From the time when Beorn was made to speak the truth, I was a
welcome guest in the hall that had been Lodbrok's, to Hubba at
least, and we were good friends. As for Ingvar, he was friendly
enough also, and would listen when I spoke with his more frank and
open brother of my days with Halfden and his father. But he took
little pleasure in my company, going silent and moody about the
place, for the snow that began on the day after I landed was the
first of a great storm, fiercer and colder than any we knew in
England, and beyond the courtyard of the great house men could
scarcely stir for a time.
This storm I had but just escaped, and it seemed to me, and still
seems, that the terror and pain thereof was held back while I was
on the sea, for those nights and days had had no winter sting in
them.
Hubba and I would wrestle and practise arms in the hall or
courtyard during that time, and he was even beyond his father, my
teacher, in the matter of weapon play; so that it is no wonder that
now, as all men know, he is held the most famous warrior of his
time.
These sports Ingvar watched, and took part in now and then when his
mood was lighter, but it was seldom. Yet he was skilful, though not
as his brother.
Then at night was the fire of pine logs high heaped, and we feasted
while the scalds, as they call their gleemen, sang the deeds of the
heroes of old. And some of those of whom they sang were men of the
Angles of the old country; and one was my own forefather, and for
that I gave the scald my gold bracelet, and thereafter he sang
lustily in my praise as Lodbrok's rescuer.
Very pleasant it was in Ingvar's hall while the wind howled over
the roof, and the roar of the sea was always in our ears. And these
Danes drank less than our people, if they ate more largely. But
Ingvar would sit and take pleasure in none of the sport, being ever
silent and thoughtful.
But to me, best of all were the times when I might see and speak
with Osritha, and soon the days seemed heavy to me if by chance I
had no word with her. And she was always glad to speak of her
father and Halfden; for she was the youngest of all Lodbrok's
children, and Halfden, her brother, was but a year older than
herself, so that she loved him best of all, and longed to see him
home again.
So longed I, grieving for the news he must hear when he came to
Reedham, but yet thinking that he would be glad to find me at least
living and waiting for him.
Now, as the snow grew deeper and the cold strengthened, the wolves
began to come at night into the village, and at last grew very
daring. So one night a man ran in to say that a pack was round a
cottage where a child would not cease crying, and must be driven
off, or they would surely tear the clay walls down.
Then Hubba and I would go; but Ingvar laughed at us, saying that a
few firebrands would settle the matter by fraying the beasts away.
However, the man was urgent, and we went out with Raud and his
brother, and some twenty men, armed with spears and axes.
The night was very dark, and the snow whirled every way, and the
end of it was that Raud and I and two more men, with the dog Vig,
lost the rest, and before we found them we had the pack on us, and
we must fight for our lives. And that fight was a hard fight, for
there must have been a score of gaunt wolves, half starved and
ravenous.
And I think we should have fared badly, for at last I was standing
over Raud, who was down, dragged to the earth by two wolves, of
which the dog slew one and I the other, while the other two men
were back to back with me, and the wolves bayed all round us. But
Hubba and his party heard our shouts in time and came up, and so
ended the matter.
Now Raud must have it that I had saved his life, though I thought
the good dog had a share in it, and both he and the dog were a
little hurt. However, my shoulder was badly torn by a wolf that
leapt at me while my spear was cumbered with another, and I for my
part never wished it had not been so.
For Osritha, who was very skilful in leech craft, tended my hurt;
and I saw much of her, for the hurts were a long time before they
healed, as wolf bites are apt to be, and we grew very friendly. So
that, day by day, I began to long to see the maiden who cared for
my wound so gently, before the time came.
Now Raud must needs make me a spear from a tough ashen sapling that
he had treasured for a long time, because that which I had used in
the wolf hunt was sprung by the weight of one of the beasts, and
while his hurts kept him away at his own house he wrought it, and
at last brought it up to the hall to give to me.
When I looked at it--and it was a very good one, and had carved
work where the hand grips the shaft, and a carved end--I saw that
the head was one of Jarl Ingvar's best spearheads, and asked Raud
where he got it.
"Why," he said, "a good ash shaft deserves a good head, and so I
asked the jarl for one. And when he knew for whom it was, he gave
me this, saying it was the best he had."
