"WHERE NEVER MAN STOOD BEFORE"
Wit is needful
To him who travels far:
At home all is easy.
Ha'vama'l
Four days of threading fog-thickets and ploughing over watery wastes,
and the stanch little vessel pushed her way into sight of the first of
the unknown lands. It towered up ahead like a storm-cloud, bleak and
barren-looking as Greenland itself. From its inhospitable heights and
glaciers gleaming coldly in the sunshine, they knew it at once for the
last-seen land of Biorn's narrative.
"It looks to me like a good omen that we are to begin where Biorn left
off," Rolf observed to one of the men engaged in lowering the ship's
boat.
The fellow was a stalwart Icelander who had every current superstition
at his tongue's end, and was even accredited with the gift of second
sight. He hunched his shoulders sceptically, as he bent over the ropes.
"It is my opinion that good omens have little to do with this land," he
returned. "It bears every resemblance to the Giant Country which Thor
visited."
"I believe it is Helheim itself," quavered Kark.
The Wrestler glanced at the thrall's blanching cheeks and laughed a long
soft laugh. Such a display was one of the few things that moved him to
mirth. Suddenly he caught up the bowerman as one picks up a kitten, and,
leaning out over the side, dropped him sprawling into the long-boat.
"Here, then, is your chance to enter the world of the dead in good
company," he laughed. He stood guard over the gunwale until Leif and the
other ten men of the boat's crew were ready to go down; pounding the
poor wretch's fingers when he attempted to climb back, while a row of
grinning faces mocked him over the side.
The unpromising aspect of the shore did not lessen as the explorers
approached it. If they had not made an easy landing, on a gravelly strip
between two rocky points, they would have felt that their labor had been
wasted. From the sea to the ice-tipped mountains there stretched a plain
of nothing but broad flat stones. They looked in vain for any signs of
life. Not a tree nor a shrub, nor even so much as a grass-blade,
relieved the dead emptiness. When they caught sight of a fox, whisking
from one rocky den to another, it startled them into crossing
themselves.
"It is over such wastes as this that the dead like to call to each
other," Valbrand muttered in his heard.
And his neighbor mumbled uneasily, "I think it likely that this is one
of the plains on which the Women who Ride at Night hold their meetings.
If it were not for the Lucky One's luck, I would prefer swallowing hot
irons to coming here."
Then both became silent, for Leif had faced about and was awaiting their
full attention before announcing the next move. "I dislike to see brave
men disgrace their beards with bondmaids' gabble," he said sternly. "Fix
in your minds the shame that was spoken of Biorn Herjulfsson because of
his lack of enterprise. The same shall not be said of us. Rolf
Erlingsson and Ottar the Red and three others shall follow me; and we
will walk inland until the light has entirely faded from the highest
mountain peak yonder, and the next point below is yellow as a golden
fir-cone. The others of you shall follow Valbrand for the same length of
time, but walk southward along the shore, since it may be that something
of interest is hidden behind these points--"
A howl from Kark interrupted him. "I will not go! By Thor, I will not
go! Spirits are hidden behind those points. Who knows what would jump
out at us? I will not stir away from the Lucky One. I will not! I will
not!" Gibbering with terror, he clutched Leif's cloak and clung there
like a cat.
For a moment the chief hesitated, looking down at him with disgust
unutterable. Then he quietly loosened the golden clasp on his shoulder,
flung the mantle off with a sweep that sent the thrall staggering
backward, and marched away at the head of his men.
Valbrand had handled rebellious slaves before.
Shaking the fellow until he no longer had any breath to howl with, the
steersman said briefly, "It is very unlikely that we shall see any
ghosts, but it is altogether certain that your hide will feel my belt if
you do not end this fuss."
Kark made his choice with admirable swiftness. He got what comfort he
could, poor wretch, out of a carefully selected position. As between two
shields, he crept between the mystic Icelander and the dauntless Norman
warrior. Valbrand led the way, his flint face set to withstand the Devil
and all his angels; and three strapping Swedes brought up the rear, with
drawn swords and thumping hearts.
If only the way could have lain straight and open before them, even
though it bristled with beasts and foes! But for the whole distance it
screwed itself into a succession of crescent-shaped beaches, each one
lying between rocky spurs of the beetling crags.
