IN WHICH ALRIC BOASTS A LITTLE, DISCOVERS SECRETS, CONFESSES A LITTLE,
AND DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF GREATLY.
Next day there was great bustle at Ulfstede, and along the shores of the
fiord, for the men of Horlingdal were busy launching their ships and
making preparations to go to the Springs to meet and hold council with
King Harald Haarfager.
It had been finally resolved, without a dissentient voice, that the
whole district should go forth to meet him in arms, and thus ensure fair
play at the deliberations of the Thing. Even Haldor no longer objected;
but, on the contrary, when he heard his son's account of his meeting
with the King, and of the dastardly attempt that had been made to
assassinate him and his friend, there shot across his face a gleam of
that wild ferocity which had procured him his title. It passed quickly
away, however, and gave place to a look of sad resignation, which
assured those who knew him that he regarded their chance of opposing the
King successfully to be very small indeed.
The fleet that left the fiord consisted of the longships of Ulf, Haldor,
Erling, Glumm, and Guttorm, besides an innumerable flotilla of smaller
crafts and boats. Many of the men were well armed, not only with
first-rate weapons, but with complete suits of excellent mail of the
kinds peculiar to the period--such as shirts of leather, with steel
rings sewed thickly over them, and others covered with steel scales--
while of the poorer bonders and the thralls some wore portions of
defensive armour, and some trusted to the thick hides of the wolf, which
were more serviceable against a sword-cut than many people might
suppose. All had shields, however, and carried either swords, bills,
spears, javelins, axes, or bows and arrows, so that, numbering as they
did, about a thousand men, they composed a formidable host.
While these rowed away over the fiord to the Springs to make war or
peace--as the case might be--with King Harald, a disappointed spirit was
left behind in Horlingdal.
"I'm sure I cannot see why I should not be allowed to go too," said
little Alric, on returning to Haldorstede, after seeing the fleet set
forth. "Of course I cannot fight so well as Erling _yet_, but I can do
_something_ in that way; and can even face up to a full-grown man when
occasion serves, as that red-haired Dane knows full well, methinks, if
he has got any power of feeling in his neck!"
This was said to Herfrida, who was in the great hall spreading the board
for the midday meal, and surrounded by her maidens, some of whom were
engaged in spinning or carding wool, while others wove and sewed, or
busied themselves about household matters.
"Have patience, my son," said Herfrida. "Thou art not yet strong enough
to go forth to battle. Doubtless, in three or four years--"
"Three or four years!" exclaimed Alric, to whom such a space of time
appeared an age. "Why, there will be no more fighting left to be done
at the end of three or four years. Does not father say that if the King
succeeds in his illegal plans all the independence of the small kings
will be gone for ever, and--and--of course I am old enough to see that
if the small kings are not allowed to do as they please, there will be
no more occasion for war--nothing but a dull time of constant peace!"
Herfrida laughed lightly, while her warlike son strutted up and down the
ancestral hall like a bantam cock, frowning and grunting indignantly, as
he brooded over the dark prospects of peace that threatened his native
land, and thought of his own incapacity, on account of youth, to make
glorious hay while yet the sun of war was shining.
"Mother," he said, stopping suddenly, and crossing his arms, as he stood
with his feet planted pretty wide apart, after the fashion of those who
desire to be thought very resolute--"mother, I had a dream last night."
"Tell it me, my son," said Herfrida, sitting down on a low stool beside
the lad.
Now, it must be known that in those days the Northmen believed in dreams
and omens and warnings--indeed, they were altogether a very
superstitious people, having perfect faith in giants, good and bad;
elves, dark and bright; wraiths, and fetches, and guardian spirits--
insomuch that there was scarcely one among the grown-up people who had
not seen some of these fabulous creatures, or who had not seen some
other people who had either seen them themselves or had seen individuals
who _said_ they had seen them! There were also many "clear-sighted" or
"fore-sighted" old men and women, who not only saw goblins and
supernatural appearances occasionally, and, as it were, accidentally,
like ordinary folk, but who also had the gift--so it is said--of seeing
such things when they pleased--enjoyed, as it were, an unenviable
privilege in that way. It was therefore with unusual interest that
Herfrida asked about her son's dream.
