The House of the Wolfings

by William Morris

  CHAPTER XV--THEY HEAR TELL OF THE BATTLE ON THE RIDGE

  "Ye have heard how the Daylings were appointed to go to help Thiodolf indriving the folk-spear home to the heart of the Roman host. So theywent; but six hours thereafter comes one to Otter bidding him send agreat part of the kindreds to him; for that he had had tidings that agreat host of Romans were drawing near the wood-edge, but were notentered therein, and that fain would he meet them in the open field.

  "So the kindreds drew lots, and the lot fell first to the Elkings, whoare a great company, as ye know; and then to the Hartings, the Beamings,the Alftings, the Vallings (also a great company), the Galtings, (andthey no lesser) each in their turn; and last of all to the Laxings; andthe Oselings prayed to go with the Elkings, and this Otter deemed good,whereas a many of them be bowmen.

  "All these then to the number of a thousand or more entered the wood; andI was with them, for in sooth I was the messenger.

  "No delay made we in the wood, nor went we over warily, trusting to thewarding of the wood by Thiodolf; and there were men with us who knew thepaths well, whereof I was one; so we speedily came through into the opencountry.

  "Shortly we came upon our folk and the War-duke lying at the foot of alittle hill that went up as a buttress to a long ridge high above us,whereon we set a watch; and a little brook came down the dale for ourdrink.

  "Night fell as we came thither; so we slept for a while, but abode notthe morning, and we were afoot (for we had no horses with us) before themoon grew white. We took the road in good order, albeit our folk-bannerswe had left behind in the burg; so each kindred raised aloft a shield ofits token to be for a banner. So we went forth, and some swift footmen,with Fox, who hath seen the Roman war-garth, had been sent on before tospy out the ways of the foemen.

  "Two hours after sunrise cometh one of these, and telleth how he hathseen the Romans, and how that they are but a short mile hence breakingtheir fast, not looking for any onslaught; 'but,' saith he, 'they are ona high ridge whence they can see wide about, and be in no danger ofambush, because the place is bare for the most part, nor is there anycover except here and there down in the dales a few hazels and blackthornbushes, and the rushes of the becks in the marshy bottoms, wherein asnipe may hide, or a hare, but scarce a man; and note that there is noway up to that ridge but by a spur thereof as bare as my hand; so ye willbe well seen as ye wend up thereto.'

  "So spake he in my hearing. But Thiodolf bade him lead on to that spur,and old Heriulf, who was standing nigh, laughed merrily and said: 'Yea,lead on, and speedily, lest the day wane and nothing done save thehunting of snipes.'

  "So on we went, and coming to the hither side of that spur beheld thoseothers and Fox with them; and he held in his hand an arrow of the aliens,and his face was all astir with half-hidden laughter, and he breathedhard, and pointed to the ridge, and somewhat low down on it we saw asteel cap and three spear-heads showing white from out a little hollow inits side, but the men hidden by the hollow: so we knew that Fox had beenchased, and that the Romans were warned and wary.

  "No delay made the War-duke, but led us up that spur, which was somewhatsteep; and as we rose higher we saw a band of men on the ridge, a littleway down it, not a many; archers and slingers mostly, who abode us tillwe were within shot, and then sent a few shots at us, and so fled. Buttwo men were hurt with the sling-plummets, and one, and he notgrievously, with an arrow, and not one slain.

  "Thus we came up on to the ridge, so that there was nothing between usand the bare heavens; thence we looked south-east and saw the Romanswisely posted on the ridge not far from where it fell down steeply to thenorth; but on the south, that is to say on their left hands, and allalong the ridge past where we were stayed, the ground sloped gently tothe south-west for a good way, before it fell, somewhat steeply, intoanother long dale. Looking north we saw the outer edge of Mirkwood but alittle way from us, and we were glad thereof; because ere we left oursleeping-place that morn Thiodolf had sent to Otter another messengerbidding him send yet more men on to us in case we should be hard-pressedin the battle; for he had had a late rumour that the Romans were many.And now when he had looked on the Roman array and noted how wise it was,he sent three swift-foot ones to take stand on a high knoll which we hadpassed on the way, that they might take heed where our folk came out fromthe wood and give signal to them by the horn, and lead them to where thebattle should be.

