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Athelstan king,

Of earls the Lord,

Of Heroes the bracelet giver,

And his brother eke,

Edmund Atheling,

Life-long glory,

In battle won,

With edges of swords,

Near Brunanburgh.

The field was dyed

With warriors blood,

Since the sun, up

At morning tide,

Mighty planet,

Gilded o’er grounds,

God’s candle bright,

The eternal Lord’s,

Till the noble creature

Sank to her rest.

...

West Saxons onwards

Throughout the day,

In numerous bands

Pursued the footsteps

Of the loathed nations.

They hewed the fugitives,

Behind, amain,

With swords mill-sharp.

Mercians refused not

The hard-hand play

To any heroes,

Who with Anlaf,

Over the ocean,

In the ship’s bosom,

This land sought.

...

There was made to flee

The Northmens’ chieftain,

By need constrained,

To the ships prow

With a little band.

The bark drove afloat.

The king departed.

On the fallow flood

His life he preserved.

The Northmen departed

In their nailed barks

On roaring ocean.

Athelstan, in order to encourage commerce and agriculture, enacted that any of the humbler classes, called Ceorls, who had crossed the sea thrice with their own merchandise, or who, individually, possessed five hides of land, a bell-house, a church, a kitchen, and a separate office in the king’s hall, should be raised to the privileged rank of Thane. Sometime in the interval between the death of this monarch, in 941, and the arrival of William the Conqueror, the Hundred of Amounderness had been relinquished by the See of York, probably owing to frequent wars and disturbances having so ruined the country and thinned the inhabitants that the grant had ceased to be profitable.