"It must have been mara [nightmare], I think," he said, "for though I
never had it before, it seemed to me very like what Guttorm Stoutheart
says he always has after eating too hearty a meal."
"Relate it, my son."
"Well, you must know," said Alric, with much gravity and importance, for
he observed that the girls about the room were working softly that they
might hear him, "I dreamed that I was out on the fells, and there I met
a dreadful wolf, as big as a horse, with two heads and three tails, or
three heads and two tails, I mind not which, but it gave me little time
to notice it, for, before I was aware, it dashed at me, and I turned to
run, but my feet seemed to cleave to the earth, and my legs felt heavy
as lead, so that I could scarce drag myself along, yet, strange to say,
the wolf did not overtake me, although I heard it coming nearer and
nearer every moment, and I tried to shout, but my voice would not come
out."
"What hadst thou to supper last night?" asked Herfrida.
"Let me think," replied the boy meditatively; "I had four cuts of
salmon, three rolls of bread and butter, half a wild-duck, two small
bits of salt-fish, some eggs, a little milk, and a horn of ale."
"It must have been mara," said she, thoughtfully; "but go on with thy
dream."
"Well, just as I came to the brink of the river, I looked back and saw
the wolf close at my heels, so I dropped suddenly, and the wolf tumbled
right over me into the water, but next moment it came up in the shape of
another monster with a fish's tail, which made straight at me. Then it
all at once came into my head that my guardian spirit was behind me, and
I turned quickly round, but did not see it."
"Art thou quite sure of that, my son?"
Herfrida asked this in a tone of great anxiety, for to see one's own
guardian spirit was thought unlucky, and a sign that the person seeing
it was "fey", or death-doomed.
"I'm quite sure that I did not," replied Alric, to the manifest relief
of his mother; "but I saw a long pole on the ground, which I seized, and
attacked the beast therewith, and a most notable fight we had. I only
wish that it had been true, and that thou hadst been there to see it.
Mara fled away at once, for I felt no more fear, but laid about me in a
way that minded me of Erling. Indeed, I don't think he could have done
it better himself. Oh! how I do wish, sometimes, that my dreams would
come true! However, I killed the monster at last, and hurled him into
the river, after which I felt tossed about in a strange way, and then my
senses left me, and then I awoke."
"What thinkest thou of the dream?" said Herfrida to a wrinkled old crone
who sat on a low stool beside the fire.
The witch-like old creature roused herself a little and said:
"Good luck is in store for the boy."
"Thanks for that, granny," said Alric; "canst say what sort o' good luck
it is?"
"No; my knowledge goes no further. It may be good luck in great things,
it may be only in small matters; perhaps soon, perhaps a long time
hence: I know not."
Having ventured this very safe and indefinite prophecy, the old woman
let her chin drop on her bosom, and recommenced the rocking to and fro
which had been interrupted by the question; while Alric laughed, and,
taking up a three-pronged spear, said that, as he had been disappointed
in going to see the fun at the Springs, he would console himself by
going and sticking salmon at the foss [waterfall].
"Wilt thou not wait for midday meal?" said Herfrida.
"No, mother; this roll will suffice till night."
"And then thou wilt come home ravening, and have mara again."
"Be it so. I'd run the risk of that for the sake of the chance of
another glorious battle such as I had last night!"
Saying this the reckless youth sallied forth with the spear or leister
on his shoulder, and took the narrow bridle path leading up the glen.
