The Paladins of Edwin the Great

The day had been passed delightfully, hunting in the forests at the bases of Cheviot Hill and Yeavering Bell. The royal party had assembled at a trysting-place for an early supp...

In the depths of the forests of the upper Trent valley there was a wide clearing, and, near the river-bank, on a rising ground sloping gently inland but abruptly towards the ban...

The sea was like molten silver. The burning sun blazed pitilessly down on the little vessel, which was motionless. The northerly breeze reckoned upon by Monas had failed him. Th...

It was in the autumn of the year 603 that the battle was fought which finally settled the question of supremacy between Scots and English. Sivel had already introduced the syste...

Edwin, about two years after his accession, resolved to take another wife, and he decided upon sending an embassy to the King of Kent to ascertain whether a proposal for a princ...

Saebald, chief of the Billingas, had just returned from visiting his outposts on the Wharfe. He was standing at the gate of his burg when he beheld six horsemen and some pack an...

Alca was the most beautiful girl that her countrymen had ever beheld; and even then, at the early age of sixteen years, as she tripped out into the crowded court, she appeared t...

Six tall young warriors landed one summer morning on the British shore, at Ebbs-fleet, in the Isle of Thanet. They were healthy, and strong, and goodly to look upon. The eldest...

The Forum of Trajan was as yet uninjured. The noble rows of buildings with colonnades, including the once well-stored library, still surrounded the large paved court, and in the...

The sun was pouring down its dazzling rays on rocks and sand, and on the expanse of intensely blue sea. There was nothing to relieve the eye except a line of white huts, and at...

Edwin had achieved the most excellent and most difficult work that could have been undertaken in that age. He had established profound peace which continued until his death. His...

Once more the little society of English boys was assembled at its old trysting-place under the cypress trees, near the _navicula_, on the Caelian Hill--all but Sivel. When the f...

Mystacon was the principal trader between Gaul and the northern countries on the one hand, and Italy and the East on the other, during the latter part of the sixth century. He w...

At Rome everything reminded a visitor of past greatness. Constantinople, on the other hand, was the new Rome, the grandest and most magnificent city in the world. For nearly thr...

The escort of the Princess, of Volisia, and the children left Stillingfleet next morning. In the van rode the older boys, Oswith, Coelred, and Forthere, all three well armed, fo...

Sivel was a very intelligent and quick-witted boy, and he rapidly learnt all his companions could teach him in the treasury office at Antioch and in the mint. He was able to rea...

In the end of the sixth century the old Rome, the lingering remnant of the imperial city, had nearly disappeared. Language, literature, art, science were being crushed out, not...

_Aberach_, the British mound by the confluence of Ouse and Foss, was converted into the Roman camp of _Eburacum_ by Agricola in A.D. 79, and from a camp became an imperial city,...

"I feel the Berserker rage flowing through me, and arousing the desire to fight and to kill." It was Hereric who spoke, and he ended his strange words with a wild shout. "You, H...

Very little is known for certain of one of the most important events in the history of the world, the coming of the Englishmen to England. It took a long time, fully a century,...

The sacred ash tree spread its wide leafy branches over the court of the Stillingas. On one side of this court was the long hall, built of timber, with quaintly-carved joists an...

Go forth, bright youths, nor any danger shun, Go forth to brave whatever may betide; Your country needs your knowledge hardly won, Your heads to counsel and your hearts to guide.