Each point they rounded disclosed nothing more alarming than lichened
boulders and pebbly shore, with here a dead fish, and there a heap of
shining snaky kelp, and yonder a flock of startled gulls,--but who could
tell what the next projection might be hiding? They walked with their
fists gripped hard around their weapons, their eyes shifting, their ears
strained, while the waves hissed around their feet and the gulls
screamed over their heads.
Slowly the light faded from the mountain top and lay upon the next peak,
a golden cone against the blue. At last, even Valbrand's sense of duty
was satisfied. "We will turn back now," he announced, halting them. "But
first I will climb up the cliff, here where it is lowest, and try to see
a little way ahead, that we may have as much news as possible to report
to the chief."
As he spoke, he gave a great spring upward on to a shelving ledge, and
pulled himself up to the next projection; a rattling shower of sand and
pebbles continued to mark his ascent. Robert the Fearless walked on to
look around the rock they had almost reached; but the rest remained
where they were, following their leader's movements with anxious eyes.
They were so intent that they jumped like startled horses at an
exclamation from the Icelander. He was pointing to the strip of beach
which lay between Kark and the Norman.
"Look there!" he cried. "Look there!"
Their alarm was in no way diminished when they had looked and seen that
the space was empty. The cold drops came out on their bodies, and the
hair rose on their heads.
Robert of Normandy, who had caught the cry but not the words, came
walking back, inquiring the cause of the excitement; and at that the
Icelander cried out louder than before:
"Have a care where you go! Do you not see it? You will get blood upon
your fine cloak. It is at your feet."
In blank amazement, the Norman stared first at the ground and then at
the seer.
"Have the wits been stolen out of you? There is not even so much as a
devil-fish where you are pointing."
The Icelander took off his cap, and commenced wiping the great beads
from his forehead. "You begin to listen after the song is sung," he
answered, peevishly. "The thing ran away as soon as you approached. It
was a fox that was bloody all over."
A yell of terror distended Kark's throat.
"A fox!" he screeched. "My guardian spirit follows me in that shape; a
foreknowing woman told me so. It is my death-omen! I am death-fated!"
His knees gave way under him so that he sank to the ground and cowered
there, wringing his hands.
The Icelander shot a look of triumph at the sceptical stranger. "They
have no call to hold their chins high who hear of strange wonders for
the first time," he said, severely. "It is as certain that men have
guardian spirits as that they have bodies. Yours, Robert of Normandy,
goes doubtless in the shape of a wolf because of your warrior nature;
and I advise you now, that when you see a bloody wolf before you it will
be time for you to draw on your Hel-shoes. The animal ran nearest the
thrall--"
Kark's lamentations merged into a shriek of hope. "That is untrue! It
lay at the Norman's feet; you told him so!"
While the seer turned to look rather resentfully at him, he climbed up
this slender life-line, like a man whom sharks are pursuing.
"It was not a fox that you saw, at all; it was a wolf! So excited were
you that your eyes were deceitful. It was a wolf, and it was nearest the
Norman. A blind man could see what that means."
The Icelander pulled off his cap again, but this time it was to scratch
his head doubtfully. "It was when the stranger approached it, that it
was nearest to him," he persisted. "While this may signify that he will
seek death, I am unable to say that it proves that he will overtake it.
Yet I will not swear that it was not a wolf. The sun was in my eyes--"
Robert the Fearless burst into a scornful laugh. "Oh, call it a wolf,
and let us end this talk!" he said, contemptuously. "I shall not die
until my death-day comes, though you see a pack of them. Call it a wolf,
craven serf, if that will stay your tongue."
There was no chance for more, for at that moment Valbrand joined them.
"There is naught to be seen which is different from what we have already
experienced," he said shortly; and they began the return march.
They reached the landing-place first; but it was not long before the
heads of their companions appeared above a rocky ridge. This party, it
was evident, had had better sport. Several men carried hats filled with
sea-birds' eggs. Another explorer had under his arm a fat little bear
cub that he had picked up somewhere. Rolf's deftness at stone-throwing
had secured him a bushy yellow fox-tail for a trophy.
