A YARD or two from the threshold Gold-mane hung back a moment, entangled
in some such misgiving as a man is wont to feel when he is just about to
do some new deed, but is not yet deep in the story; his new friends noted
that, for they smiled each in their own way, and the woman drew her hand
away from his. Face-of-god held out his still as though to take hers
again, and therewithal he changed countenance and said as though he had
stayed but to ask that question:
‘Tell me thy name, tall man; and thou, fair woman, tell me thine; for how
can we talk together else?’
The man laughed outright and said: ‘The young chieftain thinks that this
house also should be his! Nay, young man, I know what is in thy thought,
be not ashamed that thou art wary; and be assured! We shall hurt thee no
more than thou hast been hurt. Now as to my name; the name that was born
with me is gone: the name that was given me hath been taken from me: now
I belike must give myself a name, and that shall be Wild-wearer; but it
may be that thou thyself shalt one day give me another, and call me
Guest.’
His sister gazed at him solemnly as he spoke, and Face-of-god beholding
her the while, deemed that her beauty grew and grew till she seemed as
aweful as a Goddess; and into his mind it came that this over-strong man
and over-lovely woman were nought mortal, and they withal dealing with
him as father and mother deal with a wayward child: then for a moment his
heart failed him, and he longed for the peace of Burgdale, and even the
lonely wood. But therewith she turned to him and let her hand come into
his again, and looked kindly on him and said: ‘And as for me, call me the
Friend; the name is good and will serve for many things.’
He looked down from her face and his eyes lighted on her hand, and when
he noted even amid the evening dusk how fair and lovely it was fashioned,
and yet as though it were deft in the crafts that the daughters of
menfolk use, his fear departed, and the pleasure of his longing filled
his heart, and he drew her hand to him to kiss it; but she held it back.
Then he said: ‘It is the custom of the Dale to all women.’
So she let him kiss her hand, heeding the kiss nothing, and said soberly:
‘Then art thou of Burgdale, and if it were lawful to guess, I would say
that thy name is Face-of-god, of the House of the Face.’
‘Even so it is,’ said he, ‘but in the Dale those that love me do mostly
call me Gold-mane.’
‘It is well named,’ she said, ‘and seldom wilt thou be called otherwise,
for thou wilt be well-beloved. But come in now, Gold-mane, for night is
at hand, and here have we meat and lodging such as an hungry and weary
man may take; though we be broken people, dwellers in the waste.’
Therewith she led him gently over the threshold into the hall, and it
seemed to him as if she were the fairest and the noblest of all the
Queens of ancient story.
When he was in the house he looked and saw that, rough as it was without
it lacked not fairness within. The floor was of hard-trodden earth
strewn with pine-twigs, and with here and there brown bearskins laid on
it: there was a standing table near the upper end athwart the hall, and a
days beyond that, but no endlong table. Gold-mane looked to the
shut-beds, and saw that they were large and fair, though there were but a
few of them; and at the lower end was a loft for a sleeping chamber dight
very fairly with broidered cloths. The hangings on the walls, though
they left some places bare which were hung with fresh boughs, were fairer
than any he had ever seen, so that he deemed that they must come from far
countries and the City of Cities: therein were images wrought of warriors
and fair women of old time and their dealings with the Gods and the
Giants, and Wondrous wights; and he deemed that this was the story of
some great kindred, and that their token and the sign of their banner
must needs be the Wood-wolf, for everywhere was it wrought in these
pictured webs. Perforce he looked long and earnestly at these fair
things, for the hall was not dark yet, because the brands on the hearth
were flaming their last, and when Wild-wearer beheld him so gazing, he
stood up and looked too for a moment, and then smote his right hand on
the hilt of his sword, and turned away and strode up and down the hall as
one in angry thought.