Now I was pleased with this gift, both because I liked the man
Raud, who was both brave and simple minded, and because it showed
that the surly jarl had some liking for me. Yet I would that he
showed this openly, and telling Osritha of the gift, I dared say
so.
Then she sighed and rose up, saying that she would show me another
spear on the further wall, so taking me out of hearing of her
maidens, who sat by the fire busied over their spinning and the
like.
There she spoke to me of Jarl Ingvar.
"Moody and silent beyond his wont has he been since we have heard
all about our father's death, and I fear that he plans some
terrible revenge for it, even as he took revenge on the
Northumbrian coasts for the long-ago slaying of Ragnar."
Then I remembered the story of the burnt town, Streoneshalch, and
knew what Ingvar's revenge was like. But as yet I could not think
that he would avenge Beorn's deed further than I had seen already.
"But he has no enmity with you, our friend," she went on; "though
he speaks little to you, he listens as you talk to us. But there
has grown up in his heart a hatred of all men in your land, save of
yourself alone. And once he said that he would that you were a
Dane, and his comrade as you had been Halfden's."
Then I told Osritha of how Halfden had let me go from him rather
than have me fight against my own land. I had said nothing of this
to the jarls, for there was no reason. And this was the first time
that I had had private speech with Osritha.
"That is Halfden's way," she said, "he is ever generous."
"I would that he were back," I answered, and so we ceased speaking.
Yet after this, many were the chances I found of the like talk
alone with Osritha before the weather broke, and we could once more
get into the woods, hunting, and the men began to work in the ship
garths on a great ship that was being built.
Now we had good hunting in the forests, and on the borders of the
great mosses of Ingvar's lands. But there were many more folk in
this land than in ours, and I thought that they were ill off in
many ways. In those days of hunting, Ingvar, seeing me ride with
the carven spear that was partly his gift, and with Lodbrok's hawk
on my wrist, would speak more often with me, though now and again
some chance word of mine spoken in the way of my own folk would
seem to turn him gloomy and sullen, so that he would spur his horse
and leave me. But Hubba was ever the same, and I liked him well,
though I could not have made a friend of him as of Halfden.
In March messengers began to come and go, and though I asked
nothing and was told nothing, I knew well that Ingvar was gathering
a mighty host to him that he might sail in the May time across the
seas for plunder--or for revenge. The hammers went all day long in
the ship garths, where the air was full of the wholesome scent of
tar; and in their houses the women spun busily, making rope and
weaving canvas that should carry the jarl's men "over the swan's
bath;" while in the hall the courtmen sat after dark and feathered
arrows and twined bowstrings, and mended mail. And now and then
some chief would ride into the town, feasting that night, and
riding away in the morning after long talk with the jarls. And
some, Bagsac and Guthrum, Sidrac and his son, and a tall man named
Osbern, came very often as the days lengthened.
I would ask nothing of this matter, even of Osritha, having my own
thoughts thereon, and not being willing to press her on things she
might have been bidden to keep from me. She would ask me of my
mother and Eadgyth, as they would ask the jarl of her, and I told
her all I could, though that was not much, for a man hardly notes
things as a woman will. Then she would laugh at me; until one day I
said that I would she could come over to Reedham and see for
herself.
At that I thought that I had offended her, for her face grew red,
and she left me. Nor could I find a chance of speaking to her again
for many days, which was strange to me, and grieved me sorely.
Now the southwest wind shifted at last to the west and north, and
that shift brought home him whom I most wished to see, my comrade,
Halfden. And it chanced that I was the first to see his sail from
the higher land along the coast, south of the haven, where I was
riding with my falcon and the great dog Vig, which Raud and his
brother would have me take for my own after the wolf hunt.
Gladly I rode hack with my news to find Ingvar in the ship garth,
and there I told him who came.
"A ship, maybe. How know you she is Halfden's?" he said carelessly.
"Why, how does any sailor know his own ship?" I asked in surprise.
Then he turned at once, and smiled at me fairly for the first time.
"I had forgotten," he said. "Come, let us look at her again."
And I was not mistaken, though the jarl was not so sure as I for
half an hour or more. When he was certain, he said:
"Come, let us make what welcome for Halfden that we may."
