Eric Brighteyes

by H. Rider Haggard

  "I have said to Middalhof."

  "That is into the wolf's den, if Eric and Skallagrim are there," heanswered: "I have little chance against the two of them."

  "Nay, nor against the one, Gizur. Why, if Eric's right hand were hewnfrom him, and he stood unarmed, he would still slay thee with his left,as, swordless, he slew Ospakar thy father. Yet I shall find a way tocome at him, if he is there."

  Then they rode on, and Gizur's heart was heavy for fear of Eric andSkallagrim the Baresark. So fiercely did they ride that, within one hourafter midnight, they were at the stead of Middalhof.

  "We will leave the horses here in the field," said Swanhild.

  So they leaped to earth and, tying the reins of the horses together,left them to feed on the growing grass. Then they crept into the yardand listened. Presently there came a sound of horses stamping in the farcorner of the yard. They went thither, and there they found a horse andtwo geldings saddled, but with the bits slipped, and on the horse wassuch a saddle as women use.

  "Eric Brighteyes, Skallagrim Lambstail, and Gudruda the Fair," whisperedSwanhild, naming the horses and laughing evilly--"the birds are within!Now to snare them."

  "Were it not best to meet them by the ship?" asked Gizur.

  "Nay, thou fool; if once Eric and Skallagrim are back to back, andWhitefire is aloft, how many shall be dead before they are down,thinkest thou? We shall not find them sleeping twice."

  "It is shameful to slay sleeping men," said Gizur.

  "They are outlaws," she answered. "Hearken, Ospakar's son. Thou sayestthou dost love me and wouldst wed me: know this, that if thou dostfail me now, I will never look upon thy face again, but will name theeNiddering in all men's ears."

  Now Gizur loved Swanhild much, for she had thrown her glamour on him asonce she did on Atli, and he thought of her day and night. For therewas this strange thing about Swanhild that, though she was a witch andwicked, being both fair and gentle she could lead all men, except Eric,to love her.

  But of men she loved Eric alone.

  Then Gizur held his peace; but Swanhild spoke again:

  "It will be of no use to try the doors, for they are strong. Yet whenI was a child before now I have passed in and out the house at nightby the store-room casement. Follow me, Gizur." Then she crept along theshadow of the wall, for she knew it every stone, till she came to thestore-room, and lo! the shutter stood open, and through it the moonlightpoured into the chamber. Swanhild lifted her head above the sill andlooked, then started back.

  "Hush!" she said, "Skallagrim lies asleep within."

  "Pray the Gods he wake not!" said Gizur beneath his breath, and turnedto go. But Swanhild caught him by the arm; then gently raised her headand looked again, long and steadily. Presently she turned and laughedsoftly.

  "Things go well for us," she said; "the sot lies drunk. We have nothingto fear from him. He lies drunk in a pool of ale."

  Then Gizur looked. The moonlight poured into the little room, and byit he saw the great shape of Skallagrim. His head was thrown back, hismouth was wide. He snored loudly in his drunken sleep, and all about himran the brown ale, for the spigot of the cask lay upon the floor. In hisleft hand was a horn cup, but in his right he still grasped his axe.

  "Now we must enter," said Swanhild. Gizur hung back, but she sprang uponthe sill lightly as a fox, and slid thence into the store-room. ThenGizur must follow, and presently he stood beside her in the room, and attheir feet lay drunken Skallagrim. Gizur looked first at his sword, thenon the Baresark, and lastly at Swanhild.

  "Nay," she whispered, "touch him not. Perchance he would cry out--and weseek higher game. He has that within him which will hold him fast for awhile. Follow where I shall lead."

  She took his hand and, gliding through the doorway, passed along thepassage till she came to the great hall. Swanhild could see well in thedark, and moreover she knew the road. Presently they stood in theempty hall. The fire had burnt down, but two embers yet glowed upon thehearth, like red and angry eyes.

  For a while Swanhild stood still listening, but there was nothing tohear. Then she drew near to the shut bed where Gudruda slept, and, withher ear to the curtain, listened once more. Gizur came with her, andas he came his foot struck against a bench and stirred it. Now Swanhildheard murmured words and the sound of kisses. She started back, and furyfilled her heart. Gizur also heard the voice of Eric, saying: "I willrise." Then he would have fled, but Swanhild caught him by the arm.

