Wulfric the Weapon Thane

by Charles W. Whistler

  CHAPTER IX. JARL HALFDEN'S HOMECOMING.

  From the time when Beorn was made to speak the truth, I was awelcome guest in the hall that had been Lodbrok's, to Hubba atleast, and we were good friends. As for Ingvar, he was friendlyenough also, and would listen when I spoke with his more frank andopen brother of my days with Halfden and his father. But he tooklittle pleasure in my company, going silent and moody about theplace, for the snow that began on the day after I landed was thefirst of a great storm, fiercer and colder than any we knew inEngland, and beyond the courtyard of the great house men couldscarcely stir for a time.

  This storm I had but just escaped, and it seemed to me, and stillseems, that the terror and pain thereof was held back while I wason the sea, for those nights and days had had no winter sting inthem.

  Hubba and I would wrestle and practise arms in the hall orcourtyard during that time, and he was even beyond his father, myteacher, in the matter of weapon play; so that it is no wonder thatnow, as all men know, he is held the most famous warrior of histime.

  These sports Ingvar watched, and took part in now and then when hismood was lighter, but it was seldom. Yet he was skilful, though notas his brother.

  Then at night was the fire of pine logs high heaped, and we feastedwhile the scalds, as they call their gleemen, sang the deeds of theheroes of old. And some of those of whom they sang were men of theAngles of the old country; and one was my own forefather, and forthat I gave the scald my gold bracelet, and thereafter he sanglustily in my praise as Lodbrok's rescuer.

  Very pleasant it was in Ingvar's hall while the wind howled overthe roof, and the roar of the sea was always in our ears. And theseDanes drank less than our people, if they ate more largely. ButIngvar would sit and take pleasure in none of the sport, being eversilent and thoughtful.

  But to me, best of all were the times when I might see and speakwith Osritha, and soon the days seemed heavy to me if by chance Ihad no word with her. And she was always glad to speak of herfather and Halfden; for she was the youngest of all Lodbrok'schildren, and Halfden, her brother, was but a year older thanherself, so that she loved him best of all, and longed to see himhome again.

  So longed I, grieving for the news he must hear when he came toReedham, but yet thinking that he would be glad to find me at leastliving and waiting for him.

  Now, as the snow grew deeper and the cold strengthened, the wolvesbegan to come at night into the village, and at last grew verydaring. So one night a man ran in to say that a pack was round acottage where a child would not cease crying, and must be drivenoff, or they would surely tear the clay walls down.

  Then Hubba and I would go; but Ingvar laughed at us, saying that afew firebrands would settle the matter by fraying the beasts away.However, the man was urgent, and we went out with Raud and hisbrother, and some twenty men, armed with spears and axes.

  The night was very dark, and the snow whirled every way, and theend of it was that Raud and I and two more men, with the dog Vig,lost the rest, and before we found them we had the pack on us, andwe must fight for our lives. And that fight was a hard fight, forthere must have been a score of gaunt wolves, half starved andravenous.

  And I think we should have fared badly, for at last I was standingover Raud, who was down, dragged to the earth by two wolves, ofwhich the dog slew one and I the other, while the other two menwere back to back with me, and the wolves bayed all round us. ButHubba and his party heard our shouts in time and came up, and soended the matter.

  Now Raud must have it that I had saved his life, though I thoughtthe good dog had a share in it, and both he and the dog were alittle hurt. However, my shoulder was badly torn by a wolf thatleapt at me while my spear was cumbered with another, and I for mypart never wished it had not been so.

  For Osritha, who was very skilful in leech craft, tended my hurt;and I saw much of her, for the hurts were a long time before theyhealed, as wolf bites are apt to be, and we grew very friendly. Sothat, day by day, I began to long to see the maiden who cared formy wound so gently, before the time came.

  Now Raud must needs make me a spear from a tough ashen sapling thathe had treasured for a long time, because that which I had used inthe wolf hunt was sprung by the weight of one of the beasts, andwhile his hurts kept him away at his own house he wrought it, andat last brought it up to the hall to give to me.

  When I looked at it--and it was a very good one, and had carvedwork where the hand grips the shaft, and a carved end--I saw thatthe head was one of Jarl Ingvar's best spearheads, and asked Raudwhere he got it.

