Produced by Rose Koven, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE IRON STAR
And what It saw on Its Journey
through the Ages
From Myth to History
By
JOHN PRESTON TRUE
Author of "Scouting for Washington," "Their Club and Ours," "Shoulder
Arms," etc.
Illustrated by
Lilian Crawford True
PREFACE
This is a wonderful old world of ours, the one we live in. It is
wonderful to think how it has grown, day by day, year by year, century
by century, and by each step of Time just a little better worth living
in. It is like a beautiful fairy story, with the great advantage of
being true.
Of course none of us were here when the world began, so we did not see
the beginning of it, but some of us have worked the problem backward
through the years to find out what the beginning was like; and
starting from a good dry spot, if you follow the wanderings of my Iron
Star, I believe you will at no time be very far from the truth of the
way in which girls and boys and their elders lived in the days now
long ago. Will you make the journey with me?
J. P. T.
SEPTEMBER, 1899.
CONTENTS.
SPARK I.
HOW THE STAR CAME INTO THIS WORLD.
SPARK II.
HOW THE STAR AGAIN BEGAN TO TRAVEL.
SPARK III.
HOW THE STAR WAS CARRIED ON THE WARPATH, AND
WHAT CAME OF IT.
SPARK IV.
HOW THE STAR WENT TO THE NORTHLAND.
SPARK V.
HOW THE STAR FLEW INTO MANY PIECES AND WHAT CAME OF IT.
SPARK VI.
HOW FRAGMENTS OF THE STAR TRAVELLED TO A FAR COUNTRY.
SPARK VII.
HOW THE STAR HELPED ULF THE SILENT TO WIN A GREAT NAME.
SPARK VIII.
HOW THE IRON STAR VISITED A GREAT KING.
SPARK IX.
HOW THE STAR HELPED TO WIN A THRONE.
SPARK X.
HOW THE STAR SANG A SONG OF FREEDOM TO A CAPTIVE KING.
SPARK XI.
HOW THE STAR WAS PRESENT AT THE GREAT GIFT OF THE BARONS.
SPARK XII.
AND HOW IT WENT HALF ROUND THE EARTH, YET CROSSED AGAIN AT LAST
THE TRAIL OF LEIF ERICSSON.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
THE FALLING OF THE STAR
STONE AGE SPEARS AND POTTERY
KNIVES, FROM THE BRONZE AGE
THE STORIES OF UMPL'S HUNTING
UMPL'S PICTURE-BOOKS
"JARL SIGURD, THRALL AM I, YET A CHIEF'S SON ALSO"
HOW EDITH FAIRHAIR SPUN THE SNOW-WHITE YARN
ULF, THE YOUNG VIKING
THE STATUE OF LEIF ERICSSON
THE HUNTING OF THE BEAR
THE GHOSTS AND WOLVES THEY SAW BEYOND THE FIRE
THE FLAG OF THE WHITE BEAR'S HEAD
WHERE LOUIS FOUND THE ARMOUR OF THE VIKING
THE IRON HAND ON THE MAGNA CHARTA
THE TENT POLE OF THE SARACEN
IN THE CAMP OF THE ARABS
CAPTAIN MYLES STANDISH
SPARK I.
HOW THE STAR CAME INTO THIS WORLD.
To begin with, it all happened a very long time ago,--some say five
thousand years, some say ten thousand years, and one wise man says it
never happened at all; but even the wise are not wise at all times,
and I am inclined to believe that it was in one of those unwise times
that the doubt was raised; for I believe it happened, although I am
not sure about the date.
One thing is certain: there was a time when Europe was about all
forest, where it wasn't water or bare rock. There were no cities, so
of course there were no policemen. There were not even kings and
queens, although the present kings and queens don't like to be
reminded that there ever was a time when the world got along without
any. They think it is impolite. Of course, sometimes it is impolite to
tell the truth, and then one can only say nothing, or talk of the
weather. So any young king or queen who reads this may go back and
read it again and skip that line.
Be it as it may, there once lived in that great forest a boy and his
sister. Not being able to speak their language I do not know what
their names may have meant; but they had names, one sounding like a
grunt, the other a hiss. Better call them Umpl and Sptz, which is as
near as I can come to it. Of course Sptz was the girl; and they both
believed most firmly in hobgoblins, evil spirits, wicked elves, that
were ever on the watch for them in the dark; and when they heard the
long cre-ak of a tree branch rubbing on another branch in the night as
the wind arose, their ears told them that it was a branch, but their
fears said it was a goblin, and in the night-time they believed their
fears the most. If only they had fire, with its light and warmth, it
would be different! So they thought many a day, when the sunlight
glinted through the tree trunks and lay in spots upon the moss. Then
the dark came down, and still they had no fire.
Does this seem strange? Remember, then, that matches were not made in
those days. Sometimes they got fire by striking two bits of stone
together. There were men who knew how to make fire by rubbing bits of
wood together. Some day you might try that. I can promise you that you
will get very warm; but I don't think it will be because of the fire
which you make by it unless some one first shows you how, and Umpl and
Sptz's father did not happen to be one of the men who knew how. It was
thus a great misfortune when one day the fire went out, or, rather,
was put out by the roof falling on it. You must know, that if this was
before the days of cities, it was also before the days of houses, and
our young friends lived in a cave. On the whole, it was a good cave,
fairly high inside and small to get into, and not too smoky when the
wind was right. When it wasn't they could go outside, or have a
smaller fire: and when that ton of rock came down so suddenly on both
fire and supper they were not at all surprised. It had happened
before; but the father was angry just the same, and said that he would
rather it had fallen on Sptz. Girls were not thought so much of in
those days as they are now. But there! girls are like queens: they
don't like to be reminded of such things.
