and all his people to the faith with him.
Then it happened that the faithful Oswald,
the king of the Northumbrians, had come to Cynegils,
and took him to baptism, fain of his conversion.
Then the kings, Cynegils and Oswald,
gave to the holy Birinus the city of Dorchester
for a bishop's see, and he dwelt therein,
exalting the praise of God, and guiding
the people in the faith by his teaching for a long time,
until he happily departed to Christ;
and his body was buried in the same city,
until Bishop Hedda afterwards carried his bones
to Winchester, and with honour deposited them
in the old Minster, where men honour them yet
Now Oswald the king held his kingdom
gloriously as for the world, and with great faith,
and in all his deeds honoured his Lord,
until he was slain in the defence of his people
in the ninth year that he had obtained the rule,
when he himself was thirty-eight years old.
It happened because Penda, king of the Mercians,
made war upon him, he who formerly had assisted
Cadwalla at the slaying of his kinsman king Edwin;
and this Penda knew nothing of Christ,
and all the Mercian people were unbaptised as yet.
They came both to battle at Maserfield,
and engaged together until the Christians fell,
and the heathen approached the holy Oswald.
Then he saw approach his life's ending,
and he prayed for his people who died falling,
and commended their souls and himself to God,
