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Three bad omens for three greatest warriors

After the English King Edward the confessor died, Harold was crowned king. No sooner did Harold fought Harald Hardrada in Stamford Bridge and killed the Viking leader, he rushed to the south to the battle in Hastings with William the Duke of Normandy.

There were three bad omens for these three great warriors. Their attitude toward the bad omen is quite interesting, we can see how a man can change a disadvantage to advantage, and nuisance to encouragement.

At the end of April, a couple of nights after Easter, there was a terrifying sign that disaster might be about to strike die English. A weird "long-haired star" appeared in the night sky; a star that seemed to have a tail of glowing white fire. We know it now as Halley's Cormet and it was making its usual 76-year appearance, but to the superstitious people of 1066 it was a supernatural omen; its fiery "tail was a warning of the actual fires that would follow below it, in its wake. Harold stood with members of the witangemot outside Edward's palace at Westminster, what did he make of this sign? Even if Harofd was not the superstitious man, without modern science, he couldn't do any thing to be an bad omen-breaker, except that he can find another explanation which may be in his advantage.

The Vikings wreaked havoc along the north-eastern coastline of Englan and they put ashore at Cleveland. It was said that Harald jumped ashore he stumbled and fell - a very bad omen. But Harald might be just a great warrior rather than a smart politician. This same stumble-and-fall happened to William Bastard the Duke of Nomandy.

Legend has it that William stumbled as he set foot ashore. William would have been perfectly aware that this was considered a bad omen, so he lifted up handfuls of shingle and shouted that he was seizing his new kingdom in both hands. And what is more, it looked as though he was going to do so without any resistance.

From a man's response to a bad omen, we seems already know a man's fate.

[caption id="attachment_214" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Death of Harold"]The Death of Harold[/caption]

William might be  superstitious himself, but he has the capability of changing almost any bad omen into a good one, and grab any chance to encourage his soldier, and laughed off  frustrations.

It is said that in an uncharacteristic show of nerves, he managed to put his hauberk on back to front. Knowing how superstitious his soldiers were, he laughed off this potential bad omen by saying, "Thus shall my dukedom be turned into kingdom."
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