Well, the fire was out. So was the supper. The father picked up his
war-club and spear and went out after some more, thinking over in his
mind which of his neighbours had a fire and at the same time was not
at war with him. He did a deal of thinking and brought to mind every
cave for forty or fifty miles around, then shook his shocky head. It
was of no use whatever. It was all war. So, when he came back with a
bundle of hares they had to cook their supper without any fire, and
every one knows how hard that is.
What was nearly as bad, they could not depend on the fire to keep out
night prowlers. As they sat in the cave one night the stars in the
doorway were darkened. The father had just time to spring to the
entrance with a spear when in came the huge head and shoulders of a
monstrous Cave Bear. The spear bit deep into the vast shaggy chest and
the air was filled with such a shuddering roar that several more
pieces of stone fell from the roof; and after all it was not the
spear, but the sand and sharp bits of stone which Umpl flung in his
eyes that made the animal back out, growling and brushing his head in
a rage. Sptz and her mother lost no time in heaping into the entrance
all the stone blocks that lay around, till it was so small that they
had to take some out in the morning so they themselves could go out,
and the father vowed to be the death of that bear before he was a week
older. But he looked blue as he said it, for he knew very well the
bear would be more likely to be the death of him.
So all the more earnestly they watched the valley below them for some
wreath of smoke aside from the well-known spots where enemies were
cooking their dinners. Sometimes a thunder-storm would sweep across
from peak to peak, and then they would all be out of the cave, looking
eagerly. If a tree was struck by lightning, now, they might get fire
from it. More than once a tree was struck and Umpl and Sptz raced off
through the rain to the spot, regardless of the evil spirits which
every Cave boy knew lived in the storm. But every time they arrived
only to find that the drenching rain had washed out all of the fire
but the smell, and that was not very satisfying; so they had to go
disconsolately back and take the beating which they were sure to get
for disappointing their elders, and had to do a double amount of work
besides.
It was not all playtime with Umpl and Sptz by any means. Sptz had to
help her mother about the cooking, when there was any. She also had to
help tan the skins of wild animals into a beautifully soft kind of
leather which they could make into cloaks for winter wear by pricking
holes in them with sharp bits of bone and weaving thongs, instead of
sewing edges together with needles and thread. Sptz never saw either
in all her girl-life.
Umpl had his own work. Outside, hare-catching kept him busy. It is
wonderful how many a family can eat when it tries hard, and when deer
are scarce, or the father is a long way off on a hunt and there is no
meat in the kitchen. Then he had to dig up certain juicy roots that
were good--when he could find them. A great part of his time also was
spent in breaking bones and stones into small pieces for his father to
work up into arrowheads. Umpl hated that. He would not have minded
doing the fine work about it, but just to crack bones all his spare
time was not joyful; and, now that there was no fire to pull wood for,
he had just so much more spare time for bone-cracking.
One afternoon both Umpl and Sptz went out together. It was not very
late, and on so clear a day one could see a long way through the
glades among the tree trunks, which was something to be considered.
Once when it was not so clear they had spent a long time on the outer
branches of a tree waiting for a Cave Bear to get hungry enough to
give them up and hunt for another dinner. But this was a better day.
They knew of a log in the forest, that was all covered with vines, and
this was the time of the year when also it would be covered with
berries that were worth having. They gave a careful look around before
sitting down, marked a tree that looked like easy climbing, and then
went for the berries; but they still sat facing different ways, so
that any danger which might come from any side could be seen in time
for flight. Overhead they had not thought of looking.
And yet it was from overhead that danger was coming. Far up in the sky
a star was falling. Why it fell no one knows; but fall it did. It came
hurtling out of space, like a great fiery dragon, leaving a long
flaming train across the sky that lit up the whole world like a torch.
The birds in the forest fluttered and screamed in fear. The wild
beasts crouched under the largest trees that were near. It looked as
though the whole world was on fire!
Many miles upward, if one goes so high, he comes to a place where
there is no air. As you come nearer the earth you begin to find some,
although very thin indeed. Then it grows thicker, till there is enough
for one to breathe and live in. But the air is wrapped around the
earth like a cushion, or like a peach around its stone; and you know
that even a cushion, or a football, or a bicycle tire can be blown up
with air so hard that it seems like a rock and would hurt if you
struck it. The star struck this cushion. It was flying so fast--
hundreds of miles a second, or in the time between two ticks of a
clock--that the air which it met did not have time to be pushed out of
its way, and it was like running up against a hard wall. There was an
enormous crash like thunder, but ten thousand thousand times as loud,
and that star broke all up into pieces.
The pieces flew every way. Some went scurrying off for hundreds of
miles and fell into the sea, where they made the water around them
boiling hot. Some probably flew back again the way the star had come.
