ROMANTIC ADVENTURES OF SIGURD
SIGURD, with his own dragon-ship, sailed northward, and landed on a
large island where there were many inhabitants. He wished to visit a
foster-sister of his, called Ingebjorg, whom he loved dearly, and who
received him with many demonstrations of joy. He was very proud of her,
for she was extremely beautiful, had dark brown hair and hazel eyes, and
was gifted with all the accomplishments that belonged to high-born
women, as well as possessed of a gentle and lovable character.
In the evening he betook himself to a large hall, where there was an
elaborate entertainment, and there were many guests present. He was
enthusiastically received, for many had heard of him. A very skilful
performer was playing on the harp, and Sigurd enjoyed it greatly, so
long was it since he had heard aught but the clangor of battle, and the
roar of the winds and waves. Near him sat three charming maidens, fair
to look upon, with whom he talked much. Their names were Thordis,
Ragnild, and Thorana.
Thordis was beautiful, and had charming little ways of her own. She was
noticeably dignified in manner, had a graceful figure, was dressed
coquettishly, and possessed an exquisite pair of almond-shaped bluish
eyes which seemed the incarnation of love. She was every inch a Hersir’s
daughter, and was a great favorite among the Vikings, to whom her
liberal ways and kind heart, as well as her beauty and accomplishments,
made her extremely attractive.
Ragnild was twenty years old, tall and slender; her hair was fair and
silky, her complexion as delicate as that of the apple blossom. The blue
dress she wore that evening was in delightful contrast to her fair skin
and hair. Her big blue eyes were like nests filled with little Cupids
ready to send their arrows right and left into the hearts of those who
came within their range.
Thorana, the shortest of the three, was twenty-two years of age, and
possessed a very graceful figure, with a pair of small eyes full of
mischief. Her head was adorned with thick chestnut hair of rich color,
with streaks as of burnished gold here and there. She was full of life,
had great individuality, and, in general, had very much her own way, as
she was an only daughter. All three maidens loved the society of scalds
and warriors.
The mothers of these three girls were handsome women, and all had
brought up their daughters with tender love and care, and taught them
all the accomplishments which were required of maidens of high birth.
Thordis had lost her father, and she and her mother mourned his death
greatly. She had a brother, a most charming and handsome fellow, whom
Sigurd liked at once.
A very few days after this entertainment, Thordis, Thorana, Ragnild, and
Sigurd had become fast friends, and called themselves cousins. They saw
each other every day, and met often in the banqueting hall in the
evening. One day Sigurd received a message from a friend, written in
mystic runes, in which Thordis, whose home was elsewhere, was casually
mentioned as visiting on the island, and the message also said that she
held large estates in her own right. This latter part of the message did
not please Sigurd, for he liked Thordis for her own sake and her
charming ways.
One day, when Thordis was seated by the side of her mother, Sigurd
appeared, and, after saluting them in his usual way, he said, with a
laughing expression: “Cousin Thordis, I have received a message, written
in mystic runes, in which your name is mentioned. It is sad news to me,
indeed. I wish I had never received it.”
At these words, Thordis’s big, beautiful eyes became twice as large as
they were before, and, with an inquiring and startled look, she said:
“Cousin Sigurd, I insist on knowing what your friend has written, and
who he is.”
“No,” said Sigurd, “you will never know who he is.”
“Then what did he say?” asked Thordis. “I insist upon knowing.”
“If you wish to know,” replied Sigurd, “I will tell you that. He wrote
that you were a lovely maiden, but that you possessed great wealth in
your own right; and this last part was sad news, indeed, to me. I wish I
had never received the message. I never cared or knew if you were rich,
and I like you for your own charming ways and for yourself, and——”
“Well,” replied Thordis, with apparently a feeling of great relief,
“your friend has deceived you;” to which assertion her mother nodded
assent.
“Certainly not in the first part of the message, where he says you are a
charming girl,” said Sigurd.
“There, also, he made a mistake,” she replied, laughing. “But never
mind, Cousin Sigurd.”
The following day, Ragnild, Thordis, and her brother, with Sigurd, drove
up to Eagle Mountain from which a beautiful view of the sea, of the
burg, and of the island could be seen.
