SIGURD (to his men). Hold! I can master him alone!
ORNULF (to his sons). Let me fight in peace! (Rushes in upon
SIGURD.) I will see thy blood!
SIGURD. First see thine own! (Wounds him in the arm so that his
spear falls.)
ORNULF. A stout stroke, Viking!
Swift the sword thou swingest,
keen thy blows and biting;
Sigurd's self, the Stalwart,
stood before thee shame-struck.
SIGURD (smiling). Then were his shame his glory!
ORNULF'S SONS (with a cry of wonder). Sigurd himself! Sigurd
the Strong!
ORNULF. But sharper was thy stroke that night thou didst bear away
Dagny, my daughter. (Casts his hood back.)
SIGURD AND HIS MEN. Ornulf of the Fiords!
DAGNY (glad, yet uneasy). My father and my brothers!
SIGURD. Stand thou behind me.
ORNULF. Nay, no need. (Approaching SIGURD.) I knew thy face as
soon as I was ware of thee, and therefore I stirred the strife; I
was fain to prove the fame that tells of thee as the stoutest man
of his hands in Norway. Henceforth let peace be between us.
SIGURD. Best if so it could be.
ORNULF. Here is my hand. Thou art a warrior indeed; stouter strokes
than these has old Ornulf never given or taken.
SIGURD (seizes his outstretched hand). Let them be the last strokes
given and taken between us two; and do thou thyself adjudge the matter
between us. Art thou willing?
ORNULF. That am I, and straightway shall the quarrel be healed.
(To the others.) Be the matter, then, known to all. Five winters
ago came Sigurd and Gunnar Headman as vikings to Iceland; they lay
in harbour close under my homestead. Then Gunnar, by force and craft,
carried away my foster-daughter, Hiordis; but thou, Sigurd, didst take
Dagny, my own child, and sailed with her over the sea. For that thou
art now doomed to pay three hundred pieces of silver, and thereby
shall thy misdeed be atoned.
SIGURD. Fair is thy judgment, Ornulf; the three hundred pieces will
I pay, and add thereto a silken cloak fringed with gold. It is a gift
from King AEthelstan of England, and better has no Icelander yet borne.
DAGNY. So be it, my brave husband; and my father, I thank thee. Now
at last is my mind at ease.
(She presses her father's and brothers' hands, and talks low
to them.)
ORNULF. Then thus stands the treaty between us; and from this day
shall Dagny be to the full as honourably regarded as though she had
been lawfully betrothed to thee, with the good will of her kin.
SIGURD. And in me canst thou trust, as in one of thine own blood.
ORNULF. That doubt I not; and see! I will forthwith prove thy
friendship.
SIGURD. Ready shalt thou find me; say, what dost thou crave?
ORNULF. Thy help in rede and deed. I have sailed hither to
Helgeland to seek out Gunnar Headman and draw him to reckoning
for the carrying away of Hiordis.
SIGURD (surprised). Gunnar!
DAGNY (in the same tone). And Hiordis--where are they?
ORNULF. In Gunnar's homestead, I ween.
SIGURD. And it is----?
ORNULF. Not many bow-shots hence; did ye not know?
SIGURD (with suppressed emotion). No, truly. Small tidings have I
had of Gunnar since we sailed from Iceland together. I have wandered
far and wide and served many outland kings, while Gunnar sat at home.
Hither we drive at day-dawn before the storm; I knew, indeed, that
Gunnar's homestead lay here in the north, but----
DAGNY (to ORNULF). So _that_ errand has brought thee hither?
ORNULF. That and no other. (To SIGURD.) Our meeting is the work
of the Mighty Ones above; they willed it so. Had I wished to find
thee, little knew I where to seek.
SIGURD (thoughtfully). True, true!--But concerning Gunnar--tell me,
Ornulf, art thou minded to go sharply to work, with all thy might, be
it for good or ill?
ORNULF. That must I. Listen, Sigurd, for thus it stands: Last
summer I rode to the Council where many honourable men were met.
When the Council-days were over, I sat in the hall and drank with
the men of my hundred, and the talk fell upon the carrying-away of
the women; scornful words they gave me, because I had let that wrong
rest unavenged. Then, in my wrath, I swore to sail to Norway, seek
out Gunnar, and crave reckoning or revenge, and never again to set
foot in Iceland till my claim was made good.
SIGURD. Ay, ay, since so it stands, I see well that if need be the
matter must be pressed home.