It was one of those calm bright days of early autumn in which men _feel_
that they draw in fresh life and vigour at each inhalation. With the
fragrant odours that arose from innumerable wild flowers, including that
sweetest of plants, the lily of the valley, was mingled the pleasant
smell of the pines, which clothed the knolls, or hung here and there
like eyebrows on the cliffs. The river was swollen considerably by
recent heat, which had caused the great glaciers on the mountain tops to
melt more rapidly than usual, and its rushing sound was mingled with the
deeper roar of the foss, or waterfall, which leaped over a cliff thirty
feet high about two miles up the valley. Hundreds of rills of all sizes
fell and zigzagged down the mountains on either side, some of them
appearing like threads of silver on the precipices, and all, river and
rills, being as cold as the perpetual ice-fields above which gave them
birth. Birds twittered in the bushes, adding sweetness to the wild
music, and bright greens and purples, lit up by gleams of sunshine,
threw a charm of softness over the somewhat rugged scene.
The Norse boy's nature was sensitive, and peculiarly susceptible of
outward influences. As he walked briskly along, casting his eager gaze
now at the river which foamed below him, and anon at the distant
mountain ridges capped with perennial snows, he forgot his late
disappointment, or, which is the same thing, drowned it in present
enjoyment. Giving vent to his delight, much as boys did a thousand
years later, by violent whistling or in uproarious bursts of song, he
descended to the river's edge, with the intention of darting his salmon
spear, when his eye caught sight of a woman's skirt fluttering on one of
the cliffs above. He knew that Hilda and Ada had gone up the valley
together on a visit to a kinswoman, for Herfrida had spoken of expecting
them back to midday meal; guessing, therefore, that it must be them, he
drew back out of sight, and clambered hastily up the bank, intending to
give them a surprise. He hid himself in the bushes at a jutting point
which they had to pass, and from which there was a magnificent view of
the valley, the fiord, and the distant sea.
He heard the voices of the two girls in animated conversation as they
drew near, and distinguished the name of Glumm more than once, but, not
being a gossip by nature, he thought nothing of this, and was intent
only on pouncing out on them when they should reach a certain stone in
the path. Truth constrains us to admit that our young friend, like many
young folk of the present day, was a practical joker--yet it must also
be said that he was not a very bad one, and, to his honour be it
recorded, he never practised jokes on old people!
It chanced, however, that the two friends stopped short just before
reaching the stone, so that Alric had to exercise patience while the
girls contemplated the view--at least while Hilda did so, for on Ada's
face there was a frown, and her eyes were cast on the ground.
"How lovely Horlingdal looks on such a day!" observed Hilda.
"I have no eyes for beautiful things to-night," said Ada pettishly; "I
cannot get over it--such cool, thankless indifference when I took the
trouble to dress his--his--stupid head, and then, not satisfied with
telling the whole story over to thee, who cares no more for it than if
it were the slaying of half a dozen sheep, he must needs go and pay
frequent visits to Ingeborg and to Halgerda of the Foss--and--and--But I
know it is all out of spite, and that he does not care a bodkin for
either of them, yet I cannot bear it, and I _won't_ bear it, so he had
better look to himself. And yet I would not for the best mantle in the
dale that he knew I had two thoughts about the matter."
"But why play fast and loose with him?" said Hilda, with a laugh at her
companion's vehemence.
"Because I like it and I choose to do so."
"But perchance he does not like it, and does not choose to be treated
so."
"I care not for that."
"Truly thy looks and tone belie thee," said Hilda, smiling. "But in all
seriousness, Ada, let me advise thee again to be more considerate with
Glumm, for I sometimes think that the men who are most worth having are
the most easily turned aside."
"Hast thou found it so with Erling?" demanded Ada half-angrily.
Hilda blushed scarlet at this and said:
"I never thought of Erling in this light; at least I never--he never--
that is--"
Fortunately at this point Alric, in his retreat among the bushes, also
blushed scarlet, for it only then flashed upon him that he had been
acting the mean part of an eavesdropper, and had been listening to
converse which he should not have heard. Instead, therefore, of
carrying out his original intention, he scrambled into the path with as
much noise as possible, and coughed, as he came awkwardly forward.
"Why, the wicked boy has been listening," cried Ada, laying her hand
upon the lad's shoulder, and looking sternly into his face.
