Meanwhile the news reached Harold of England; he got together his housecarls and such other troops as could be mustered at the moment, and by a march of almost incredible speed he was able to save the city and all northern England.
Such was the array of the housecarls and of the thegns who had followed Harold from York or joined him on his march.
As for those who had burnt the hall, he was sure that they were led by Gymbert, and that they were no housecarlsof Offa's.
The rough housecarls heard also, and there went a word or two among them; and their grim faces lightened, for one shame, at least, had been taken from the house of their master.
For now we were in sight of the palace on its little hill, and from its gates came toward us a train of folk, guarded by men of Offa's own housecarls in front and rear, as if those who travelled were no common wayfarers.
We began by daylight, and ended in the red blaze of torches set in sconces all down the hall, and in the whiter shine of great wax tapers which armed housecarls held behind us on the high place.
A little chapel, cross crowned, stood on its left, and the guest house and guard rooms for the housecarls to the right, stretching across the centre of the camp where once the Roman huts had been.
Werbode and Erling went off with the horses to the stables, and some of the housecarls took charge of the wounded man.
Beyond the other door lay the housecarls of Offa down the long hall where we had feasted, and within his own chambers there were a score or more of the young thanes of his bodyguard sleeping across his own doors.
I saw one or two of Elfric's housecarls among them, and the rest were the sheriff's own men, with a few franklins who had joined him on the road.
Now it happened that on this night I must be one of the two housecarls who should stand, torch in hand, behind the king.
Then thehousecarls made a rush, and bore back our men, and the horse reared suddenly.
So I showed him the gold, and he wondered at it, and laughed, saying that the housecarls had the best place after all.
There was great feasting that night in the king's hall, as one may suppose, and I sat with the housecarls at the cross tables beyond the fire, and I could see the Lady Goldberga at Alsi's side.
And as the housecarls came in they hung their shields and weapons on the walls in order, so that they flashed bright from above the hangings that Berthun and his men had set up afresh and more gaily than I had seen yet in this place.
Light up your beacon if he comes, and shut your gates in his face, and I and the housecarls will take him in the rear, and he will not wait here long.
Good sport enough it was to see the brawnyhousecarls heave it from the ground and swing it.
But he did not see the man he meant, and so turned sharply on us two housecarls behind him.
But before long there rode from one of the farmsteads an Englishman of some rank, who had been sent for, as it would seem, and he came with half a dozen armed housecarls behind him to see what was going on.
And then he gave us a good guard of his housecarls to take us down the street, as if he feared some danger.
His housecarls fought where they stood till they fell one by one; his brothers, Gurth and Leofwin, died beside him.
Just a year afterwards he received a message from Harold to come up to London, and to order hishousecarls to hold themselves in readiness to start immediately on receiving an order from him.
Few indeed of the housecarls drew off under cover of the darkness; their force being almost annihilated.
The housecarls were the only regular portion of the army The great bulk of the force, both land and sea, consisting of the levies or militia, whose term of service was very limited.
The housecarls kept together, moving as closely as possible to each other.
Even after that they fought sturdily for a short time, and had there been but a body of housecarls to form a shield-wall, behind which they could have rallied, the day might still have been theirs.
The housecarls are as merry over the food they have brought with them as if they were going upon a march of pleasure through the hills, while the border levies evidently regard the business as a serious one.
I hear that our coming has made a great stir here in Salisbury, the citizens do not know what to make of so large a body of housecarls arriving in their midst.
The landing was unopposed; the housecarls were away north with their king, the levies were scattered to their homes.
The addition then of three hundred housecarls was required to give them confidence.
The housecarlsmarched in a body, keeping solid order.
The housecarls of Steyning had fallen to a man where they stood, and among them after some searching they came upon the body of Osgod, distinguished alike by its bulk and the loss of an arm.
In the centre were the housecarls of the royal house and those of the thanes, together with the men of Kent, whose right it was ever to be in the front of a battle, and the London citizens under their sheriff.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "housecarls" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