  "Why," he said, "a good ash shaft deserves a good head, and so Iasked the jarl for one. And when he knew for whom it was, he gaveme this, saying it was the best he had."

  Now I was pleased with this gift, both because I liked the manRaud, who was both brave and simple minded, and because it showedthat the surly jarl had some liking for me. Yet I would that heshowed this openly, and telling Osritha of the gift, I dared sayso.

  Then she sighed and rose up, saying that she would show me anotherspear on the further wall, so taking me out of hearing of hermaidens, who sat by the fire busied over their spinning and thelike.

  There she spoke to me of Jarl Ingvar.

  "Moody and silent beyond his wont has he been since we have heardall about our father's death, and I fear that he plans someterrible revenge for it, even as he took revenge on theNorthumbrian coasts for the long-ago slaying of Ragnar."

  Then I remembered the story of the burnt town, Streoneshalch, andknew what Ingvar's revenge was like. But as yet I could not thinkthat he would avenge Beorn's deed further than I had seen already.

  "But he has no enmity with you, our friend," she went on; "thoughhe speaks little to you, he listens as you talk to us. But therehas grown up in his heart a hatred of all men in your land, save ofyourself alone. And once he said that he would that you were aDane, and his comrade as you had been Halfden's."

  Then I told Osritha of how Halfden had let me go from him ratherthan have me fight against my own land. I had said nothing of thisto the jarls, for there was no reason. And this was the first timethat I had had private speech with Osritha.

  "That is Halfden's way," she said, "he is ever generous."

  "I would that he were back," I answered, and so we ceased speaking.

  Yet after this, many were the chances I found of the like talkalone with Osritha before the weather broke, and we could once moreget into the woods, hunting, and the men began to work in the shipgarths on a great ship that was being built.

  Now we had good hunting in the forests, and on the borders of thegreat mosses of Ingvar's lands. But there were many more folk inthis land than in ours, and I thought that they were ill off inmany ways. In those days of hunting, Ingvar, seeing me ride withthe carven spear that was partly his gift, and with Lodbrok's hawkon my wrist, would speak more often with me, though now and againsome chance word of mine spoken in the way of my own folk wouldseem to turn him gloomy and sullen, so that he would spur his horseand leave me. But Hubba was ever the same, and I liked him well,though I could not have made a friend of him as of Halfden.

  In March messengers began to come and go, and though I askednothing and was told nothing, I knew well that Ingvar was gatheringa mighty host to him that he might sail in the May time across theseas for plunder--or for revenge. The hammers went all day long inthe ship garths, where the air was full of the wholesome scent oftar; and in their houses the women spun busily, making rope andweaving canvas that should carry the jarl's men "over the swan'sbath;" while in the hall the courtmen sat after dark and featheredarrows and twined bowstrings, and mended mail. And now and thensome chief would ride into the town, feasting that night, andriding away in the morning after long talk with the jarls. Andsome, Bagsac and Guthrum, Sidrac and his son, and a tall man namedOsbern, came very often as the days lengthened.

  I would ask nothing of this matter, even of Osritha, having my ownthoughts thereon, and not being willing to press her on things shemight have been bidd
en to keep from me. She would ask me of mymother and Eadgyth, as they would ask the jarl of her, and I toldher all I could, though that was not much, for a man hardly notesthings as a woman will. Then she would laugh at me; until one day Isaid that I would she could come over to Reedham and see forherself.

  At that I thought that I had offended her, for her face grew red,and she left me. Nor could I find a chance of speaking to her againfor many days, which was strange to me, and grieved me sorely.

  Now the southwest wind shifted at last to the west and north, andthat shift brought home him whom I most wished to see, my comrade,Halfden. And it chanced that I was the first to see his sail fromthe higher land along the coast, south of the haven, where I wasriding with my falcon and the great dog Vig, which Raud and hisbrother would have me take for my own after the wolf hunt.

  Gladly I rode hack with my news to find Ingvar in the ship garth,and there I told him who came.

  "A ship, maybe. How know you she is Halfden's?" he said carelessly.

  "Why, how does any sailor know his own ship?" I asked in surprise.

  Then he turned at once, and smiled at me fairly for the first time.

  "I had forgotten," he said. "Come, let us look at her again."

  And I was not mistaken, though the jarl was not so sure as I forhalf an hour or more. When he was certain, he said:

  "Come, let us make what welcome for Halfden that we may."