The party had gone inland far enough to discover that creeping bushes
grew on the hills, and rushes on the bogs; that it was an island, as
Biorn had stated, and that forests equal in size to those of Greenland
grew in sheltered places. But they had seen nothing to alter their
unflattering first opinion. Vikings though they were, warriors who would
have been flayed alive without flinching, relief was manifest on every
face when the leader finally gave the word to embark.
Probably it was because he understood the danger of pushing their
fidelity too far, that the chief gave the order to return so soon. For
his own part, he did not seem to be entirely satisfied. With one foot on
the stern of the boat, and one still on the rocks, he lingered
uncertainly.
"Yet we have not acted with this land like Biorn, who did not come
ashore," he muttered. Rolf displayed the fox-tall with a flourish.
"We have accomplished more than Eric after he had been in Greenland an
equally short time, chief. We have taken tribute from the inhabitants."
Leif deigned to smile slightly. He stepped into his place, and from the
stern he swept a long critical look over the barren coast,--from the
fox-dens up to the high-peaked mountains, and back again to the sea.
"We will give as well as take," he said at last. "I will give a name to
the land, and call it Helluland, for it is indeed an icy plain."
They were welcomed on board with a hubbub of curiosity. Almost every
article of value upon the ship was offered in exchange for the cub and
the fox-tail. The uncanny accounts of the place were swallowed with
open-mouthed greediness; so greedily that it was little wonder that at
each repetition the narratives grew longer and fuller. Told by
torchlight, at a safe distance from Leif, each boulder took on the form
of a squatting dwarf; and the faint squeaking of foxes became the
shrieking of spirits. The tale of the death-omen swelled to such
proportions that Kark would have been terrified out of his wits if he
had not rested secure in the conviction that the vision had been a wolf.
The explorers who had gotten little pleasure out of their adventure at
the time of its occurrence, came to regard it as their most precious
possession. The fire of exploration waxed hot in every vein. Every man
constituted himself a special look-out to watch for any dawning speck
upon the horizon.
With Fortune's fondness for surprising mankind, the next of the
"wonder-shores" crept upon them in the night. The sun, which had set
upon an empty ocean, rose upon a low level coast lying less than twenty
miles away. In the glowing light, bluffs of sand shone like cliffs of
molten silver; and more trees were massed upon one point than the whole
of Greenland had ever produced. Even Leif was moved to exclaim at the
sight.
"Certainly this is a land which names itself!" he declared. "You need
not wait long for what I shall fix upon. It shall be called Markland,
after its woods."
Sigurd's enthusiasm mounted to rashness. "I will have a share in this
landing, if I have to plead with Leif for the privilege," he vowed. And
when, for the second time, Rolf was told off for a place in the boat,
and for the second time his claims were slighted, he was as reckless as
his word.
"Has not my credit improved at ail, after all this time, foster-father?"
he demanded, waylaying the chief on his descent from the forecastle. "I
ask you to consider the shame it will bring upon me if I am obliged to
return to Norway without having so much as set foot upon the new-found
lands."
For awhile Leif's gaze rested upon him absently, as though the press of
other matters had entirely swept him out of mind. Presently, however,
his brows began to knit themselves above his hawk nose.
"Tell those who ask, that you were kept on board because a strong-minded
and faithful watchman was needed there," he answered curtly, and turned
his back upon him.
Robert the Fearless was standing at the side, gazing eagerly toward the
shore. As though suddenly reminded of his existence, the chief stopped
behind him and touched him on the shoulder.
"The Norman is as much too modest as his friend is too bold," he said,
with a note of his occasional courtliness. "A man who has thought it
worth while to travel so far is certainly entitled to a share in every
experience. Let Robert Sans-Peur go down and take the place that is his
right."
As the boat bounded away with the Fearless One on the last bench,
Sigurd's face was a study. Between mortification and amusement, it was
so convulsed that Rolf, who shared the Norman's seat, could not restrain
his soft laughter.
"Whether or not the Silver-Tongued has given his luck to you, it is seen
that he has none left for himself," he laughed into his companion's ear.
The Norman bent to his oar with a petulant force that drove it deep into
the water and far out of stroke.
"Whether or not he has any left for himself, it is certain that he has
given none of it to me," he muttered. "Here are we at our second
landing, and no chance have I had yet to endanger my life for the chief.
