EVENING IN THE HALL--THE SCALD TELLS OF GUNDALF'S WOOING--THE FEAST
INTERRUPTED AND THE WAR CLOUDS THICKEN.
It is necessary now that we should turn backwards a little in our story,
to that point where Erling left the hall at Ulfstede to listen to the
sad tale of Swart.
Ulf and his friends, not dreaming of the troubles that were hanging over
them, continued to enjoy their evening meal and listen to the songs and
stories of the Scald, or to comment upon the doings of King Harald
Haarfager, and the prospects of good or evil to Norway that were likely
to result therefrom.
At the point where we return to the hall, Ulf wore a very clouded brow
as he sat with compressed lips beside his principal guest. He grasped
the arm of his rude chair with his left hand, while his right held a
large and massive silver tankard. Haldor, on the other hand, was all
smiles and good humour. He appeared to have been attempting to soothe
the spirit of his fiery neighbour.
"I tell thee, Ulf, that I have as little desire to see King Harald
succeed in subduing all Norway as thou hast, but in this world wise men
will act not according to what they wish so much, as according to what
is best. Already the King has won over or conquered most of the small
kings, and it seems to me that the rest will have to follow, whether
they like it or no. Common sense teaches submission where conquest
cannot be."
"And does not patriotism teach that men may die?" said Ulf sternly.
"Aye, when by warring with that end in view anything is to be gained for
one's country; but where the result would be, first, the embroiling of
one's district in prolonged bloody and hopeless warfare, and, after
that, the depriving one's family of its head and of the King's favour,
patriotism says that to die would be folly, not wisdom."
"Tush, man; folk will learn to call thee Haldor the Mild. Surely years
are telling on thee. Was there ever anything in this world worth having
gained without a struggle?"
"Thou knowest, Ulf, that I am not wont to be far from the front wherever
or whenever a struggle is thought needful, but I doubt the propriety of
it in the present case. The subject, however, is open to discussion.
The question is, whether it would be better for Norway that the kings of
Horlingdal should submit to the conqueror for the sake of the general
good, or buckle on the sword in the hope of retrieving what is lost.
Peace or war--that is the question."
"I say war!" cried Ulf, striking the board so violently with his
clenched fist that the tankards and platters leaped and rang again.
At this a murmur of applause ran round the benches of the friends and
housemen.
"The young blades are ever ready to huzza over their drink at the
thought of fighting; but methinks it will not strengthen thy cause much,
friend Ulf, thus to frighten the women and spill the ale."
Ulf turned round with a momentary look of anger at this speech. The man
who uttered it was a splendid specimen of a veteran warrior. His
forehead was quite bald, but from the sides and back of his head flowed
a mass of luxuriant silky hair which was white as the driven snow. His
features were eminently firm and masculine, and there was a hearty
good-humoured expression about the mouth, and a genial twinkle in his
eyes, especially in the wrinkled corners thereof, that rendered the
stout old man irresistibly attractive. His voice was particularly rich,
deep, and mellow, like that of a youth, and although his bulky frame
stooped a little from age, there was enough of his youthful vigour left
to render him a formidable foe, as many a poor fellow had learned to his
cost even in days but recently gone by. He was an uncle of Ulf, and on
a visit to the stede at that time. The frown fled from Ulf's brow as he
looked in the old man's ruddy and jovial countenance.
"Thanks, Guttorm," said he, seizing his tankard, "thanks for reminding
me that grey hairs are beginning to sprinkle my beard; come, let us
drink success to the right, confusion to the wrong! thou canst not
refuse that, Haldor."
"Nay," said Haldor, laughing; "nor will I refuse to fight in thy cause
and by thy side, be it right or wrong, when the Thing decides for war."
"Well said, friend! but come, drink deeper. Why, I have taken thee down
three pegs already!" said Ulf, glancing into Haldor's tankard. "Ho!
Hilda; fetch hither more ale, lass, and fill--fill to the brim." The
toast was drunk with right good will by all--from Ulf down to the
youngest house-carle at the lowest end of the great hall.
"And now, Guttorm," continued Ulf, turning to the bluff old warrior,
"since thou hast shown thy readiness to rebuke, let us see thy
willingness to entertain. Sing us a stave or tell us a saga, kinsman,
as well thou knowest how, being gifted with more than a fair share of
the scald's craft."
