A chief before him leant upon his club, 131 With hideous visage bush'd with tawny hair. "Who plays at bowls must count upon a rub," Said the bruised Gawaine, with a smiling air; "Brave sir, permit me humbly to suggest You make your gyves too tight across the breast." Grinn'd the grim chief, vouchsafing no reply; 132 The knight resumed--"Your pleasant looks bespeak A mind as gracious;--may I ask you why You fish for Christians in King Arthur's creek?" "The kings of creeks," replied that hideous man, "Are we, the Vikings and the sons of Ran! "Your beacon fires allured us to your strands, 133 The dastard herdsmen fled before our feet, Thee, Odin's raven guided to our hands; Thrice happy man, Valhalla's boar to eat! The raven's choice suggests it's God's idea, And marks thee out--a sacrifice to Freya!" As spoke the Viking, over Gawaine's head 134 Circled the raven with triumphal caw; Then o'er the cliffs, still hoarse with glee, it fled. Thrice a deep breath the knight relieved did draw, Fair seem'd the voyage--pleasant seem'd the haven; "Bless'd saints," he cried, "I have escaped the raven!" NOTES TO BOOK VI. 1.--Page 293, stanza ii. _Stretch'd o'er the steel-clad hush their swordless hands._ See Tacitus, lib. xiv. cap. 30, for the celebrated description of the attack on the Druids, in their refuge in Mona, under Publius Suetonius. 2.--Page 296, stanza xxv. _"You know the proverb--'birds of the same feather,' A proverb much enforced in penal laws._ In Welch laws it was sufficient to condemn a person to be found with notorious offenders. 3.--Page 299, stanza xl. _'Twould favour white, and raise the deuce in black._ If the celebrated controversy between Black and White, which divided the Cymrian church in King Arthur's days, should seem to suggest a parallel instance in our own,--the Author begs sincerely to say that he is more inclined to grieve than to jest at a schism which threatens to separate from so large a body of the upholders of the English church the abilities and learning of no despicable portion of the English clergy. There is a division more dangerous than that between theologian and theologian--viz., a division between the Pastors and their flocks--between the teaching of the pulpit and the sympathy of the audience. Far from the Author be the rash presumption to hazard any opinion as to matters of doctrine, on which--such as Regeneration by Baptism--it cannot be expected that, for the sake of expediency or even concord, the remarkable thinkers who have emerged from the schools of Oxford should admit of compromise;--but he asks, with the respect due to zeal and erudition, whether it be worth while to inflame dispute, and risk congregations--for the colour of a gown? 4.--Page 300, stanza lii.