TALES OF THE UNKNOWN WEST
Fire is needful
To him who is come in,
And whose knees are frozen;
Food and raiment
A man requires
Who o'er the fell has travelled.
Ha'vama'l
"I tell you I must go over the track once more. It may have slipped
out of my girdle at some of the places where I tripped."
Alwin's words rose in frosty cloud; for he was Leif's unheated
sleeping-room, drawing on an extra pair of thick woollen stockings in
preparation for his customary outing.
"It is foolishness. Four times already have you been over the ground
without finding it. A long brass-halted knife could not have been
overlooked if it had been there. I tell you that you lost it among the
rocks of the hollow, and that you would be wise to give it up."
Sigurd's answer came in muffled though emphatic tones, for he was
huddled almost out of sight among the furs on the chest, as he waited
for his companion to complete his dressing. Now that genuine winter
weather was upon them, the loft was necessarily abandoned as a sleeping
apartment; but it still served as a dressing-room for such slight and
speedy alterations as were attempted.
As he pulled on the big heelless skeeing-shoes, Alwin sighed anxiously.
"I must find it. Any day Leif may miss it and ask."
"He is not likely to, since he has already gone a week without noticing
its absence. And if he should, you have only to say that you borrowed it
to protect yourself from wolves. That will not be much of a lie, Skroppa
being nearer wolf than human. He will feel that he was wrong to have
denied you a weapon, and he will only scold a little."
"It is true that he is in a good temper again," Alwin admitted.
"Yesterday I heard Tyrker tell Valbrand that many more chiefs had asked
concerning Christianity; and last night, after Eric had gone to sleep in
his seat, I heard Leif say to Thorhild that if now he could only do some
great deed to prove the power of his God, it was his opinion that half
of Greenland would be ready to believe."
Sigurd crept out of the bearskins with a shiver. "I say nothing against
that. But let us end this talk. My blood-drops are so frozen they rattle
in my body."
He thumped down the steps as though rigid with cold, and jumped and
danced and beat his breast before he could bring himself to stand still
long enough to fasten on his skees.
"Where shall we go, then?" Alwin asked, as they glided out of the gate
in the dim light of an Arctic winter day. "It may be that to go over
that road again might become a misfortune. Once I saw Kark looking after
us with a grin which I would have knocked off his face if I had not been
in a hurry."
Sigurd instantly faced toward the snow-crusted hills that lay between
them and Eric's Fiord. "Then to-day it will be useful to go in another
direction, so that any suspicions he has may go to sleep again. If
Thorhall had been at home, he would have overtaken you before this. His
green eyes are well fitted for spying."
Perhaps it was this reference to green eyes that recalled to Alwin the
scene of the foretelling. Perhaps it had never gone very far out of his
mind.
After they had swung along a while in silent enjoyment of the swift
motion and the answering tingle in their blood, he said abruptly: "It
may be that there was some truth at her tongue-roots, after all."
Sigurd made a sly move with his staff, so that the other suddenly
tripped and fell headlong; whereupon he said gravely: "Lo, I believe so
too, for behold, already it has come true that 'I see your body lying on
the ground.'"
Alwin consented to laugh, as he picked himself up and untangled his
runners; but he was too much in earnest to be turned aside.
"I do not mean in regard to that," he said, when they were once more in
motion. "I mean what she told concerning some new untrodden land."
Sigurd became instantly attentive, as though the reference had been much
in his own mind also.
"It has occurred to me that perhaps she was speaking of that western
land you told me of. It might be that this would be a way out of my
difficulties. If I could escape to that land with Helga, so would I at
once save her and gain my freedom."
Sigurd's eyes brightened, then gloomed again. "Yes,--but that 'if' is
like a mile-wide rift in the ice. You can never get over it."
"It might be that I could get around it. I tell you I shall go out of my
wits if I cannot see some trail to follow, no matter how faint it is.
Tell me what else you know of this land."
They were starting down a slope at the speed of the wind, but Sigurd
suddenly leaped into the air with a cheer; and cheered again as he
landed, right-side up and unstaggered, at the bottom of the hill.
"By Michael, I will do better than that! I will take you to talk with
one of Biorn's own men. One is visiting Aran Bow-Bender now, across the
fiord. I heard Brand Knutsson say so last week."