Some perhaps flew high enough to fall into the moon itself! but one
piece, about as large as a bushel basket, came zipping downward at a
long angle, like a blazing ball of flame, for it had struck the air so
hard a blow that the heat of it had melted the fragment. Down it came,
crashing through the great limbs of the trees beyond Umpl and Sptz
with a huge rushing roar, and when it struck the earth the ground
trembled for half a mile around, especially as it glanced from a ledge
after diving deep in the soil, and came leaping out of the soil again
only to fall with a thud a rod or two away.
It is hard to say whether Umpl or Sptz was the more frightened. Umpl
thought of nothing but dragons, and was scared white. Sptz was whiter
to begin with, as she lived more in the cave underground, and now that
she thought the sky was falling she could think of nothing else. But
she was the first to find out that they were not dead after all. Then
she gave a start, and sniffed eagerly. She smelt something.
Jumping up on the log she looked around, and--no, it couldn't be! but
it was, though--fire. Real fire! Smoking away merrily among the dead
leaves where a bit of molten star had been scraped off by a tree trunk
and had fallen. Sptz flew to it like a bird. In no time, more dead
leaves were heaped around the light flame; with a shout of joy Umpl
rushed to a windfall and brought an armful of wood, and soon a royal
fire was sending out light and heat, beautifully nickering upward
among the trees. Umpl knew what to do now as well as any one. He
hunted up two pitchy sticks and set them both alight. Then he held
them before him, crossed like a pair of scissors, with the flame where
the joint was; and in that way he kept them both alight, burning each
other up, until they reached home. And then--what a royal supper they
had!
I might tell you many more things about Umpl and Sptz. For instance,
how they went to the place again in after days and found the piece of
the fallen star, broken into several pieces. And how Sptz found that
one of them was just the thing to crack nuts on, and Umpl found
another was quite as good as a bone-cracker, till his father took it
from him and made a head of it for his war-club, where it did great
bone-cracking in another way. And I might tell how Umpl learned at
last to take one sharp stone and, by pressing on it with another,
break off little chips until what was left became a beautiful
arrowhead, and how he made so many, and so many chips around the cave,
and so many other chipmakers were doing likewise, that to-day men call
the time when Umpl lived the Stone Age, for all their axes, knives,
and tools seemed made of stone. Some day I may tell more. Meanwhile,
now you know how the Iron Star came into this world of ours.
SPARK II.
HOW THE STAR AGAIN BEGAN TO TRAVEL.
It certainly seemed to both Umpl and Sptz that the iron mass which was
once a falling star had brought good luck to them. Fire in itself was
a grand thing. It was so good not to lie cold o' nights, or to be
obliged to fill up the doorway with stones and pull them down in the
morning. Many and many a time they went to the spot where the large
piece lay and looked at it with half-frightened eyes. They could not
understand it. Where did it come from? Why did it come there? When
would it go away? Did a spirit throw it, or was it itself a spirit?
All these and many other odd thoughts came to them because of it; and
this was one of the very best things that ever happened to either. No
other Cave boy or girl in the whole valley ever took the trouble to
think about anything that was not connected with dinner, or the latest
style of wearing burrs in their hair; and when Umpl thought so long
about it that he feared it must be a spirit, and laid his best
arrowhead on it as an offering, while Sptz for the same reason brought
a queer bit of bone with a feather in one end and a scrap of rabbit
fur around it, the thoughts were good for them. It did for their small
brains just what a boy does for his arm when he swings a club or a
dumb-bell. It made them stronger, so that they could use them for
other things and use them better.
Umpl, for one thing, looked upward among the trees oftener. He saw
more birds, he learned their actions better and so knew better how to
have roast bird for supper. So perhaps they were right about the good
luck. Besides, both of them were growing up. Sptz had learned to make
acorn bread and found a hollow on the top of the Iron Star which was
just the thing to grind up nuts in. Umpl was two feet taller than when
the star fell, and could draw a bow and send an arrow right through a
stag. And one great day he met a Cave Bear and sent his flint-headed
shaft whistling with such force that it broke through the hard skull
of the savage beast and dropped him in his tracks.
All his life long Umpl wore on his arm an ornament made out of the
longest teeth and sharpest claws of that bear; and boys and girls
looked at it and wondered if they would ever have the right to be so
honored. Umpl had become a man. But he was a very young one still.
This luck did not follow every one in that long valley. There came a
time when it did not rain for nearly a year. The springs stopped
running. The birds flew away. The hares went, no one knew where. The
stags disappeared. Food was hard to earn, and every meat-eater in the
valley found it so, and many of them lived only by eating each other.
Umpl's eyes were brighter, and he was thinner than in better days; yet
he still managed to find some things eatable; and he laid it all to
the Star. And one day he found himself a long way from the cave and
among a dozen young men as hungry as himself, and each one ready to
kill the other. It was very much as though they had all met there for
a picnic.
It was a part of Umpl's good fortune that he had of late been carrying
with him the Star-club that his father had made. On his arm gleamed
the Cave Bear's teeth, grim and white; and when the others saw that
they stopped to think a moment. They feared the bear. Who dared, then,
to meet the Cave Bear's slayer? And then something happened which gave
them other thoughts still more unpleasant.
Straight through the glade came the rush of galloping feet, and an
antlered stag swept by like a stone from a sling. So swiftly did he
pass that no arrow was ready save Umpl's. His went hurtling after,
straight at the back of the tossing head, and the great deer fell in a
heap, stone-dead. But what had scared him?