Nor do I see any reason for expecting favorable prospects in this
tame-appearing land. Is it of any use to hope for wild beasts here?"
The Wrestler regarded him over his shoulder with amused eyes. "Is it
your opinion that Leif Ericsson needs your protection against wild
beasts?" he inquired.
Under the Norman's swarthy complexion, Alwin of England suddenly
flushed. When a wish is rooted in one's very heart, it is difficult to
get far enough away to see it in its true proportions.
The cliffs of gleaming silver faded, on the boat's approach, into
gullied bluffs of weather-beaten sand; but the white beach that met the
water, and the green thickets that covered the heights, remained fair
and inviting. No fear of dark omens along that shining sand; no danger
of evil spirits in that sunlit wood. All was pure and bright and fresh
from the hand of God. In place of a spur, the explorers needed a
rein,--and a tight one. But for the chief's authority, they would have
spread themselves over the place like birds'-nesting boys.
"Ye know no more moderation than swine," Leif said sternly, checking
their rush to obey the beckoning of the myriad of leafy hands. "And ye
are as witless as children, besides. Have ye not learned yet that cold
steel often lies hid under a fair tunic? We will divide into two bands,
as we did at our first landing; and I forbid that any man shall separate
himself from his party, for any reason whatsoever."
Then he proceeded to single out those who were to follow him; and to the
great joy of Robert of Normandy, he was included in that favored number.
Valbrand's men crashed away through bush and bramble; and the chief's
following threw themselves, like jubilant swimmers, into the sea of
undergrowth. Now, waist-high in thorny bushes, they tore their way
through by sheer force of strength. Now they stepped high over a network
of low-lying vines, ankle-bonds tougher than walrus hide. Again,
imitating the four-footed pioneer that had worn the faint approach to a
trail, they crawled on their hands and knees. Every nest they chanced
upon, and each berry bush, paid a heavy toll; but they gave the briers a
liberal return in the way of cloth and hair and flesh.
"I think it likely that I could retrace my steps by no other means than
the hair that I have left on the thorns," Eyvind the Icelander observed
ruefully, when at last they had paused to draw breath in one of the few
open spaces.
The Fearless One overheard him and laughed. "When I found that my locks
were liable to be pulled off my head entirely, I disposed of them in
this manner," he said. He was leaning forward from his seat on a fallen
oak to shew how his black curls were tucked snugly inside his collar,
when a shriek of pain from the thicket behind them brought every man to
his feet.
The chief ran his eye over the little group. "It is Lodin that is
missing," he said. "Probably he lingered at those last berry bushes."
Knife in hand, he plunged into the jungle.
While a rustling green curtain still hid the tragedy, the rescuers
learned the nature of their companion's peril; for suddenly, above the
cries for help and the crash of trampled brush, there rose the roar of
an infuriated bear.
Alwin's heart leaped in his breast, and his nostrils widened with such a
fierce joy as won him the undying respect of the sportsmen around him.
Pushing past his comrades, he tore his way through the tangle of twining
willowy arms and gained the side of the chief.
Leif pushed aside the last overhanging bough, and the conflict was
before them.
Locked in the embrace of as big a bear as it had ever been their luck to
see, stood Lodin the Berry-Eater. That the beast had come upon him from
the rear was evident, for the chisel-like claws of one huge paw had torn
mantle and tunic and flesh into ribbons; but in some way the Viking must
have managed to turn and grapple with his foe, for now his distorted
face was close to the dripping jaws. Two bloody mangled spots upon
either arm showed where the brute's teeth had been; but if the bear's
paws were gripping the man's shoulders, still the man's hands were
locked about the bear's ears. That the pair had been down once, leaves
and dirt in hair and fur were witness; and now they went down again,
ploughing up the earth, screaming and panting, growling and roaring; one
of the brute's hind legs drawing up and striking down in a motion of
terrible meaning.
It was too ghastly a thing to watch inactive. Already every man's knife
was in his hand, and three men were crouching for a spring, when the
chief swept them back with a stern gesture.
"Attacking thus, you can reach no vital part," he reminded them. And he
shouted to the struggling man, "Feign death! you can do nothing without
your weapon. Feign death."
