其尔得·克里斯托弗.pdf

其 尔得 ·克里斯托 弗 CHAPTER I . OF THE KING OF OAKENREALM, AND HIS WIFE AND HIS CHILD . Of old there was a land which was so much a woodland, that a minstrel thereof said it that a squirrel might go from end to end, and all about, from tree to tree, and never touch the earth : 1 therefore was that land called Oakenrealm . The lord and king thereof was a stark man, and so great a warrior that in his youth he took no delight in aught else save bat- tle and tourneys . But when he was hard on forty y ears old, he came across a daughter of a certain lord, whom he had van- quished, and his eyes bewrayed him into longing, so that he gave back to the said lord the havings he had conquered of him that he might lay the maiden in his kingly bed .So he brought her home with him to Oakenrealm and wedded her . Tells the tale that he rued not his bargain, but loved her so dearly that for a y ear round he wore no armour, save when she bade him play in the tilt - yard for her desport and pride . Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair So wore the days till she went with child and was near her time, and then it betid that three kings who marched on Oaken- realm banded them together against him, and his lords and thanes cried out on him to lead them to battle, and it behoved him to do as they would . So he sent out the tokens and bade an hosting at his chief cit- y, and when all was ready he said farewell to his wife and her babe unborn, and went his ways to battle once more: but fierce was his heart against the foemen, that they had dragged him away from his love and his j oy . Even amidst of his land he j oined battle with the host of the 2 rava