Ah! They did not need to ask. Gaunt, grey forms were rushing toward
them. Green eyes were flashing in the black shadows beyond. They did
not need the long howl to tell them that it was the wolf-pack from
beyond the mountains, starved out of its usual range.
There was but one thing to do--to take to the trees; and it was well
that the trees near by were low limbed. Umpl was the last one up. But
he was also the only one who had a great slice of that stag as a
luncheon. The fact that he had it proved that the white-toothed
bracelet told the truth in regard to his bravery.
While the wolves fought over their prey below Umpl looked at them and
thought. The others looked without thinking. Presently the noise grew
less, and Umpl looked about him and began to talk to the other young
men. He pointed out to them that one wolf, or two, would not have
dared to attack them. But as a band they had made even the bracelet-
wearer flee. So with themselves. One, or even two of them could not go
to another land where there was more water and game; but suppose they
stopped making war on each other and went as a band across the great
mountains? This country was eaten out. There were not caves enough to
go round among young men who wanted caves of their own. Elsewhere
things might be better. They could not be worse. And he would go with
them, taking Sptz, who could cook well, and the Iron Star, which would
bring them luck.
It seemed a very good idea, especially to youths who had none of their
own; and they agreed to form a band and go, if Umpl first would prove
the luck of the Star.
The youth nodded, and held up his club.
"This was made from it. Now see!"
Tying to it one end of the long thong he always carried, Umpl flung
the iron mass down on the head of a wolf that was trying to leap up
within reach. The animal fell, and his mates sprang on him, as wolves
will, and ate him up. Five times Umpl did it before the rest began to
take warning, and even then a pretended tumble brought them back and
three more fell. The rest ran back to a wider circle, and before they
got over their scare Umpl was on the ground and back again, with his
bow and quiver of arrows; and that was the beginning of the end of
that wolf-pack, while every youth in the trees now believed in the
Star.
They found the Iron Star was heavy. It took Umpl two days to plan out
a way for them to carry it, and to cut down with stone axes saplings
to sling it on. But the rest looked up to him as a leader now; and
when they left the valley he was their chief, with Sptz trotting on
behind carrying a skin of acorn-flour, and the crossed and lighted
firebrands.
It was a weary march through the mountains. For many weeks they
travelled. They found more game than in the valley behind, but nowhere
enough to be worth staying for, and at last one morning they found a
very curious thing. Across the gorge through which they were
travelling there was a barricade of trees, which had been cut down by
men. But why? It could not be for war, since they were not arranged in
a way suitable for that. Still, men had done it, and they looked
carefully around for the cave where the men belonged. It was better to
find it than to be found by its owners.
But they did not find any. Beyond the barricade was a little meadow,
shoulder deep in a curious grass with bristly heads which grew very
thickly. Wading through it, beyond a thicket, the sight that met them
struck them dumb with surprise! Before them was a lake. Out in the
lake what seemed a cluster of dome-shaped rocks rose from the water,
and a narrow path to shore was made with trunks of trees tied
together. Before them, in a place fenced off, were stags of a kind
they never saw before, with long smooth horns and shaggy, black hair.
In among them wild pigs were grunting around a man who was feeding
them, and this looked like witchcraft. Why did not the animals kill
him instantly? They had met wild pigs in their old valley and held
them in great respect as fighters. What kind of men were these who
ruled such savage beasts? And was that a wolf, stealing toward them,
and giving warning with that barking howl?
There were lively doings in that village when that howl went up. On
the whole, it was well for Umpl and his party that Sptz was with them.
Breaking a green branch, she went forward in advance and spears were
slowly lowered. Someone was found who could speak a few Cave-Men
words, and all could use sign language; so the case was explained and
Umpl welcomed. The Star was given a special welcome and a hut all to
itself.
Nothing in all their lives had seemed more curious to Umpl and Sptz
than those huts. They were made of twigs and reeds wattled into
basketwork, and then clay plastered over all until they were water
tight, and they were perched on logs driven into the bottom of the
lake like piles. There were clay things on the fires, too, and by the
smell they knew that some good cooking was going on; but never before
had they seen a pot that would hold water or stand fire.
On the other hand, Umpl was looked at with much respect by the Lake-
Dwellers (as we now call those people). He was taller than they by
half a head. The tooth bracelet told its own tale, for they, too, knew
the Cave Bear. So they made him presents, and of value, one of the
choicest being a knife of copper. This was a great wonder to Umpl and
his people. A knife which would not break, as their flint ones did,
but bent and could be pounded straight again, was exceedingly odd.
They even showed Umpl a piece of copper which had been brought to the
village in a large lump by some young men from a far country, and
explained how the knife had been hammered out with stones.
This gave Umpl an idea. Taking a flint knife he sawed off a slice of
copper from the lump and with his iron war-club he hammered it out on
the Iron Star and fashioned a beautiful spearhead in no time, the iron
clinking merrily beneath his blows. There was a great rush around him
after that. Every one who had copper wanted it worked up, and Umpl was
clear-headed enough to bargain for a hut for his people and one for
himself and Sptz.
Here he lived happily for many years. He owned a share in the long-
horned cattle. His men were the best hunters in the village, and the
copper things he made were sought for by men who came long distances.
