THE UNKNOWN THING.
The ice king had lost only one of his fierce white flock. It had been
the largest of them all, however; and in the latter part of Tiw's day
there had been a feast of his flesh. Greatly had the crew of _The
Sword_ enjoyed that feast, and they believed the saying of Knud that
there was courage and strength to be gained by such eating after so
brave a battle. "The gods themselves eat mightily," he said, "and they
have nothing better than this."
During that day a number of the vikings went out to explore the ice
fields somewhat, and they captured many wild fowl easily with bow and
arrow. They reported having seen in the distance other animals, like
great seals or walruses. They also planned to hunt the remaining bears,
but the jarl forbade it, being unwilling that they should go far from
the ship lest harm should befall them from sudden breaking of the ice.
Nevertheless, to all testing, it seemed to be packing even more firmly.
The entire visible mass of it drifted steadily southward, as if the ice
king, or the under gods who were pushing him, knew of the channels by
which they were to steer him into other seas than this.
Night came, and then the day of Odin. But now the worst foe of the ice
king, deadlier than even the sun, was wearing him away with floods of
warm rain. There were rivulets pouring down his sides, and some of
his pinnacles and crags came crashing, thundering down from time to
time. This was, therefore, not a good day for hunting, and the vikings
passed it on board the ship, or near it, but not dismally, for there
were among them many whose minds and tongues were busy with old voyages
and old fights, and the land to which they had sailed. Also there were
songs to sing, and there was much ale, and no man was hindered from
feasting. It was a time, too, for the remembering of sagas, and many
spoke of Hilda, but Ulric did not utter her name, saying rather that it
would be well if Oswald and his harp were on board.
These two, indeed, the saga woman and the old harper, sat at home in
the house of Brander that rainy day, speaking to one another across
the ash heap, on which a slow fire smoldered. Their talk was of many
things, but from all it would ever come back to some word concerning
the ship and her crew and Ulric. To others Hilda had spoken little,
and they noted that she had not eaten since the launching. Oswald was
fretful and fitful, and he said that he cared not for harping. In an
early hour of the day he had gone out and he had even climbed to the
crag on the top of the headland that he might look far to seaward, but
he had returned, shaking his head, to say to Hilda:
"All is ice! She is out of sight, but the floes have closed behind her."
"So they close not before her I care little," replied Hilda. "They
will conquer the ice, for the sun will help them, and they are sailing
nearer the sun."
Oswald was long silent then, and at last he arose and walked out of
the hall while Hilda went to the door and gazed seaward. It was to
his own room that the harper made his way, leaving his harp near the
dais. In a far corner of the house he had been given his place, for he
was held in high honor. Nevertheless, it was but small, and bare save
for a table and a lamp thereon and a stool. There was, also, a heap of
skins for warm sleeping, and from under this Oswald drew out something,
stooping and then looking behind him to be sure the door was closed.
"What will the jarl bring me, when he returneth from the southlands?"
he muttered. "Bright gold, I hope, for there is more to love in the
yellow, the heavy, than there is in light silver. The touch is not the
same, and gold hath a better ring."
It was a bag that he held, untying its mouth, and his hand was now in
it. He drew out pieces of varied shapes, looking at them and rubbing
them with his fingers. "The faces of kings are on them," he said.
"Runes of the southlands. I can read some, but all I cannot read. May
the gods guide the jarl to places where he will find many like these
and bring them to me. He careth not for them himself."
Hilda, standing in the doorway, grew sad and wistful in the face.
"Gone," she said. "Gone beyond seeing or hearing. And I love him so! He
is my hero! My beautiful one! I am old, and I am soon to pass away, and
I know not clearly whither I go. Sometimes I would that one of the gods
might come and tell what things there are in those countries for such
as I am."
Then turned she and went back to her great chair by the fire; but
Ulric also was thinking of her and of Oswald, for he said to Tostig
and Wulf and those who were with them, under the after deck: "The
tongues of the south folk? We do well to talk about them. My father
knew many. Oswald, the harper, and Hilda could speak with him in all
of them and they had more that he knew not. She hath learned much in
her hundred years, and she is not like other women. When I was a child,
and afterward, in the long winter evenings, when we had naught else to
do, I loved to have them teach me, and they said it would be my need
some day. I can talk with a Briton or a Roman or a Greek. But Hilda and
Oswald taught me many words of a tongue that belongeth to a people who
live on the easterly shore of the Middle Sea. They are a trading folk,
and our sea kings found them everywhere. They are not like other folk,
and they have a god of their own, but none of them can tell what he is
like. I have thought I would wish to see him, but Hilda sayeth that he
will not come out of his own country. And that, too, is much the same
with our own gods; but I wish they may go with us now, for some of
these southland gods are cunning and strong."
"Not as are the gods of the North," said Tostig, sturdily. "I too have
heard of these Jews and their god, but I do not care to see either
him or any other god. It is more than enough for me when I hear them
whispering across the fiords."
