And after many years he came sailing in his rotten boat over the seas
which play around the island of Caledonia. He landed, seized his
hammer, and strode upwards to a steep rocky hill, on which sheep and
goats were grazing.
It was early morning, in the time when roses begin to bloom.
Mist floated over the sea, and upon the cliffs.
Then Halfred saw the shepherd standing above, on the cliff's edge; and
he played a lovely melody upon his shepherd's pipe.
And at first he doubted whether he should ask this shepherd boy his
question about the Gods, for he left women and boys unquestioned. And
this shepherd seemed to him but a boy.
But as he climbed nearer to him he saw that the shepherd carried a
spear, and a shepherd's sling, with which to kill wolves.
And the shepherd lad believed that this was a robber or a Berseker
coming against him and his sheep.
And he chose out of his leather pouch a sharp heavy stone, and laid it
in his sling, and held it ready to cast it.
Halfred held his left hand over the eye that remained to him, and
looked upward with difficulty, dazzled, for just then the sun broke out
through the mist clouds exactly above the head of the shepherd, who
thus saw clearly the figure of the half naked man, with tangled
floating hair and beard, who now raising the hammer threateningly
ascended the hill. Upon a slab of stone, under a great ash tree, he
stopped, and cried to the shepherd--
"Are there Gods, shepherd boy? Sayest thou yes, then thou must die."
"Gods, there are not," replied the shepherd, in a clear voice, "but
wise men have taught me there lives one Almighty Triune God, Creator of
Heaven and Earth."
The man with the hammer paused for a moment as if meditating.
Such an answer had he never received.
Soon, however, he sprang threateningly upwards again.
Preventing him, however, the shepherd swung his sling; whirring flew
the sharp stone; it was a sharp hard three-edged flint stone--I had
carefully reserved it for some great peril--and alas! alas--woe is me,
only too truly did it strike. Without a sound Halfred fell, where he
stood, on his back under the ash tree, himself like to a suddenly
felled tree.
With a few bounds the shepherd reached the prostrate form, cautiously
holding his spear before him, lest the enemy should suddenly spring up
again. For it might be that he only artfully feigned to be wounded.
As he drew nearer, however, he saw that it was no deceit, but rather
evident truth.
Blood streamed over the fallen man's right cheek, and in the cavity of
the right eye stuck the sharp flint stone.
But pity mingled with dread seized upon the shepherd, as he gazed in
the fearful mighty face of the man who lay mute at his feet. Never
before had he seen so splendid a face; at once so noble, and so sad.
And superstitious fear overcame him, if it might not be the chief of
the heathen gods, Odhin, the one-eyed, who in the semblance of this
wanderer with the white beard had appeared to him.
But soon he felt yet deeper sympathy and compassion, for the wounded
man in a weak voice began:--
"Whosoever thou mayest be, who hast cast this stone, receive the
thanks, O shepherd boy, of a world and woe weary man. Thou hast taken
from me the light of the second eye also. I need no longer to see
men-kind and the heavens. Neither of them have I understood for a long
time. And soon shall I pass to where questions are no more asked, and
curses no more cursed. I thank thee, whosoever thou mayest be. Thou
hast of all living beings--save one--done the best for Halfred
Hamundson."
Then with a loud cry I threw my spear on one side, fell upon my knees,
embraced the pale bleeding head, and cried:--
"Halfred, Halfred, my father, forgive, forgive me!--I am the murderer--
and thy son--"
Now ye who shall one day unroll this parchment--pause at this place,
and look upwards to the sun, if it is day, and to the stars, if it is
night, and ask with Halfred--"Are there Gods?"
For I, I, who secretly and in dread write these pages during the night
hours, I am the shepherd boy, Halfred's son, who have slain him.
And the Gods, or the Christian God, have allowed it to come to pass
that the son has blinded and murdered the father.
I wept hot tears upon my dear father's pale forehead. But he turned his
head, as though he would see me, and said--
"It is hard that the curse must be so wholly fulfilled upon me, that I
must be entirely blinded before death.
"Fain would I have looked closely into thy face, my dear son.
"Now I know not if the golden cloud I saw spread about thy head was thy
hair or the sun rays.
"Thou seemedst to me fair to look upon, my boy.
"But tell me, how do they call thee?
"Have they verily, at thy birth, named thee Liarson Scoundrelson
Harthildsvengeance? and how did it happen that thou camest into life. I
believed Dame Harthild burned in the dwelling house."