Sometimes they brought him bars of copper. After a time some one
brought tin, and two pieces fell into the fire one day, along with a
copper knife, and all three were melted into one and cooled in a
little hollow in the ashes after the fire was out. Umpl was astonished
to find that the sharp edge of this would cut like flint, yet would
not bend like copper; and he began to make regular knives and
spearheads of such material, finding out a way of making clay moulds
and pouring the melted metal into them to harden into the right
shapes. Of course these were far more valuable than the copper tools
and they were sold here and there among the tribes of other peoples,
and often travelled far from where they were made. Other people began
to find out how to make them, and made so many that, although they
still used flint knives too, yet people nowadays when speaking of that
long ago time often call it the Bronze Age, because tin and copper,
when melted together in a certain way, make bronze. But the Iron
Star's travels were not ended.
SPARK III.
HOW THE STAR WAS CARRIED ON THE WARPATH, AND WHAT CAME OF IT.
Just why it seemed necessary for Umpl and his people to go to war with
anybody may not be clear. They were living very happily in their
village on the lake. Their cattle were fat; their fields of that
curious grass through which Umpl had waded before he knew what it was
good for were sure to harvest grain enough to make bread, and Sptz had
found that grain-bread was as much better than acorn-bread as sponge
cake is better than gingerbread; although both gingerbread and acorn-
bread are good enough for any one, when one cannot get anything
better.
Sptz had found many things in that village which were just what she
wanted. For one thing, out of the long, shaggy hair of the longer-
horned cattle had been found a way of spinning thread and weaving
cloth in pretty patterns. Sptz could dress a deerskin beautifully, and
make out of it a cloak fit for a warrior to wear, but she had never
learned to weave. Still, when the other girls showed their best
dresses to each other and chattered, and looked over their shoulder at
Sptz in her deerskin mantle, some young man with a bracelet on his arm
would be quite likely to pass by them and go straight to Sptz with
strings of white and pearly beads in his hand--beads made from the
shells which he had found in lake and river--and ask her to make for
him a warrior's cloak. Such beads were not found every day. To have as
many as a dozen strings around one's neck, and all one's sleeves
trimmed with them, and enough left to weave in and out of one's glossy
black hair, and to make a broad, tinkling band around each ankle--why,
Sptz was a rich girl! and best of all, it was all her own earning. No
one gave it to her for nothing. Her own ten fingers and round arms had
won those jewels.
By-and-by some chief as wise as Umpl and as great would come from a
far-off village, with the teeth of the Cave Bear on his arm, and the
feather of the eagle in his hair; by his side would hang a sword of
ruddy copper; in his hand would be a spear tufted with finest fur. The
green branches of peace would be waved, and he would pass in peace
along the plank-way from the shore; but while he talked with Umpl and
the other chiefs at the council his eyes, like a wise man's, would be
roving hither and yonder, learning much about this new village and its
people. And there, as she would be standing modestly behind the
village girls, yet a full head taller than any of them, and straight
as a young pine, with the sunlight flashing on her necklaces, there he
would see--Sptz.
What was to happen next she would not say, even to herself. But she
worked very hard at her deerskins, and always had one in hand,
pricking little holes in it in odd and fashionable patterns, into
which she could rub berry stain. Sometimes she ornamented them with
pictures of animals, queerly drawn, which were thought very fine. But
here Umpl could beat her.
Umpl could take a great bone, and with a sharp flint and a copper
knife which had been hammered until it was almost as hard as flint, he
could carve on that white bone a picture of a fierce wild bull, so
naturally that you would want to run away if he had not also carved a
young warrior rushing down all ready to do battle with the beast.
Every animal that Umpl had ever killed in the forest he had pictured
out on the hardest and whitest bones he could find. They were his
picture books, and he could take one in hand, perhaps a sketch of the
great hairy elephant which we call the mammoth, and show it around the
circle and then tell the story of that hunt. And they would look at
the picture a moment and shut their eyes and seem to see it all just
as it happened. Some of those carved pictures have lasted until this
day, for I myself have seen them!
But after a time things became altogether too peaceful. They began to
want something exciting--they could not go to the theatre, for there
never had been such a thing. Just ordinary, plain hunting was not
enough--it was too tame. There wasn't enough danger in it, and any boy
will understand at once what I mean by that.
More than half of the good things of life owe their goodness to the
very fact that danger attends them in some form,--danger of being
"caught," of being "it," of being "put out" by some one on the other
side; and the fun all comes from the being able, by your own quick
foot, or eye, or thought, to win the game. The more you play that game
the better you can play it, and when it gets too easy then you feel
that it is tame, and you want something harder to win than the prize
of such baby-play. We all feel this in one way or another. We always
have, since long before the days of Umpl. And it is just because of
this that we now know more and can do more than Umpl did or could.
But in Umpl's day there was only one thing more dangerous than the
hunt for the Cave Bear. There was but one game which made a young man
think, and plan, and contrive as never before to come out ahead. There
was but one which brought him so much honour when he won, or which
cost so much when he lost, and which he thought was for that reason so
well worth playing, and that game was--the hunt for the Cave Man.
