And be thou
my high king, and I will be thy underling, and send thee to hand five
hundred pounds of gold; these gifts I will thee find, every year."
Arthur granted him all that the king yearned, and afterwards he held
communing with his good thanes, and said that he would return again
into this land, and see Wenhaver, the comely queen of the country.
Trumpets he caused to be blown, and his army to assemble; and to ship
marched the thanes wondrous blithe. The wind still stood them at will;
weather as they would; blithe they were all therefore; up they came to
Grumesby. That heard soon the highest of this land, and to the queen
came tiding of Arthur the king, that he was come in safety, and his
folk in prosperity. Then were in Britain joys enow! Here was fiddling
and song, here was harping among, pipes and trumps sang there merrily.
Poets there sung of Arthur the king, and of the great honour, that he
had won. Folk came in concourse of many kind of land; wide and far the
folk was in prosperity. All that Arthur saw, all it submitted to him,
rich men and poor, as the hail that falleth; was there no Briton so
wretched, that he was not enriched!
Here man may tell of Arthur the king, how he afterwards dwelt here
twelve years, in peace and in amity, in all fairness.
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