  "So we stood awhile and breathed us, and handled our weapons some half afurlong from the alien host. They had no earth rampart around them, forthat ridge is waterless, and they could not abide there long, but theyhad pitched sharp pales in front of them and they stood in very goodorder, as if abiding an onslaught, and moved not when they saw us; forthat band of shooters had joined themselves to them already. Taken onewith another we deemed them to be more than we were; but their hauberkedfootmen with the heavy cast-spears not so many as we by a good deal.

  "Now we were of mind to fall on them ere they should fall on us; so allsuch of us as had shot-weapons spread out from our company and went fortha little; and of the others Heriulf stood foremost along with the leadersof the Beamings and the Elkings; but as yet Thiodolf held aback and ledthe midmost company, as his wont was, and the more part of the Wolfingswere with him.

  "Thus we ordered ourselves, and awaited a little while yet what thealiens should do; and presently a war-horn blew amongst them, and fromeach flank of their mailed footmen came forth a many bowmen and slingersand a band of horsemen; and drew within bowshot, the shooters in openarray yet wisely, and so fell to on us, and the horsemen hung aback alittle as yet.

  "Their arrow-shot was of little avail, their bowmen fell fast beforeours; but deadly was their sling-shot, and hurt and slew many and someeven in our main battle; for they slung round leaden balls and notstones, and they aimed true and shot quick; and the men withal were solight and lithe, never still, but crouching and creeping and boundinghere and there, that they were no easier to hit than coneys amidst of thefern, unless they were very nigh.

  "Howbeit when this storm had endured a while, and we moved but little,and not an inch aback, and gave them shot for shot, then was another hornwinded from amongst the aliens; and thereat the bowmen cast down theirbows, and the slingers wound their slings about their heads, and they allcame on with swords and short spears and feathered darts, running andleaping lustily, making for our flanks, and the horsemen set spurs totheir horses and fell on in the very front of our folk like good andvaliant men-at-arms.

  "That saw Heriulf and his men, and they set up the war-whoop, and ranforth to meet them, axe and sword aloft, terribly yet maybe somewhatunwarily. The archers and slingers never came within sword-stroke ofthem, but fell away before them on all sides; but the slingers fled notfar, but began again with their shot, and slew a many. Then was a hornwinded, as if to call back the horsemen, who, if they heard, heeded not,but rode hard on our kindred like valiant warriors who feared not death.Sooth to say, neither were the horses big or good, nor the men fit forthe work, saving for their hardihood; and their spears were short withaland their bucklers unhandy to wield.

  "Now could it be seen how the Goths gave way before them to let them intothe trap, and then closed around again, and the axes and edge weaponswent awork hewing as in a wood; and Heriulf towered over all the press,and the Wolf's-sister flashed over his head in the summer morning.

  "Soon was that storm over, and we saw the Goths tossing up their spearsover the slain, and horses running loose and masterless adown over thewestward-lying slopes, and a few with their riders still clinging tothem. Yet some, sore hurt by seeming, galloping toward the main battleof the Romans.

  "Unwarily then fared the children of Tyr that were with Heriulf; for bythis time they were well nigh within shot of the spears of those mightyfootmen of the Romans: and on their flanks were the slingers, and thebowmen, who had now gotten their bows again; and our bowmen, though theyshot well and strong, were too few to quell them; and indeed some of themhad cast by
their bows to join in Heriulf's storm. Also the lie of theground was against us, for it sloped up toward the Roman array at firstvery gently, but afterwards steeply enough to breathe a short-winded man.Also behind them were we of the other kindreds, whom Thiodolf had orderedinto the wedge-array; and we were all ready to move forward, so that hadthey abided somewhat, all had been well and better.

  "So did they not, but straightway set up the Victory-whoop and ranforward on the Roman host. And these were so ordered that, as aforesaid,they had before them sharp piles stuck into the earth and pointed againstus, as we found afterwards to our cost; and within these piles stood themen some way apart from each other, so as to handle their casting spears,and in three ranks were they ordered and many spears could be cast atonce, and if any in the front were slain, his fellow behind him took hisplace.

