CHAPTER VII.  HOW OSWALD CROSSED THE DYFED CLIFFS, AND MET WITH FRIENDS.

  Chapter VIII.  How Oswald lost A hunt, and found somewhat strange in
  Caerau woods.

CHAPTER IX.  WHY IT WAS NOT GOOD FOR OWEN TO SLEEP IN THE MOONLIGHT.

  Chapter X. How the Eastdean manors and somewhat more passed from
  Oswald to Erpwald.

  Chapter XI.  How Erpwald fell from Cheddar cliffs; and of another
  warning.

  Chapter XII.  Of the message brought by Jago, and A meeting in
  Dartmoor.

  Chapter XIII.  How Oswald and Howel dared the secret of the menhir, and
  met A wizard.

  Chapter XIV.  How Oswald found what he sought, and rode homeward with
  Nona the princess.

CHAPTER XV.  HOW ERPWALD SAW HIS FIRST FIGHT ON HIS WEDDING DAY.

  Chapter XVI.  Of matters of ransom, and of forgiveness asked and
  granted.

  Chapter XVII.  How Oswald found A home, and of the last peril of Owen
  the prince.

  Notes.

PREFACE.

A few words of preface may save footnotes to a story which deals with the half-forgotten days when the power of a British prince had yet to be reckoned with by the Wessex kings as they slowly and steadily pushed their frontier westward.

The authority for the historical basis of the story is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which gives A.D. 710 as the year of the defeat of Gerent, king of the West Welsh, by Ina of Wessex and his kinsman Nunna.  This date is therefore approximately that of the events of the tale.

With regard to the topography of the Wessex frontier involved, although it practically explains itself in the course of the story, it may be as well to remind a reader that West Wales was the last British kingdom south of the Severn Sea, the name being, of course, given by Wessex men to distinguish it from the Welsh principalities in what we now call Wales, to their north.  In the days of Ina it comprised Cornwall and the present Devon and also the half of Somerset westward of the north and south line of the river Parrett