  And we went back to the hall, and at once was the great horn blownto assemble the men; and the news went round quickly, so thateverywhere men and women alike put aside their work, and hurrieddown to the wharf side. And in Ingvar's house the thralls wroughtto prepare a great feast in honour of Jarl Halfden's homecoming.

  Soon I stood with the jarls and Osritha at the landing place, andbehind us were the courtmen in their best array. And as we came tothe place where we would wait, Halfden's ship came past the barinto the haven's mouth.

  All men's faces were bright with the thought of welcome, but heavywere my thoughts, and with reason. For Halfden's ship came from thesea on no course that should have borne him from Reedham, and Ifeared that it was I who must tell him all. Yet he might have beendrawn from his course by some passing vessel.

  The long ship flew up the channel, and now we could see that allher rail was hung with the red and yellow shields that they use forshow as well as to make the gunwale higher against the arrows, andto hinder boarders in a fight. And she was gaily decked with flags,and shone with new paint and gilding in all sea bravery. Not idlehad her crew been in the place where they had wintered, and onemight know that they had had a good voyage, which to a Dane meansplunder enough for all. But surely if Halfden had been to Reedham,the long pennon had been half masted.

  It were long to tell how the people cheered, and how they wereanswered from the ship, and how I spied Halfden on the fore deck,and Thormod at the helm, as ever. And when Osritha saw Halfden'sgay arms and cloak and all the bright trim of the ship and men, shesaid to me, speaking low and quickly:

  "They have not been to Reedham, or it would not have been thus."

  And it was true, for there would have been no sign of joy amongthose who had heard the news that waited them there.

  I knew not how to bear this meeting, but I was not alone in mytrouble, for nearer me crept Osritha, saying to me alone, while thepeople cheered and shouted:

  "How shall we tell Halfden?"

  The two jarls were busy at the mooring place, and I could onlyanswer her that I could look to her alone for help. Now at that Iknew what had sprung up in my heart for Osritha, and that not inthis only should I look for help from her and find it, but if itmight be, all my life through. For now in my trouble she looked atme with a new look, answering:

  "I will help you, whatever betide."

  I might say no more then, nor were words needed, for I knew allthat she meant. And so my heart was lightened, for now I held thatI was repaid for all that had gone before, and save for that whichhad brought me here, gladly would I take my perilous voyage overagain to find this land and the treasure it now held for me.

  At last the ship's keel grated on the sand, and the men sprang fromshore waist deep in water, to take her the mighty cables thatshould haul her into her berth; and then the long gangplank was runout, and Halfden came striding along it, looking bright andhandsome--and halfway over, he stopped where none could throng him,and lifting his hand for silence cried for all to hear.

  "Hearken all to good news! Lodbrok our Jarl lives!"

  Then, alas! instead of the great cheer that should have broken fromthe lips of all that throng, was at first a silence, and then agroan--low and pitiful as of a mourning people who wail for thedead and the sorrowful living--and at that sound Halfden paled, andstayed no more, hurrying ashore and to where his brothers stood.

  "What is this?" he said, and his voice was low, and yet clear inthe silence that had fallen, for all his men behind him had stoppedas if turned to stone where they stood.

  Then from my side sprang Osritha before any could answer, meetinghim first of all, and she threw her arms round his neck, saying:

  "Dead is Lodbrok our father, and nigh to death for his sake hasbeen Wulfric, your friend. Yet he at least is well, and here tospeak with you and tell you all."

  Then for the great and terrible sorrow that came at the end of thejoyous homeward sailing, down on the hard sand Halfden the Jarlthrew himself, and there lay weeping as these wild Danes can weep,for their sorrow is as terrible as their rage, and they will put nobounds to the way of grief of which there is no need for shame. Norhave they the hope that bids us sorrow not as they.

  And while he lay there, all men held their peace, looking in oneanother's faces, and only the jarls and Osritha and myself stoodnear him.

  Very suddenly he raised himself up, and was once more calm; then hekissed the maiden, and grasped his brothers' hands, and then heldout both hands to me, holding mine and looking in my face.

  "Other was the meeting I had planned for you and me, Wulfric, mybrother-in-arms. Yet you are most welcome, for you at least arehere to tell me of the days that are past."