"So!" exclaimed Wulf the Skater. "I have been out far on the ice, when
there was no wind and there was a bright moon, and I have gone landward
with speed lest their voices should overtake me. I heard them loudly
once, and that night I was chased by many wolves. I slew some, but I
stopped not for their skins, for the rest were an army."
"Glad am I," said Ulric, "that if I meet one of these gods I can speak
to him fairly well in his own tongue. How else, for instance, could
I question this Jew god? We shall sail all around the coasts of the
Middle Sea before we come home."
"What couldst thou ask him?" replied Knud. "And what thinkest thou he
might tell thee?"
"One thing that Hilda knew not," said Ulric. "I am curious if the gods
of those lands know the gods of the North. I would know if this Jew god
hath ever met with Odin and Thor, and whether or not they are friends.
If they have fights, as do our own gods, which of them is the stronger?
I have thought that if I were a god, I would bring all the others under
me. It is not managed well."
"I would not have land gods meddling too much with the sea, save in
battles," said Tostig. "It is well as it is. But the Middle Sea is
wide; we may not look upon all of its coasts. There are deep bays and
many islands."
"They say," responded Ulric, "that there is an open water leading
southward, and that if one can find it and will sail into it boldly,
fearing nothing, he may follow its leading until he shall find the city
of Asgard and the home of the gods. Moreover, there are lands which no
foot hath trodden. I would see some of them if they are to be found by
sailing not too far."
So said they all, and there were other tales to tell concerning seas
and lands.
They still were talking of these things when a loud shout from one of
the watchers summoned them, and they rushed out to the gunwales and the
decks. The rain was no longer falling and the sky was clear, so that
they saw well what was doing. The ice king had not at all lost his grip
upon his own floes, but southward was a vast rift in the ice pack.
Wide and blue was the open water, but it was not very near them, and as
they were looking at it from their icy anchorage the watcher shouted
again:
"O Ulric the Jarl, whales! They will come up again from under the
floes. I saw them. A great herd!"
Loud voices replied, inquiring, but they ceased, for the herd quickly
showed itself. Many and huge were the whales that emerged, and some of
them sprang half their length out of the water.
"They are pursued!" exclaimed Knud the Bear. "I have seen them spring
in that manner when the swordfish troubled them. But see them flounder
now!"
Strange indeed was the confusion and the tumbling about of this herd of
the sea. They were beating the waves into foam, and they were plunging
hither and thither as if wildly affrighted.
"I think that it is neither the swordfish nor the thrasher," said
Tostig the Red, for he had halfway climbed the mast and he was leaning
out to see. "O jarl, it is one of the monsters that Hilda hath told us
of. She sayeth that only a few are left, for the gods destroyed them
lest they should eat up all the whales. Look yonder!"
They were near enough to see, but could not note clearly until a great
fragment broke away from the field of ice which carried _The Sword_.
Through that chasm at its outer border there came up a shape which was
not the head of a whale. It was long, with vast jaws, and in them were
pointed saws of long white teeth, with which it tore terribly the side
of a tremendous bull whale that was nearest. But the bull whale turned
and fought him, and there was a vast whirling of foamy water, as the
two sea creatures struggled against each other, beating with heads and
fins and tails, but the vikings could none the better discern the form
of the whale's enemy.
"He is a comrade of the ice king," said Wulf the Skater. "Never before
was he seen in these waters. He is somewhat like a snake, but with a
vast belly. I saw his head once before, long ago. Ten more were with
me in the ship, and we had been long storm-driven. The old men told me
much about him."
"He could upset a ship," said Tostig. "I am glad we are here on the
ice. But thou mayest have seen another like him."
"Not so said the old men," replied Wulf. "He is alone. There! He
showeth again!"
"I am glad we have seen him," said Ulric. "But I am more troubled
concerning the ice king. See ye not that he is fast melting? I have
thought that he is beginning to lean this way. We are drifting, truly,
but we do not get away from him. We are his prisoners."
They well understood that there might be deadly peril for them in aught
that should change the position of the iceberg, but there was naught
that they could do, even if sure death were coming. So they preferred
to gaze after the herd of whales, and every now and then they thought
that they caught fresh glimpses of the monster from the under sea, the
terror of all other monsters. Few of them but had heard and could tell
old sagas of such creatures, the remnants of the forgotten days, and
they agreed that this one was the world-snake that Hilda had sung of as
the destroyer.
"He eateth men joyfully," said one, "when he can get them."
"Hilda said," replied Ulric, "that he cometh among men no more. He
cannot live in any sea that is plowed by the keels of ships. The gods
are against him. But now the whales have fled and he hath followed."
Then turned they to stare at the ice king, and he seemed as strong as
ever. Far away at his right they saw the bears, walking to and fro, and
the wind brought from them a sound as if they were moaning.