When we came back to Aller, the first thing that I did was to tell
Neot of our meeting with Odin while his wild hunt went on through
the tempest, telling him how that I had feared unwisely, and also
of Harek's brave withstanding of the danger.
"It is said that our forefathers met Odin in like wise in the days
of the first christening of our race," he said. "I do not know what
to make thereof, seeing that I hold Odin as nought; but I think
this, that in some way Satan tried to destroy you before you were
baptized. Wherefore, whether Odin or mortal man drew you to that
place, I have no doubt what power saved you."
But Sigehelm thought that we had met with Satan himself in the
shape of the old god, and so also thought Guerir the hermit, who
told strange tales of like appearings among the Welsh hills where
he was born.
As for Alfred the king, he marvelled, and said even as Neot. But he
added this:
"I know the mine shaft well, and it is in my mind that some day
Odin's bones will be found at the bottom thereof. Nevertheless
there is more than mortal in what has happened to you by way of
trial."
Now came the time when Guthrum and his thirty comrades should seek
the king, and I have no words to tell of that time when in the
peaceful church we heathen stood white-robed and unarmed altogether
at the font, while Sigehelm, with a wonderful gathering of priests,
enlisted us as warriors of the Cross. It was, as all men think, the
most mighty victory that Alfred had ever gained.
At that time he chose Guthrum as his own son in the faith, and
named him Athelstan {xviii}, as the first and most noble stone
of the new building up of the church among the Danes. Neot would
not have our names changed, for he said we had wronged the faith in
them not at all. Odda stood for Osmund, as Neot for us.
After that was joyous feasting, and the loosing of the chrism bands
at Alfred's royal town of Wedmore, whither we went in bright
procession through the long summer day. Four days we bided there,
till we knew that the great Danish host was on its march homewards,
and then Guthrum and his comrades must join it. But before he went
he accepted from Alfred the gifts that an under-king should take
from his overlord, and they were most splendid. All men knew by
those tokens given and taken that Alfred was king indeed, and that
Guthrum did but hold place by his sufferance. Those two parted in
wondrous friendship with the new bond of the faith woven round
them, and the host passed from Wessex and was gone.
Yet, as ever, many a long year must pass by before the track of the
Danes should be blotted out from the fair land they had laid waste.
Everywhere was work to hand on burnt hall and homestead, ruined
church, and wasted monastery. There was nought that men grieved
over more than the burning of King Ine's church at Glastonbury, for
that had been the pride of all the land. Once, after the Chippenham
flight, the monks had dared to go out in sad procession to meet the
fierce raiders at the long dike that bars the way to Avalon, and
for that time they had won safety for the place--maybe by the loss
of their treasures given as ransom, or, as some say, by the power
of fearless and unarmed men; for there were men in the Danish host
whose minds were noble, and might well be touched thereby. But
Hubba's men could not be withheld after they had lost their mighty
leader, and the place must feel their fury of revenge.
Now after the host was gone we went back to Taunton, and there
Alfred called together his Witan, that he might set all things in
order with their help; and at that time, before the levies were
dismissed, he bade me seek out such men as would take to the ships
as his paid seamen. Therein I had no hard task, for from the ruined
coast towns came seafarers, homeless and lonely, asking nought
better than to find a place in the king's fleet, and first of all
were the Parret-mouth men and my fisher of Wareham. Presently, with
one consent, the Witan made me leader of the king's Wessex sea
levies, offering me the rank and fee of an English ealdorman, with
power to demand help in the king's name from all sea-coast sheriffs
and port reeves in whatever was needed for the ships, being
answerable to the throne only for what I should do. And that I
accepted willingly for love of Alfred, who was my friend, and for
the sake of comradeship with those valiant men who had fought
beside me when Hubba fell, and at Edington.
Then must I set myself to my new charge, having nought to do with
all the inland work that was before the king; and when the next
day's business was over, I went to tell him of this wish of mine,
and of some other matters that were on my mind whereof one may
easily guess.
Alfred sat in his private chamber in the great house that King Ine
built, and on the table before him were a great ink horn and other
writing gear, and beside him sat on a low stool his chaplain,
reading to him out of a great book while the king wrote. The rough
horn cage wherein was a candle, that he had planned in wind-swept
Athelney, stood close at hand, against the time of dusk that was
near. Ever was Alfred planning things like this, even in his
greatest troubles; and therein he was wise, for it is not good to
keep the mind full of heavy things alone. Moreover, as we wondered
at his skilful devices in these little things, we took heart from
his cheerful pleasure in them.