  "So now the storm of war fell at once upon our folk, and swift and fierceas was their onslaught yet were a many slain and hurt or ever they cameto the piles aforesaid. Then saw they death before them and heeded itnought, but tore up the piles and dashed through them, and fell in onthose valiant footmen. Short is the tale to tell: wheresoever a sword orspear of the Goths was upraised there were three upon him, and saith Totiof the Beamings, who was hurt and crawled away and yet lives, that onHeriulf there were six at first and then more; and he took no thought ofshielding himself, but raised up the Wolf's-sister and hewed as thewoodman in the thicket, when night cometh and hunger is on him. Therefell Heriulf the Ancient and many a man of the Beamings and the Elkingswith him, and many a Roman.

  "But amidst the slain and the hurt our wedge-array moved forward slowlynow, warily shielded against the plummets and shafts on either side; andwhen the Romans saw our unbroken array, and Thiodolf the first withThrong-plough naked in his hand, they chased not such men of ours unhurtor little hurt, as drew aback from before them: so these we took amongstus, and when we had gotten all we might, and held a grim face to the foe,we drew aback little by little, still facing them till we were out ofshot of their spears, though the shot of the arrows and thesling-plummets ceased not wholly from us. Thus ended Heriulf's Storm."

  Then he rested from his speaking for a while, and none said aught, butthey gazed on him as if he bore with him a picture of the battle, andmany of the women wept silently for Heriulf, and yet more of the youngerones were wounded to the heart when they thought of the young men of theElkings, and the Beamings, since with both those houses they hadaffinity; and they lamented the loves that they had lost, and would haveasked concerning their own speech-friends had they durst. But they heldtheir peace till the tale was told out to an end.

  Then Egil spake again:

  "No long while had worn by in Heriulf's Storm, and though men's heartswere nothing daunted, but rather angered by what had befallen, yet wouldThiodolf wear away the time somewhat more, since he hoped for succourfrom the Wain-burg and the Wood; and he would not that any of theseRomans should escape us, but would give them all to Tyr, and to be afollowing to Heriulf the Old and the Great.

  "So there we abided a while moving nought, and Thiodolf stood with Throng-plough on his shoulder, unhelmed, unbyrnied, as though he trusted to thekindred for all defence. Nor for their part did the Romans dare to leavetheir vantage-ground, when they beheld what grim countenance we madethem.

  "Albeit, when we had thrice made as if we would fall on, and yet theymoved not, whereas it trieth a man sorely to stand long before thefoeman, and do nought but endure, and whereas many of our bowmen wereslain or hurt, and the rest too few to make head against the shot-weaponsof the aliens, then at last we began to draw nearer and a little nearer,not breaking the wedge-array; and at last, just before we were withinshot of the cast-spears of their main battle, loud roared our war-horn:then indeed we broke the wedge-array, but orderly as we knew how,spreading out from right and left of the War-duke till we were facingthem in a long line: one minute we abode thus, and then ran forth throughthe spear-storm: and even therewith we heard, as it were, the echo of ourown horn, and whoso had time to think betwixt the first of the storm andthe handstrokes of the Romans deemed that now would be coming freshkindreds for our helping.

  "Not long endured the spear-rain, so swift we were, neither were we inone throng as betid in Heriulf's Storm, but spread abroad, each trustingin the other that none thought of the backward way.

  "Though we had the ground against us we dashed like fresh men at theirpales, and were under the weapons at once. Then was the battle grim;they could not thrust us back, nor did we break their array with ourfirst storm; man hewed at man as if there were no foes in the world butthey two: sword met sword, and sax met sax; it was thrusting and hewingwith point and edge, and no long-shafted weapons were of any avail; therewe fought hand to hand and no man knew by eyesight how the battle wenttwo yards from where he fought, and each one put all his heart in thestroke he was then striking, and thought of nothing else.

  "Yet at the last we felt that they were faltering and that our work waseasier and our hope higher; then we cried our cries and pressed onharder, and in that very nick of time there arose close behind us theroar of the Markmen's horn and the cries of the kindreds answering ours.Then such of the Romans as were not in the very act of smiting, orthrusting, or clinging or shielding, turned and fled, and the whoop ofvictory rang around us, and the earth shook, and past the place of theslaughter rushed the riders of the Goths; for they had sent horsemen tous, and the paths were grown easier for our much treading of them. ThenI beheld Thiodolf, that he had just slain a foe, and clear was the spacearound him, and he rushed sideways and caught hold of the stirrup ofAngantyr of the Bearings, and ran ten strides beside him, and thenbounded on afoot swifter than the red horses of the Bearings, urging onthe chase, as his wont was.