ORNULF. It must; but I shall not crave over much, and Gunnar has
the fame of an honourable man. Glad am I, too, that I set about this
quest; the time lay heavy on me in Iceland; out upon the blue waters
had I grown old and grey, and I longed to fare forth once again before
I----; well well--Bergthora, my good wife, was dead these many years;
my eldest sons sailed on viking-ventures summer by summer; and since
Thorolf was growing up----
DAGNY (gladly). Thorolf is with thee? Where is he?
ORNULF. On board the ship. (Points towards the background, to the
right.) Scarce shalt thou know the boy again, so stout and strong and
fair has he grown. He will be a mighty warrior, Sigurd; one day he
will equal thee.
DAGNY (smiling). I see it is now as ever; Thorolf stands nearest
thy heart.
ORNULF. He is the youngest, and like his mother; therefore it is.
SIGURD. But tell me--thy errand to Gunnar--thinkest thou to-day----?
ORNULF. Rather to-day than to-morrow. Fair amends will content me;
if Gunnar says me nay, then must he take what comes.
(KARE THE PEASANT enters hastily from the right; he is clad in a
grey frieze cloak and low-brimmed felt hat; he carries in his
hand a broken fence-rail.)
KARE. Well met, Vikings!
ORNULF. Vikings are seldom well met.
KARE. If ye be honourable men, ye will grant me refuge among you;
Gunnar Headman's house-carls are hunting me to slay me.
ORNULF. Gunnar's?
SIGURD. Then has thou done him some wrong!
KARE. I have done myself right. Our cattle fed together upon an
island, hard by the coast; Gunnar's men carried off my best oxen, and
one of them flouted me for a thrall. Then bare I arms against him and
slew him.
ORNULF. That was a lawful deed.
KARE. But this morning his men came in wrath against me. By good
hap I heard of their coming, and fled; but my foemen are on my tracks,
and short shrift can I look for at their hands.
SIGURD. Ill can I believe thee, peasant! In bygone days I knew
Gunnar as I know myself, and this I wot, that never did he wrong
a peaceful man.
KARE. Gunnar has no part in this wrong-doing; he is in the south-
land; nay, it is Hiordis his wife----
DAGNY. Hiordis!
ORNULF (to himself). Ay, ay, 'tis like her!
KARE. I offered Gunnar amends for the thrall, and he was willing;
but then came Hiordis, and egged her husband on with scornful words,
and hindered the peace. Since then has Gunnar gone to the south,
and to-day----
SIGURD (looking out to the left). Here come wayfarers northward.
Is it not----?
KARE. It is Gunnar himself!
ORNULF. Be of good heart; methinks I can make peace between you.
(GUNNAR HEADMAN, with several men, enters from the left. He is in
a brown tunic, cross-gartered hose, a blue mantle, and a broad
hat; he has no weapon but a small axe.)
GUNNAR (stops in surprise and uncertainty on seeing the knot of men).
Ornulf of the Fiords! Yes, it is----!
ORNULF. Thou seest aright.
GUNNAR (approaching). Then peace and welcome to thee in my land, if
thou come in peace.
ORNULF. If thy will be as mine, there shall be no strife between us.
SIGURD (standing forward). Well met, Gunnar!
GUNNAR (gladly). Sigurd--foster-brother! (Shakes his hand.) Now
truly, since thou art here, I know that Ornulf comes in peace. (To
ORNULF.) Give me thy hand, greybeard! Thy errand here in the north
is lightly guessed: it has to do with Hiordis, thy foster-daughter.
ORNULF. As thou sayest; great wrong was done me when thou didst bear
her away from Iceland without my will.
GUNNAR. Thy claim is just; what youth has marred, the man must mend.
Long have I looked for thee, Ornulf, for this cause; and if amends
content thee, we shall soon be at one.
SIGURD. So deem I too. Ornulf will not press thee hard.
GUNNAR (warmly). Nay, Ornulf, didst thou crave her full worth, all
my goods would not suffice.
ORNULF. I shall go by law and usage, be sure of that. But now
another matter. (Pointing to KARE.) Seest thou yonder man?
GUNNAR. Kare! (To ORNULF.) Thou knowest, then, that there is a
strife between us?
ORNULF. Thy men have stolen his cattle, and theft must be atoned.
GUNNAR. Murder no less; he has slain my thrall.
KARE. Because he flouted me.
GUNNAR. I have offered thee terms of peace.
KARE. But that had Hiordis no mind to, and this morning, whilst thou
wert gone, she fell upon me and hunts me now to my death.
GUNNAR (angrily). Is it true what thou sayest? Has she----?
KARE. True, every word.
ORNULF. Therefore the peasant besought me to stand by him, and that
will I do.