"By my troth, Sigurd," Alwin cried eagerly, "when things come to one's
hand like that, I believe it is a sign that he should try his luck with
them! Would we have time to go there to-day?"
"Certainly; do you not see that the light is only just fading from the
mountain tops? so it can be but a little past noon. The only difficulty
is that the ice may not be in a condition for us to cross the fiord. A
warm land-wind has been blowing for three days; and even in the North,
where the seal-hunters go, the ice often breaks up under them. But now
allow me to get my bearings. That is the smoke from Brattahlid, behind
us; and yonder I see the roofs of Eric's ship-sheds. Here,--we will go
in this direction until we come to a high point of the bank."
Across the white plain that stretched in that direction, they skimmed
accordingly. Once they came upon a herd of Eric's reindeer, rooting
under the snow for moss; but aside from that, they saw no living thing.
Low-hanging gray clouds seemed to have shut out the world. Now and then,
from far out in the open water came the grinding and crunching of huge
ice-cakes, see-sawing past each other. Once there sounded the
reverberating thunder of two icebergs in a duel.
"If there were any bears on that ice, they have found by this time that
there can be even worse things than men with spears," Sigurd observed,
as he listened.
It is doubtful whether Alwin had heard the noise at all. He answered,
absently: "Yes,--and if we do not wish to come to the subject at once,
we can say that we are cold and dropped in to warm ourselves."
"To say that we are cold will always be truthfully spoken," Sigurd
assented, his teeth chattering like beads. "I do not believe that
Stark-Otter was much chillier when he pulled off his clothes and sat in
a snow-bank."
It turned out to be even more truthful than they imagined. They had
little more than left the shore and ventured out upon the ice, when the
gentle east wind developed into a gale, that presently wrapped them in
the blinding folds of a snow-storm. The ice became invisible a step
ahead of their feet. They had retained their staffs when they left their
skees upon the bank; but even feeling their way step by step was by no
means secure. It was not long before Alwin went through, up to his neck;
and if he had been uncomfortable before, he was in wretched plight now,
drenched to the skin with ice-water.
"If you also get in this condition, we shall both perish," he chattered,
when he had managed to clamber out again by the fortunate accident of
his staff's falling crosswise over the hole. "I will continue to go
first; and do you hoard your strength to save us both when I get too
stiff to move." It proved a wise precaution; for in a few minutes he
broke through again, and it took all his companion's exertions to pull
him out. Before they reached the opposite shore, he had been in four
times, and was so benumbed with cold that Sigurd was obliged to drag him
up the bank and into the hut of Aran Bow-Bender.
One low room was all there was of it, and that was smoky and dirty, the
air thick with the smells of stale cooking and musty fur garments. Dogs
were lying about, and there was a goat-pen in the corner; but a fire
roared in the centre, a ring of steaming hot drinks stood around it, and
behind them sat a circle of jovial-hearted sportsmen, who seemed to ask
no greater pleasure than to pull off a stranger's drenched garments, rub
him to a tingle, and pour him full of hot spicy liquids.
To return that night was out of the question. Alwin was too exhausted
even to think of it,--beyond a sleepy wonder as to whether a scolding or
a flogging would be the penalty of his involuntary truancy. He even
forgot the existence of the man he had come to see, though the round,
red-faced sailor dozed in a corner directly opposite him.
Sigurd, however, was less muddled; and he had, besides, a strong
objection to returning the next morning, to be laughed at for his
weather-foolishness.
"If we do not want to be made fun of, it would be advisable for us to
take someone back with us to distract people's attention," he reasoned,
and laid plans accordingly. The next day, as they began buckling up
their various outer garments preparatory to departure, he suddenly
struck into the conversation with a reference to the festivities at
Brattahlid.
In a moment the sailor-man's eyes opened, like two round windows, above
his fat cheeks.
The Silver-Tongue spoke on concerning the products of the Brattahlid
kitchen, the fat beeves that were slaughtered each week, the gammons and
flitches that were taken from the larder, and the barrels of ale that
were tapped.
As he settled his boots with a final stamp, and stretched out his hand
toward the door, Grettir the sailor arose in his corner.