But the woman, even the Friend, bestirred herself for the service of the
guest, and brought water for his hands and feet, and when she had washed
him, bore him the wine of Welcome and drank to him and bade him drink;
and he all the while was shamefaced; for it was to him as if one of the
Ladies of the Heavenly Burg were doing him service. Then she went away
by a door at the lower end of the hall, and Wild-wearer came and sat down
by Gold-mane, and fell a-talking with him about the ways of the Dalesmen,
and their garths, and the pastures and growths thereof; and what temper
the carles themselves were of; which were good men, which were ill, which
was loved and which scorned; no otherwise than if he had been the goodman
of some neighbouring dale; and Gold-mane told him whatso he knew, for he
saw no harm therein.
After a while the outer door opened, and there came in a woman of some
five-and-twenty winters, trimly and strongly built; short-skirted she was
and clad as a hunter, with a bow in her hand and a quiver at her back:
she unslung a pouch, which she emptied at Wild-wearer’s feet of a leash
of hares and two brace of mountain grouse; of Face-of-god she took but
little heed.
Said Wild-wearer: ‘This is good for to-morrow, not for to-day; the meat
is well-nigh on the board.’
Then Gold-mane smiled, for he called to mind his home-coming of
yesterday. But the woman said:
‘The fault is not mine; she told me of the coming guest but three hours
agone.’
‘Ay?’ said Wild-wearer, ‘she looked for a guest then?’
‘Yea, certes,’ said the woman, ‘else why went I forth this afternoon, as
wearied as I was with yesterday?’
‘Well, well,’ said Wild-wearer, ‘get to thy due work or go play; I meddle
not with meat! and for thee all jests are as bitter earnest.’
‘And with thee, chief,’ she said, ‘it is no otherwise; surely I am made
on thy model.’
‘Thy tongue is longer, friend,’ said he; ‘now tarry if thou wilt, and if
the supper’s service craveth thee not.’
She turned away with one keen look at Face-of-god, and departed through
the door at the lower end of the hall.
By this time the hall was dusk, for there were no candles there, and the
hearth-fire was but smouldering. Wild-wearer sat silent and musing now,
and Face-of-god spake not, for he was deep in wild and happy dreams. At
last the lower door opened and the fair woman came into the hall with a
torch in either hand, after whom came the huntress, now clad in a dark
blue kirtle, and an old woman yet straight and hale; and these twain bore
in the victuals and the table-gear. Then the three fell to dighting the
board, and when it was all ready, and Gold-mane and Wild-wearer were set
down to it, and with them the fair woman and the huntress, the old woman
threw good store of fresh brands on the hearth, so that the light shone
into every corner; and even therewith the outer door opened, and four
more men entered, whereof one was old, but big and stalwarth, the other
three young: they were all clad roughly in sheep-brown weed, but had
helms upon their heads and spears in their hands and great swords girt to
their sides; and they seemed doughty men and ready for battle. One of
the young men cast down by the door the carcass of a big-horned mountain
sheep, and then they all trooped off to the out-bower by the lower door,
and came back presently fairly clad and without their weapons.
Wild-wearer nodded to them kindly, and they sat at table paying no more
heed to Face-of-god than to cast him a nod for salutation.
Then said the old woman to them: ‘Well, lads, have ye been doing or
sleeping?’
‘Sleeping, mother,’ said one of the young men, ‘as was but due after last
night was, and to-morrow shall be.’
Said the huntress: ‘Hold thy peace, Wood-wise, and let thy tongue help
thy teeth to deal with thy meat; for this is not the talking hour.’
‘Nay, Bow-may,’ said another of the swains, ‘since here is a new man, now
is the time to talk to him.’
Said the huntress: ‘’Tis thine hands that talk best, Wood-wont; it is not
they that shall bring thee to shame.’
Spake the third: ‘What have we to do with shame here, far away from dooms
and doomers, and elders, and wardens, and guarded castles? If the new
man listeth to speak, let him speak; or to fight, then let him; it shall
ever be man to man.’
Then spake the old woman: ‘Son Wood-wicked, hold thy peace, and forget
the steel that ever eggeth thee on to draw.’