Every day that passed away bound the friendship of these three maidens
with Sigurd stronger than before.
Alas! a day came when Ragnild’s mother, who was also a visitor on the
island, received a runic message from home, that they must return. Poor
Ragnild did not like it. She wanted to stay, for it was so pleasant on
the island. Sigurd was at least no better pleased, nor were Thordis and
Thorana, and it was with great regret that they parted; they followed
her to the ship, but not before they promised to meet again in the
winter. Ragnild was very much missed by them in all the entertainments
that followed, and Sigurd thought often afterwards of lovely Ragnild.
One day Sigurd proposed to Thordis and Thorana a moonlight drive, as the
weather was beautiful, and at that time, the beginning of September, the
moon was very brilliant. It was agreed that two other friends were to
go. They were pleasant men, full of life and jollity.
It was a beautiful night; not a cloud was seen in the sky. The full
moon, queen of the night, shone in all her glory; the stars glittered
and twinkled brilliantly in the deep azure of the firmament.
Waiting in front of the “skemma,” or bower, of Thordis and Thorana stood
a splendid four-wheeled carriage, wagon-like in shape, drawn by two of
the fleetest horses known in the country. The horses were very restive.
They champed the bit, pawed the ground, and snorted incessantly. Two men
held the fiery steeds firmly by the bridle, and it took all their might,
and in despite of this they could hardly prevent them from getting away
from them.
Sigurd and his two companions were anxiously waiting for the coming of
the two Vikings’ daughters. Thorana and Thordis at last made their
appearance, clad in their warm, graceful evening cloaks. Their faces
were radiant with expectation, for both had been looking forward to that
drive by moonlight and the sail on Eagle Lake, and were anticipating
great delight. Accompanying them was a middle-aged friend, a woman who
was to act, as we say in our modern way, as a chaperon. She was very
skilled in embroidery, and had great talent in representing on canvas
all kinds of scenery, views of the sea or landscape, either weird or
charming.
They had hardly entered the carriage, and had had no time to be seated,
when the horses, becoming apparently unmanageable, dashed forward, and,
as they rounded the corner of the way leading to the high road, the
vehicle seemed fairly to bend like a bow, and was on the point of being
overturned. Fortunately the great skill of the driver was equal to the
emergency. Then the carriage fairly flew over the ground, an
irresistible power seeming to impel the fiery steeds forward in their
furious speed.
The excitement was very great among all. Sigurd exclaimed that even
Sleipnir, the eight-footed horse of Odin, could not go faster, neither
could clouds, pushed before the tempest, fly forward more quickly. The
moonlight imparted a weird appearance to the landscape, the strange
shadows of the trees seemed to play all round them, and the shadows of
the rocks and of the hills appeared and disappeared, one after another,
in quick succession, like phantoms or ghosts.
Here and there they entered a part of the road densely wooded and where
the rays of the moon could not penetrate; then came a less dense part of
the forest, where tall, conical-shaped pines extended their phantom-like
shadows out upon the road and over themselves; then groves of aspens
came in sight, with their leaves quivering and frolicking as so many
merry maids. The heaven was their banqueting hall, the stars their
lights, and the murmur of the wind the music.
All were speechless and spell-bound at the speed of the coursers and the
unearthly beauty of all that passed swiftly before them, but once in a
while an exclamation of delight or of wonderment escaped from the lips
of Thordis and Thorana.
Sigurd, who had been silent for some time, suddenly seemed to see far
off in the sky nine Valkyrias riding in the air on fiery white steeds.
Skuld, the Norn personifying the future, was preceding them, and Sigurd
wondered why Skuld was with them, and what her appearance forebode. She
accompanied them evidently to see that the decrees of the Nornir, who
had shaped the lives of each of them at their birth, should be fulfilled
at the particular time. What were those decrees no human being knew.
Then Sigurd said to himself, “It was well ordered that no one should
know his fate beforehand.” He did not know that they had fated him to be
in love with Thorana or Thordis. Suddenly the Valkyrias and Skuld
appeared to vanish from his gaze.
