The Death of Eadward
In this year King Eadward, lord of the English,
sent his truth-fast soul unto Christ
into the protection of God and the Holy Spirit.
He dwelt for a while in this world
among royal hosts, skilled in counsel,
for twenty-four and one-half counts of winter,
generous sovereign, distributing riches,
the wielder of heroes, ruling excellently well
over Wales and Scotland and Britain as well,
the child of †thelr¦d, over the Angles and Saxons,
over the champions, as they were embraced
by the frigid seas, so that they all obeyed
loyally Eadward, the noble king,
these brave and young men.
The king empty of evil was ever blithe-minded,
though he was deprived of land for a long time before,
dwelling upon the exile-trail, widely throughout the earth
since Cnut conquered the kindred of †thelr¦d
and the Danes ruled over the precious realm
of England for twenty-eight counts of winter,
sharing out its wealth. Afterwards the king
chosen by God emerged forth, in plenteous armament,
pure and mild, Eadward the noble
defending his homeland, the country and its people,
until death the bitter came upon him quickly
and seized that nobleman so dear from the earth
angels ferried that truth-fast soul into the heaven's light.
And the wise man nevertheless commended the realm
unto a high-ranking man, Harold himself,
the noble earl, who in every season
was obeyed faithfully by his own followers
in words and deeds, and who was not heedless
in any way in those things needful for the people's king.
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