PEACE, AND FAREWELL.
Now there was feasting enough, and somewhere they found at a thane’s
house a great tent, and they set that up, so that Havelok and Goldberga
might have their own court round them, as it were. Gladly did Berthun
rid himself of war gear and take to his old trade again. I suppose that
the little Tetford valley had never heard the like sounds of rejoicing
before.
Near midnight a man came to me and said that a message had come to me
from the other side, and I rose from the board and went out, to find
Eglaf waiting for me in the moonlight. He was armed, and his face was
wan and tired.
“Come apart, friend,” he said; “I have a message from the king.”
“To me?”
“No, to Havelok. But you must hear it first, and then tell him as you
will.”
We walked away from the tent and across the hillside for some way, and
then he said without more words, “This is the message that Alsi sends
to Havelok, whose name was Curan. ‘Forgive the things that are past,
for many there are that need forgiving. I have no heir, and it is for
myself that I have schemed amiss. In Lincoln town lies a great
treasure, of which Eglaf and I alone know. Give it, I pray you, to your
Danes, that they may harm the land not at all, and so shall I ward off
some of the evil that might come through me even yet. I think that,
after me, you shall be king.’”
“That is wise of Alsi; but is there no word for Goldberga?”
“Ay, but not by my mouth. I fetched David the priest two hours ago, and
he bears those messages.”
“Is there yet more to say?” I asked, for it seemed to me that there
was.
“There is,” he answered. “Alsi is dead.”
So there was an end of all his schemings, and I will say no more of
them. It was Eglaf’s thought that it was not so much his hurts that had
killed the king, but a broken heart because of this failure. For the
second time now I knew that it is true that “old sin makes new shame.”
Now how we told Havelok this, and how Goldberga was somewhat comforted
by the words that David the priest brought her from her uncle, there is
no need to say. But when the news was known in all the host of Lindsey,
there was a great gathering of all in the wide meadow, and we sat in
the camp and wondered what end should be to the talk. Ragnar had come;
but his host was now no great one, for we had sent word to him of the
peace, and there was a great welcome for him and his men.
The Lindsey thanes did not talk long, and presently some half dozen of
the best of them came to us, and said that with one accord the
gathering would ask that Havelok and Goldberga should reign over them.
“We will answer for all in the land,” they said. “If there are other
thanes who should have had a word in the matter, they are not here
because, knowing more than we, they would not fight for Alsi in this
quarrel. If there is any other man to be thought of, he cannot go
against the word of the host.”
“I have my kingdom in Denmark,” said Havelok, “and my wife has hers in
Anglia. How should we take this? See, here is Ragnar of Norwich; he is
worthy to be king, if any. Here, too, is the Earl of Chester, who led
you. It will be well to set these two names before the host.”
“The host will have none but Havelok and Goldberga,” they said.
So the long-ago visions came to pass, and in a few days more we were
feasting in the old hall at Lincoln. But before we left the valley of
the battle we laid in mound in all honour those who had fallen. Seven
great mounds we made, at which men wonder and will wonder while they
stand at Tetford. For well fought the Danes of Goldberga, and well
fought the Lindseymen on that day. Yet I think that those who would
fain have lived to see the victory had their share in it, as they stood
in their grim and silent ranks behind us.
Then was a new crowning of those two, and messages to the overlord of
Lindsey, sent by the thanes, to say that all was settled on the old
lines of peaceful tribute to be paid; and then, when word and presents
came back from him, Goldberga rose up on the high place where she had
been so strangely wedded, and looked down at the joyous faces of her
nobles at the long tables.
“When I was crowned in Denmark,” she said, “there was a promise made
me, that when this day came to me in Norfolk I might ask one boon of
all who upheld me. I do not know if I may ask it here and now, for the
promise was made by my husband’s people. Yet it is a matter that is
dear to my heart that I shall seek from you all, if I may.”
Then all the hall rang with voices that bade her ask what she would;
and she bowed and flushed red, and hesitated a little. Then she took
heart and spoke.
“It is but this,” she said. “Let the poor Christian folk bide in peace;
and if teachers come from the south or from the north presently who
will speak of that faith, bear with them, I pray you, for they work no
harm indeed.”
Almost was she weeping as she said this, and her white hands were
clasped tightly before her. But she looked bravely at the thanes, and
waited for the answer, though I think that she feared what it would be.
But an old thane rose up in his place, smiling, and he answered, “If
you had commanded us this, my queen, it would have been done. The
Christian folk, if there are any, shall have no hurt. I think that we
had forgotten the old days of trouble with them. Yet I hear that in
Kent the new faith, as it seems to us, is being taught, and that the
king looks on it with favour. It may be that here it will come also.
For your sake I will listen if a teacher comes to me.”
The thanes thought little of this boon, and they all answered that it
was freely granted. But they said that it was no boon to give, and bade
her ask somewhat that was better.
“Why then,” she said, “if I must ask more, think no more of me as queen
save as that I am the wife of the king. Havelok is your ruler in good
sooth.”
That pleased them all well, and they laughed and wished that all had
wives who had no mind to rule.
“Here is word that is going home to my wife,” said one to his
neighbour. “If the queen sets the fashion of obedience, it behoves all
good wives to follow her leading.”
