The House of the Wolfings

by William Morris

  CHAPTER XXII--OTTER FALLS ON AGAINST HIS WILL

  It was with the same imagination working in him belike that the RomanCaptain set none to guard the ford on the westward side ofMirkwood-water. The Romans tarried there but a little hour, and thenwent their ways; but Otter sent a man on a swift horse to watch them, andwhen they were clean gone for half an hour, he bade his folk to horse,and they departed, all save a handful of the swains and elders, who wereleft to tell the tidings to Thiodolf when he should come into Mid-mark.

  So Otter and his folk crossed the ford, and drew up in good order on thewestward bank, and it was then somewhat more than three hours after noon.He had been there but a little while before he noted a stir in theBearing meadow, and lo, it was the first of Thiodolf's folk, who hadgotten out of the wood and had fallen in with the men whom he had leftbehind. And these first were the riders of the Bearings, and theWormings, (for they had out-gone the others who were afoot). It may wellbe thought how fearful was their anger when they set eyes on thesmouldering ashes of the dwellings; nor even when those folk of Otter hadtold them all they had to tell could some of them refrain them fromriding off to the burnt houses to seek for the bodies of their kindred.But when they came there, and amidst the ashes could find no bones, theirhearts were lightened, and yet so mad wroth they were, that some couldscarce sit their horses, and great tears gushed from the eyes of some,and pattered down like hail-stones, so eager were they to see the bloodof the Romans. So they rode back to where they had left their folktalking with them of Otter; and the Bearings were sitting grim upon theirhorses and somewhat scowling on Otter's men. Then the foremost of thosewho had come back from the houses waved his hand toward the ford, butcould say nought for a while; but the captain and chief of the Bearings,a grizzled man very big of body, whose name was Arinbiorn, spake to thatman and said; "What aileth thee Sweinbiorn the Black? What hast thouseen?"

  He said:

  "Now red and grey is the pavement of the Bearings' house of old: Red yet is the floor of the dais, but the hearth all grey and cold. I knew not the house of my fathers; I could not call to mind The fashion of the building of that Warder of the Wind. O wide were grown the windows, and the roof exceeding high! For nought there was to look on 'twixt the pavement and the sky. But the tie-beam lay on the dais, and methought its staining fair; For rings of smoothest charcoal were round it here and there, And the red flame flickered o'er it, and never a staining wight Hath red earth in his coffer so clear and glittering bright, And still the little smoke-wreaths curled o'er it pale and blue. Yea, fair is our hall's adorning for a feast that is strange and new."

  Said Arinbiorn: "What sawest thou therein, O Sweinbiorn, where sat thygrandsire at the feast? Where were the bones of thy mother lying?"

  Said Sweinbiorn:

  "We sought the feast-hall over, and nought we found therein Of the bones of the ancient mothers, or the younglings of the kin. The men are greedy, doubtless, to lose no whit of the prey, And will try if the hoary elders may yet outlive the way That leads to the southland cities, till at last they come to stand With the younglings in the market to be sold in an alien land."

  Arinbiorn's brow lightened somewhat; but ere he could speak again anancient thrall of the Galtings spake and said:

  "True it is, O warriors of the Bearings, that we might not see any war-thralls being led away by the Romans when they came away from the burningdwellings; and we deem it certain that they crossed the water before thecoming of the Romans, and that they are now with the stay-at-homes of theWolfings in the wild-wood behind the Wolfing dwellings, for we hear tellthat the War-duke would not that the Hall-Sun should hold the Hallagainst the whole Roman host."

  Then Sweinbiorn tossed up his sword into the air and caught it by thehilts as it fell, and cried out: "On, on to the meadow, where thesethieves abide us!" Arinbiorn spake no word, but turned his horse androde down to the ford, and all men followed him; and of the Bearingsthere were an hundred warriors save one, and of the Wormings eighty andseven.

  So rode they over the meadow and into the ford and over it, and Otter'scompany stood on the bank to meet them, and shouted to see them; but theothers made but little noise as they crossed the water.

  So when they were on the western bank Arinbiorn came among them of Otter,and cried out: "Where then is Otter, where is the War-duke, is he aliveor dead?"

  And the throng opened to him and Otter stood facing him; and Arinbiornspake and said: "Thou art alive and unhurt, War-duke, when many have beenhurt and slain; and methinks thy company is little minished though thekindred of the Bearings lacketh a roof; and its elders and women andchildren are gone into captivity. What is this? Was it a light thingthat gangrel thieves should burn and waste in Mid-mark and depart unhurt,that ye stand here with clean blades and cold bodies?"

  Said Otter: "Thou grievest for the hurt of thine House, Arinbiorn; butthis at least is good, that though ye have lost the timber of your houseye have not lost its flesh and blood; the shell is gone, but the kernelis saved: for thy folk are by this time in the wood with the Wolfing stay-at-homes, and among these are many who may fight on occasion, so they aresafe as for this time: the Romans may not come at them to hurt them."

  Said Arinbiorn: "Had ye time to learn all this, Otter, when ye fled sofast before the Romans, that the father tarried not for the son, nor theson for the father?"

  He spoke in a loud voice so that many heard him, and some deemed it evil;for anger and dissension between friends seemed abroad; but some were soeager for battle, that the word of Arinbiorn seemed good to them, andthey laughed for pride and anger.

  Then Otter answered meekly, for he was a wise man and a bold: "We flednot, Arinbiorn, but as the sword fleeth, when it springeth up from theiron helm to fall on the woollen coat. Are we not now of more avail toyou, O men of the Bearings, than our dead corpses would have been?"

  Arinbiorn answered not, but his face waxed red, as if he were strugglingwith a weight hard to lift: then said Otter:

  "But when will Thiodolf and the main battle be with us?"

