AT LONDON.
At last they were come to Grimsby at the mouth of the Humber, and thence
the way is plain, what with river and what with road, to York, and over
the Keel into Cumberland, and so home. And indeed the lads had a thought
to lay up their ship and take the journey forth and back to see how their
folk were getting on, and Thorstein especially to ask after Raineach. But
for three reasons they determined to withhold themselves: first that they
had resolved to sail all round Britain and never go home until they could
tell their tale: and next that king Eric Bloodaxe, the new king of York,
who kept the place under king Athelstan, was no friend to Hakon, and
awful tales were told about his queen, Gunnhild the witch, so that they
had no desire to put themselves in his power: and last, that they could
not for shame forego their errand upon which Hakon had sent them.
So they sailed round the coast until they came to the Thames, and up to
London. Off Billingsgate they were stopped by the boats of the officers,
who brought them before the port-reeve: and when they had told him their
names and business, and paid toll in four silver pennies, they were free
to dwell there. As it was now late in the year they sought a lodging
in the house of a Northman whom they met: and in order that they might
buy and sell, and go freely among the Londoners, he brought them to a
priest at the door of a church, who made upon them the sign of the cross,
so that they should be prime-signed men, until they might find bishop
Aelfheah and get christening at his hands.
At Yule was the Witan held at Westminster, and earls and thanes and
bishops flocked together; and among them the man they sought. Then they
had their desire and did their errand to him, giving him the token of
the cross and the message of the young king. The bishop wept over the
tale, for joy that Hakon still bore in mind his teaching, and for sorrow
that he should be out there alone among the heathen. “And yet,” said
he, “is it not written, Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves?
May the Lord grant his young child the wisdom of the serpent and the
harmlessness of the dove, and in due time give him to see of the travail
of his soul.”
Then the lads asked that they might be christened: and the bishop gave
them in charge to one of his priests, who taught them as much as it was
needful to know: and afterwards they were baptised. But when they spoke
of going back to Norway, he smiled and said, “It is other help than yours
that Hakon needs. You have done well in bringing this message, and no
better news could be brought. As for his heart’s desire, I take you two
as the first-fruits of it. Do you depart in peace, to be shining lights
in your own land. Without doubt when Hakon is established in his kingdom
he will send for priests fitted to teach his people, and never fear but
there will be labourers for the harvest.”
And here we may say that old stories tell how the bishop died some seven
years after this, and was worshipped as a prophet and a saint. But the
young king spoke first to one and then to another of his own friends
and those about him in Norway, and without any other help of man, won
them over to the Christian faith: and when many were thus converted
he ventured to send for priests, and to hold open worship. But he was
overborne by the common people, who would have nothing to do with the new
doctrines. So for many a long year it was a struggle between them; and
every man that the king won over he counted gain; and every time the
Throndheimers forced king Hakon to come to their sacrifices and share
their feasts they reckoned it gain to their side, even if they had done
no more than make him smell the steam of the horse-flesh aboiling in
Thor’s kettle. But for such backsliding as this the king blamed himself
in secret, and went on in life-long fear of the doom of a castaway;
hoping from year to year that things would turn out so that he might lay
aside his crown, and become a monk, and end his days in penitence. But
his rule was so good that his people would not let him go; and yet he
still found it hard to be open about it, and at last died in battle, and
was buried by the heathen with a great burial as if he had been one of
them.
Now when the spring was come, Hundi and Thorstein took their leave, and
sailed out of the Thames and round the South coast, calling as they went
at one port and another by the way, and always increasing their store;
until they came at last to Bristol, which was the great slave-market
for the Irish trade in those days, and a thriving city. And thence they
sailed down the Severn to those settlements of Northmen at Tenby and
Milford and Haverford; and so up the coast of Bretland, as they then
called Wales, in whose firths, as in those of Morecambe and Solway, many
a viking had refuged, betwixt Lund-ey and Orm’s Head. From Orm’s Head it
was but a short passage to the bay of Morecambe: and by now they were
wearied of seafaring, and longed for home.
And as they sailed briskly by the shores of Amounderness over the tossing
green waves, Thorstein felt himself already in the arms of his lass;
and the spray from the bows where he sat, with half shut eyes, seemed
like her hair blown about his face. At last the Black Comb rose over the
sea-line higher and higher, and then the green woods, and then the yellow
sands. There was Ravenside, there was Barehead’s-edge, there was the
bonny Leven between its dear old hills.
“Eh, mother and Orm and all, its right good to be home again:” says
Thorstein heartily; “but where is—she?”
Orm turned on his heel and went out. Unna kissed Thorstein. There were
tears in her eyes.