When the chamberlain brought me in, the great book was put aside,
and the pen set down, and the king looked up at me with his bright
smile.
"Welcome, my ship thane," he said. "Come and sit here beside me. I
have somewhat to read to you."
So I sat down wondering, and he turned back to some place in his
writing, and took the little knife that lay by him--for he had lost
his jewelled book staff in Athelney--and running its point along
the words, read to me from the writings of some old Roman what he
had been busy putting into good Saxon:
"Now when the Roman folk would make a fleet hastily, and had no
rowers, nor time to train them rightly, they built stages like to
the oar benches of a ship in a certain lake, and so taught the men
the swing and catch of the long oars."
"Will not that plan serve us, Ranald?" he said.
"Ay, lord," I answered, laughing. "In good truth, if a man can
learn to keep time, and swing rightly, and back water, and the
like, on such a staging, it is somewhat. But it will be hard work
pulling against dead water from a stage that moves not. Nor will
there be the roll and plunge of waves that must be met."
"Nor the sore sickness whereof Odda speaks," Alfred said, with his
eyes twinkling. "But I think that if the Romans found the plan
good, it will be so for us."
So we talked of this for a while, and I will say now that in after
days we tried it, and the plan worked well enough, at least in the
saving of time. Alfred's book learning was ever used for the good
of his people, and this was but one way in which he found ready
counsel for them.
This was pleasant talk enough, and neither I nor the king grew
weary thereof, but the good monk slept at last, and presently the
darkness fell, and Alfred dismissed him.
One came and lit the torches on the wall, and still we spoke of my
work, until at last Alfred said:
"So you must be busy, and I am glad. When will you set out, and
where will you go first?"
Now what I wanted to ask him was where Osmund the jarl had gone. He
had ridden to Taunton from Aller, that he might be present at
Thora's christening, and that their chrism loosing {xix} might
be held at the same time; and I had looked to find both here, but
they were gone. Nor had they left any word for me, and I was
troubled about that. So I was about to tell the king what was in my
mind concerning Thora first of all, and my heart began to beat
strangely. But he waited not for me to answer him.
"Stay," he said, smiling a little. "Before you go I must have a
hostage from my wild viking, lest he be, as it were, let loose on
the high seas where I cannot reach him."
Then he laughed, at my puzzled face, I suppose, and I saw that he
had some jest that pleased him.
"What hostage can I give, lord king?" I said. "Shall I leave Harek
and his harp with you?"
"Harek would charm our ears, and would escape," Alfred answered.
"Nay, but I must give you house and lands for a home, and therein
you shall leave a fair wife, whose loneliness will bring you ashore
now and then."
I thought there was more to come, and I liked not this at all, for
it went too closely with my fears of what might be. So I bowed, and
answered nothing as yet, while he looked laughingly at me.
"Why," he cried, "half my thanes would have gone wild with joy if I
had promised them either half of what I have said I would give to
you. Are you so fond of the longships and the restless waves that
you will not be bound to the shore?"
"Nay, my king," I said; "but I cannot yet rightly understand all
that you mean for me."
"Well, it means that I must find you a rich wife, as I think I can.
What say you to that fair lady of Exeter town and Taunton--Odda's
daughter, Etheldreda?"
"My king," I answered, somewhat over-gladly maybe, "Ethelnoth of
Somerset, my good comrade, might have some grudge against me if I
cast favouring eyes in that direction. Let this bide for a little
while, I pray you, King Alfred. Yet I would not have you think me
ungrateful, for indeed I know well what kindness is in your thought
for me."
"Nay, but I have it in my mind that you were fond of going to
Taunton not so long since, and one might well think that a maiden's
hair drew you. Well, if Ethelnoth has outdone you there, I am sorry
for your sake, not his. Cheer up, nevertheless. There are more
maidens and well dowered in our broad Wessex coasts, and I am
minded to see how far you will obey your new overlord."
"This is great kindness, King Alfred," I answered; "but we Northmen
are apt to keep some matters wherein to prove our freedom. I pray
you not to press this on me."
"Faith," he said, as if to himself, "this viking might be in love
already, so wrathful grows he--
"Now, Ranald, it is true that I have set my mind on your wedding a
maiden who is rich, and dowered with a coast town, and a good
harbour, moreover, where you might keep all your ships under your
own eye. I would not have you disappoint me so soon."