The applause with which this proposal was received by the guests and
house-carles who crowded the hall from end to end proved that they were
aware of Guttorm's gifts, and would gladly hear him. Like a sensible
man he complied at once, without affecting that air of false diffidence
which is so common among modern songsters and story-tellers.
"I will tell you," said the old man--having previously wet his lips at a
silver tankard, which was as bluff and genuine as himself--"of King
Gundalf's wooing. Many years have gone by since I followed him on
viking cruise, and Gundalf himself has long been feasting in Odin's
hall. I was a beardless youth when I joined him. King Gundalf of
Orkedal was a goodly man, stout and brisk, and very strong. He could
leap on his horse without touching stirrup with all his war gear on; he
could fight as well with his left hand as with his right, and his
battle-axe bit so deep that none who once felt its edge lived to tell of
its weight. He might well be called a Sea-king, for he seldom slept
under a sooty roof timber. Withal he was very affable to his men,
open-hearted, and an extremely handsome man.
"One summer he ordered us to get ready to go on viking cruise. When we
were all a-boun we set sail with five longships and about four hundred
men, and fared away to Denmark, where we forayed and fought a great
battle with the inhabitants. King Gundalf gained the victory,
plundered, wasted, and burned far and wide in the land, and made
enormous booty. He returned with this to Orkedal. Here he found his
wife at the point of death, and soon after she died. Gundalf felt his
loss so much that he had no pleasure in Raumsdal after that. He
therefore took to his ships and went again a-plundering. We herried
first in Friesland, next in Saxland, and then all the way to Flanders;
so sings Halfred the scald:--
"`Gundalf's axe of shining steel
For the sly wolf left many a meal.
The ill-shaped Saxon corpses lay
Heap'd up--the witch-wife's horses' prey.
She rides by night, at pools of blood,
Where Friesland men in daylight stood,
Her horses slake their thirst, and fly
On to the field where Flemings lie.'"
[Note. Ravens were the witch-wife's horses.]
The old warrior half recited half sang these lines in a rich full voice,
and then paused a few seconds, while a slight murmur arose from the
earnest listeners around him.
"Thereafter," resumed Guttorm, "we sailed to England, and ravaged far
and wide in the land. We sailed all the way north to Northumberland,
where we plundered, and thence to Scotland, where we marauded far and
wide. Then we went to the Hebrides and fought some battles, and after
that south to Man, which we herried. We ravaged far around in Ireland,
and steered thence to Bretland, which we laid waste with fire and
sword--also the district of Cumberland. Then we went to Valland, [the
west coast of France] from which we fared away for the south coast of
England, but missed it and made the Scilly Isles. After that we went to
Ireland again, and came to a harbour, into which we ran--but in a
friendly way, for we had as much plunder as our ships could carry.
"Now, while we were there, a summons to a Thing went through the
country, and when the Thing was assembled, a queen called Gyda came to
it. She was a sister of Olaf Quarram, who was King of Dublin. Gyda was
very wealthy, and her husband had died that year. In the territory
there was a man called Alfin, who was a great champion and single-combat
man. He had paid his addresses to Gyda, but she gave for answer that
she would choose a husband for herself; and on that account the Thing
was assembled, that she might choose a husband. Alfin came there
dressed out in his best clothes, and there were many well-dressed men at
the meeting. Gundalf and some of his men had gone there also, out of
curiosity, but we had on our bad-weather clothes, and Gundalf wore a
coarse over-garment. We stood apart from the rest of the crowd, Gyda
went round and looked at each, to see if any appeared to her a suitable
man. Now when she came to where we were standing, she passed most of us
by with a glance; but when she passed me, I noticed that she turned half
round and gave me another look, which I have always held was a proof of
her good judgment. However, Gyda passed on, and when she came to King
Gundalf she stopped, looked at him straight in the face, and asked what
sort of a man he was.
"He said, `I am called Gundalf, and am a stranger here!'
"Gyda replies, `Wilt thou have me if I choose thee?' He answered, `I
will not say No to that;' then he asked her what her name was, and her
family and descent.
"`I am called Gyda,' said she, `and am daughter of the King of Ireland,
and was married in this country to an earl who ruled over this district.
Since his death I have ruled over it, and many have courted me, but
none to whom I would choose to be married.'
