“Ad Moiniam insulam Walliæ navigavit, et duos Hugones comites invenit in ea; unum occidit, alterum fugavit, et insulam sibi subjugavit. Wallenses vero multa munera ei præbuerunt, et valedicens eis ad Manniam remeavit.”
The detailed accounts of the death of Earl Hugh come from the Saga and from Orderic. Orderic, it must be remembered, is writing on a subject of special interest to him, on account of his close connexion from childhood with the house of Montgomery. On the other hand, as we have seen (see [p. 143]), he does not well understand the geography, and seems to fancy that Dwyganwy was in Anglesey. But it will be at once seen that he conceives the death of Earl Hugh in a quite different way from the author of the Saga. In Orderic’s story, though there is a great deal of preparation for fighting, there is no actual fighting at all, except the one shot sent from the bow of the Norwegian King. His version stands thus;
“Quadam vero die, dum supra littus indigenæ turbati discurrerent, seque contra Nordicos, quos in navibus suis sævire contra Anglos videbant, præpararent, Hugo comes, equum calcaribus urgens, cœtus suos congregabat, et contra hostes, ne sparsim divisi invaderentur, principali rigore coercebat. Interea barbarus Nordwigena, ut comitem agiliter equitantem prospexit, instigante diabolo stridulum missile subito direxit, egregiumque comitem, proh dolor! percussit. Qui protinus corruit, et in fluctibus maris jam æstuantis exspiravit. Unde dolor ingens exortus est.”
This really seems hardly possible, and the Welsh account, as well as the Norwegian, distinctly records fighting and shooting of arrows on both sides. The Saga gives us the details, both in prose and verse. The shooting of the King and the other archer is described in prose as I have told it in [p. 144], and both the death of Earl Hugh and the general picture of the battle are given in vigorous verse from the minstrelsy of Biorn Cripplehand (Biörn inn Krepphendi). Besides the verses which Laing translates, the Saga gives others from another poet, Gisl, who vigorously describes the fight between the King and those whom he calls the Welsh Earls (Valsea Jarla), meaning doubtless rather Gal-Welsh than Bret-Welsh;
“Margan hŏfdo
Magnuss lidar
Biortom oddi
Baugvang skotit.
Vard hortoga
Hlif at springa