Gudrid and KarCse/ni
For Gudrid the new country offered so much of freshness and greenness that for a time her requirement of being first in all things was forgotten, and she kept gazing out at the Isle of Dew where Leif had landed and shaking her head in wonder at the richness all around. - "Even the breezes here are so sweet I could almost make a meal of them!" she exclaimed to her husband. - "There is no question of that," he laughed. "Here in Vinland are more substantial feasts." - Truth to tell, they were both somewhat intoxicated at all that they saw. - They killed a big rorqualf in the shallows on the first day, even as they were bringing their hammocks ashore to Leif's houses, and the meat was good. Almost every week some fine whale would be stranded on the beach; so they had everything they could want. Deer abounded in the forests and meadows around them, and the lake was so plentiful in fish that Gudrid could catch as many as she liked with her hands. - "Oh, there is wealth here!" she cried. - When Freydis heard this, she waded in the lake up to her armpits and swept up all the fish she could into her net. The net was so heavy with fish that she could barely drag it home. - "I see you are
* "Let no man stint him and suffer need of the wealth he has won in life," said Odin the High One. "Oft is saved for a foe what is meant for a friend, and much goes worse than one weens."
t Species of whale with a dorsal fin and wrinkled skin about the throat.
hungry today," said Thorvard mockingly. - For once Freydis did not lose her temper with him. - "Don't you see," she said patiently, "that it is summer now, but when winter comes it may well be as it was in Greenland? Then you will thank me for this." - "No doubt I will," said Thorvard, "but you had better smoke them quickly or they will rot." - "Thralls!" cried Freydis, snapping her fingers. "Build a fire of green twigs and dry these fish for me. And don't eat a single one, because I've counted them!"
As for Gudrid, she sometimes set an especially fine fish aside to be smoked, for she knew that such could be sold for a higher price in Iceland or Greenland should she return there, but the little trout and perch she kept for her own table; so her ships filled up more slowly than Freydis's single ship, although her cargoes were better in every respect. - Nor did Karlsefiii immediately load his ship with timber, but left; what his thralls had felled on a rock to season. - "There may well be maggots in these unknown trees," he said to his wife, "and this way we will kill them. As for your sister-in-law, if she has a cargo of maggots then her ship will go to the bottom on the way home." - "I pray to CHRIST that it may be so," said Gudrid.
By this time, she was sure that she wanted to live in Vinland forever. She told Karlsefiii that if he acted decisively he could easily become chieftain of the new land, as Eirik the Red had done in Greenland. - "We can protect ourselves firom the Skraelings," she said. "They must be fiightened of us, for we have not seen a single one as long as we have been here." - "These things are in my mind also," said Karlsefiii, playing with the buttons of his sleeve. "We have men and ships enough to carry on trade with the home countries. As for the Skraelings, we wdll see about them when we meet them. It may be that we can bum them all out, and take their lands for ourselves. But remember, Gudrid, that the country we see around us already belongs to Leif When we have good cargo in all our ships, then we can explore the §ords to the south."
HeCgi and Fimxbogi
As for Helgi and Finnbogi, nobody knew them except Freydis, and she had quarreled with them several times, so they were seldom visited. They worked their fields with plough and sickle; their men-at-arms and their five women kept to themselves. Karlsefiii had gone to their house once and invited them to move closer to the others, for reasons of safety should the Skraelings attack, but they said they would rather take their chances with the Skraelings than
with Freydis. Karlsefiii could not but find this sensible, especially since diey had seen no Skraelings at all.