Very cunning was he. His club was heavy, his flint-edged spear was
sharp. The young man who went hunting for him without first studying
hard and learning from his elders as much as they could tell him was
more than likely never to come back at all. Perhaps for that very
reason there were not so many lads in those days as there are now who
think that they "know it all" without study.
But Umpl did really know it all, for the very good reason that he had
been a Cave boy himself not so very long before. So when he went out
from that village at the head of his men one fine day, while the sun
was shining brightly and the birds were singing, he did not neglect a
single one of the many things which he had been told would bring good
luck to his hunting. Every arrow was as perfect as it could be made,
from feather to point. Every head of flint or bone had been tested to
make sure that it was firm. Each young man had his own little sack
full of bread ready baked, so that no fire by its smoke need betray
them; while as to the danger because they had no fire--why, that was a
part of the game. Lastly--but in Umpl's eyes the most important of
all--they carried, as of old, in a sling, the Iron Star. Surely this
was not the time to leave that good-luck-bringer at home, so Umpl
reasoned. Thus the Star once more set out upon its travels.
Now, the errand which one goes on sometimes has a great deal to do
with what he finds at the end of it. I don't mean to say that the Star
had anything to do with it at all, or that it knew right from wrong.
But this is certain; on its last journey Umpl was seeking only a home
where he and Sptz might live and find food in a time of famine. But
now he was seeking to harm people who had never even heard of him; and
if bad fortune befell, the errand itself was not good enough to
deserve a better.
A wise man long afterward once wrote down the words of Jesus, "They
who live by the sword shall perish by the sword," and it is a good
saying. Thus it happened, that, after a wild hunt through the silent
forests to the northwest for many weeks, one day they found a village
which was all too strong for them. It was like arousing a hornet's
nest. Umpl got out of it safely enough, with an arrow hole or two here
and there where they did not count. But he did not have so many to
lead back home again; and the Iron Star, alas! was lost, captured by
the enemy. Umpl never laid eyes on it again.
Neither did Umpl's son. But the son of Umpl's son knew all about it,
as far as any one person knew; for in the long nights when the water
rippled lazily up against the mossy logs beneath the huts, and the
evening smoke curled upward from the after-supper fires, then was the
time for stories of great marvels in the days of old; and Umpleton, as
the boy was called, knew well that far in the northwest was the Star
that once had made the fortune of his family. So, when he in his turn
was partly grown up, he packed up a sack full of cakes, as his
grandfather had done, took another full of beautiful bronze knives and
trinkets which he himself had made, and the Star-club, which Umpl had
never lost. With these he started off on a trading expedition. Times
were better now than in the old days, and traders were more plenty.
For many weary weeks he wandered. Weeks ran into months, months became
years, and still Umpleton wandered from village to village, from tribe
to tribe, trading, keeping his eyes open, and asking questions from
the old men. He learned many things from them, and although it was
long before the days of books, yet by remembering what he heard and
thinking it over he became for the time a young man whose word was
worth listening to and whose opinion was worth having.
So, one evening he stopped at a chief's hut where he was known, and
decided a very knotty question so wisely and justly that they asked
him to tarry with them for a while. He answered them in a dreamy way,
for his mind was thinking of the Star and his fruitless quest,
forgetting that even thus it had brought good fortune, since it had
given him knowledge.
They asked him how he made his bronze, and he showed them how. Then
they in turn showed him certain small, very heavy black stones, which
they used to make hot in the fire, and by placing in their pots would
make the water in them boil furiously without danger of breaking the
pot, as the fire was apt to do. As he looked at them it seemed to him
that they were not unlike his Star-club, and, liking to try things, he
raked a hot one out of the fire and began to hammer it with his club.
He found he could hammer it like copper as long as it was hot, and he
knew he had made a great find!
While the chief looked on in amazement, he found that by heating one
he could flatten it out, then he could make small ones stick to it
while hot and hammer all into one mass, then into a bar, and from that
he could make an axe-head with an edge which would cut clean through a
copper ring as though it was but cheese; next, when he was in a hurry
to cool it off, and for that reason put it into water, he found that
the metal became so hard that he had no tool which could scratch it,
no bronze which it would not cut sheer through; and in all the
Forestland no chief was so happy as the headman of that village! Axes
that would cut wood as never axe cut before! Weapons which would not
break nor grow blunt at the first blow! What treasures!
Every fragment of those heavy stones was brought to Umpleton. They dug
deep into the hillside for them. They made so many tools that although
both stone, copper and bronze ones were still in use yet they were
used only by those who could not afford the better ones. And in some
such way began what we now call the Iron Age; and at last, one joyous
day, two young boys found a mass of metal so heavy that they could not
lift it; and by the carvings on it Umpleton found that it was indeed
the treasure of his family for which he had searched so long, and the
search for which had been the cause of his present fortune. Once more
the Iron Star was in the hut of the son of a Cave Man.
SPARK IV.
HOW THE STAR WENT TO THE NORTHLAND.
The Iron Age! What a ringing, resonant sound, stern and grim! There is
nothing in it of the dull "tunk" of stone, or the blither "clink" of
copper. Instead it seems to call to mind the clang of hammers on
helmet or anvil, or shield or tool, according to whether it is a time
of war or peace--and in the Iron Age there was indeed very little of
peace that did not look a great deal more like war.
