The Growth of the English Constitution from the Earliest Times

by Edward A. Freeman

There were Odda’s bairns

Erst in flight;

Godric from battle went,

And the good man forsook

That to him ofttimes

He leapt on the horse

That his lord had owned,

On the housings

That it not right was.”

Presently we read of the deeds done by his Thegns over his body;