The Swimming Games
Karlsefiii's men did much to support themselves and enrich him. As yet there was no ill-feeling between them and Freydis's men, for Freydis had not so far overstepped herself as to refuse to share Leif's houses with them as she had done with Helgi and Finnbogi. Often they played games in the summer evenings (all marveling at how quickly darkness came on), and the women yelled what they thought would best incite them to good sport. Sometimes the men went swimming in the lake, and made contests between them to see who could stay underwater the longest, for this had come into fashion at the court of King Olaf Trygvesson in Norway. It was said that King Olaf surpassed all other men at this; and indeed I can well believe it, for in the Year of Grace 1000, when pressed in a sea-battle by his enemies King Swend, Earl Eric and King Olaf of the Swedes, he stood on the gangways of his ship, the Long Serpent, and exhorted his men so that they defended him until their swords were dull, "and the fight went on wdth battle-axe and sword," and the King stood fi-om morning till night shooting with his bow and throwing two spears at once, and finally he went into the forehold and opened a chest that he kept beneath his throne, fi-om which he took many sharp swords, which he passed to his men one by one; but as they received them fi-om his right hand they saw blood gushing dovm into his steel glove, but he would not say where he was wounded and they did not ask him, so the battle went on and the King's men began to fall, at which his enemy, Queen Sigrid, standing on the bank with her thralls, so far forgot her dignity as to clap her hands; while Eric's men swarmed round the Long Serpent and boarded her, and King Olaf Trygvesson stood fighting on the quarter-deck, protected by his last men, but they, too, fell one by one, and when King Olaf stood almost alone he sprang overboard; and Earl Eric's men tried to grapple with him in their boats, but he raised his golden shield above his head and sank into the sea; and such was his skill at that game that he has never come up since. - So Gudrid's men wresded laughing vdth Freydis's men in that clear blue lake that gazed up at the Sun like an eye, and they dunked each odier in the water and pulled each other dovm and shouted to their rivals, "Come, your kingdom is below the waves!" - Karlsefiii did not like this mocking of a King, but Gudrid said gently into his ear, "Let them play. They serve us
better for it." - As for Freydis, she lay on the shore laughing at the play, while Thorvard sat twirling his spear in his fingers . . .*
Freydis bore herself well in those days. She called Gudrid "sister-in-law," and held several feasts for the people at Leif's houses, as if she were the hostess there. Although some found her overbearing, she was at the peak of her prestige.
Freycfis Eiriksdotdr
But high summer passed.
* Of Olaf's disappearance beneath the waves Halfred Vandraedaskald made a verse that is a constellation of questions and speculations. Did the King doff his mail-shirt under the sea and make his escape by swimming beneath Earl Eric's long-ships? Halfred's conclusion is not definitive:
"I scarcely know what I should say, For many tell the tale each way. This I can say, nor fear to He, That he was wounded grievously, -But more than this is hard to tell. For no news comes, nor good nor ill."
Wearing ific Ice-Sfvirt
It began to blow and raine and to be very darke ... The nights and the frosts began to grow upon us.
Pellham (1631)
Well, no rune is good or bad, but if you want like to make diings PERMANENT it's best not to use the Rune of Destruction.
Alcoholic on die Bus (1987)
T
he pasturage was very fine in Vinland, and the livestock soon became fiisky and difficult to manage. Gudrid had roses in her cheeks; she was pregnant. She and her husband sometimes sailed along Keel-Ness and Marvel-Strands to look for stranded whales. Not far away was a cove whose beach was made of smooth round rocks, and the sea was so clear there that the orange rocks and white rocks in its bed were as distinct as eggs. Orange cliffs, not much more than a man's height, ringed the cove around. In their fissures grew manes of wet salt sea-grass. Above them was a wall of evergreens. Here Gudrid and Karlsefiii sometimes came to talk of private matters. Now tha
t Gudrid had finally achieved a marriage which was satisfactory to her, she came to love her husband dearly, for that was her clear duty. As for him, he sometimes thought that they had achieved a perfect understanding. Gudrid knew this, and took pleasure in it. But she could not let it stand in the way of her plans.
Two Lessons on Beauty
One day when the sun was sweedy mild and they were in their cove gathering mussels, Karlsefiii gazed at her admiringly, for Gudrid remained pleasing in men's sight no matter how often they looked at her. - "I can hardly believe
we've been married half a year," he said, "for I never tire of your face."