  "It is an ill telling," said Ingvar.

  "That must needs be, seeing what is to be told," Hubba saidquickly.

  But those wise words of Osritha's had made things easier for me,for now Halfden knew that into the story of the jarl's death, I andmy doings must come, so Ingvar's words meant little to him.

  "You went not to Reedham?" I said, for now the men were at workagain, and all was noise and bustle round us.

  "I have come here first by Orkneys from Waterford, where wewintered," he answered. "And I have been over sure that no mishapmight be in a long six months."

  "What of the voyage?--let us speak of this hereafter," said Hubba.

  And Halfden, wearily, as one who had lost all interest in his owndoings, told him that it had been good, and that Thormod would givehim the full tale of plunder.

  Then came a chief from the ship whose face I knew, though he wasnot of our crew. It was that Rorik whose ship the Bosham bell hadsunk, and who had been saved by Halfden's boats. He knew me, afterscanning me idly for a moment, and greeted me, asking why I was notat Reedham to make that feast of which Halfden was ever speaking,and so passed on.

  So we went up to the great hall in silence, sorely cast down; andthat was Halfden's homecoming.

  Little joy was there on the high place at the feast that night,though at the lower tables the men of our crew (for so I must everthink of those whose leader I had been for a little while, withHalfden) held high revelling with their comrades. Many were thetales they told, and when a tale of fight and victory was done, thescald would sing it in verse that should be kept and sung by thewinter fire till new deeds brought new songs to take its place.

  Presently Halfden rose up, after the welcome cup had gone round andfeasting was done, and the ale and mead began to flow, and hebeckoned me to come with him. Hubba would have come also, butIngvar held him back.

&nb
sp; "Let Wulfric have his say first," he growled; and I thanked him inmy mind for his thought.

  So we went to the inner chamber, where Osritha would sit with hermaidens, and Halfden said:

  "This matter is filling all my thoughts so that I am but a gloomycomrade at the board. Tell me all, and then what is done is done.One may not fight against the Norn maidens {xiv}."

  There I told him all my story, and he remembered how I had toldhim, laughing, of Beorn's jealousy at first. And when my tale wasnearly done Osritha crept from her bower and came and sat besideHalfden, pushing her hand into his, and resting her head on hisshoulder.

  Then I ended quickly, saying that Ingvar had done justice on Beorn.And at that remembrance the maiden shivered, and Halfden's faceshowed that he knew what the man's fate was like to have been atthe great jarl's hands.

  "So, brother," he said, when I left off speaking, "had I gone toReedham there would have been burnt houses in East Anglia."

  "In Reedham?" said I.

  "Wherever this Beorn had a house; and at Caistor where that oldfool Ulfkytel lives, and maybe at one or two other places on theway thither. And I think your father and Egfrid your brother wouldhave helped me, or I them."

  So he doubted me not at all, any more than I should have doubtedhis tale, were he in my place and I in his.

  Then I said that I myself had no grudge against Earl Ulfkytel, forhe had sent me here.

  "Why then, no more have I," answered Halfden; "for he is a wiseacreand an honest one, and maybe meant kindly. Ingvar would have slainboth guilty and innocent, and told them to take their wrangleelsewhere, to Hela or Asgard as the way might lead them."

  Now as he said that, I, who looked ever on the face of her whom Iloved, saw that a new fear had come into Osritha's heart, and thatshe feared somewhat for me. Nor could I tell what it was. ButHalfden and I went on talking, and at last she could not forbear alittle sob, and at that Halfden asked what ailed her.

  "May I speak to you, my brother, very plainly, of one thing that Idread?" she asked, drawing closer to him.

  "Aye, surely," he answered in surprise.

  "Remember you the words that Ingvar said to the priest of the WhiteChrist who came from Ansgar at Hedeby {xv}, while our fatherwas away in the ships?"

  "Why, they were like words. He bade him go and settle the matterwith Odin whom he would not reverence, and so slew him."

  "Aye, brother. And he said that so he would do to any man who wouldnot honour the gods."

  "Why do you remember that, Osritha?"

  "Because--because there will be the great sacrifice tomorrow, andWulfric, your friend, is not of our faith."