  "Fear not," she whispered, "they shall soon sleep sound."

  He felt her stretch out her arms and presently he saw this wonderfulthing: the eyes of Swanhild glowing in the darkness as the embers glowedupon the hearth. Now they glowed brightly, so brightly that he could seethe outstretched arms and the hard white face beneath them, and nowthey grew dim, of a sudden to shine bright again. And all the while shehissed words through her clenched teeth.

  Thus she hissed, fierce and low:

  "Gudruda, Sister mine, hearken and sleep! By the bond of blood I bid thee sleep!-- By the strength that is in me I bid thee sleep!-- Sleep! sleep sound!

  "Eric Brighteyes, hearken and sleep! By the bond of sin I charge thee sleep!-- By the blood of Atli I charge thee, sleep!-- Sleep! sleep sound!"

  Then thrice she tossed her hands aloft, saying:

  "From love to sleep! From sleep to death! From death to Hela! Say, lovers, where shall ye kiss again?"

  Then the light went out of her eyes and she laughed low. And ever as shewhispered, the spoken words of the two in the shut bed grew fainter andmore faint, till at length they died away, and a silence fell upon theplace.

  "Thou hast no cause to fear the sword of Eric, Gizur," she said."Nothing will wake him now till daylight comes."

  "Thou art awesome!" answered Gizur, for he shook with fear. "Look not onme with those flaming eyes, I pray thee!"

  "Fear not," she said, "the fire is out. Now to the work."

  "What must we do, then?"

  "_Thou_ must do this. Thou must enter and slay Eric."

  "That I can not--that I will not!" said Gizur.

  She turned and looked at him, and lo! her eyes began to flameagain--upon his eyes they seemed to burn.

  "Thou wilt do as I bid thee," she said. "With Eric's sword thou shaltslay Eric, else I will curse thee where thou art, and bring such evil onthee as thou knowest not of."

  "Look not so, Swanhild," he said. "Lead on--I come."

  Now they creep into the shut chamber of Gudruda. It is so dark that theycan see nothing, and nothing can they hear except the heavy breathing ofthe sleepers.

  This is to be told, that at this time Swanhild had it in her mindto kill, not Eric but Gudruda, for thus she would smite the heart ofBrighteyes. Moreover, she loved Eric, and while he lived she might yetwin him; but Eric dead must be Eric lost. But on Gudruda she would bebitterly avenged--Gudruda, who, for all her scheming, had yet been awife to Eric!

  Now they stand by the bed. Swanhild puts out her hand, draws down theclothes, and feels the breast of Gudruda beneath, for Gudruda slept onthe outside of the bed.

  Then she searches by the head of the bed and finds Whitefire which hungthere, and draws the sword.

  "Here lies Eric, on the outside," she says to Gizur, "and here isWhitefire. Strike and strike home, leaving Whitefire in the wound."

  Gizur takes the sword and lifts it. He is sore at heart that he must dosuch a coward deed; but the spell of Swanhild is upon him, and he maynot flinch from it. Then a thought takes him and he also puts down hishand to feel. It lights upon Gudruda's golden hair, that hangs about herbreast and falls from the bed to the ground.

  "Here is woman's hair," he whispers.

  "No," Swanhild answers, "it is Eric's hair. The hair of Eric is long, asthou hast seen."

  Now neither of them knows that Gudruda cut Eric's locks when he lay sickon Mosfell, though Swanhild knows well that it is not Brighteyes whomshe bids Gizur slay.

  Then Gizur,
Ospakar's son, lifts the sword, and the faint starlightstruggling into the chamber gathers and gleams upon the blade. Thrice helifts it, and thrice it draws it back. Then with an oath he strikes--anddrives it home with all his strength!

  From the bed beneath there comes one long sigh and a sound as of limbstrembling against the bed-gear. Then all is still.

  "It is done!" he says faintly.

  Swanhild puts down her hand once more. Lo! it is wet and warm. Then shebends herself and looks, and behold! the dead eyes of Gudruda glare upinto her eyes. She can see them plainly, but none know what she readthere. At the least it was something that she loved not, for she reelsback against the panelling, then falls upon the floor.

  Presently, while Gizur stands as one in a dream, she rises, saying:"I am avenged of the death of Atli. Let us hence!--ah! let us henceswiftly! Give me thy hand, Gizur, for I am faint!"