- Gudrid flushed and smiled, but said nothing. - But Karlsefni could not stop praising her. - "Beauty is a strange thing," Gudrid replied at last, in a rather low tone. "Men have been telling me all my life that I have it, but what is it? Look at that bird in the sky," and Karlsefni, gazing where she pointed, saw a pretty black bird with white wings, and then Gudrid said, "Now how much would that bird be to your mind if someone cut off its wings with an axe?" - "That would be an ill deed," said her husband. -"Yes, an ill deed," said Gudrid calmly, "and ill-looking that bird would be without wings. How black and ugly and beaked and clawed, like a troll!", and Karlsefni said nothing; and Gudrid went on, "Sometimes I'm afraid my luck is too good. Husband, would you like my face as much if Freydis strangled me in my sleep? How much would you care for me then?" - "Beautiful you may be," said Karlsefiii, "but those are ugly words to utter. Let us hope they never come to pass. You know that I dislike Freydis as much as you do, but it would be better for both of us if you refi*ained from saying such things without cause." - "Oh, now you find me heavy to bear," laughed Gudrid, "but it was you whom I thought so interested in the subject of beauty! And to think that was only my first lesson to you! - My second lesson is that people often think something beautiful because they do not understand it. Do you like that sweet bird-song?", and Karlsefiii listened and smiled at the bird-music that came from somewhere near them, and Gudrid said again, "Do you like it?", and Karlsefni said, "Well enough." Then Gudrid shook her head sadly (but, her husband thought, somewhat falsely) and pointed to a little brown bird almost like a mouse that was cheeping behind her in the grass, and Karlsefni saw that a green snake with a white stripe along its back had put its head in the nest-hole to eat the bird's eggs; and now, having finished that operation, it was eating the bird; Karlsefni saw that the bird-music was a bird-scream; and at last the snake had crushed the bird into a ball of twitching blood-furred flesh that it could swallow, so it gaped its jaws and entombed the bird in itself; and then the snake whipped itself away from that empty place, and hid beneath the waxy orange cups of flowers.
- "There we have Freydis," Gudrid said, and Karlsefni, meditating like a monk in the recesses of reason, wondered now what snake or bird his own wife might be. - "You're certainly determined to make your opinion of her clear," he said at last. "But I well remember that in Eiriks^ord you were the one who praised her courage to me." -"If you don't care to do something about her, then I've had enough of the subject," said Gudrid. "But I will be happy when we go south to find our own land."
The truth was that Gudrid was very weary of Freydis. It was impossible to avoid witnessing her ordering her men about with shouts and blows. She seemed so unrestrained in Wineland now that people wondered at it; she seemed almost wild. Certainly Thorvard was wretched on account of her. Once Gudrid and Freydis were preparing the day-meal together, and Gudrid said to Thorvard, "What's your favorite dish?", and Thorv^ard looked a little shy but said finally that his favorite dish was whale-meat, and Freydis said, "No, whale-meat is not your favorite dish, Thorvard. You prefer seal-meat, don't you, because it's easier for you to hit a seal over die head!", and Thorvard went red in the face. For no reason that anyone could see, Freydis's anger had come out like a knife, clean and sharp and shining. - Gudrid, who had always been able to rule (so she fancied) through a beautifully calculated sweemess, intensely disliked Freydis's way of managing her affairs, for she had no understanding of the difficukies that Freydis suffered under. Gudrid also had little fondness for Freydis's men, who were sullenly taciturn, but raped her with their eyes. She considered them oudaws, wolf's-heads and home-takers. In the evenings, when the work was done, they stood in the doorway of their dark house.
