| [134] | A fine Decoy near Crowland is still worked in the season. (See “The Fenland”). |
| [135] | This stone still stands and bears an inscription signifying “Guthlac has placed this stone for a boundary mark.” It is represented by an engraving in “The Fenland.” |
| [136] | Three streams flowed under the “triangular bridge” which still stands, the streams however are tunnelled, and persons may walk or drive under the arches of this antique and curious structure. |
| [137] | Shaggy or rough and hairy. |
| [138] | Incubuses and succubuses, imaginary beings who are supposed to be the cause of nightmare or the sense of suffocation and other painful sensations during sleep. The demon is really indigestion, which, in its effects, is hideous enough no doubt. |
| [139] | Witlaf was King of Mercia, 826-839 A.D. |
| [140] | Lism, contracted from lissom, supple, nimble, or lithesome. |
| [141] | Alfric probably refers to Æthelric who, once bishop of Durham, retired to Peterborough—he was imprisoned at Westminster by William. Siward Beorn, called also Barn (Siwardus cognomento Barn, Lib. Elien.) a Northumbrian Thegn and a son of Æthelgar, was undoubtedly with Hereward at the Camp of Refuge. |
| [142] | From Bourn to Eye is about 14 miles in a straight line; but from Stamford to Eye, 121⁄2 miles. By road, however, the difference is much greater. |
| [143] | The writer of “The Camp of Refuge” knows of no other bride than Alftrude. The reader of Kingsley’s “Hereward the Wake” will however be a little puzzled, when he remembers the tale of Torfrida who became “an Englishwoman of the English, as she proved by strange deeds and sufferings for many a year.” The stories of Hereward’s wives are simply legendary. Hereward may have received overtures from Turfrida in Flanders and married her—she may have accompanied him to England. Alftrude also may have made advances in a similar manner and been married to Hereward, and if any probability deserves acceptance it is that Turfrida died before Hereward’s marriage to Ælfthryth. (This is the correct Saxon form for Alftrude and is derived from Ælf, a fairy, Þryð, strength; hence Ælfthryth means Fairy-strength, just as Ælf-scieno means Elfin beauty.) |