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89 Läsebok. N:o 77 — 78.
At any rate, they were married; and, long afterwards,
whenever the king was angry with the Saxons, or jealous of
their encroachments, Rowena would put her beautiful arms
round his neck, and softly say», »Dear king, they are my
people! Be favourable to them, as you loved that Saxon
girl who gave you the golden goblet of wine at the feast!»
And, really, I don’t see how the king could help himself.
Ah! We must all die! In the course of years,
Vorti-gern died — he was dethroned and put in prison first, I am
afraid; and Rowena died; and generations of Saxon3 and
Britons died; and events which happened during a long, long
time, would have been quite forgotten but for the tales and
songs of the old Bards, who used to go about from feast to
feast, with their white beards, recounting the deeds of their
forefathers. Among the histories of which they sang and
talked, there was a famous one, concerning the bravery and
virtues of King Arthur, supposed to have been a British
Prince in those old times. But, whether such a person really
lived, or whether there were several persons whose histories
came to be confused together under that one name, or
whether all about him was invention, no one knows.
I will tell you, shortly, what is most interesting in the
early Saxon times, as they are described in these songs and
stories of the Bards.
In, and long after, the days of Vortigern, fresh bodies
of Saxons, under various chiefs, came pouring into Britain.
One body, conquering the Britons in the East, and settling
there, called their kingdom Essex; another body settled in
the West, and called their kingdom Wessex; the Northfolk,
or Norfolk people, established themselves in one place; the
Southfolk, or Suffolk people, established themselves in
another, and gradually seven kingdoms or states arose in
England, which were called the Saxon Heptarchy. The poor
Britons, falling back before these crowds of fighting men
whom they had innocently invited over as friends, retired
into Wales and the adjacent country; into Devonshire*, and
into Cornwall. Those parts of England long remained
un-conquered. And in Cornwall now — where the sea-coast
is very gloomy, steep and rugged — where, in the dark
winter-time, ships have been often wrecked close to the
land, and every soul on board has perished — where the
winds and waves howl drearily, and split the solid rocks into
arches and caverns — there are very ancient ruins, which
the people call the ruins of King Arthur’s Castle. Kent is
the most famous of the seven Saxon kingdoms, because the
Christian religion was preached to the Saxons there (who
domineered over the Britons too much to care for what they
2 , 2
* Dev onshre.
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