The poem was thenamended and expandedas “The King’s Task? to a total of 76 lines, in Inclusive Verse, Songs from Books, Definitive Verse, the Burwash Editionpage 170, Volume 34, and The Works of Rudyard Kipling(Wordsworth Poetry Library, 1994) The enlarged version is dated 1902 in Definitive Verse, (published in 1940) the year after King Edward VII (1841-1910) came to the throne on the death of his mother, Queen Victoria, even though the poem first appeared in Traffics and Discoveriesin 1904.
Notes on
the text
The original 18 lines
[Line 1] the sack of the city Rome was captured and looted by the barbarians in 410.
[Line 8]Andredalso 'Andrasta' or 'Adraste', a warrior goddess
[Line 9] the Witanthe Anglo-Saxon assembly, a forerunner of Parliament.
[Line 9<] flayingthe removal of skin from the body, a dreadful torture if done to the living.
[Line 10] Folkland, commontypes of landholding.
[Line 10] pannagethe right of pasturing swine on the floor of the forest.
[Line 11] Statutes of tun etclaws governing the sale of goods in a market.
[Line 12] Brambera pretty village on the River Adur above Shoreham, Sussex, once a thriving port known as Portus Adurni, fortified by the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans
[Line 12] keelin this context an open boat.
[Line 13] Druidsa Celtic order of priests
[Line 15] Legionsin this context Roman armies.
[Line 18] headlandsin this context unploughed land at the ends of the field.
Notes on
the text
The enlarged version
[Line 5] Stubborn all were his people from cottar to overlorda cottar was a man who occupied a cottage and land from his lord in return for work. See the verse “Norman and Saxon"
[Line 10] loppagethe right of freemen to cut branches from the lord’s trees with an axe as high as they could reach.
[Line 19]Hamtunnow the port of Southampton in Hampshire.
[Line 19] Bosenham now Bosham, (pronounced 'bozzum') near Chichester
[Line 20] Usenot traced
[Line 20] Lewesthe county town of East Sussex
[Line 21] Witanthe Anglo-Saxon Assembly, the forerunner of Parliament
[Line 22]> Selseaa seaside village near Chichester; scene of the verse "Eddi's Service"
[Line 22] Cymen’s Orea Saxon landing-place on the coast of Sussex or Hampshire, the exact whereabouts of which is under investigation by archaeologists.
[Line 25] beechmastthe nut of the beech tree (Fagus)used as food for pigs.
[Line 25] Pannagethe right of pasturing swine on the floor of the forest.
[Line 25] Beltanethe ancient Celtic Mayday celebrations with bonfires,
[Line 28] Rugnornot traced
[Line 29] Gillingnot traced
[Line 29] Basingan Anglo-Saxon settlement in Hampshire
[Line 29] Alresforda settlement in Hampshire, the neighbouring county, north-east of Winchester.
[Line 40] bucklerssmall round shields.
[Line 47] Warlockssorcerers.
[Line 64] ague'Intermittent Fever' – it also appears as the Bailiff of the Marshes in “Dymchurch Flit? (Puck of Pook's Hill). See Dr. Gillian Sheehan’s Notes.
[Line 64] Oxeneya small village near Lincoln.
[Line 67] leviesin this context men called up for military service.
[Line 68] thaneone holding land from the king or nobleman in return for military service.
[Line 70] They thumb and mock and belittle…see “Stellenbosch? and other South African verses.
[Line 71] onward the gilded staffa play on words, here mocking the staff officers who mismanaged affairs in the Boer war. See “The Song of the Old Guard?, “The Dykes?, “Rimmon?, “The City of Brass?, and other verse in the same vein, pleading that army and people will prepare for modern war.
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the poem, original version