In the Forest, many times as far from the land where Umpl lived as one
could see from the tallest tree top, there lived a boy--a chief's son.
His name was Ulf, the son of Urgan, who was the son of Umpleton, who,
as you will remember, was the grandson of Umpl. It was thus a very
long time after Umpl's day; and yet, here is a very curious thing:
Umpl had blue eyes and black eyebrows and hair; so had Ulf! Umpl had a
nose with a little rise in the bridge of it, like a curve; so had Ulf!
Umpl's ears had been of a longer, narrower pattern than those of his
mates; Ulf had the same style of narrow ear on each side of his head;
and just as Umpl thought, and dreamed a little, and planned, and
looked far ahead to what he might do as the leader of a band of
warriors if he could bring them to reason, instead of shooting them
all with his bow and arrows when the wolves had them treed,--so now in
their games Ulf was the one who did the planning. He was the one who
was leader in them all. And in all the village, boy though he was,
except his father, or grandfather Umpleton, no man could take a bit of
iron, or of copper and make a better spearhead or a finer bracelet. He
had his own small kit of tools, most of which he had made himself. He
had in his father's hut the Iron Star, which served as his anvil and
which he thought turned out better work than any other. And just as
clearly as though he had read it in a book he knew the story of that
Star, from the day it fell from the skies down to his own time. Father
had told it to son, son to his son, and so on to Ulf's young day. That
was the way in which people were taught history before the days of
books.
This is not so strange. But is it not a most wonderful thing that just
because Umpl, from the falling of the Star was led to think, and make
his brain stronger and wiser than his mates, the result of it should
last so long that it made a leader of a boy more than a hundred years
after Umpl's day? Just think of it! Let us suppose that you were to
make up your mind that you would make the most of yourself; that, when
a quarrel began at school, before taking sides you would think
carefully over both sides, and make sure which was the right one, and
then fight for it your hardest, instead of taking up the side you
happened to hear about first; and because of your doing this every
day, and in every case that has two sides, just suppose that a boy
should live two hundred years from now, who would be your great-great-
great-great-grandson; who would be as like you as one pea is like
another, and who would grow up to be a great judge of the Supreme
Court, or perhaps President of the United States!
And yet, this is happening right along all around us! Just to think of
it every day makes me wonder, sometimes, what my thoughts yesterday
will have to do with my own many-times-great-grandson a hundred years
from now. Will he have reason to be glad or sorry?
But let us get back to Ulf.
Now and then in his Forest home he heard tales of a nation still
farther to the northwest; a race of wonderfully strong men who,
strange to say, had yellow hair and pink cheeks. They were also
terrible fighters, and no one could stand against them among all the
black or brown haired tribes. Just why a band of Northmen, as they
were called,--some dictionary makers spell it Norsemen,--should think
it worth while to go so far inland I cannot say; but a war-party did
get as far as Ulf's village on a plundering expedition, perhaps hoping
to find gold.
They did not find any, but they did find Ulf, who happened to be
making such a hammering that he did not hear what was going on till it
was too late to run; so he did the next best thing, and fought like a
wolf. Now, if there was one thing that the Northmen valued more than
another it was courage, and their leader was so pleased with the lad's
pluck that--after he had picked one of his arrows out of his own arm
and had warded off with some trouble various lightning-like jabs of a
copper knife--he directed his men to "throw a noose over that young
wildcat" and bring him along, together with what other treasure they
might find.
Among that treasure was the Iron Star. Not that they knew its story,
but because they knew iron when they saw it, and what iron was good
for. So that is how Ulf and the Star together first saw the sea
shining in the sun as it lapped in and around the black ledges of a
Norway fjord, as the inlets of that rocky land are called. But it was
a weary journey thither.
What a strange sight was the glistening sea to Ulf, a son of the
Forest! During the long march he had learned much of the language of
his captors--it was somewhat like his own; so, when the leader turned
on the brow of a hill and cried in a thundering cheer, "The vik! the
vik!" he knew that the rockbound harbour and the end of the journey
were in sight. What a harbour really was he had no idea. When the men
raced up the hill he ran too, till the sight struck him dumb.
What was that broad, gleaming, heaving plain? Whoever saw earth toss
up and down like that? What was that great animal creeping across it,
borne onward by so many legs, to where others lay silent on the narrow
strip of beach? The time came when he knew better what a longship was,
and the difference between legs and oars. But now--what huge houses
those were to one who had always lived in a hut! Could it be possible
that one could climb up inside and find a room up above the top of
another room? Ulf had never seen a stairway or a ladder in his life.
And what were those creatures with shining yellow and white things in
their own yellow hair, clad in robes of many colours, and some of them
so very, very beautiful? He had not felt fear when he fought with the
Jarl--the leader. He was afraid now, for these might be spirits!
Meanwhile, the "spirits" took a very lively interest in the slender,
black-haired little thrall, as slaves were called. They were in the
habit of saying what they thought in those days, and it was quite a
matter of course when little Edith Fairhair declared that he was "ex-
ceed-ing-ly good-looking," and that she meant to ask her father to
give him to her to play with. As her father happened to be the Jarl
himself, of course she got what she wanted. So Ulf came to live in
Jarl Sigurd's household. It was a very great change from Forest-life,
and he was just the boy to make good use of it.
