But while they spake together thus, came a man from out of the wood very
tall of stature, red-bearded and black-haired, ruddy-cheeked,
full-limbed, most joyous of aspect; a man by seeming of five and thirty
winters. He strode straight up to Hallblithe, and cast his arms about
him, and kissed his cheek, as if he had been an old and dear friend newly
come from over seas.
Hallblithe wondered and laughed, and said: "Who art thou that deemest me
so dear?"
Said the man: "Short is thy memory, Son of the Raven, that thou in so
little space hast forgotten thy shipmate and thy faring-fellow; who gave
thee meat and drink and good rede in the Hall of the Ravagers." Therewith
he laughed joyously and turned about to the three maidens and took them
by the hands and kissed their lips, while they fawned upon him lovingly.
Then said Hallblithe: "Hast thou verily gotten thy youth again, which
thou badest me wish thee?"
"Yea, in good sooth," said the red-bearded man; "I am the Sea-eagle of
old days; and I have gotten my youth, and love therewithal, and somewhat
to love moreover."
Therewith he turned to the fairest of the damsels, and she was
white-skinned and fragrant as the lily, rose-cheeked and slender, and the
wind played with the long locks of her golden hair, which hung down below
her knees; so he cast his arms about her and strained her to his bosom,
and kissed her face many times, and she nothing loth, but caressing him
with lips and hand. But the other two damsels stood by smiling and
joyous: and they clapped their hands together and kissed each other for
joy of the new lover; and at last fell to dancing and skipping about them
like young lambs in the meadows of Spring-tide. But amongst them all,
stood up Hallblithe leaning on his spear with smiling lips and knitted
brow; for he was pondering in his mind in what wise he might further his
quest.
But after they had danced a while the Sea-eagle left his love that he had
chosen and took a hand of either of the two damsels, and led them
tripping up to Hallblithe, and cried out: "Choose thou, Raven's baby,
which of these twain thou wilt have to thy mate; for scarcely shalt thou
see better or fairer."
But Hallblithe looked on them proudly and sternly, and the black-haired
damsel hung down her head before him and said softly: "Nay, nay,
sea-warrior; this one is too lovely to be our mate. Sweeter love abides
him, and lips more longed for."
Then stirred Hallblithe's heart within him and he said: "O Eagle of the
Sea, thou hast thy youth again: what then wilt thou do with it? Wilt
thou not weary for the moonlit main, and the washing of waves and the
dashing of spray, and thy fellows all glistening with the brine? Where
now shall be the alien shores before thee, and the landing for fame, and
departure for the gain of goods? Wilt thou forget the ship's black side,
and the dripping of the windward oars, as the squall falleth on when the
sun hath arisen, and the sail tuggeth hard on the sheet, and the ship
lieth over and the lads shout against the whistle of the wind? Has the
spear fallen from thine hand, and hast thou buried the sword of thy
fathers in the grave from which thy body hath escaped? What art thou, O
Warrior, in the land of the alien and the King? Who shall heed thee or
tell the tale of thy glory, which thou hast covered over with the hand of
a light woman, whom thy kindred knoweth not, and who was not born in a
house wherefrom it hath been appointed thee from of old to take the
pleasure of woman? Whose thrall art thou now, thou lifter of the spoil,
thou scarer of the freeborn? The bidding of what lord or King wilt thou
do, O Chieftain, that thou mayst eat thy meat in the morning and lie soft
in thy bed in the evening?"
"O Warrior of the Ravagers, here stand I, Hallblithe of the Raven, and I
am come into an alien land beset with marvels to seek mine own, and find
that which is dearest to mine heart; to wit, my troth-plight maiden the
Hostage of the Rose, the fair woman who shall lie in my bed, and bear me
children, and stand by me in field and fold, by thwart and gunwale,
before the bow and the spear, by the flickering of the cooking-fire, and
amidst the blaze of the burning hall, and beside the bale-fire of the
warrior of the Raven. O Sea-eagle, my guester amongst the foemen, my
fellow-farer and shipmate, say now once for all whether thou wilt help me
in my quest, or fall off from me as a dastard?"
Again the maidens shrank before his clear and high-raised voice, and they
trembled and grew pale.
But the Sea-eagle laughed from a countenance kind with joy, and said:
"Child of the Raven, thy words are good and manly: but it availeth nought
in this land, and I wot not how thou wilt fare, or why thou hast been
sent amongst us. What wilt thou do? Hadst thou spoken these words to
the Long-hoary, the Grandfather, yesterday, his ears would have been deaf
to them; and now that thou speakest them to the Sea-eagle, this joyous
man on the Glittering Plain, he cannot do according to them, for there is
no other land than this which can hold him. Here he is strong and stark,
and full of joy and love; but otherwhere he would be but a gibbering
ghost drifting down the wind of night. Therefore in whatsoever thou
mayst do within this land I will stand by thee and help thee; but not one
inch beyond it may my foot go, whether it be down into the brine of the
sea, or up into the clefts of the mountains which are the wall of this
goodly land.
"Thou hast been my shipmate and I love thee, I am thy friend; but here in
this land must needs be the love and the friendship. For no ghost can
love thee, no ghost may help thee. And as to what thou sayest concerning
the days gone past and our joys upon the tumbling sea, true it is that
those days were good and lovely; but they are dead and gone like the lads
who sat on the thwart beside us, and the maidens who took our hands in
the hall to lead us to the chamber. Other days have come in their stead,
and other friends shall cherish us. What then? Shall we wound the
living to pleasure the dead, who cannot heed it? Shall we curse the
Yuletide, and cast foul water on the Holy Hearth of the winter feast,
because the summer once was fair and the days flit and the times change?
Now let us be glad! For life liveth."
Therewith he turned about to his damsel and kissed her on the mouth. But
Hallblithe's face was grown sad and stern, and he spake slowly and
heavily: "So is it, shipmate, that whereas thou sayest that the days
flit, for thee they shall flit no more; and the day may come for thee
when thou shalt be weary, and know it, and long for the lost which thou
hast forgotten. But hereof it availeth nought for me to speak any
longer, for thine ears are deaf to these words, and thou wilt not hear
them. Therefore I say no more save that I thank thee for thy help
whatsoever it may be; and I will take it, for the day's work lieth before
me, and I begin to think that it may be heavy enough."
The women yet looked downcast, and as if they would be gone out of
earshot; but the Sea-eagle laughed as one who is well content, and said:
"Thou thyself wilt make it hard for thyself after the wont of thy proud
and haughty race; but for me nothing is hard any longer; neither thy
scorn nor thy forebodings of evil. Be thou my friend as much as thou
canst, and I will be thine wholly. Now ye women, whither will ye lead
us? For I am ready to see any new thing ye will show us."
Said his damsel: "We will take you to the King, that your hearts may be
the more gladdened. And as for thy friend the Spearman, O Sea-warrior,
let not his heart be downcast. Who wotteth but that these two desires,
the desire of his heart, and the desire of a heart for him, may not be
one and the same desire, so that he shall be fully satisfied?" As she
spoke she looked sidelong at Hallblithe, with shy and wheedling eyes; and
he wondered at her word, and a new hope sprang up in his heart that he
was presently to be brought face to face with the Hostage, and that this
was that love, sweeter than their love, which abode in him, and his heart
became lighter, and his visage cleared.