It appeared to Alwin that to do this would require greater courage than
to struggle; but while the words were still in the air, the man obeyed.
His hands relaxed their hold; his head fell backward on the ground; and
he lay under the shaggy body like a dead thing. The black muzzle poked
curiously about his face, but he did not stir.
After a suspicious sniff, the victor appeared to accept the truth of his
conquest. Exactly as though he said, "Come! Here is one good job done;
what next?" he got up with a grunt, and, rising to his hind feet, stood
growling and rolling his fiery little eyes from one to another of the
intruders in the brush.
"If now one could only hurl a spear at his heart!" murmured the sailor
at Alwin's shoulder. But the difficulties of path-finding through an
unbroken thicket had kept the men from cumbering themselves with weapons
so unwieldy.
Leif spoke up quickly, "There is no way but to trust to our knives.
Since I am superior to any in strength, I will grapple with him first.
If I fail, which I do not expect, I will preserve my life as Lodin is
doing; and the Fearless One here shall take his turn."
Alwin was too wild with delight to remember any-thing else. "For that, I
thank you as for a crown!" he gasped.
Even as he stepped out to meet the foe, Leif smiled ironically.
"Certainly you are better called the Fearless than the Courteous," he
said. "It would have been no more than polite for you to have wished me
luck."
Anything further was drowned in the bear's roar, as he took a swift
waddling step forward and threw out his terrible paws. Even Leif's huge
frame could not withstand the shock of the meeting. His left hand caught
the beast by the throat and, with sinews of iron, held off his foaming
jaws; but the shock of the grappling lost him his footing. They fell,
clenched, and rolled over and over on the ground; those terrible hind
feet drawing up and striking down with surer and surer aim.
Alwin could endure it no longer. "Let me have him now!" he implored. "It
is time to leave him to me. The next stroke, he will tear you to pieces.
I claim my turn."
It is doubtful if anyone heard him: at that moment, swaying and
staggering, the wrestlers got to their feet. In rising, Leif's hold on
the bear's throat slipped and the shaggy head shot sideways and fastened
its jaws on his naked arm, with a horrible snarling sound. But at the
same moment, the man's right arm, knife in hand, shot toward the mark it
had been seeking. Into the exposed body it drove the blade up to its
hilt, then swerved to the left and went upward. The stroke which the
chisel-shod paws had tried for in vain, the little strip of steel
achieved. A roar that echoed and re-echoed between the low hills, a
convulsive movement of the mighty limbs, and then the beast's muscles
relaxed, stiffening while they straightened; and the huge body swayed
backward, dead.
From the chief came much the same kind of a grunt as had come from the
bear at the fall of his foe. Glancing with only a kind of contemptuous
curiosity at his wounded arm, he stepped quickly to the side of his
prostrate follower and bent over him.
"You have got what you deserve for breaking my orders," he said, grimly.
"Yet turn over that I may attend to your wounds before you bleed to
death."
In the activity which followed, Robert of Normandy took no part. He
leaned against a tree with his arms folded upon his breast, his eyes
upon the slain bear which half of the party were hastily converting into
steaks and hide. The men muttered to each other that the Southerner was
in a rage because he had lost his chance, but that was only a part of
the truth. His fixed eyes no longer saw the bear; his ears were deaf to
the voices around him. He saw again a shadowy room, lit by leaping
flames and shifting eyes; and once more a lisping voice hissed its
"jargon" into his ear.
"I see Leif Ericsson standing upon earth where never man stood before;
and I see you standing by his side, though you do not look as you look
now, for your hair is long and black... I see that it is in this new
land that it will be settled whether your luck is to be good or bad..."
He said slowly to himself, like a man talking in his sleep, "It has been
settled, and it is to be bad."
Then the room passed from his vision. He saw in its place Rolf's
derisive smile, and heard again his mocking query: "Is it your opinion
that Leif Ericsson needs your protection against wild beasts?"
Of a sudden he flung back his head and burst into a loud laugh that
jarred on the ear like grating steel.
