Master Wace, His Chronicle of the Norman Conquest From the Roman De Rou

Оглавление

Wace. Master Wace, His Chronicle of the Norman Conquest From the Roman De Rou

INTRODUCTION

PROLOGUE CONCERNING THE AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK, SETTING FORTH HIS INTENT AND DEGREE

CHAPTER I. HOW WILLIAM BECAME DUKE, AND HOW HIS BARONS REVOLTED AGAINST HIM

CHAPTER II. HOW THE KING OF FRANCE CAME; AND OF THE BATTLE THAT WAS FOUGHT AT VAL DES DUNES

CHAPTER III. HOW CANUTE DIED, AND ALFRED FELL BY TREASON; AND HOW EDWARD AFTERWARDS BECAME KING

CHAPTER IV. THE REVOLT OF WILLIAM OF ARQUES; AND HOW HE AND THE KING OF FRANCE WERE FOILED BY DUKE WILLIAM

CHAPTER V. HOW THE KING OF FRANCE INVADED NORMANDY, AND WAS BEATEN AT MORTEMER

CHAPTER VI. HOW THE KING OF FRANCE CAME AGAIN AGAINST DUKE WILLIAM, AND WAS DEFEATED AT VARAVILLE

CHAPTER VII. HOW WILLIAM PROSPERED, AND HOW HE WENT TO ENGLAND TO VISIT KING EDWARD; AND WHO GODWIN WAS

CHAPTER VIII. OF HAROLD'S JOURNEY TO NORMANDY, AND WHAT HE DID THERE

CHAPTER IX. HOW KING EDWARD DIED, AND HAROLD WAS CROWNED IN HIS STEAD; AND HOW DUKE WILLIAM TOOK COUNSEL AGAINST HIM

CHAPTER X. HOW THE BARONS MET AT LILLEBONNE, AND WHAT AID THEY AGREED TO GIVE

CHAPTER XI. HOW THE NORMAN HOST MET AT ST. VALERY, AND SAILED THENCE

CHAPTER XII. HOW THE DUKE AND HIS HOST LANDED NEAR TO HASTINGS, AND MADE THEMSELVES A FORT

CHAPTER XIII. HOW AN ENGLISH KNIGHT RODE TO HAROLD WHO WAS FIGHTING TOSTI; AND WHAT MESSAGE WAS SENT BY THE DUKE

CHAPTER XIV. HOW THE ENGLISH CONSULTED, AND WENT TO MEET THE NORMAN HOST; AND HAROLD AND GURTH WENT FORTH TO RECONNOITRE

CHAPTER XV. WHAT FURTHER PARLEY WAS HAD BETWEEN THE KING AND DUKE WILLIAM BEFORE THE BATTLE

CHAPTER XVI. HOW BOTH HOSTS PASSED THE NIGHT AND MADE READY FOR BATTLE; AND HOW THE DUKE EXHORTED HIS MEN

CHAPTER XVII. WHO WAS CHOSEN TO BEAR THE DUKE'S GONFANON IN THE BATTLE

CHAPTER XVIII. HOW THE MEN OF ENGLAND MADE READY, AND WHO THEY WERE

CHAPTER XIX. HOW THE THREE NORMAN COMPANIES MOVED ON TO ATTACK THE ENGLISH

CHAPTER XX. HOW TAILLEFER SANG, AND THE BATTLE BEGAN

CHAPTER XXI. HOW THE ARCHERS SMOTE HAROLD'S EYE; AND WHAT STRATAGEM THE NORMANS USED

CHAPTER XXII. THE ROLL OF THE NORMAN CHIEFS; AND THEIR DEEDS

CHAPTER XXIII. THE ROLL OF THE NORMAN LORDS CONTINUED

CHAPTER XXIV. WHAT DEEDS OF ARMS DUKE WILLIAM DID; AND HOW HAROLD WAS SLAIN AND THE ENGLISH FLED

CHAPTER XXV. HOW WILLIAM WAS CROWNED KING; AND HOW HE AT LAST FELL ILL AT ROUEN

CHAPTER XXVI. HOW WILLIAM DIED, AND WAS BURIED AT CAEN

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

Отрывок из книги

To commemorate the deeds, the sayings, and manners of our ancestors, to tell the felonies of felons and the baronage of barons3, men should read aloud at feasts the gests and histories of other times; and therefore they did well, and should be highly prized and rewarded who first wrote books, and recorded therein concerning the noble deeds and good words which the barons and lords did and said in days of old. Long since would those things have been forgotten, were it not that the tale thereof has been told, and their history duly recorded and put in remembrance.

Many a city hath once been, and many a noble state, whereof we should now have known nothing; and many a deed has been done of old, which would have passed away, if such things had not been written down, and read and rehearsed by clerks.

.....

Great is the clamour and hard the strife; the swords are drawn, the lances clash. Many were the vassals to be seen there fighting, serjeants and knights overthrowing one another. The king himself was struck and beat down off his horse. A Norman whom no one knew had come up among them; he thought that if the king should fall, his army would soon be dispersed; so he struck at him 'de travers,' and overthrew him, and if his hauberk had not been very good, in my opinion he would have been killed. On this account the men of that country said, and yet say, jeering,

and if their knight had got clear away, they might well pass with their jeer. But when he tried to go off, and his horse had begun its course, a knight came pricking, and hit him, striking him with such violence as to stretch him out at full length. And he soon fared still worse than even that; for as he recovered himself, and would have mounted his horse, and had laid his hand on the saddle bow, the throng increased around, and bore him from the saddle, throwing him down; and the horses trod him underfoot, so that they left him there for dead.

.....