And we went back to the hall, and at once was the great horn blown
to assemble the men; and the news went round quickly, so that
everywhere men and women alike put aside their work, and hurried
down to the wharf side. And in Ingvar's house the thralls wrought
to prepare a great feast in honour of Jarl Halfden's homecoming.
Soon I stood with the jarls and Osritha at the landing place, and
behind us were the courtmen in their best array. And as we came to
the place where we would wait, Halfden's ship came past the bar
into the haven's mouth.
All men's faces were bright with the thought of welcome, but heavy
were my thoughts, and with reason. For Halfden's ship came from the
sea on no course that should have borne him from Reedham, and I
feared that it was I who must tell him all. Yet he might have been
drawn from his course by some passing vessel.
The long ship flew up the channel, and now we could see that all
her rail was hung with the red and yellow shields that they use for
show as well as to make the gunwale higher against the arrows, and
to hinder boarders in a fight. And she was gaily decked with flags,
and shone with new paint and gilding in all sea bravery. Not idle
had her crew been in the place where they had wintered, and one
might know that they had had a good voyage, which to a Dane means
plunder enough for all. But surely if Halfden had been to Reedham,
the long pennon had been half masted.
It were long to tell how the people cheered, and how they were
answered from the ship, and how I spied Halfden on the fore deck,
and Thormod at the helm, as ever. And when Osritha saw Halfden's
gay arms and cloak and all the bright trim of the ship and men, she
said to me, speaking low and quickly:
"They have not been to Reedham, or it would not have been thus."
And it was true, for there would have been no sign of joy among
those who had heard the news that waited them there.
I knew not how to bear this meeting, but I was not alone in my
trouble, for nearer me crept Osritha, saying to me alone, while the
people cheered and shouted:
"How shall we tell Halfden?"
The two jarls were busy at the mooring place, and I could only
answer her that I could look to her alone for help. Now at that I
knew what had sprung up in my heart for Osritha, and that not in
this only should I look for help from her and find it, but if it
might be, all my life through. For now in my trouble she looked at
me with a new look, answering:
"I will help you, whatever betide."
I might say no more then, nor were words needed, for I knew all
that she meant. And so my heart was lightened, for now I held that
I was repaid for all that had gone before, and save for that which
had brought me here, gladly would I take my perilous voyage over
again to find this land and the treasure it now held for me.
At last the ship's keel grated on the sand, and the men sprang from
shore waist deep in water, to take her the mighty cables that
should haul her into her berth; and then the long gangplank was run
out, and Halfden came striding along it, looking bright and
handsome--and halfway over, he stopped where none could throng him,
and lifting his hand for silence cried for all to hear.
"Hearken all to good news! Lodbrok our Jarl lives!"
Then, alas! instead of the great cheer that should have broken from
the lips of all that throng, was at first a silence, and then a
groan--low and pitiful as of a mourning people who wail for the
dead and the sorrowful living--and at that sound Halfden paled, and
stayed no more, hurrying ashore and to where his brothers stood.
"What is this?" he said, and his voice was low, and yet clear in
the silence that had fallen, for all his men behind him had stopped
as if turned to stone where they stood.
Then from my side sprang Osritha before any could answer, meeting
him first of all, and she threw her arms round his neck, saying:
"Dead is Lodbrok our father, and nigh to death for his sake has
been Wulfric, your friend. Yet he at least is well, and here to
speak with you and tell you all."
Then for the great and terrible sorrow that came at the end of the
joyous homeward sailing, down on the hard sand Halfden the Jarl
threw himself, and there lay weeping as these wild Danes can weep,
for their sorrow is as terrible as their rage, and they will put no
bounds to the way of grief of which there is no need for shame. Nor
have they the hope that bids us sorrow not as they.
And while he lay there, all men held their peace, looking in one
another's faces, and only the jarls and Osritha and myself stood
near him.
Very suddenly he raised himself up, and was once more calm; then he
kissed the maiden, and grasped his brothers' hands, and then held
out both hands to me, holding mine and looking in my face.
"Other was the meeting I had planned for you and me, Wulfric, my
brother-in-arms. Yet you are most welcome, for you at least are
here to tell me of the days that are past."
"It is an ill telling," said Ingvar.