When at last Lodin's wounds were dressed so that he could be helped
along between two of his comrades, the party began a slow return. By the
time they came out on to the shining white beach again, they were a
battered-looking lot. There was not a mantle among them but what hung in
tatters, nor a scratched face that did not mingle blood with berry
juice. But at their head, the huge bear skin was borne like a captured
banner. At the sight of it, their waiting comrades burst into shouts of
admiration and envy that reached as far as the anchored ship.
"Never was such sport heard of!"--"A better land is nowhere to be
found!" they clamored. "In one month we could secure enough skins to
make us wealthy for the rest of our lives!"
And then some muttered asides were added: "It is a great pity to leave
such a place."--"It is folly to give up certain wealth for vague
possibilities." And though the dissatisfaction rose no louder than a
murmur, it spread on every hand like fire in brush.
Now there was one man among the explorers who had been a member of Biorn
Herjulfsson's crew, and was brimful of conceit and the ambition to be a
leader among his fellows. When the command to embark swelled the murmurs
almost to an outspoken grumbling, he thought he saw a chance to push
into prominence, and swaggered boldly forward.
"If it is not your intention to come back and profit by this discovery,
chief, I must tell you that we will not willingly return to the ship.
Certainly not until we have secured at least one bear apiece. We are
free men, Leif Ericsson, and it is not to our minds to be led altogether
by the--"
Whether or not he had meant to say "nose," no one ever knew. At that
moment the chief wheeled and looked at him, with a glance so different
from Biorn Herjulfsson's mild gaze that the word stuck in the fellow's
throat, and instinctively he leaped backward.
Leif turned from him disdainfully, and addressed the men of his old
crew. "Ye are free men," he said; "but I am the chief to whom, of your
own free wills, you have sworn allegiance on the edge of your swords. Do
you think it improves your honor that a stranger should dare to insult
your chosen leader in your presence?"
"No!" bellowed Valbrand, in a voice of thunder.
And Lodin shook his wounded arm at the mutineer. "If my hand could close
over a sword, I would split you open with it," he cried.
The other men's slumbering pride awoke. Loyalty seldom took more than
cat-naps in those days, in spite of all the hard work that was put upon
her.
"Duck him!"--"Souse him!"--"Dip him in the ocean!" they shouted. And so
energetically that the ringleader, cursing the fickleness of rebels,
found it all at once advisable to whip out his sword and fall into a
posture of defence.
But again Leif's hand was stretched forth.
"Let him be," he said. "He is a stranger among us, and your own words
are responsible for his mistake. Let him be, and show your loyalty to
your leader by carrying out his orders with no more unseemly delay."
They obeyed him silently, if reluctantly; and it was not long before
those who had remained on ship-board were thrown into a second fever of
envious excitement.
They were not pleasant, however, the days that followed. In the flesh of
those who had missed the sport, the bear-fight was as a rankling thorn.
The watches, during which a northeast gale kept them scudding through
empty seas with little to do and much time to gossip, were golden hours
for the growth of the serpent of discontent. Though the creature did not
dare to strike again, its hiss could be heard in the distance, and the
gleam of its fangs showed in dark corners. If Leif had had Biorn's bad
fortune, to begin at the wrong end of his journey, so that a barren
Helluland was the climax that now lay before him, the hidden snake might
have swelled, like Thora Borga Hiort's serpent-pet, into a devastating
dragon.
Was it not Leif's luck that the land which was revealed to them, on the
third morning, should be as much fairer than their vaunted Markland as
that spot was pleasanter than Greenland's wastes?--a land where, as the
old books tell, vines grew wild upon the hills, and wheat upon the
plains; where the rivers teemed with fish, and the thickets rustled with
game, and the islands were covered with innumerable wild fowl; where
even the dew upon the grass was honey-sweet!
As they gazed upon the blooming banks and woods and low hills, warm and
green with sunlight, cries of admiration burst from every throat.
Valbrand made bold to warn his chief, "Though I do not dispute your will
in this, any more than in anything else, I will say that difficulties
are to be expected if men are to be parted from such a land without at
least tasting of its good things."
Even for those who had been longest with him, the Lucky One was full of
surprises.
"It has never been my intention to continue sailing after we had
accomplished the three landings," he answered quietly. "Ungrateful to
God would we be, were we to fail in showing honor to the good things He
has led us to. I expect to stay over winter in this place."