Therewith she set the last matters on the board, while the three swains
sat and eyed Gold-mane somewhat fiercely, now that words had stirred
them, and he had sat there saying nothing, as one who was better than
they, and contemned them; but now spake Wild-wearer:
‘Whoso hungreth let him eat! Whoso would slumber, let him to bed. But
he who would bicker, it must needs be with me. Here is a man of the
Dale, who hath sought the wood in peace, and hath found us. His hand is
ready and his heart is guileless: if ye fear him, run away to the wood,
and come back when he is gone; but none shall mock him while I sit by:
now, lads, be merry and blithe with the guest.’
Then the young men greeted Gold-mane, and the old man said: ‘Art thou of
Burgstead? then wilt thou be of the House of the Face, and thy name will
be Face-of-god; for that man is called the fairest of the Dale, and there
shall be none fairer than thou.’
Face-of-god laughed and said: ‘There be but few mirrors in Burgdale, and
I have no mind to journey west to the cities to see what manner of man I
be: that were ill husbandry. But now I have heard the names of the three
swains, tell me thy name, father!’
Spake the huntress: ‘This is my father’s brother, and his name is
Wood-father; or ye shall call him so: and I am called Bow-may because I
shoot well in the bow: and this old carline is my eme’s wife, and now
belike my mother, if I need one. But thou, fair-faced Dalesman, little
dost thou need a mirror in the Dale so long as women abide there; for
their faces shall be instead of mirrors to tell thee whether thou be fair
and lovely.’
Thereat they all laughed and fell to their victual, which was abundant,
of wood-venison and mountain-fowl, but of bread was no great plenty; wine
lacked not, and that of the best; and Gold-mane noted that the cups and
the apparel of the horns and mazers were not of gold nor gilded copper,
but of silver; and he marvelled thereat, for in the Dale silver was rare.
So they ate and drank, and Gold-mane looked ever on the Friend, and spake
much with her, and he deemed her friendly indeed, and she seemed most
pleased when he spoke best, and led him on to do so. Wild-wearer was but
of few words, and those somewhat harsh; yet was he as a man striving to
be courteous and blithe; but of the others Bow-may was the greatest
speaker.
Wild-wearer called healths to the Sun, and the Moon, and the Hosts of
Heaven; to the Gods of the Earth; to the Woodwights; and to the Guest.
Other healths also he called, the meaning of which was dark to Gold-mane;
to wit, the Jaws of the Wolf; the Silver Arm; the Red Hand; the Golden
Bushel; and the Ragged Sword. But when he asked the Friend concerning
these names what they might signify, she shook her head and answered not.
At last Wild-wearer cried out: ‘Now, lads, the night weareth and the
guest is weary: therefore whoso of you hath in him any minstrelsy, now
let him make it, for later on it shall be over-late.’
Then arose Wood-wont and went to his shut-bed and groped therein, and
took from out of it a fiddle in its case; and he opened the case and drew
from it a very goodly fiddle, and he stood on the floor amidst of the
hall and Bow-may his cousin with him; and he laid his bow on the fiddle
and woke up song in it, and when it was well awake she fell a-singing,
and he to answering her song, and at the last all they of the house sang
together; and this is the meaning of the words which they sang:
_She singeth_.
Now is the rain upon the day,
And every water’s wide;
Why busk ye then to wear the way,
And whither will ye ride?
_He singeth_.
Our kine are on the eyot still,
The eddies lap them round;
All dykes the wind-worn waters fill,
And waneth grass and ground.
_She singeth_.
O ride ye to the river’s brim
In war-weed fair to see?
Or winter waters will ye swim
In hauberks to the knee?
_He singeth_.
Wild is the day, and dim with rain,
Our sheep are warded ill;
The wood-wolves gather for the plain,
Their ravening maws to fill.
_She singeth_.
Nay, what is this, and what have ye,
A hunter’s band, to bear
The Banner of our Battle-glee
The skulking wolves to scare?
_He singeth_.
O women, when we wend our ways
To deal with death and dread,
The Banner of our Fathers’ Days
Must flap the wind o’erhead.
