FREY STARTS ON HIS ROUNDS
The weather was mild and open when Frey set out in his wagon, and the
roads were heavy. They plunged into the forest ways, where the tracks
were swimming in melting snow, and the air was rife with dripping trees.
But the birds were all awake, the buds were shining, there was spring in
the air. Gunnar walked beside the oxen and touched their necks now and
then with the nodding point of his switch; Frey kept his bed, and Sigrid
trudged beside Gunnar, heedless of the wet and mire. Sometimes she took
his hand, sometimes his arm; sometimes his arm supported her. She was
very happy, talked and laughed as she had never before.
Now she could laugh at Frey, it seems. "Frey is snoozing," she said.
"He doesn't see what we see."
"No," said Gunnar; "but let him alone. He will have to work by and by.
It is no light matter to order the yearly affairs of the earth."
"No, indeed," she said. "Besides, you have cut him off his
blood-offerings which he loves."
"He will be all the better for that," Gunnar replied. "Such food makes
fat."
The first village which they reached received them with acclamations.
Children with flowers, women with their children, men with their women,
were there to receive them. They crowded the green track, they came
flying through the forest on all sides. The oxen trudged over budded
boughs and the first-born of flowers. The curtains of the forepart were
open. Sigrid sat in the wagon by the side of Frey, who shook on his
perch. The people were frantic, and many tried to climb the cart that
they might touch Frey's new cloak, or kiss the budded staff in his hand.
Gunnar had all to do to keep them free of the wheels. The elders of the
village were before the first house and turned when the wagon drew nigh
to walk before it to the god-house. It was late by the time they had
reached it and got Frey carried in; but there were torchlights
everywhere flaring about like fiery serpents, and burning all the pools
of water till they looked like melted gold.
They told of great sacrifice in the morning, a boy and girl who were but
just mature, and a foreign woman who had been found lost and benighted
in the time of snow. Then Gunnar made it plain to them that these things
were not to be. "Frey," he said, "utterly abhors this bloodshedding,
which, if you persist in it, will fairly ruin your tillage of the year.
I know what he will do, for he has done it already. He will turn his
back upon your fields, and nothing will move him. Be warned therefore,
before it is too late."
The people were dismayed, and many murmured. Then Gunnar said, "Bring me
your victims, and I will show you the mind of Frey"; which was done. The
victims, bound tightly with withy-bands, were set before him. With his
knife Gunnar cut their bonds. "You are free," he said, "and no one dare
touch you, for Frey wills it. He will bless these fields, seeing that he
has blessed you, who are more to him than fields."
Sigrid, who was standing close by, now said, "He speaks truly the mind
of Frey, as I myself can testify."
So that year there were no bloody rites, but all other things were done
as they had been from time out of mind. They carried Frey about their
fields, and said prayers and sang his praises; and so they went on their
way through the forest from village to village. Everywhere Gunnar
stopped the sacrifices, and everywhere Sigrid upheld him. In time she
was even beforehand with him, and much more vehement than he had ever
been. He admired the spirit in which she did it, but advised her to be
prudent. "If you say too much," he told her, "they will believe you to
be under my thumb." She did not reply to that at first; but presently
she said, "If they charged me with that I should not gainsay it."
He smiled with his eyes as well as his lips. "You might find it a softer
one than Frey's," he said. She turned away her face, but gave him her
hand to hold. He began to talk his nonsense, setting himself the task of
making her laugh; for he thought to himself, "They are better when they
laugh, for they cannot do it unless their hearts are light."