"Hold on, Jarl's son," he said thickly. "If it is not against your wish,
I will go with you." He made a propitiatory gesture to the group around
the fire. "You will not take it ill, shipmates, if I leave you now, with
many thanks for a good entertainment. The truth is that it has always
been in my mind to visit this renowned Eric, if ever I should be in this
part of Greenland; and now that some one is going that way to guide me,
I think it would be unadvisable to lose the chance."
"The matter shall be as you have fixed it, Grettir," Sigurd said
politely, "if you are able to run on skees with us."
Grettir laughed in a jovial roar, as he helped himself to a pair of
runners that rested on antlers against the wall. "You have a sly wit,
Sigurd Jarlsson. You think, because I am round, I am wont to roll like a
barrel. I will show you."
And it proved that, for all his bulk, he was as light on his feet as
either of them. In those days, when every landlubber could handle a boat
like a seaman, every sailor knew at least something about farming, and
could ride a horse like a jockey. All the way back, he kept them going
at a pace that took their breath.
In the excitement of welcoming so renowned a character to Brattahlid,
reprimands and curiosity were alike forgotten. By the time they had him
anchored behind an ale-horn on the bench in the hall, he held the
household's undivided attention. Good-natured with feasting, and roused
by the babel around him, he began yarn-spinning at the first hint.
"The western shore? No man living can tell you more of the wonders of
that than I,--not Biorn Herjulfsson himself!" he declared. And forthwith
he related the whole adventure, from Biorn's rash setting out into
unknown seas, to his final arrival on the Greenland coast.
To hear of these strange half-mythical shores from one who had seen them
with his own eyes, was more than interesting. The jarls' sons listened
breathlessly while he reeled out his tale between swallows.
"And the fair winds ceased, and northern winds with fog blew
continually, so that for many days we did not know even in what
direction we were sailing. Then the sun came into sight, and we could
distinguish the quarters of heaven. We hoisted sail, and sailed all day
before we saw land, but when we came to it we knew no more what it was
than this horn here. Biorn said he did not think it was Greenland, but
he wished to go near it. It had no mountains but low hills, and was
forest-clad. We kept the land on our left and sailed for two days before
we came to other land. This time it was flat and covered with woods.
Biorn said that he did not think this was Greenland, for very large
glaciers were said to be there. We wished to go ashore, as we lacked
both wood and water, and the fair wind had fallen. There were some cross
words when Biorn would not, but gave orders to turn the prow seaward.
This time we sailed three days with a southwest wind, and more land came
in view, which rose high with mountains and a glacier. Biorn said this
had an inhospitable look, and he would not allow that we should land
here either. But we sailed along the shore, and saw that it was an
island. After this we had no more chances, for the fourth land we saw
was Greenland."
A buzz of comment rose from all sides. "Is that all that you made of
such a chance as that?"--"Certainly the gods waste their favors on such
as Biorn Herjulfsson."--"Is he a coward, or what does he lack?" "He is
as dull as a wooden sword."
Now whether or no all this coincided with the private opinion of Grettir
the Fat, has nothing to do with the matter. Biorn Herjulfsson had been
his chief. The sailor rose suddenly to his feet, with his hand on his
knife and an angry look on his red face.
"Biorn Herjulfsson is no coward!" he shouted fiercely. "I will avenge it
in blood on the head of him who says so."
Eric was not there to keep order; a dozen mouths opened to take up the
challenge. But before any sound could come out of them, Leif had risen
to his feet. "Are you such mannerless churls that I must remind you of
what is due to a guest?" he said, sternly. "Learn to be quicker with
your hospitality, and slower with your judgment of every act you cannot
under-stand. Grettir, I invite you to sit here by me and tell me more
concerning your chief's voyage."
When Grettir had gone proudly up to take his seat of honor, and the
others had returned to their back-gammon and ale, Sigurd looked at Alwin
with a comical grimace.
"Now I wonder if my cleverness in bringing this fellow here has happened
to overshoot the mark! Leif is eager to get renown; suppose he takes it
into his head to make this voyage himself?"
Alwin sank his voice to a whisper: "The idea came to me as soon as he
called Grettir to him. But it was not your doing. Now the saying is
proved true that 'things that are fated take place.' Do you remember the
prophecy,--that when I stand on that ground I shall stand there by the
side of Leif Ericsson?"