  Then Halfden was silent, looking across at me, and all at once Iknew that here was a danger greater than any I had yet beenthrough. Fire I had passed through, and water, and now it was liketo be trial by steel. And the first had tried my courage, and thenext my endurance, as I thought; but this would try both, and myfaith as well.

  "That is naught," said Halfden, lightly. "It is but the signing ofThor's hammer, and I have seen Wulfric do that many a time, onlynot quite in our way, thus;" and he signed our holy sign allunknowing, or caring not. "And to eat of the horse that issacrificed--why, you and I, Wulfric, did eat horse on the Frankishshores; and you thought it good, being nigh starved--you remember?"

  I remembered, but that was different; for that we did because theshores were so well watched that we ran short of food, and had totake what we could under cover of night at one time. But this ofwhich Osritha spoke was that which Holy Writ will by no meanssuffer us to do--to eat of a sacrifice to idols knowingly, for thatwould be to take part therein. Nor might I pretend that the holysign was as the signing of Thor's Hammer.

  "Halfden," I said, having full trust in him, "I may not do this. Imay not honour the old gods, for so should I dishonour the WhiteChrist whom I serve."

  "This is more than I can trouble about in my mind," said Halfden;"but if it troubles you, I will help you somehow, brother Wulfric.But you must needs come to the sacrifice."

  "Cannot I go hunting?"

  "Why, no; all men must be present. And to be away would but makethings worse, for there would be question."

  Then I strengthened myself, and said that I must even go throughwith the matter, and so would have no more talk about it. ButOsritha kept on looking sadly at me, and I knew that she was infear for me.

  Now presently we began to talk of my home and how they would mournme as surely lost. And I said that this mourning would be likely tohinder my sister's wedding for a while. And then, to make a littlemore cheerful thought, I told Halfden what his father had saidabout his wishing that he had been earlier with us.

  "Why, so do I," said my comrade, laughing a little; "for manyreasons," he added more sadly, thinking how that all things wouldhave been different had he sailed back at once.

  Then he must needs go back to the question of the sacrifice.

  "Now I would that you would turn good Dane and Thor's man, and bidehere with us; and then maybe--"

  But Osritha rose up quickly and said that she must begone, and sobade us goodnight and went her way into the upper story of that endof the great hall where her own place was. Whereat Halfden laughedquietly, looking at me, and when she was quite gone, and the heavydeerskins fell over the doorway, said, still smiling:

  "How is this? It is in my mind that my father's wish might easilycome to pass in another way not very unlike."

  That was plain speaking, nor would I hesitate to meet the kindlylook and smile, but said that indeed I had come to long that itmight be so. But I said that the jarl, his father, had himselfshown me that no man should leave his old faith but for betterreasons than those of gain, however longed for. For that is what hehad answered Eadmund the king when the land was offered him, and hewas asked to become a Christian.

  "Yet if such a thing might be," said Halfden, "gladly would I hailyou as brother in very truth."

  So we sat without speaking for a while, and then Halfden said thatwere I to stand among the crowd of men on the morrow there wouldsurely be no notice taken of me.

  Yet as I lay on my wolf skins at the head of the great hall, andprayed silently--as was my wont among these heathen--I asked forthat same help that had been given to men of old time who were inthe same sore strait as I must very likely be in tomorrow.

  Then came to me the thought: "What matters if outwardly I reverenceThor and Odin while I inwardly deny them?" and that excuse had nighgot the better of me. But I minded what our king had told me many atime: how that in the first christening of our people it had everbeen held to be a denying of our faith to taste the heathensacrifices, or to bow the head in honour, even but outward, of theidols, so that many had died rather than do so. And he had praisedthose who thus gave up their life.

  Then, too, I remembered the words of the Prior of Bosham concerningmartyrs. And we had been led to speak of them by this very questionas to sacrifice to the Danish gods. So I made up my mind that if Imight escape notice, I would do so--and if not, then would I bearthe worst.

  So I fell asleep at last. And what it may have been I knownot--unless the wind as it eddied through the high windows clashedsome weapon against shield on the walls with a clear ringingsound--but I woke with the voice of Bosham bell in my ears--andRorik and Halfden each in his place started also, and Rorikmuttered a curse before he lay down again, for he sat up, lookingwildly.

  But greatly cheered with that token was I, for I knew that help wasnot far from me, and after that I had no more fear, but sleptpeacefully, though I thought it was like to be my last night onearth.