"I would have him serve Holy Church rather, in some monastery. Already he can read and write, my king, for I have had him taught in hopes that this might be."
Thereat the king shook his head, and walked away to the window for a minute. Then he came back quickly and said, not looking at my mother:
"Holy Church will be best served by warriors who will use carnal arms against Swein's heathen just now. The boy is right--I would that there were more who had his spirit. We need and shall need those who love fighting."
Then he said to me:
"Siric your father had a wondrous sword that I used to envy him; you shall learn to use it."
"Lord king," I answered, "I must learn to win it back from the Danes, who have it now."
I thought the king changed countenance a little at that, and he bit his lip.
"We have been well beaten in East Anglia," he said as if to himself. "Here is truth from this boy at least."
Now, if Ethelred did not know that our men had been so scattered by the Danes that they could not even ask for truce to recover their slain, it seemed plain even to me that the king was ill-served in some way. But I could say nought; and after that he bade us farewell for the time.
So it came to pass that he gave me a place among the thanes' sons of his own court and there I was well trained in all that would make me a good warrior. Soon I had many friends, and best of all I loved the athelings, Eadmund and Eadward, who soon took notice of me, the one because I was never weary of weapon play, and the other, Eadward, who was somewhat younger than I, because of the learning that our good priest of Bures had taken such pains to teach me against my will. For above all things Eadmund loved the craft of the warrior, and Eadward all that belonged to peace.