OF THE WOODSMAN OF SHERWOOD
So the waters that drowned the Mercians had Feargus, and in a moment
whirled him out of the sight of the thanes of Edwy, and he was carried
down the stream till all the breath was out of him, for no stroke to save
himself made he. And all that day men from the country around had been
gathered on the banks of the river and had garnered a rich harvest in
gold and arms from the dead corpses of the Mercians won from the water.
And when the body of Feargus floated past, the sun glowed on its golden
byrny[6] and they saw that it was kinglier clad than any that had come
to their hands, so they set about to win it from the flood, and with
branches of trees drew it ashore and there stripped it of its buckler
and byrny, and to get the clothing from it they turned it about first on
its back and then on its face and there left it. So lying on its face
it chanced that the mouth fell open and all the water ran out from it,
and there it lay all the night, and the sweet air filled it in place of
the water, and by reason of the great strength that was in him the heart
of Feargus rallied, and the warrior turned himself on to his back and
groaned and murmured. And he lay there for two days and two nights and
then rose upon his arm, for the breath of the were wolf wakened him, and
he seized the beast rudely by the throat so that it yelled and fled.
Then Feargus stood upon his feet, but the past had gone from him, and
he knew not to-day from yesterday or to-morrow, each being alike empty,
and only the sense of a great evil hung upon him so that his brow was
ever knotted. Then he felt weak for hunger and sought out of habit for
his sword, but it had gone: they had taken all from him save the plaid
which hung in folds around his middle and was then wound round his body.
So he drew near to a stout oak sapling which had been thrown ashore by
the water, and rent the branches from it, leaving himself a club tough
and strong and of such weight that few men could have wielded it. With
this he lay among the bushes till a red deer came past, then he leapt
to his feet and felled it at a blow. And he kindled a fire and cooked
and ate of it and drank of a burn and was refreshed. Next he set about
to make himself a mighty bow of willow, strung with sinews of the deer,
and he hardened arrows in his fire, setting flints in the points of them
and in like manner made himself a spear, but no sword had he. In the
forest he stayed for many a month, but never could bide two nights in
the one place, for the fever of unrest that was upon him kept him ever
awandering. All through the day he sat upon fallen trees or down by the
gowans on the wayside with his head sunk upon his breast and the water
coursing down his cheeks, yet knew not what it was that made him greet.
And in the night he would wander the forest through, or bathe his fevered
limbs in dark streams; and when hunger fell on him he followed the chase,
and so swift of foot he grew and so strong of his hands that the wild
boar, the wolf, and deer found him a dreich blow-dealer. So it chanced
that soon there was little in him that was like to the Feargus of the
lady Torfrida, richly clad and gay and strong. His red hair hung to his
waist and his beard fell down an ell before him and wild and trackless
as the wilderness through which he strayed. His plaid was ragged and
faded, and his skin of the colour of the ripened grain. Shelter he never
knew, but such was his hardihood that he lay out in the wind and rain,
through winter and summer alike without scath.