THE SCENE: Never underestimate the aggression of the Saxon people.
THE TEXT: Next the king sent his brother with an army into Saxony to lay it waste. But when he came to the city which is called Ober-Marsberg, it is related that he boastfully stated that the greatest trouble that he anticipated was that the Saxons would not dare to show themselves before the walls so that he could fight with them. While this speech was still on his lips, the Saxons came rushing upon him one mile from the city, and once the battle was joined they cut down the Franks with such slaughter that, as the ballad-makers tell us, hell must indeed be a large place, if it can contain so great a multitude of the slain. Eberhard, the king’s brother, was freed from his fear that the Saxons would not put in an appearance – for he saw them actually before him – and he fled, ignominiously pursued by them.
– The Deeds of the Saxons, Widukind of Corvey, 10th Century AD
