OLDRICH AND BOLESLAW.[1]
* * * into the forest black
To the nobles of the land,
And seven nobles there were met,
Each with a valiant band:
Beside him speedeth Vyhon Dub,
All in the gloom of night;
His band is of a hundred men,
All ready for the fight.
Sharp swords are in a hundred sheaths,
Strong arms to every sword,
And every heart to Vyhon true,
Attendant on his word.
- ↑ This poem treats of the defeat of Boleslaw Chrobry (Boleslaw the Brave), king of Poland, and the liberation of Bohemia from Polish dominion, in the beginning of the month of September, a.d. 1004. We have only about the third part of it remaining, contained in the pages of the Queen’s Court Manuscript (Book iii. chap. 25). From two strips of the preceding pages it is still to be seen, that the poem began with J(aromir). It was unquestionably written soon after the event it commemorates, as it agrees much better than the narrative of Kosmas with historical truth.
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