Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066; Middle Ages -- Sources
After these things shall come forth a hern from
the forest of Calaterium, which shall fly round the island for two years
together. With her nocturnal cry she shall call together the winged
kind, and assemble to her all sorts of fowls. They shall invade the
tillage of husbandmen, and devour all the grain of the harvests. Then
shall follow a famine upon the people, and a grievous mortality upon the
famine. But when this calamity shall be over, a detestable bird shall go
to the valley of Galabes, and shall raise it to be a high mountain. Upon
the top thereof it shall also plant an oak, and build its nest in its
branches. Three eggs shall be produced in the nest, from whence shall
come forth a fox, a wolf, and a bear. The fox shall devour her mother,
and bear the head of an ass. In this monstrous form shall she frighten
her brothers, and make them fly into Neustria. But they shall stir up
the tusky boar, and returning in a fleet shall encounter with the fox;
who at the beginning of the fight shall feign herself dead, and move the
boar to compassion. Then shall the boar approach her carcass, and
standing over her, shall breathe upon her face and eyes. But she, not
forgetting her cunning, shall bite his left foot, and pluck it off from
his body. Then shall she leap upon him, and snatch away his right ear
and tail, and hide herself in the caverns of the mountains. Therefore
shall the deluded boar require the wolf and bear to restore him his
members; who, as soon as they shall enter into the cause, shall promise
two feet of the fox, together with the ear and tail, and of these they
shall make up the members of a hog. With this he shall be satisfied, and
expect the promised restitution. In the meantime shall the fox descend
from the mountains, and change herself into a wolf, and under pretence
of holding a conference with the boar, she shall go to him, and craftily
devour him. After that she shall transform herself into a boar, and
feigning a loss of some members, shall wait for her brothers; but as
soon as they are come, she shall suddenly kill them with her tusks, and
shall be crowned with the head of a lion. In her days shall a serpent be
brought forth, which shall be a destroyer of mankind. With its length it
shall encompass London, and devour all that pass by it. The mountain ox
shall take the head of a wolf, and whiten his teeth in the Severn. He
shall gather to him the flocks of Albania and Cambria, which shall drink
the river Thames dry. The ass shall call the goat with the long beard,
and shall borrow his shape. Therefore shall the mountain ox be incensed,
and having called the wolf, shall become a horned bull against them. In
the exercise of his cruelty he shall devour their flesh and bones, but
shall be burned upon the top of Urian. The ashes of his funeral-pile
shall be turned into swans, that shall swim on dry ground as on a river.
They shall devour fishes in fishes, and swallow up men in men. But when
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