  Arinbiorn answered calmly: "Maybe in a little hour from now, or somewhatmore."

  Said Otter: "My rede is that we abide him here, and when we are all metand well ordered together, fall on the Romans at once: for then shall webe more than they; whereas now we are far fewer, and moreover we shallhave to set on them in their ground of vantage."

  Arinbiorn answered nothing; but an old man of the Bearings, oneThorbiorn, came up and spake:

  "Warriors, here are we talking and taking counsel, though this is noHallowed Thing to bid us what we shall do, and what we shall forbear; andto talk thus is less like warriors than old women wrangling over the whyand wherefore of a broken crock. Let the War-duke rule here, as is butmeet and right. Yet if I might speak and not break the peace of theGoths, then would I say this, that it might be better for us to fall onthese Romans at once before they have cast up a dike about them, as Foxtelleth is their wont, and that even in an hour they may do much."

  As he spake there was a murmur of assent about him, but Otter spakesharply, for he was grieved.

  "Thorbiorn, thou art old, and shouldest not be void of prudence. Now ithad been better for thee to have been in the wood to-day to order thewomen and the swains according to thine ancient wisdom than to egg on myyoung warriors to fare unwarily. Here will I abide Thiodolf."

  Then Thorbiorn reddened and was wroth; but Arinbiorn spake:

  "What is this to-do? Let the War-duke rule as is but right: but I am nowbecome a man of Thiodolf's company; and he bade me haste on before tohelp all I might. Do thou as thou wilt, Otter: for Thiodolf shall behere in an hour's space, and if much diking shall be done in an hour, yetlittle slaying, forsooth, shall be done, and that especially if the foeis all armed and slayeth women and children. Yea if the Bearing women beall slain, yet shall not Tyr make us new ones out of the stones of thewaste to wed with the Galtings and the fish-eating Houses?--this is easyt
o be done forsooth. Yea, easier than fighting the Romans and overcomingthem!"

  And he was very wrath, and turned away; and again there was a murmur anda hum about him. But while these had been speaking aloud, Sweinbiorn hadbeen talking softly to some of the younger men, and now he shook hisnaked sword in the air and spake aloud and sang:

  "Ye tarry, Bears of Battle! ye linger, Sons of the Worm! Ye crouch adown, O kindreds, from the gathering of the storm! Ye say, it shall soon pass over and we shall fare afield And reap the wheat with the war-sword and winnow in the shield. But where shall be the corner wherein ye then shall abide, And where shall be the woodland where the whelps of the bears shall hide When 'twixt the snowy mountains and the edges of the sea These men have swept the wild-wood and the fields where men may be Of every living sword-blade, and every quivering spear, And in the southland cities the yoke of slaves ye bear? Lo ye! whoever follows I fare to sow the seed Of the days to be hereafter and the deed that comes of deed."

  Therewith he waved his sword over his head, and made as if he would spuronward. But Arinbiorn thrust through the press and outwent him and criedout:

  "None goeth before Arinbiorn the Old when the battle is pitched in themeadows of the kindred. Come, ye sons of the Bear, ye children of theWorm! And come ye, whosoever hath a will to see stout men die!"

  Then on he rode nor looked behind him, and the riders of the Bearings andthe Wormings drew themselves out of the throng, and followed him, androde clattering over the meadow towards Wolfstead. A few of the othersrode with them, and yet but a few. For they remembered the holy Folk-mote and the oath of the War-duke, and how they had chosen Otter to betheir leader. Howbeit, man looked askance at man, as if in shame to beleft behind.

  But Otter bethought him in the flash of a moment, "If these men ridealone, they shall die and do nothing; and if we ride with them it may bethat we shall overthrow the Romans, and if we be vanquished, it shall gohard but we shall slay many of them, so that it shall be the easier forThiodolf to deal with them."

  Then he spake hastily, and bade certain men abide at the ford for aguard; then he drew his sword and rode to the front of his folk, andcried out aloud to them:

  "Now at last has come the time to die, and let them of the Markmen wholive hereafter lay us in howe. Set on, Sons of Tyr, and give not yourlives away, but let them be dearly earned of our foemen."

  Then all shouted loudly and gladly; nor were they otherwise thanexceeding glad; for now had they forgotten all other joys of life savethe joy of fighting for the kindred and the days to be.

  So Otter led them forth, and when he heard the whole company clatteringand thundering on the earth behind him and felt their might enter intohim, his brow cleared, and the anxious lines in the face of the old mansmoothed themselves out, and as he rode along the soul so stirred withinhim that he sang out aloud:

  "Time was when hot was the summer and I was young on the earth, And I grudged me every moment that lacked its share of mirth. I woke in the morn and was merry and all the world methought For me and my heart's deliverance that hour was newly wrought. I have passed through the halls of manhood, I have reached the doors of eld, And I have been glad and sorry, but ever have upheld My heart against all trouble that none might call me sad, But ne'er came such remembrance of how my heart was glad In the afternoon of summer 'neath the still unwearied sun Of the days when I was little and all deeds were hopes to be won, As now at last it cometh when e'en in such-like tide, For the freeing of my trouble o'er the fathers' field I ride."

  Many men perceived that he sang, and saw that he was merry, howbeit fewheard his very words, and yet all were glad of him.

  Fast they rode, being wishful to catch up with the Bearings and theWormings, and soon they came anigh them, and they, hearing the thunder ofthe horse-hoofs, looked and saw that it was the company of Otter, and soslacked their speed till they were all joined together with joyousshouting and laughter. So then they ordered the ranks anew and so setforward in great joy without haste or turmoil toward Wolfstead and theRomans. For now the bitterness of their fury and the sourness of theirabiding wrath were turned into the mere joy of battle; even as the clearred and sweet wine comes of the ugly ferment and rough trouble of themust.