  So Gizur gives her his hand and they pass thence. Presently they standin the store-room, and there lies Skallagrim, still plunged in hisdrunken sleep.

  "Must I do more murder?" asks Gizur hoarsely.

  "Nay," Swanhild says. "I am sick with blood. Leave the knave."

  They pass out by the casement into the yard and so on till they findtheir horses.

  "Lift me, Gizur; I can no more," says Swanhild.

  He lifts her to the saddle.

  "Whither away?" he asks.

  "To Coldback, Gizur, and thence to cold Death."

  Thus did Gudruda, Eric's bride and Asmund's daughter, the fairest womanwho ever lived in Iceland, die on her marriage night by the hand ofGizur, Ospakar's son, and through the hate and witchcraft of Swanhildthe Fatherless, her half-sister.

  XXX

  HOW THE DAWN CAME

  The dawn broke over Middalhof. Slowly the light gathered in the emptyhall, it crept slowly into the little chamber where Eric slept, andGudruda slept also with a deeper sleep.

  Now the two women came from their chamber at the far end of the hall,and drew near the hearth, shivering, for the air was cold. They kneltby the fire, blowing at the embers till the sticks they cast upon themcrackled to a blaze.

  "It seems that Gudruda is not yet gone," said one to the other. "Ithought she should ride away with Eric before the dawn."

  "Newly wed lie long abed!" laughed the other.

  "I am glad to see the blessed light," said the first woman, "for lastnight I dreamed that once again this hall ran red with blood, as at themarriage-feast of Ospakar."

  "Ah," answered the other, "it will be well for the south when EricBrighteyes and Gudruda are gone over sea, for their loves have broughtmuch bloodshed upon the land."

  "Well, indeed!" sighed the first. "Had Asmund the Priest never foundGroa, Ran's gift, singing by the sea, Valhalla had not been so fullto-day. Mindest thou the day he brought her here?"

  "I remember it well," she answered, "though I was but a girl at thetime. Still, when I saw those dark eyes of hers--just such eyes asSwanhild's!--I knew her for a witch, as all Finn women are. It is anevil world: my husband is dead by the sword; dead are both my sons,fighting for Eric; dead is Unna, Thorod's daughter; Asmund, my lord, isdead, and dead is Bjoern; and now Gudruda the Fair, whom I have rockedto sleep, leaves us to go over sea. I may not go with her, for mydaughter's sake; yet I almost wish that I too were dead."

  "That will come soon enough," said the other, who was young and fair.

  Now the witch-sleep began to roll from Eric's heart, though his eyeswere not yet open. But the talk of the women echoed in his ears, andthe words "_dead!_" "_dead!_" "_dead!_" fell heavily on his slumberingsense. At length he opened his eyes, only to shut them again, becauseof a bright gleam of light that ran up and down something at hisside. Heavily he wondered what this might be, that shone so keen andbright--that shone like a naked sword.

  Now he looked again. Yes, it was a sword which stood by him upon thebed, and the golden hilt was like the hilt of Whitefire. He lifted uphis hand to touch it, thinking that he dreamed. Lo! his hand and armwere red!

  Then he remembered, and the thought of Gudruda flashed through hisheart. He sat up, gazing down into the shadow at his side.

  Presently the women at the fire heard a sound as of a great man fallingto earth.

  "What is that noise?" said one.

  "Eric leaping from his bed," answered the other. "He has slept too long,as we have also."

  As they spoke the curtain of the shut bed was pushed away, and throughit staggered Eric in his night-gear, and lo! the left side of it wasred. His eyes were wide with horror, his mouth was open, and his facewas white as ice.

  He stopped, looking at them, made as though to speak, and could not.Then, while they shrank from him in terror, he turned, and, walking likea drunken man, staggered from the hall down that passage which led tothe store-chamber. The door stood wide, the shutter was wide, and on thefloor, soaked in the dregs of ale, Skallagrim yet lay snoring, his axein one hand and a cup in the other.

  Eric looked and understood.

  "Awake, drunkard!" he cried, in so terrible a voice that the room shook."Awake, and look upon thy work!"

  Skallagrim sat up, yawning.

  "Forsooth, my head swims," he said. "Give me ale, I am thirsty."

  "Never wilt thou look on ale again, Skallagrim, when thou hast seen thatwhich I have to show!" said Eric, in the same dread voice.