The Search for the Skrceiinqs
As for Freydis, she was restless. Although she was enriching herself beyond her greediest dreams, she had not fulfilled Blue-Shirt's commission, and did not know how to go about it. She had no familiar in whom she could confide her wickedness, for her men, since she had picked them to suit her, were tools, not counsellors. Each day was beautiful; Freydis wished, however, to improve the day. At length it occurred to her to search for the Skraelings. Despite the others' complacency, she knew that there must be some. Had they not killed her brother Thorvald? Freydis had always associated the Skraelings with magic and evil; surely they worshipped some relative of Amortortak whom she could go to for assistance and instruction. (She hated the Skraelings for being Uttle and dark, like thralls.) So she often wandered, with an axe in her belt, among the birch-trees, beyond which a grey-blue light played over the lakes. Freydis followed those lakes and found spruces, hemlocks, and rivers like brown mirrors which were disturbed only occasionally by rapids whose tassels of white water did not in the least prevent the surrounding water fi-om reflecting the fi-actured planes of the rocks, in which grasses and mosses grew, and sometimes deer came to drink, and saw themselves in the
water without being frightened, and ferns and maple saplings grew all around in the moss. (Sometimes Helgi and Finnbogi also went roving through that forest and threw themselves down into beds of moss. The moss was so thick that they could have hewn blocks of it for seats.) But she found no sign of the Skraelings. - There was a wide blue lake. Freydis waded in. She stepped on speckled granite pebbles (black spots on white), which glowed richly in the clear water. She waded toward the low, forested islands. But the Skraelings were not there.
The Leaf-Sun
There are some people who give warnings of their darker moods. Such was Killer-Glum of Iceland, who (so says his saga) turned pale and wept tears the size of hailstones whenever his slaying-fit was on him. But Freydis gave no sign of her most horrible thoughts, so the sagas seem to indicate; - and yet I think that everyone reveals himself somehow.
In the forest beside Leif's houses was a tall tree whose leaves were spiked Uke suns. In the summer Freydis plucked one and folded it upon itself, tormenting it into glossy leaf-jaws full of teeth, then letting it open upon her palm until once again it was a leaf-sun transfixed upon the sun's own thorns. - It was a holly tree. - Freydis closed the leaf again, so that the Sun was tormented upon her own thorns, those thorns twisted and ingrown all the way to the Sun's heart; then she let the leaf go, and it sprang open again; and she folded it so that it was a glossy green leaf-mouth with teeth ...
The Dream of the Ice-Cdffs
At night it was very dark, and there were noises that Freydis had never heard before, teeming noises of joyous indifference. The flickering of the fire cast shadows on the trees, so that it was the trees that seemed to flicker, not the stars. Now the logs in the fire blackened and looked very very old before they crumbled to embers. Searching the sky a little desperately, Freydis thought she saw a grey light in it to the far north where her home was, but the light was interrupted by a smudge of cloud. The trees stood out with illusory distinctness against that light, every branch and needle of them, and for a moment Freydis felt radiant and fine. But presently the light died and all she could see were the last embers, almost blood-red against the darkness.
Whereas the dreams of the other Greenlanders moved south night by night until they dreamed joyously of moonlit flowers, rilling dew-cups, and Gudrid dreamed that pink and white flowers from heaven kissed her lips, Freydis must wear an ice-shirt for her night-shirt, and so at best she could but dream of Slab-Land with its low blue ridges spatt
ered with snow. She wandered across an endless flat brown landscape, streaked with ice-puddles and snow. Her bare feet were shoed in ice as she went her aimless and dreary way, and the wind smote her with frost. Sometimes the snowdrifts were shaped like animals, but they were always distorted, deformed beasts which would have been able to live only as monsters, like Gudrid's wingless bird. Northward the land was traversed by many gullies where the snow was thick. Presendy the white and the brown appeared in equal proportions, and then the white ruled. The land seemed less dreary when it was that color. But it did not seem any better a place to be. Rock-ridges underlined the snow, and there were blue-white mountains almost like lumps of shattered frozen glass; they had almost as many faces as crystals. Milky-blue §ords insinuated their wide arms between the peaks, and dark-blue traceries informed their ice. Ahead were big blue cliflfs. They grinned like teeth. They swoing apart as Freydis neared them, and she could see a dark §ord winding deep into mountains and snow and more mountains, and then the clifi'-teeth began to chew and the ^ord salivated icy rivers because the clifis saw her coming and were hungry, and Freydis woke up sobbing in the longhouse and Thorvard was rocking her and stroking the sleeves of her night-shirt and for a moment she actually loved him as she would have loved anyone who'd rock her after such dreams. - Poor Freydis!
The Ice-Shirt Page 25