Then I said plainly,
"King Alfred, I am loth to do so. But from the very first day that
I set foot in England there has been one maiden whose ways have
seemed to be bound up with my own, and I can wed none but her. If
it does not seem good to you that I should do so now, let me wait
till times have grown easier between Saxon and Dane. I think that
you may know well that I shall fight none the worse for you if I
must strive to win your consent."
"That is straightforward," he said, smiling as if he would seem
content. "Let it be so. But it is only fair that before we close
this bargain you should see the well-dowered fair lady of whom I
speak."
"I will do so if this matter is unknown to her," I answered, "else
would be trouble, perhaps, and discomfort. But it is of no use. I
have eyes and heart but for that one. Do I know the lady already,
perhaps?"
"I believe that you may do so," Alfred said, looking grieved, in a
strange way, as if he were half minded to laugh at me for all his
seeming vexation. "Odda says that you do, and so also says
Etheldreda. Her name is Thora, daughter of Jarl Osmund, and she
will have Wareham town and Poole in right of her marriage, as dower
to her and to my sea captain."
So spoke the king quickly, and then he could make pretence no
longer, but laughed joyously, putting his hands on my shoulders and
shaking me a little, while he cried:
"Ay, Ranald; I did but play with you. True lover you are indeed, as
I thought. If you are faithful to the king as to the maiden of your
choice, both she and I are happy, and it is well."
Then I knew not how to thank him; but he said that Etheldreda and
Odda, Heregar and the Lady Alswythe, and maybe Guthrum also, as
Thora's guardian, were to be thanked as well.
"You have found many friends here in England already, Ranald my
cousin," Alfred said. "Wait until you meet some gathering of them
all at Wareham, presently perhaps, where Osmund and Thora are
preparing for a wedding--and then make a great thanking if you
will, and save words. But I wonder that I have never heard of this
matter from you before, for we have been close comrades."
"You must have heard thereof today, my king," I answered; "and you
were but beforehand with me. I could speak of such things now that
peace has come. Yet I feared that you would be against my wedding a
Danish lady."
"It was a natural thought," answered Alfred; "but Thora and Osmund
are ours, surely. Perhaps I should have doubted were your mind set
on any other. But I have no fears for you."
Then he pondered a little, and went on:
"You say that peace has come. So it has--for a time; and had we to
do only with the force that is in England now, I think it would
grow and strengthen. We cannot drive out the Danes, and there is
room in England for both them and us, and in the days to come the
difference of race will be forgotten--not in our time, Ranald, but
hereafter, as long years go by. Some day one of my line, if God
will, shall reign alone over a united England, stronger for the new
blood that has come among us. But it is a great charge that I give
to you, Ranald. What we have to fear are the new hosts that come
from Denmark, and only a strong fleet can stay them from our
shores. I can deal with those who are here, and these in time will
help me against fresh comers to the land. There is that in English
soil that makes every settler an Englishman in heart. But there is
warfare before us yet, and the fleet must break the force of the
storm, if it cannot altogether turn it aside."
Then his grave voice changed, and he laughed.
"Heavy things are these to speak in the ears of a bridegroom, but
you know all I mean. Now go your ways, and seek Odda, who will
rejoice to see you; for word comes from him that his master, Thord
the viking, is saying hard things to him because the men do not
come in readily to man the ships. At the summer's end I shall be in
Winchester, and thence I will come to Wareham to see the fleet, and
your wedding also. Go now, and all good go with you."
So Alfred the king set me forth in brotherly wise, speaking on the
morrow to my men to bid them serve him and England well under me.
And after that all came to pass as the king had planned, and at the
summer's end there was a bright wedding for us in Wareham town,
while in the wide haven rode at anchor the best fleet that England
had ever seen.
So that is how I came to be called "King Alfred's Viking," and made
this land my home. What this Wessex fleet of mine has done since
those days has been written by others in better words than I can
compass; and Harek, whom they call "King Alfred's Scald" nowadays,
has made song of what he has seen at my side in English waters; and
more he may have to make yet, for the North has not yet sent forth
all her hosts. Only I will say this, that if we have not been
altogether able to stay the coming of new Danish fleets to the long
seaboard that must needs lie open to them here and there till our
own fleets are greater, at least they know that the host may no
longer come and go as they will, for Alfred's ships have to be
reckoned with.
Now of ourselves I will add that Thora and I have many friends, but
the best and closest are those whom we made in the days when Hubba
came and fell under the shadow of the Quantock Hills, and they do
not forget us.
