So grand was the old man's aspect, and so did he contrast in appearance the narrow garb and shaven chins of those around, that the Duke was roused from his reverie at the sight, and marvelling why one, evidently a chief of high rank, had neither graced the banquet in his honour, nor been presented to his notice, he turned to the Earl of Hereford, who approached him with gay salutation, and inquired the name and title of the bearded man in the loose flowing robe.
"Know you not, in truth ?" said the lively Earl, in some wonder.

"In him you see the great rival of Godwin.

He is the hero of the Danes, as Godwin is of the Saxons, a true son of Odin, Siward, Earl of the Northumbrians." [67] "Norse Dame be my aid,--his fame hath oft filled my ears, and I should have lost the most welcome sight in merrie England had I not now beheld him." Therewith, the Duke approached courteously, and, doffing the cap he had hitherto retained, he greeted the old hero with those compliments which the Norman had already learned in the courts of the Frank.
The stout Earl received them coldly, and replying in Danish to William's Romance-tongue, he said: "Pardon, Count of the Normans, if these old lips cling to their old words.

Both of us, methinks, date our lineage from the lands of the Norse.

Suffer Siward to speak the language the sea-kings spoke.