a gang of thieves more than thirty-five in number. The national English army (militia) is called fierd, l. 71, 3 above.
Humbremūþa, mouth of the Humber.
l. 77. Eoforwīc, York; a corruption of Eboracum.
l. 84. inne wurdon, got in.
l. 85. sume. Compare IV. 51.
VI. KING EDMUND.
From Ælfric's Lives of the Saints, now published for the Early English Text Society by Prof. Skeat. The present life has been printed only by Thorpe, in his Analecta Anglosaxonica from a very late MS. It is here given from the older MS., Cott. Jul. E. 7.
It will be observed that the present piece is in alliterative prose, that is, with the letter-rime of poetry, but without its metrical form. The alliteration is easily discernible:—cōm sūþan ofer sǣ fram sancte Benedictes stōwe; dæġe, tō Dūnstāne, &c.
l. 1. sancte is an English modification of the Latin genitive sancti.
l. 5. sancte is here the E. dative inflection, sanct having been made into a substantive.