"She was a young and handsome woman. They afterwards talked over the
matter together and agreed, and so Gundalf and Gyda were betrothed.
"Alfin was very ill pleased with this. It was the custom there, as it
is sometimes here, if two strove for anything, to settle the matter by
holm-gang. [Note: or single combat: so called because the combatants in
Norway went to a holm, or uninhabited isle, to fight.] And now Alfin
challenged Gundalf to fight about this business. The time and place of
combat were settled, and it was fixed that each should have twelve men.
I was one of the twelve on our side. When we met, Gundalf told us to do
exactly as we saw him do. He had a large axe, and went in advance of
us, and when Alfin made a desperate cut at him with his sword, he hewed
away the sword out of his hand, and with the next blow hit Alfin on the
crown with the flat of his axe and felled him. We all met next moment,
and each man did his best; but it was hard work, for the Irishmen fought
well, and two of them cut down two of our men, but one of these I
knocked down, and Gundalf felled the other. Then we bound them all
fast, and carried them to Gundalf's lodging. But Gundalf did not wish
to take Alfin's life. He ordered him to quit the country and never
again to appear in it, and he took all his property. In this way
Gundalf got Gyda in marriage, and he lived sometimes in England and
sometimes in Ireland. Thikskul the scald says in regard to this:--
"`King Gundalf woo'd Queen Gyda fair,
With whom no woman could compare,
And won her, too, with all her lands,
By force of looks and might of hands
From Ireland's green and lovely isle
He carried off the Queen in style.
He made proud Alfin's weapon dull,
And flattened down his stupid skull--
This did the bold King Gundalf do
When he went o'er the sea to woo.'"
The wholesale robbery and murder which was thus related by the old Norse
viking appeared quite a natural and proper state of things in the eyes
of all save two of those assembled in the hall, and the saga was
consequently concluded amid resounding applause. It is to be presumed
that, never having seen or heard of any other course of life, and having
always been taught that such doings were quite in accordance with the
laws of the land, the consciences of the Northmen did not trouble them.
At all events, while we do not for a moment pretend to justify their
doings, we think it right to point out that there must necessarily have
been a wide difference between their spirits and feelings, and the
spirits and feelings of modern pirates, who know that they are
deliberately setting at defiance the laws of both God and man.
It has been said there were two in the hall at Ulfstede who did not
sympathise with the tale of the old warrior. The reader will scarce
require to be told that one of these was Hilda the Sunbeam. The other
was Christian the hermit. The old man, although an occasional visitor
at the stede, never made his appearance at meal-times, much less at the
nightly revels which were held there; but on that day he had arrived
with important news, just as Guttorm began his story, and would have
unceremoniously interrupted it had not one of the young house-carles,
who did not wish to lose the treat, detained him forcibly at the lower
end of the hall until it was ended. The moment he was released the
hermit advanced hastily, and told Ulf that from the door of his hut on
the cliff he had observed bands of men hastening in all directions down
the dale.
"Thy news, old man, is no news," said Ulf; "the token for a Thing has
been sent out, and it is natural that the bonders should obey the
summons. We expect them. But come, it is not often thou favourest us
with thy company. Sit down by me, and take a horn of mead."
The hermit shook his head.
"I never taste strong liquor. Its tendency is to make wise men
foolish," he said.
"Nay, then, thou wilt not refuse to eat. Here, Hilda, fetch thy friend
a platter."
"I thank thee, but, having already supped, I need no more food. I came
but to bring what I deemed news."
"Thou art churlish, old man," exclaimed Ulf angrily; "sit down and
drink, else--"
"Come, come," interrupted Haldor, laying his hand on Ulf's arm, "Let the
old man be; he seems to think that he has something worth hearing to
tell of; let him have his say out in peace."
"Go on," said Ulf gruffly.
"Was the token sent out a baton or a split arrow?" asked the hermit.
"A baton," said Ulf.
"Then why," rejoined the other, "do men come to a peaceful Thing with
all their war gear on?"
"What say ye? are they armed?" exclaimed Ulf, starting up. "This must
be looked to. Ho! my carles all, to arms--"
At that moment there was a bustle at the lower end of the hall, and
Alric was seen forcing his way towards Ulf's high seat.
"Father," he said eagerly, addressing Haldor, "short is the hour for
acting, and long the hour for feasting."