_She singeth_.
Ah, for the maidens that ye leave!
Who now shall save the hay?
What grooms shall kiss our lips at eve,
When June hath mastered May?
_He singeth_.
The wheat is won, the seed is sown,
Here toileth many a maid,
And ere the hay knee-deep hath grown
Your grooms the grass shall wade.
_They sing all together_.
Then fair befall the mountain-side
Whereon the play shall be!
And fair befall the summer-tide
That whoso lives shall see.
Face-of-god thought the song goodly, but to the others it was well known.
Then said Wood-father:
‘O foster-son, thy foster-brother hath sung well for a wood abider; but
we are deeming that his singing shall be but as a starling to a throstle
matched against thy new-come guest. Therefore, Dalesman, sing us a song
of the Dale, and if ye will, let it be of gardens and pleasant houses of
stone, and fair damsels therein, and swains with them who toil not
over-much for a scant livelihood, as do they of the waste, whose heads
may not be seen in the Holy Places.’
Said Gold-mane: ‘Father, it is ill to set the words of a lonely man afar
from his kin against the song that cometh from the heart of a noble
house; yet may I not gainsay thee, but will sing to thee what I may call
to mind, and it is called the Song of the Ford.’
Therewith he sang in a sweet and clear voice: and this is the meaning of
his words:
In hay-tide, through the day new-born,
Across the meads we come;
Our hauberks brush the blossomed corn
A furlong short of home.
Ere yet the gables we behold
Forth flasheth the red sun,
And smites our fallow helms and cold
Though all the fight be done.
In this last mend of mowing-grass
Sweet doth the clover smell,
Crushed neath our feet red with the pass
Where hell was blent with hell.
And now the willowy stream is nigh,
Down wend we to the ford;
No shafts across its fishes fly,
Nor flasheth there a sword.
But lo! what gleameth on the bank
Across the water wan,
As when our blood the mouse-ear drank
And red the river ran?
Nay, hasten to the ripple clear,
Look at the grass beyond!
Lo ye the dainty band and dear
Of maidens fair and fond!
Lo how they needs must take the stream!
The water hides their feet;
On fair kind arms the gold doth gleam,
And midst the ford we meet.
Up through the garden two and two,
And on the flowers we drip;
Their wet feet kiss the morning dew
As lip lies close to lip.
Here now we sing; here now we stay:
By these grey walls we tell
The love that lived from out the fray,
The love that fought and fell.
When he was done they all said that he had sung well, and that the song
was sweet. Yet did Wild-wearer smile somewhat; and Bow-may said
outright: ‘Soft is the song, and hath been made by lads and minstrels
rather than by warriors.’
‘Nay, kinswoman,’ said Wood-father, ‘thou art hard to please; the guest
is kind, and hath given us that I asked for, and I give him all thanks
therefor.’
Face-of-god smiled, but he heeded little what they said, for as he sang
he had noted that the Friend looked kindly on him; and he thought he saw
that once or twice she put out her hand as if to touch him, but drew it
back again each time. She spake after a little and said:
‘Here now hath been a stream of song running betwixt the Mountain and the
Dale even as doth a river; and this is good to come between our dreams of
what hath been and what shall be.’ Then she turned to Gold-mane, and
said to him scarce loud enough for all to hear:
‘Herewith I bid thee good-night, O Dalesman; and this other word I have
to thee: heed not what befalleth in the night, but sleep thy best, for
nought shall be to thy scathe. And when thou wakest in the morning, if
we are yet here, it is well; but if we are not, then abide us no long
while, but break thy fast on the victual thou wilt find upon the board,
and so depart and go thy ways home. And yet thou mayst look to it to see
us again before thou diest.’
Therewith she held out her hand to him, and he took it and kissed it; and
she went to her chamber-aloft at the lower end of the hall. And when she
was gone, once more he had a deeming of her that she was of the kindred
of the Gods. At her departure him-seemed that the hall grew dull and
small and smoky, and the night seemed long to him and doubtful the coming
of the day.