translation of the lines in the song of Maldon quoted in N. C. vol. i. p. 272.

From Orderic too (788 B) we get one vivid sentence strongly bringing out the nationality of the two armies; “Nobilis corona ingentis exercitus circumstitit, ibique terribilis decor Normannorum et Anglorum in armis effulsit.”