"That must needs be, seeing what is to be told," Hubba said
quickly.
But those wise words of Osritha's had made things easier for me,
for now Halfden knew that into the story of the jarl's death, I and
my doings must come, so Ingvar's words meant little to him.
"You went not to Reedham?" I said, for now the men were at work
again, and all was noise and bustle round us.
"I have come here first by Orkneys from Waterford, where we
wintered," he answered. "And I have been over sure that no mishap
might be in a long six months."
"What of the voyage?--let us speak of this hereafter," said Hubba.
And Halfden, wearily, as one who had lost all interest in his own
doings, told him that it had been good, and that Thormod would give
him the full tale of plunder.
Then came a chief from the ship whose face I knew, though he was
not of our crew. It was that Rorik whose ship the Bosham bell had
sunk, and who had been saved by Halfden's boats. He knew me, after
scanning me idly for a moment, and greeted me, asking why I was not
at Reedham to make that feast of which Halfden was ever speaking,
and so passed on.
So we went up to the great hall in silence, sorely cast down; and
that was Halfden's homecoming.
Little joy was there on the high place at the feast that night,
though at the lower tables the men of our crew (for so I must ever
think of those whose leader I had been for a little while, with
Halfden) held high revelling with their comrades. Many were the
tales they told, and when a tale of fight and victory was done, the
scald would sing it in verse that should be kept and sung by the
winter fire till new deeds brought new songs to take its place.
Presently Halfden rose up, after the welcome cup had gone round and
feasting was done, and the ale and mead began to flow, and he
beckoned me to come with him. Hubba would have come also, but
Ingvar held him back.
"Let Wulfric have his say first," he growled; and I thanked him in
my mind for his thought.
So we went to the inner chamber, where Osritha would sit with her
maidens, and Halfden said:
"This matter is filling all my thoughts so that I am but a gloomy
comrade at the board. Tell me all, and then what is done is done.
One may not fight against the Norn maidens {xiv}."
There I told him all my story, and he remembered how I had told
him, laughing, of Beorn's jealousy at first. And when my tale was
nearly done Osritha crept from her bower and came and sat beside
Halfden, pushing her hand into his, and resting her head on his
shoulder.
Then I ended quickly, saying that Ingvar had done justice on Beorn.
And at that remembrance the maiden shivered, and Halfden's face
showed that he knew what the man's fate was like to have been at
the great jarl's hands.
"So, brother," he said, when I left off speaking, "had I gone to
Reedham there would have been burnt houses in East Anglia."
"In Reedham?" said I.
"Wherever this Beorn had a house; and at Caistor where that old
fool Ulfkytel lives, and maybe at one or two other places on the
way thither. And I think your father and Egfrid your brother would
have helped me, or I them."
So he doubted me not at all, any more than I should have doubted
his tale, were he in my place and I in his.
Then I said that I myself had no grudge against Earl Ulfkytel, for
he had sent me here.
"Why then, no more have I," answered Halfden; "for he is a wiseacre
and an honest one, and maybe meant kindly. Ingvar would have slain
both guilty and innocent, and told them to take their wrangle
elsewhere, to Hela or Asgard as the way might lead them."
Now as he said that, I, who looked ever on the face of her whom I
loved, saw that a new fear had come into Osritha's heart, and that
she feared somewhat for me. Nor could I tell what it was. But
Halfden and I went on talking, and at last she could not forbear a
little sob, and at that Halfden asked what ailed her.
"May I speak to you, my brother, very plainly, of one thing that I
dread?" she asked, drawing closer to him.
"Aye, surely," he answered in surprise.
"Remember you the words that Ingvar said to the priest of the White
Christ who came from Ansgar at Hedeby {xv}, while our father
was away in the ships?"
"Why, they were like words. He bade him go and settle the matter
with Odin whom he would not reverence, and so slew him."
"Aye, brother. And he said that so he would do to any man who would
not honour the gods."
"Why do you remember that, Osritha?"
"Because--because there will be the great sacrifice tomorrow, and
Wulfric, your friend, is not of our faith."
Then Halfden was silent, looking across at me, and all at once I
knew that here was a danger greater than any I had yet been
through. Fire I had passed through, and water, and now it was like
to be trial by steel. And the first had tried my courage, and the
next my endurance, as I thought; but this would try both, and my
faith as well.