GUNNAR (after a moment's thought). Honourably hast thou dealt with
me, Ornulf; therefore is it fit that I should yield to thy will. Hear
then, Kare: I am willing to let the slaying of the thrall and the
wrongs done toward thee quit each other.
KARE (gives GUNNAR his hand). It is a good offer; I am content.
ORNULF. And he shall have peace for thee and thine?
GUNNAR. Peace shall he have, here and overall.
SIGURD (pointing to the right). See yonder!
GUNNAR (disturbed). It is Hiordis!
ORNULF. With armed men!
KARE. She is seeking me!
(HIORDIS enters, with a troop of house-carls. She is clad in
black, wearing a kirtle, cloak, and hood; the men are armed
with swords and axes; she herself carries a light spear.)
HIORDIS (stops on entering). A meeting of many, meseems.
DAGNY (rushes to meet her). Peace and joy to thee, Hiordis!
HIORDIS (coldly). Thanks. It was told me that thou wast not far
off. (Comes forward, looking sharply at those assembled.) Gunnar,
and--Kare, my foeman--Ornulf and his sons and---- (As she catches
sight of SIGURD, she starts almost imperceptibly, is silent a moment,
but collects herself and says:) Many I see here who are known to me--
but little I know who is best minded towards me.
ORNULF. We are all well-minded towards thee.
HIORDIS. If so be, thou wilt not deny to give Kare into my
husband's hands.
ORNULF. There is no need.
GUNNAR. There is peace and friendship between us.
HIORDIS (with suppressed scorn). Friendship? Well well, I know thou
art a wise man, Gunnar! Kare has met mighty friends, and well I woth
thou deem'st it safest----
GUNNAR. Thy taunts avail not! (With dignity.) Kare is at peace
with us!
HIORDIS (restraining herself). Well and good; if thou hast sworn
him peace, the vow must be held.
GUNNAR (forcibly, but without anger). It must and it shall.
ORNULF (to HIORDIS). Another pact had been well-nigh made ere
thy coming.
HIORDIS (sharply). Between thee and Gunnar.
ORNULF (nods). It had to do with thee.
HIORDIS. Well can I guess what it had to do with; but this I tell
thee, foster-father, never shall it be said that Gunnar let himself
be cowed because thou camest in arms to the isle. Hadst thou come
alone, a single wayfarer, to our hall, the quarrel had more easily
been healed.
GUNNAR. Ornulf and his sons come in peace.
HIORDIS. Mayhap; but otherwise will it sound in the mouths of
men; and thou thyself, Gunnar, didst show scant trust in the peace
yesterday, in sending our son Egil to the southland so soon as it
was known that Ornulf's warship lay in the fiord.
SIGURD (to GUNNAR). Didst thou send thy sons to the south?
HIORDIS. Ay, that he might be in safety should Ornulf fall upon us.
ORNULF. Scoff not at that, Hiordis; what Gunnar has done may prove
wise in the end, if so be thou hinderest the pact.
HIORDIS. Life must take its chance; come what will, I had liever
die than save my life by a shameful pact.
DAGNY. Sigurd makes atonement, and will not be deemed the lesser
man for that.
HIORDIS. Sigurd best knows what his own honour can bear.
SIGURD. On that score shall I never need reminding.
HIORDIS. Sigurd has done famous deeds, but the boldest deed of all
was Gunnar's, when he slew the white bear that guarded my bower.
GUNNAR (with an embarrassed glance at SIGURD). Nay nay, no more
of that!
ORNULF. In truth it was the boldest deed that e'er was seen in
Iceland; and therefore----
SIGURD. The more easily can Gunnar yield, and not be deemed
a coward.
HIORDIS. If amends are to be made, amends shall also be craved.
Bethink thee, Gunnar, of thy vow!
GUNNAR. That vow was ill bethought; wilt thou hold me to it?
HIORDIS. That will I, if we two are to dwell under one roof after
this day. Know then, Ornulf, that if atonement is to be made for the
carrying away of thy foster-daughter, thou, too, must atone for the
slaying of Jokul my father, and the seizure of his goods and gear.
ORNULF. Jokul was slain in fair fight;[1] thy kinsmen did me a
worse wrong when they sent thee to Iceland and entrapped me into
adopting[2] thee, unwitting who thou wast.
[1] "I aerling holmgang." The established form of duel in the
viking times was to land the combatants on one of the rocky islets
or "holms" that stud the Norwegian coast, and there let them fight
it out. Hence "holmgang"=duel.
[2] "At knaessette"=to knee-set a child, to take it on one's knee,
an irrevocable form of adoption.
HIORDIS. Honour, and now wrong, befell thee in adopting
Jokul's daughter.
ORNULF. Nought but strife hast thou brought me, that I know.