His head was bare, nor had he other weapon of offence than the gilt battle-axe of the Danes--weapon as much of office as of war; but his broad breast was covered with the ring mail of the time.

His stature was lower than that of any of his sons; nor did his form exhibit greater physical strength than that of a man, well shaped, robust, and deep of chest, who still preserved in age the pith and sinew of mature manhood.

Neither, indeed, did legend or fame ascribe to that eminent personage those romantic achievements, those feats of purely animal prowess, which distinguished his rival, Siward.

Brave he was, but brave as a leader; those faculties in which he appears to have excelled all his contemporaries, were more analogous to the requisites of success in civilised times, than those which won renown of old.

And perhaps England was the only country then in Europe which could have given to those faculties their fitting career.