For one thing, his old life had taught him how to keep his eyes and
ears open and his mouth shut. Few around him knew how many, many
things he thought about, in that silent black head of his. When the
white-headed old man with the harp came in a great longship, with the
train of a visiting jarl, and sang songs that never came to an end,
songs about mighty men of other days, their wars and battles, he
listened right well from his place far down the long hall where the
thralls sat at suppertime.
Not one of those sagas, as they were called, did he miss. When he by
daytime watched the sheep he thought of them, and told them over to
himself. Thus he learned of other lands. He learned of Thor, and Odin,
and the other gods which the Jarl worshipped with all his men, since
they had never heard of the one true God, our Father of all. And he
knew the Jarl believed that if a man was brave, and honest, and told
the truth and lived a life pleasing to the gods, that pleasant things
would happen to him after death. This was a much better thing to
believe than to think that death was the end of everything, as they
thought in the Forestland in those days. So he liked the sagas.
But Ulf the Silent was not always as silent as his name would imply.
One night after supper, when the cattle had been fed, the chores were
done, and the boys and girls were skipping stones on the beach
together, the largest boy, Thorold, had proved that he could throw a
stone the furthest, but grew quite angry because he could not make one
skip along the water as many times as Ulf. He said many things that
were not nice to hear, and finally cried,
"I am a freeman's son and thou art only a thrall. And I am the
stronger," shaking his fist in the other's face.
"So is an ox," said Ulf, quietly, and Edith Fairhair cried out "Good!"
Ulf was her thrall, and she did not like Thorold, anyway. He was too
rough because he was strong, and too stupid. Then said Ulf,
"If Sigurd was Jarl only because he is strong, Thorolf would be Jarl
in his stead."
Now, Thorold was the son of Thorolf, and this was more than he could
stand. He sprang at Ulf without another word. But that son of the
Forest had not been called a wildcat by Sigurd without reason, and
when they came to the ground together it was he who was on top, and he
stayed there, too, till some men came along and picked him off. Things
looked black for Ulf just then.
However, it might have been worse. Thorold was not much hurt, except
in his pride, and Edith Fairhair insisted that before Ulf was flogged
the matter should be judged by the Jarl himself, which was perfectly
proper, since Ulf belonged to his household. Thus Ulf found himself
brought into the hall, the steps echoing among the rafters overhead,
and along past rows of shields and spears that hung upon the wall, to
where the Jarl sat at the further end, on the "high seat" as it was
called. The saga-singer sat there on the low platform, and on the
high-seat itself also rested the Jarl's other visitor, and through the
window the rays of the setting sun glinted like flame on the helmets
which each chief wore, and on the golden bosses and buckles of their
armour.
Jarl Sigurd was not particularly surprised at a claim for justice, but
he was surprised to see among the witnesses his own daughter, standing
modestly apart lest the stranger should think ill of her, yet with her
father's own calm, proud look in her eye. Then he saw Ulf, and began
to understand.
The trial was brief enough, for every one told the truth, even
Thorold. The Jarl heard them patiently, to the last one, then politely
asked the opinion of the other chief. Now the guest, Jarl Swend, knew
perfectly well that of all the sailors in longships along that land
not one was more long-headed, more perfect in the art of war or in
making other leaders at a council believe his was the better way, than
was the man who sat by his side. So he looked at Ulf and laughed a
little; then he said,
"If this black-haired thrall is guilty of aught then am I, for I too
say, 'If Sigurd was Jarl only because of his strength,' another than
he might lead us in battle. Every man has two strong arms. So strong
arms are many, but wise heads are few."
Now this was a good word, and Sigurd was well pleased, as indeed he
ought to have been, for it was a great compliment to himself. But it
seemed to him that it would be well for him to say next a word which
might show that he was worthy of such praise. So, after he had thought
a while, he said,
"Ulf goes free. He has done no wrong. Thorold should learn that a
warrior who does not think as well as strike is good only for rowing.
Now, this is my word to thee and to all my small people. Jarl Swend
well says that strong arms are plenty, but heads to plan are few. Let
us raise up more good heads. Twelve moons from now I will call you
together. On that day the boy who brings to me the most wonderful
thing which he has made with his own hands, planned out by himself,
shall receive a prize worthy of a jarl's giving."
He paused, and looked thoughtfully at Edith Fairhair's eager face.
Then he said,
"If the girls wish to try it like their brothers, they too shall have
a prize of their own to win. And those who do not win it will yet be
none the worse for trying."
Then Jarl Swend laughed as he looked at Sigurd, and said,
"Truly, it is not for nothing that men call thee Sigurd the Wise; now
I see why the young men who sail their longships from your vik are
luckier than other men." And Sigurd was satisfied.
But when all the other lads had gone, and the sunset flush had faded
into grey, Ulf lingered, then went up to the high seat, and said,
boldly,
"Jarl Sigurd, thrall am I, yet a chief's son also. Is the offer open
to me?"
Sigurd looked at a scar on his arm and laughed. Then he nodded kindly,
and said,
"Thrall thou art, and a chief's son also. Win thou the prize and
thrall art thou no longer."
Then Ulf took a long, long look at the Jarl, a look which somehow
included Edith Fairhair also, and went away.
SPARK V.
HOW THE STAR FLEW INTO MANY PIECES, AND WHAT CAME OF IT.