As the carriage sped along, the horses ran faster than before; it seemed
hardly possible that the axles could stand the strain put upon them.
Such was the rattling, that every part of the vehicle seemed on the
point of coming to pieces. All shouted that they did not mind, that the
wild fun would be still greater than ever. In a word, the excitement had
rendered every one perfectly reckless of danger. “Why should the
daughters of Viking heroes be afraid?” exclaimed Thordis; and Thorana
shouted at the top of her voice: “It is good that our mothers are not
with us; my mother would have died of fright or faint, and then we
should have missed all our sport.”
Glimpses of Eagle Lake were finally seen through the foliage of the
trees, and soon afterwards they stopped before a solitary cabin near its
shores, their horses fairly covered with foam.
Every one declared that never had he driven so fast, or seen such superb
driving, or been so excited in his life. In a few moments two boats were
seen gliding out upon the waters of Eagle Lake, which was nestled in the
midst of wooded hills, while yonder was Eagle Mountain towering above
all. In one boat were Sigurd and Thorana; in the other, were Thordis and
her two friends. Sigurd wished that Thordis had been also in his boat.
The scene was most enchanting; not a ripple was seen on the crystal-like
water, which the moon had transformed into a mirror, in which the stars
coquettishly looked at themselves, while images of the hills and trees
were reflected along the shores.
“O mother Earth,” said Sigurd to himself as he contemplated that
never-to-be-forgotten night. “How beautiful thou art, when the moon
rules over thee instead of the sun! The moon gives us the night, the sun
the day. Some say that the nights were created for the sons of men to
sleep, but if it is so, why should the nights be so beautiful to behold,
when the moon shines, and the stars tremble and glitter in the blue of
the sky? Do not the nightingales sing their songs of love at night when
the moon is their sun? Love was born of the night; the nights of the
moon are the lover’s days, for the moon shines upon them, and kisses
them with her radiant and soft light.”
Thorana insisted on rowing herself. Her graceful figure bent forward and
backward at each stroke of the oars, her cousin Sigurd silently admiring
her all the time. Their companion enlivened the time by his bright
conversation and the recital of his numerous adventures, for he had been
in many distant countries, and his anecdotes were full of wit. The weird
echo repeated their words in the deep silence of that night, which was
only disturbed at intervals by the falling of the oars upon the water.
The two boats for a while drew wide apart, and their occupants amused
themselves by listening to the echo. Once Sigurd thought he saw Hugin
and Munin, the ravens of Odin, flying above his head on their way to
Valhalla, to tell the Ruler of Hosts all that was happening in the
world.
Then again, appeared to him the nine Valkyrias with Skuld, who had
followed them all the way; their spears glittered in the moonlight.
Skuld’s hair sent rays of light out over the night. For a while she
hovered over their boat, and then threw down upon the earth a superb
ball of fire, a shooting star; then with the Valkyrias she disappeared
in the direction of the Well of Urd. Every day the Nornir take the holy
water from the well, and, mixing it with the clay that lies round it,
pour it over the ash tree, Yggdrasil, that the branches may not dry up
or decay.
When the two boats came close together again, Sigurd saw two shadows
reflected in the water, more beautiful to him than those of stars and of
all that had been reflected in the water since Odin had made the world.
They were the shadows of Thorana and of Thordis. Their beautiful faces,
their graceful forms, their long hair, were like an apparition from the
deep. It was as if the two beautiful daughters of Ægir and Ran, Dufa
“the dove,” and Ud the “loving,” had come to see the men who were in the
boats.
Sigurd remained spell-bound before the sight, when, by a motion of the
boat, the shadow disappeared, never to reappear on the beautiful waters
of Eagle Lake, and in a short time they found themselves once more on
the shore.
Sigurd mentioned to no one that he had beheld Valkyrias with Skuld, and
the beautiful shadows of Thorana and Thordis, but all these visions had
made a deep impression on his mind, and he remained thoughtful all the
way home. The following day he made a sacrifice to the goddess Var, who,
as we have said, listens to the vows of love men make; but no one ever
heard of that vow. But we may safely say that the drive that beautiful
night and the row on Eagle Lake was never forgotten by any of those who
were there, as long as they lived.
