The following is an excerpt from Chapter XVII of Wulfhere by A.B. Higginson, "How the Bear People Feast On Human Flesh for the First Time, and Like It." Penda, cruel lord of Mercia, has sent his men to hunt for Wulfhere. Little do they know what awaits them...

Wulfhere and Eanhere and their army of bears crept down the valley silently. From a cliff they could see Penda’s men as they sat in a little grove eating their midday meal. Eanhere took half the bears and crept round to the other side of the grove while Wulfhere waited on this side with the rest. Wulfhere crept quietly closer till only a small knoll stood between the Mercians and himself, and he could hear their loud talk and laughter.

“Ha, we will root this bear out of his den, and he will go the way of his people!” one said as he emptied his horn of mead.

“Penda will give us good fat cattle for this,” said another.

“Who is afraid of bears?” bawled a great fellow with an ax the size of two on his shoulder. “Let all the bears in England come along; I’ll make short work of them, I warrant!”

“I would I had this Wulfhere here before me,” said Coelred. “I’d wring his neck as a butcher wrings a chicken’s!”

“Wulfhere is here; come now and wring his neck!”

Every man of them leaped to his feet, and looking up saw Wulfhere standing on the knoll but twenty paces off. They made as if to rush upon him, but Coelred waved them back.

“Stand still!” he cried. “He is for me!”

He drew his sword and strode to meet Wulfhere. It was a battle between ax and sword, and terrible were the blows that fell, for Coelred was a mighty man and a skilful swordsman.

“Stick him i’ the belly, Coelred!” shouted a soldier.

“Carve me a bearsteak from his hams!” another cried.

“His claws for me to make a necklace for my lady!” said another.

“Now, Bear, I have thee!” cried Coelred as his sword shore through the handle of Wulfhere’s ax.

“Not yet!” shouted Wulfhere, and he threw the piece of handle left in his hands into the Mercian’s face, then leaped in at him and drove his dagger through his throat.

The Mercians made a rush upon him, but in a flash he had seized Coelred’s sword, and calling his bears he shouted their battle-cry and fell upon his assailants. The bears poured over the knoll and flung themselves upon the soldiers. They were brave men, those Mercians, and made a bold stand, slaying many of their savage foes, but the beasts were two to one and they had no chance against them. Some turned and fled only to be met by Eanhere and his host.

Soon there was not a soldier left alive, and that day for the first time the bear people feasted on human flesh, and liked it well. The brothers would have stopped them if they could, but what could two men do against eightscore of bears, fierce from the taste of blood. They gathered up some swords and went aside into the woods that they might not see the horrid sight.

“Eanhere, my vengeance is begun on Penda. I will not finish till Penda himself is dead,” Wulfhere said.

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