"I have," said Alric bluntly.
"And art thou not ashamed?"
"I am," he replied, with a degree of candour in his self-condemnation
which caused Ada and Hilda to burst into a hearty fit of laughter.
"But," said Ada, becoming grave again, "thou hast heard too much for thy
good."
"I know it," he replied, "and I'm sorry, Ada, but cannot help it now.
This will I say, however: I had no wish or intention to hear when I hid
myself. My desire was only to startle thee and Hilda, and before I
thought what thou wert talking of the thing was out, and now I have got
it I cannot unget it."
"True, but thou canst keep it," said Ada.
"I can, and ye may rest assured no word or look of mine shall betray
thee. I'll even try to conceal it from myself, and think it was a
dream, unless, indeed, I see a good chance of helping thee in this
affair!"
Alric laughed as he said this, and the girls joined him, after which
they all went on towards Haldorstede together.
On reaching the place where Alric had intended to fish, Ada suggested
that he should go and try his fortune, so he ran down to the river, and
the girls followed him to the bank.
The spot selected was a rapid which terminated in a small and
comparatively quiet but deep pool. We say comparatively, because in the
state of the river at that time even in the quietest places there was
considerable commotion. Just below the pool the river opened out into a
broad shallow, over which it passed in noisy foam, but with little
depth, except in the centre. Below this, again, it narrowed, and formed
another deep pool.
Alric ran into the water till he was about knee-deep, and then plunged
his spear. Nothing resulted from the first plunge, but the effect of
the second was more tremendous than had ever before happened to the
young sportsman, for the pole of the trident received a twist so violent
that it would infallibly have been torn from the boy's grasp had he not
held on with the tenacity of a vice, and allowed himself to be dragged
bodily into the pool. As we have said, the pool was deep, but that was
nothing to Alric, who could swim like a duck. The Norse maidens who
watched him knew this, and although slightly alarmed, felt on the whole
more inclined to laugh than to tremble as his head emerged and sank
again several times, while the fish which he had struck dragged him
about the pool. After a few seconds of violent and wild exertion it
rushed down the pool into the rapid, and then it was that the girls
perceived that Alric had struck and was clinging to one of the
largest-sized salmon that ever appeared in Horlingdal river.
Fortunate it was for the boy that the fish took the rapid, for it had
almost choked him in the deep pool; but now he scrambled on his feet,
and began to do battle gallantly--endeavouring to thrust the fish
downwards and pin it to the stones whenever it passed over a shallow
part, on which occasions its back and silver sides became visible, and
its great tail--wide spreading, like a modern lady's fan--flashed in the
air as it beat the water in terror or fury. Alric's spirit was ablaze
with excitement, for the fish was too strong for him, so that every time
it wriggled itself he was made to shake and stagger in a most
ridiculously helpless manner, and when it tried to bolt he was pulled
flat down on his face and had to follow it--sometimes on his knees,
sometimes at full length, for, over and over again, when he was about to
rise, or had half-risen, there was another pull, and down he went again,
quite flat, while the roaring torrent went right over him.
But no limpet ever stuck to rock with greater tenacity than did Alric to
the handle of that trident; and it is but just to add, for the
information of those who know it not, that the difficulty of retaining
one's foothold on the pebbly bed of a river when knee-deep in a foaming
rapid is very great indeed, even when one has nothing more to do than
attend to the balancing of one's own body--much greater, of course, in
circumstances such as we describe.
At last the salmon made a rush, and was swept over a shallow part of the
rapid, close under the bank on which the girls stood. Here Alric
succeeded in thrusting it against a large stone. For the first time he
managed to stand up erect, and, although holding the fish with all his
might, looked up, and breathed, or rather gasped, freely:
"Hoch! hah! _what_ a fish! sk-ho!"
"Oh, I wish we could help thee!" exclaimed the girls, with flashing eyes
and outstretched hands, as if they could hardly restrain themselves from
leaping into the water, which was indeed the case!