A few days after the events we have just mentioned, Thorana and Thordis
made ready to go to their respective homes. The last evening of their
stay saw the same party together in the hall where they met first.
Nothing save death could have prevented Sigurd from being present. The
following morning all met on board of the ship that was to take his two
lovely cousins away from the island. A host of friends came to bid them
good-by, all apparently happy, for none had yet realized how they would
miss each other, and the good time they had all had, and that regrets
were soon to follow, and all wondered if all of them would meet again.
They parted with many expressions of love and friendship, and the
following day a messenger came and handed to Sigurd a message written in
mystic runes. It was from his cousins, who had written it on their way
home. These magic words were: “With best love, from your broken-hearted
cousins!” and a flush of joy overspread his face when he read this
loving message. He immediately sent a messenger to them with another
message, telling of his lonely feelings.
* * * * *
Sigurd felt utterly wretched after the departure of his two cousins,
though they were to meet again. A feeling of intense loneliness came
over him; all that was bright and cheerful in the island had gone; the
wind moaned; the waves, as they struck the shores, seemed to sing
mournfully in his ears, “Thy three cousins are gone, the rocky cliffs
will see them no more.” He even dreaded to pass the skemma where they
had stayed. No maiden could cheer him, for in his eyes none were so
lovely and accomplished as Thorana, Ragnild, and Thordis.
He whiled away the time by writing on birch bark a saga, in which he
recounted all that had happened on the island. Finally he concluded to
depart, and after sailing a few days he came to a burg where a
foster-brother by the name of Thorkel and he had been brought up
together. But Thorkel had been dead for several years. Sigurd wanted to
see his grave, and, after landing and telling his errand to the people,
he went towards the mound where Thorkel and his wife lay silently side
by side. They had been married but a short time ere Skuld snapped
asunder the thread that measured the days of their lives. He ascended
the mound and murmured to himself, “Here Thorkel and his wife lie. The
thinking minds that guided and moved their actions during their lives
have left them. Helpless, motionless, and without life they sleep.”
Looking up, he saw a butterfly of brilliant colors, with wings of gold
and rainbow tints, full of life, going merrily from one flower to
another, drinking of their nectar.
Whilst watching his joyous course, Sigurd exclaimed musingly: “All life
is ephemeral! Man and woman, like this butterfly and the flower, are but
the creatures of a day in the immensity of time and in the world which
the gods have made. What a beautiful life is that of the butterfly! He
lives in the air; his life is that of love and immortality. He spends
his days in caressing and kissing flowers, and becomes intoxicated with
their sweetness. Like love, he feeds on love. As soon as he has
fulfilled his destiny, and filled brimful the cup of love and drunk it,
he dies as a brilliant meteor that burst into life for an instant, like
the twinkling of a star that never returns. Thus the flower is born to
show her tempting beauty, her sweetness, and intoxicating nectar to the
butterfly. The flower was created for the butterfly, and the butterfly
for the flower; so were man and woman created for one another, and to
love each other, and, like love, their minds are immortal. Short is the
life of the butterfly and of the flower, but their existence in the
immensity of time is apparently not shorter than that of man. If the
lives of the butterfly and the flower are ephemeral, so also is the life
of man. In the immensity of time since the ‘Great Void,’ the lives of
all created things appear to the gods of the same duration. Man is born,
ushered into the present, and then into the future, and thenceforth
belongs to the past. We are tossed,” said Sigurd, “on the sea of life,
like a rudderless ship, and we sail from day to day towards the unknown
called by us the future, not knowing where we are going, nor how the
Nornir have shaped our lives; always hoping and hoping for something we
have not been able to grasp.”
In this reflective mood of mind, Sigurd left the mound, under which lay
two hearts which had been bound together by love during their lives, and
returned to his ship, wondering what were the number of days the Nornir
had decreed at his birth he should live, and also if he would ever find
a woman that he would love so much as to be impelled to ask her to
become his wife.
Then he sailed for Dampstadir, and there met Ivar and his two
foster-brothers waiting for him.
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