  Then Skallagrim rose to his feet and gaped upon him.

  "What means this, lord? Is it time to ride? and say! why is thy shirtred with blood?"

  "Follow me, drunkard, and look upon thy work!" Eric said again.

  Then Skallagrim grew altogether sober, and grasping his axe, followedafter Brighteyes, sore afraid of what he might see.

  They went down the passage, past the high seat of the hall, till theycame to the curtain of the shut bed; and after them followed the women.Eric seized the curtain in his hand, rent it from its fastenings, andcast it on the ground. Now the light flowed in and struck upon the bed.It fell upon the bed, it fell upon Whitefire's hilt and ran along theblade, it gleamed on a woman's snowy breast and golden hair, and shonein her staring eyes--a woman who lay stiff and cold upon the bed, thegreat sword fixed within her heart!

  "Look upon thy work, drunkard!" Eric cried again, while the women whopeeped behind sent their long wail of woe echoing down the panelledhall.

  "Hearken!" said Eric: "while thou didst lie wallowing in thyswine's sleep, foes crept across thy carcase, and this is theirhandiwork:--yonder she lies who was my bride!--now is Gudruda the Fair adeath-wife who last night was my bride! This is thy work, drunkard! andnow what meed for thee?"

  Skallagrim looked. Then he spoke in a hoarse slow voice:

  "What meed, lord? But one--death!"

  Then with one hand he covered his eyes and with the other held out hisaxe to Eric Brighteyes.

  Eric took the axe, and while the women ran thence screaming, he whirledit thrice about his head. Then he smote down towards the skull ofSkallagrim, but as he smote it seemed to him that a voice whispered inhis ear: "_Thy oath!_"--and he remembered that he had sworn to slay nomore, save for his own life's sake.

  The mighty blow was falling and he might only do this--loose the axebefore it clove Skallagrim in twain. He loosed and away the great axeflew. It passed over the head of Skallagrim, and sped like light acrossthe wide hall, till it crashed through the panelling on the furtherside, and buried itself to the haft in the wall beyond.

  "It is not for me to kill thee, drunkard! Go, die in thy drink!"

  "Then I will kill myself!" cried the Baresark, and, rushing across thehall he tore the great axe from its bed.

  "Hold!" said Eric; "perhaps there is yet a deed for thee to do. Thenthou mayest die, if it pleases thee."

  "Ay," said Skallagrim coming back, "perchance there is still a deed todo!"

  And, flinging down the axe, Skallagrim Lambstail the Baresark fell uponthe floor and wept.

  But Eric did not weep. Only he drew Whitefire from the heart of Gudrudaand looke
d at it.

  "Thou art a strange sword, Whitefire," he said, "who slayest both friendand foe! Shame on thee, Whitefire! We swore our oath on thee, Whitefire,and thou hast cut its chain! Now I am minded to shatter thee." And asEric looked on the great blade, lo! it hummed strangely in answer.

  "'First must thou be the death of some,' thou sayest? Well, maybe,Whitefire! But never yet didst thou drink so sweet a life as hers whonow lies dead, nor ever shalt again."

  Then he sheathed the sword, but neither then nor afterwards did he wipethe blood of Gudruda from its blade.

  "Last night a-marrying--to-day a-burying," said Eric, and he called tothe women to bring spades. Then, having clothed himself, he went tothe centre of the hall, and, brushing away the sand, broke the hardclay-flooring, dealing great blows on it with an axe. Now Skallagrim,seeing his purpose, came to him and took one of the spades, and togetherthey laboured in silence till they had dug a grave a fathom deep.

  "Here," said Eric, "here, in thine own hall where thou wast born andlived, Gudruda the Fair, thou shalt sleep at the last. And of MiddalhofI say this: that none shall live there henceforth. It shall be hauntedand accursed till the rafters rot and the walls fall in, making thybarrow, Gudruda."

  Now this indeed came to pass, for none have lived in Middalhof since thedays of Gudruda the Fair, Asmund's daughter. It has been ruined thesemany years, and now it is but a pile of stones.

  When the grave was dug, Eric washed himself and ate some food. Then hewent in to where Gudruda lay dead, and bade the women make her readyfor burial. This they did. When she was washed and clad in a clean whiterobe, Eric came to her, and with his own hand bound the Hell-shoes onher feet and closed her eyes.