"N-no! ye can't! 's not poss'ble--hah! my! oh there 'e goes again--
s-t-swash!"
Down he went, flat, as he spoke, and water stopped his utterance, while
the fish wriggled into the centre of the channel, and carried him into
the deep pool below!
Here the scene was not quite so exciting, because the battle was not so
fierce. The salmon had it all his own way in the deep water, and
dragged his attached friend hither and thither as he pleased. On the
other hand, Alric ceased to contend, and merely held on with his right
hand, while with his left he kept his head above water. The pool
circled about in large oily wavelets flecked with foam, so that there
was a great contrast in all this to the tremendous turmoil of the raging
rapid. But the comparative calm did not last long. The huge fish made
a frantic, and apparently a last, effort to get free. It rushed down to
the foot of the pool, and passed over the edge into the next rapid.
The girls shrieked when they saw this, for, unlike the former, this one
was a deep rush of the river, between narrower banks, where its course
was obstructed by large rocks. Against these the stream beat furiously.
Alric knew the spot well, and was aware of the extreme danger of his
position. He therefore made a violent effort to drag the fish towards a
point where there was a slight break or eddy among a number of boulders,
intending to let him go, if necessary, rather than lose his life. He
succeeded, however, in getting upon one of the rocks quite close to the
bank, and then endeavoured to lift the fish out of the water. In this
also he was successful; made a splendid heave, and flung it with all his
force towards the bank, on which it alighted, trident and all, at the
feet of Hilda. But in letting go his hold of the handle Alric lost his
balance, flung his arms above his head in a vain endeavour to recover
himself, and, with a loud shout, fell back into the roaring torrent and
was swept away.
A few moments sufficed to carry him into the pool below, to the edge of
which the girls rushed, and found that he was floating round and round
in a state of insensibility, every moment passing near to the vortex of
the rapid that flowed out of it. Hilda at once rushed in waist-deep and
caught him by the collar. She would have been swept away along with
him, but Ada also sprang forward and grasped Hilda by the mantle. She
could not, however, drag her back; neither could Hilda in any way help
herself. Thus they stood for a few moments swaying to and fro in the
current, and, doubtless, one or more of them would have soon been
carried down had not efficient aid been at hand.
High up on the cliff over the scene where this incident occurred,
Christian the hermit was seated on a log before his door. He sat gazing
dreamily out upon the landscape when Alric began to fish, but, seeing
the danger to which the lad exposed himself, after he had speared the
fish, and fearing that there might be need of his aid, he quickly
descended to the scene of action. He did not arrive a moment too soon,
for the whole event occurred very rapidly. Running to the rescue he
caught Ada round the waist with both hands, and drew her gently back;
she was soon out of danger, after which there was no great difficulty in
dragging the others safely to land.
At once the hermit stripped off the boy's coat, loosened the kerchief
that was round his throat, and sought, by every means in his power, to
restore him to consciousness. His efforts were successful. The boy
soon began to breathe, and in a short time stood up, swaying himself to
and fro, and blinking.
The first thing he said was:
"Where is the salmon?"
"The salmon? Oh, I forgot all about it," said Ada.
"Never mind it, dear Alric," said Hilda.
"Never mind it?" he cried, starting into sudden animation; "what! have
ye left it behind?"
Saying this he burst away from his friends, and ran up the bank of the
river until he came to where the fish was lying, still impaled on the
barbed prongs of the trident. The run so far restored him that he had
sufficient strength to shoulder the fish, although it afterwards turned
out to be a salmon of thirty-five pounds weight, and he quickly rejoined
his friends, who returned with him to Haldorstede, where, you may be
quite sure, he gave a graphic account of the adventure to willing and
admiring ears.
"So, granny," he said, at the conclusion of the narrative, to the old
crone who was still seated by the fire, "thy prophecy has come true
sooner than ye expected, and it has come doubly true, for though the
good luck in store for me was a matter of small general importance, no
one can deny that it is a great fish!"