"That is naught," said Halfden, lightly. "It is but the signing of
Thor's hammer, and I have seen Wulfric do that many a time, only
not quite in our way, thus;" and he signed our holy sign all
unknowing, or caring not. "And to eat of the horse that is
sacrificed--why, you and I, Wulfric, did eat horse on the Frankish
shores; and you thought it good, being nigh starved--you remember?"
I remembered, but that was different; for that we did because the
shores were so well watched that we ran short of food, and had to
take what we could under cover of night at one time. But this of
which Osritha spoke was that which Holy Writ will by no means
suffer us to do--to eat of a sacrifice to idols knowingly, for that
would be to take part therein. Nor might I pretend that the holy
sign was as the signing of Thor's Hammer.
"Halfden," I said, having full trust in him, "I may not do this. I
may not honour the old gods, for so should I dishonour the White
Christ whom I serve."
"This is more than I can trouble about in my mind," said Halfden;
"but if it troubles you, I will help you somehow, brother Wulfric.
But you must needs come to the sacrifice."
"Cannot I go hunting?"
"Why, no; all men must be present. And to be away would but make
things worse, for there would be question."
Then I strengthened myself, and said that I must even go through
with the matter, and so would have no more talk about it. But
Osritha kept on looking sadly at me, and I knew that she was in
fear for me.
Now presently we began to talk of my home and how they would mourn
me as surely lost. And I said that this mourning would be likely to
hinder my sister's wedding for a while. And then, to make a little
more cheerful thought, I told Halfden what his father had said
about his wishing that he had been earlier with us.
"Why, so do I," said my comrade, laughing a little; "for many
reasons," he added more sadly, thinking how that all things would
have been different had he sailed back at once.
Then he must needs go back to the question of the sacrifice.
"Now I would that you would turn good Dane and Thor's man, and bide
here with us; and then maybe--"
But Osritha rose up quickly and said that she must begone, and so
bade us goodnight and went her way into the upper story of that end
of the great hall where her own place was. Whereat Halfden laughed
quietly, looking at me, and when she was quite gone, and the heavy
deerskins fell over the doorway, said, still smiling:
"How is this? It is in my mind that my father's wish might easily
come to pass in another way not very unlike."
That was plain speaking, nor would I hesitate to meet the kindly
look and smile, but said that indeed I had come to long that it
might be so. But I said that the jarl, his father, had himself
shown me that no man should leave his old faith but for better
reasons than those of gain, however longed for. For that is what he
had answered Eadmund the king when the land was offered him, and he
was asked to become a Christian.
"Yet if such a thing might be," said Halfden, "gladly would I hail
you as brother in very truth."
So we sat without speaking for a while, and then Halfden said that
were I to stand among the crowd of men on the morrow there would
surely be no notice taken of me.
Yet as I lay on my wolf skins at the head of the great hall, and
prayed silently--as was my wont among these heathen--I asked for
that same help that had been given to men of old time who were in
the same sore strait as I must very likely be in tomorrow.
Then came to me the thought: "What matters if outwardly I reverence
Thor and Odin while I inwardly deny them?" and that excuse had nigh
got the better of me. But I minded what our king had told me many a
time: how that in the first christening of our people it had ever
been held to be a denying of our faith to taste the heathen
sacrifices, or to bow the head in honour, even but outward, of the
idols, so that many had died rather than do so. And he had praised
those who thus gave up their life.
Then, too, I remembered the words of the Prior of Bosham concerning
martyrs. And we had been led to speak of them by this very question
as to sacrifice to the Danish gods. So I made up my mind that if I
might escape notice, I would do so--and if not, then would I bear
the worst.
So I fell asleep at last. And what it may have been I know
not--unless the wind as it eddied through the high windows clashed
some weapon against shield on the walls with a clear ringing
sound--but I woke with the voice of Bosham bell in my ears--and
Rorik and Halfden each in his place started also, and Rorik
muttered a curse before he lay down again, for he sat up, looking
wildly.
But greatly cheered with that token was I, for I knew that help was
not far from me, and after that I had no more fear, but slept
peacefully, though I thought it was like to be my last night on
earth.