Then I laid my dear father's head upon my knees, and dried with the
long yellow hair I was at that time still allowed to wear, the blood
from his cheek, and told him all.
How my mother would not be carried from the burning Mead hall back into
the dwelling house, but rather on to one of the ships of her father.
How from thence, when the battle and the flames threatened dwelling
house and ships, she was borne by her women and the sailors into a
boat, and therein rowed out upon the Fjord.
How in the boat she had forthwith given birth to a son, but died
herself; and ere she died had laid her hand upon my head, and said--
"Not Liarson--not Scoundrelson--not Harthildsvengeance shall he be
named--no; Fridgifa Sigskaldson."[6]
"She was right in that," said Halfred. "Thou hast aided the Sigskald to
peace at last."
And how after she was dead the fearful battle and burning on shore
scared the sailors and women still further out to sea.
And how the small boat was almost sunk by the fury of a storm from the
west, and all the bondmen and women were washed overboard by the waves,
save one rower, and a bond maiden, who hid the infant under the stern
seat.
And how, at last, Christian priests, who were sailing out to convert
the heathen people, picked up the half starved wanderers, and brought
all three hither, to the island of the holy Columban; and cleansed both
the two, and the infant, with the water of baptism.
And how the two, my foster parents, told me all that they knew about my
father, and mother, up to the time of the burning of the Mead hall.
And how the two were never weary of lauding to me my father's glory in
battle and song.
And how the monks of Saint Columban, as I grew, would have me taught to
read and write; but I loved far better to go out with the hunters and
shepherds of the monastery, and liked to draw targets on the parchment
leaves for my little cross-bow.
And how, at length, they declared me unfit for books, when with my
small bolt I had pierced through and through a costly picture which on
the gold ground of a thumb broad margin represented the whole of the
Passion, and promoted me with a sound thrashing to be herd boy of the
monastery.
And how for many years, since my foster parents were dead, I had kept
the sheep of the monastery; and my sole pleasure therein had been in
fighting with the bears, the wolves, and the eagles, that attacked the
lambs.
Or in playing upon my shepherd's pipe, or in listening to the roar of
the sea and the forest.
And Halfred laid my head upon his broad breast, and folded both his
arms around it, and laid his hand upon it, and was still and silent for
a long time.
And I brought him water to drink from the fountain, and milk from my
flock; and would have drawn the stone from the wound, but he said--
"Leave it, my dear son--the end draws near.
"But I feel the band taken away from my brain, which for many many
years has pressed upon it.
"And all becomes clear and bright to my thoughts. I can see inwardly
again how all has been, now that I can no longer see outward things.
"And for thee, and for myself, before I die, I will set forth clearly
and exactly how all has been. Give me once again milk from thy flock to
drink."
And I gave him to drink, and he laid his head again upon my knee, and
began to tell me, quite clearly and distinctly, all that had come to
pass since that midsummer night.
And from his lips have I learned all, onward from that midsummer night,
which in the earlier pages of this book I have written out. And much
have I also learned from him, of those earlier times of which my foster
parents could know nothing.
And I have kept it all in faithful remembrance.
And as the evening fell he came to the end of his account, and he said,
"Lay my face so that once more the sun shall shine upon it. Fain would
I feel the dear Lord once again."
And I did as he commanded.
And he breathed deeply, and said:
"It must certainly be spring. A perfume of wild roses floats to me."
And I told him that he lay under a blooming rose-bush.
And then a blackbird raised his sweet song from the bush.
"Thus I hear once more the blackbird's evening song," said Halfred.
"Now farewell all. Sun and sea, forest and stars of heaven, wild rose
perfume, and songs of birds; and farewell to thee, my dear son. I thank
thee that thou hast released me from madness, and an evil life.
"I can, to requite thee, as all my heritage, leave thee only this
hammer. Guard it faithfully.
"Whether there be Gods--I know not. Methinks that men can never search
it out. But I tell thee, my son, whether Gods live or not, hammer
throwing, and harp playing, and sunshine, and the kiss of woman, these
are the rewards of life.
"Mayest thou win a wife who is but a faint reflection of Thora.
"Then hail to thee, my son!
"Bury me here, where mingles the roar of the forest and the sea.
"Farewell my dear son. Dame Harthild's curse thou hast turned for me
into a blessing."
And he died.
The blackbird ceased singing in the bush. And as the sun sank, one warm
full flood of his rays streamed full upon that mighty face.
Thus died the son of Oski.