  "But we who were wearier, when we had done our work, stood still betweenthe living and the dead, between the freemen of the Mark and their war-thralls. And in no long while there came back to us Thiodolf and thechasers, and we made a great ring on the field of the slain, and sang theSong of Triumph; and it was the Wolfing Song that we sang.

  "Thus then ended Thiodolf's Storm."

  When he held his peace there was but little noise among thestay-at-homes, for still were they thinking about the deaths of theirkindred and their lovers. But Egil spoke again.

  "Yet within that ring lay the sorrow of our hearts; for Odin had called amany home, and there lay their bodies; and the mightiest was Heriulf; andthe Romans had taken him up from where he fell, and cast him down out ofthe way, but they had not stripped him, and his hand still gripped theWolf's-sister. His shield was full of shafts of arrows and spears; hisbyrny was rent in many places, his helm battered out of form. He hadbeen grievously hurt in the side and in the thigh by cast-spears or everhe came to hand-blows with the Romans, but moreover he had three greatwounds from the point of the sax, in the throat, in the side, in thebelly, each enough for his bane. His face was yet fair to look on, andwe deemed that he had died smiling.

  "At his feet lay a young man of the Beamings in a gay green coat, andbeside him was the head of another of his House, but his green-clad bodylay some yards aloof. There lay of the Elkings a many. Well may yeweep, maidens, for them that loved you. Now fare they to the Gods agoodly company, but a goodly company is with them.

  "Seventy and seven of the Sons of the Goths lay dead within the Romanbattle, and fifty-four on the slope before it; and to boot there weretwenty-four of us slain by the arrows and plummets of the shooters, and amany hurt withal.

  "But there were no hurt men inside the Roman array or before it. Allwere slain outright, for the hurt men either dragged themselves back toour folk, or onward to the Roman ranks, that they might die with one morestroke smitten.

  "Now of the aliens the dead lay in heaps in that place, for grim was theslaughter when the riders of the Bearings and the Wormings fell on thealiens; and a many of the foemen scorned to flee, but died where theystood, craving no peace; and to few of them was peace given. There fellof t
he Roman footmen five hundred and eighty and five, and the remnantthat fled was but little: but of the slingers and bowmen but eighty andsix were slain, for they were there to shoot and not to stand; and theywere nimble and fleet of foot, men round of limb, very dark-skinned, butnot foul of favour."

  Then he said:

  "There are men through the dusk a-faring, our speech-fiends and our kin, No more shall they crave our helping, nor ask what work to win; They have done their deeds and departed when they had holpen the House, So high their heads are holden, and their hurts are glorious With the story of strokes stricken, and new weapons to be met, And new scowling of foes' faces, and new curses unknown yet. Lo, they dight the feast in Godhome, and fair are the tables spread, Late come, but well-beloved is every war-worn head, And the God-folk and the Fathers, as these cross the tinkling bridge, Crowd round and crave for stories of the Battle on the Ridge."

  Therewith he came down from the Speech-Hill and the women-folk came roundabout him, and they brought him to the Hall, and washed him, and gave himmeat and drink; and then would he sleep, for he was weary.

  Howbeit some of the women could not refrain themselves, but must needsask after their speech-friends who had been in the battle; and heanswered as he could, and some he made glad, and some sorry; and as tosome, he could not tell them whether their friends were alive or dead. Sohe went to his place and fell asleep and slept long, while the women wentdown to acre and meadow, or saw to the baking of bread or the sewing ofgarments, or went far afield to tend the neat and the sheep.

  Howbeit the Hall-Sun went not with them; but she talked with that oldwarrior, Sorli, who was now halt and grown unmeet for the road, but was awise man; and she and he together with some old carlines and a few younglads fell to work, and saw to many matters about the Hall and the garththat day; and they got together what weapons there were both for shot andfor the handplay, and laid them where they were handy to come at, andthey saw to the meal in the hall that there was provision for many days;and they carried up to a loft above the Women's-Chamber many greatvessels of water, lest the fire should take the Hall; and they lookedeverywhere to the entrances and windows and had fastenings and bolts andbars fashioned and fitted to them; and saw that all things were trim andstout. And so they abided the issue.