“Maybe I would let some other than yourself tell the lady that,”
answered the other thane with a great laugh, for he knew that household
and its ruler.
So Goldberga had her will, and then began the long years of peace and
happiness to the kingdoms of which all men know. Wherefore I think that
my story is done. What I have told is halting maybe, and rough, but it
is true. And Goldberga, my sister, says that it is good. Which is all
the praise that I need.
So far went Radbard, my friend, and then he would tell no more. So it
is left to me, Wislac the priest, who have written for him, to finish.
He says that everyone knows the rest, and so they do just now. But in
the years to come, when this story is read, men will want to know more.
So it is fit that I should end the story, telling things that I myself
know to be true also.
Sigurd’s host went back in the autumn, rich with the treasure of Alsi
the king; and from that time forward no Danish host ever sought our
shores. Wars enough have been in England here, but they have not harmed
us. No host has been suffered to cross the borders of Lindsey or East
Anglia, save in peace, and in the wars of Penda of Mercia Havelok has
taken no part. Yet he has had to fight to hold his own more than once,
but always with victory, for always the prayers of the few Christians
have been with him.
They set Earl Ragnar to hold the southern kingdom for Havelok and his
wife; and presently, when he was left a widower, he wedded the youngest
daughter of Grim, Havelok’s foster father. Eglaf was captain of the
Lincoln courtmen or housecarls, whichever the right name may be among
those who speak of them. One name is Danish and the other English, but
they mean the same. As for my good friend Radbard, he was high sheriff
before long, and that he is yet. He wedded Ragnar’s sister the year
that Havelok was crowned in Norwich, which was the next year after the
crowning at Lincoln.
Raven went back to the sea, and he will now be in Denmark or else on
the Viking path with Sigurd, for that is what he best loves. Arngeir
bides at Grimsby, high in honour with all, and the port and town grow
greater and more prosperous year by year. Wise was Grim when he chose
to stay in the place where he had chanced to come, if it were not more
than chance that brought him. I suppose that for all time the ships
that are from Grimsby will be free from all dues in the ports that are
Havelok’s in the Danish land. Witlaf, the good old thane, bides in his
place yet, and he rejoices ever that he had a hand in bringing Havelok
up. Nor does our king forget that.
Indeed, I think that he forgets naught but ill done toward him. Never
is a man who has done one little thing for him overlooked, if he is met
by our king after many years, and that is a royal gift indeed.
I would that all married folk were as are this royal couple of ours.
Never are they happy apart, and never has a word gone awry between
them. If one speaks of Havelok, one must needs think of Goldberga; and
if one says a word of the queen, one means the king also. Happy in
their people and in their wondrous fair children are they, and that is
all that can be wished for them.
There was one thing wanting for long years, that I and Withelm ever
longed for for Havelok—a thing for which Goldberga prayed ever. I came
to them from Queen Bertha in Kent, when good old David died; and at
that time Havelok was not a Christian, but surely the most Christian
heathen that ever was. I knew that he must come into the faith at some
time; and I, at least, could not find it in my heart to blame him
altogether for holding to the Asir whom his fathers worshipped. It was
in sheer honesty and singleness of heart that he did so, and I had
never skill enough to show him the right. But Withelm, who has long
been a priest of the faith, and shall surely be our bishop ere long,
had more to do with his conversion than any other.
Yet it did not come until the days when Paulinus came from York and
preached with the fire of the missionary to us all. And then we saw the
mighty warrior go down to the water in the white robe of the
catechumen, and come therefrom with his face shining with a new and
wondrous light.
Then he founded a monastery at Grimsby, that there the men of the
marsh, who had been kind to him in the old days, might find teachers in
all that was good; and there it will surely be after many a long year,
until there is need for its work no more, if such a time ever comes.
So the land grows Christian fast, and good will be its folk if they
follow the way of king and queen and their brothers.
Now have I finished also, and this is farewell. Look you, husbands and
wives, that you may be said to be like Havelok and Goldberga; and see,
brothers, that you mind the words that Grim spoke to his sons, and
which they heeded so well—
“Bare is back without brother behind it.” And that is a true word,
though it was a heathen who spoke it.
THE END.
[1] I have to thank the Mayor of Grimsby for most kindly furnishing me
with an impression of this ancient seal.
[2] Now Nishni-Novgorod, from time immemorial the great meetingplace
of north and south, east and west.
[3] The _garth_ was the fenced and stockaded enclosure round a
northern homestead.
[4] The _seax_ was the heavy, curved dagger carried by men of all
ranks.
[5] The northern sea god and goddess.
[6] Men drowned at sea were thought to go to the halls of Pan and
Aegir. Ran is represented as fishing for heroes in time of storm.
[7] The Norns were the Fates of the northern mythology.
[8] The “Witanagemot,” the representative assembly for the kingdom,
whence our Parliament sprang.
[9] The greatest term of reproach for a coward.
[10] The gold ring kept in the Temple of the Asir, on which all oaths
must be sworn.
[11] The sanctuary of the Asir. Thorsway and Withern in Lincolnshire
both preserve the name in the last and first syllable respectively,
both meaning “Thor’s sanctuary.”
[12] The northern equivalent of the Saxon “Folkmote,” or general
assembly of the people.