Into our house sometimes come Heregar and Ethered, Denewulf the
wise and humble, Odda, and many more, sure of welcome. Only the
loved presence of Neot the holy is wanting, for he died in Cornwall
in that year of the end of the troubles, and I think that in him I
lost more than any save Alfred himself.
Osmund went back to East Anglia for a time, but there he grew
wearied with the wrangling of the Danish chiefs as they shared out
the new land between them; so he bides with us, finding all his
pleasure in the life of farm and field, which is ever near to the
heart of a Dane. With him goes old Thord, grumbling at the thralls
in strange sea language, and yet well loved. Not until he was
wounded sorely in a sea fight we had and won under the Isle of
Wight would he leave the war deck; but even now he is the first on
board when the ships come home, and he is the one who orders all
for winter quarters or for sailing.
Now for long I would that I might look once more on Einar of the
Orkneys, my kind foster father, who still bided there in peace,
hearing of him now and then as some Norse ship, on her way to join
Rolf's fleet in the new land of the Northmen beyond our narrow
seas, put into our haven for repair, perhaps after the long voyage,
or to see if King Alfred would hire her men for a cruise against
the common foe--the Danes. And it was not until the news of his
death came thus to me that the home longing for the old lands
altogether left me; but since that day my thoughts have been, and
will be, for England only. I have no thought or wish that I were
sharer in Rolf's victories, nor have my comrades, Harek and Kolgrim
and Thord; for we have with Alfred more than the viking could have
given us.
I suppose that in days to come out of this long strife shall be
wrought new strength and oneness for England, even as Alfred in his
wisdom foresees; but as yet sword Helmbiter must be kept sharp, and
the ships must be ever ready. But unless the wisdom of Alfred is
forgotten, there will never again be wanting a ship captain of
English race, as when I, a stranger, was called to the charge of
the king's ships in Wessex. The old love of the sea is waking in
the hearts of the sons of Hengist.
Therefore I am content, for here have I found the sweetest wife,
and the noblest master, and the fairest land that man could wish.
And the fear of the old gods is taken from me, and to me has come
honour, and somewhat of the joy of victory in a good cause--the
cause of freedom and of peace.
Now I write these things as springtime grows apace, and at any
time--today, or tomorrow, or next day--into our hall may come
Kolgrim my comrade, his scarred face bright with the light of
coming battle, to say that Danish ships are once more on the
gannet's path; and the sword of Sigurd will rattle in the golden
scabbard, and a great English cheer will come from the haven, for
King Alfred's ships are ready.
The End.
Notes.
i A Norse homestead consisted of several buildings--the great
hall standing alone and apart from the domestic arrangements.
ii The Norse assembly, corresponding to a Saxon "Folkmote," or
representative council for a district.
iii Unearthly. The trolls were the demons of the Northern
mythology.
iv Byrnie, the close-fitting mail shirt.
v The consecrated silver ring kept in the temple of the
district, and worn by the godar, or priest, at all assemblies where
it might be necessary to administer an oath. Odin, Frey, and Niord
were always called to witness an oath on this ring.
vi God-rede = "good counsel," or "God's counsel," as Alfred
means "elves' counsel."
vii Asser's "Life of Alfred." This illness never left the king
from his twentieth year to his death. Probably it was neuralgic, as
it seems to have been violent pain without lasting effect.
viii This was called "prime signing," and was practically the
admission of the heathen as a catechumen.
ix The "Havamal" was the Northern poem which practically
embodied the ancient code of morals and behaviour.
x The use of bells was popular early in England, and not less
so because a freeman who could afford to build a church with a bell
tower became a thane in consequence.
xi The national representative assembly, and origin of our
parliament.
xii Now Normandy, and so called after Rolf's Northmen.
xiii This charm against the "evil eye" was used in the west of
England until quite lately, and may still linger. The charm against
sprains is one yet recorded in the original tongue.
xiv Alfred had Denewulf instructed, and made him Bishop of
Winchester.
xv In 845 A.D. Bishop Eahlstan and the levies of Somerset and
Dorset defeated the first Danes who landed in Wessex, at the mouth
of the Parret.
xvi Trading vessel, more heavily built than the swift
longships.
xvii The "wild hunt" is still believed to pass over Cannington
and the Quantock Hills, the sounds of the migration of flocks of
sea fowl probably keeping the tradition alive.
xviii Athelstan = "noble stone."
xix Confirmation.
End of Project Gutenberg's King Alfred's Viking, by Charles W. Whistler