The House of the Wolfings

by William Morris

  CHAPTER XXVIII--OF THE STORM OF DAWNING

  Then Thiodolf bade Fox and two others steal forward, and see what offoemen was before them; so they fell to creeping on towards the open: butscarcely had they started, before all men could hear the tramp of mendrawing nigh; then Thiodolf himself took with him a score of his Houseand went quietly toward the wood-edge till they were barely within theshadow of the beech-wood; and he looked forth and saw men coming straighttowards their lurking-place. And those he saw were a good many, and theywere mostly of the dastards of the Goths; but with them was a Captain ofan Hundred of the Romans, and some others of his kindred; and Thiodolfdeemed that the Goths had been bidden to gather up some of thenight-watchers and enter the wood and fall on the stay-at-homes. So hebade his men get them aback, and he himself abode still at the verywood's edge listening intently with his sword bare in his hand. And henoted that those men of the foe stayed in the daylight outside the wood,but a few yards from it, and, by command as it seemed, fell silent andspake no word; and the morn was very still, and when the sound of theirtramp over the grass had ceased, Thiodolf could hear the tramp of moremen behind them. And then he had another thought, to wit that the Romanshad sent scouts to see if the Goths yet abided on the vantage-ground bythe ford, and that when they had found them gone, they were minded tofall on them unawares in the refuge of the Thing-stead and were about todo so by the counsel and leading of the dastard Goths; and that this wasone body of the host led by those dastards, who knew somewhat of thewoods. So he drew aback speedily, and catching hold of Fox by theshoulder (for he had taken him alone with him) he bade him creep alongthrough the wood toward the Thing-stead, and bring back speedy wordwhether there were any more foemen near the wood thereaway; and hehimself came to his men, and ordered them for onset, drawing them up in ashallow half moon, with the bowmen at the horns thereof, with the word toloose at the Romans as soon as they heard the war-horn blow: and all thiswas done speedily and with little noise, for they were well nigh soarrayed already.

  Thus then they waited, and there was more than a glimmer of light evenunder the beechen leaves, and the eastern sky was yellowing to sunrise.The other warriors were like hounds in the leash eager to be slipped; butThiodolf stood calm and high-hearted turning over the memory of pastdays, and the time he thought of seemed long to him, but happy.

  Scarce had a score of minutes passed, and the Romans before them, whowere now gathered thick behind those dastards of the Goths, had notmoved, when back comes Fox and tells how he has come upon a great companyof the Romans led by their thralls of the Goths who were just enteringthe wood, away there towards the Thing-stead.

  "But, War-duke," says he, "I came also across our own folk of the secondbattle duly ordered in the wood ready to meet them; and they shall bewell dealt with, and the sun shall rise for us and not for them."

  Then turns Thiodolf round to those nighest to him and says, but stillsoftly:

  "Hear ye a word, O people, of the wisdom of the foe! Before us thick they gather, and unto the death they go. They fare as lads with their cur-dogs who have stopped a fox's earth, And standing round the spinny, now chuckle in their mirth, Till one puts by the leafage and trembling stands astare At the sight of the Wood wolf's father arising in his lair-- They have come for our wives and our children, and our sword-edge shall they meet; And which of them is happy save he of the swiftest feet?"

  Speedily then went that word along the ranks of the Kindred, and men weremerry with the restless joy of battle: but scarce had two minutes passedere suddenly the stillness of the dawn was broken by clamour and uproar;by shouts and shrieks, and the clashing of weapons from the wood on theirleft hand; and over all arose the roar of the Markmen's horn, for thebattle was joined with the second company of the Kindreds. But a rumourand murmur went from the foemen before Thiodolf's men; and then sprangforth the loud sharp word of the captains commanding and rebuking, as ifthe men were doubtful which way they should take.

  Amidst all which Thiodolf brandished his sword, and cried out in a greatvoice:

  "Now, now, ye War-sons! Now the Wolf waketh! Lo how the Wood-beast Wendeth in onset. E'en as his feet fare Fall on and follow!"

  And he led forth joyously, and terrible rang the long refrained gatheredshout of his battle as his folk rushed on together devouring the littlespace between their ambush and the hazel-beset greensward.

  In the twinkling of an eye the half-moon had lapped around theRoman-Goths and those that were with them; and the dastards made no standbut turned about at once, crying out that the Gods of the Kindreds werecome to aid and none could withstand them. But these fleers thrustagainst the band of Romans who were next to them, and bore them aback,and great was the turmoil; and when Thiodolf's storm fell full upon them,as it failed not to do, so close were they driven together that scarcecould any man raise his hand for a stroke. For behind them stood a greatcompany of those valiant spearmen of the Romans, who would not give wayif anywise they might hold it out: and their ranks were closely serried,shield nigh touching shield, and their faces turned toward the foe; andso arrayed, though they might die, they scarce knew how to flee. As theymight these thrust and hewed at the fleers, and gave fierce words but fewto the Roman-Goths, driving them back against their foemen: but thefleers had lost the cunning of their right hands, and they had cast awaytheir shields and could not defend their very bodies against the wrath ofthe kindreds; and when they strove to flee to the right hand or to theleft, they were met by the horns of the half-moon, and the arrows beganto rain in upon them, and from so close were they shot at that no shaftfailed to smite home.

  There then were the dastards slain; and their bodies served for a rampartagainst the onrush of the Markmen to those Romans who had stood fast. Tothem were gathering more and more every minute, and they faced the Gothssteadily with their hard brown visages and gleaming eyes above their iron-plated shields; not casting their spears, but standing closely together,silent, but fierce. The light was spread now over all the earth; theeastern heavens were grown golden-red, flecked here and there with littlecrimson clouds: this battle was fallen near silent, but to the North wasgreat uproar of shouts and cries, and the roaring of the war-horns, andthe shrill blasts of the brazen trumpets.

  Now Thiodolf, as his wont was when he saw that all was going well, hadrefrained himself of hand-strokes, but was here and there and everywheregiving heart to his folk, and keeping them in due order, and close array,lest the Romans should yet come among them. But he watched the ranks ofthe foe, and saw how presently they began to spread out beyond his, andmight, if it were not looked to, take them in flank; and he was about toorder his men anew to meet them, when he looked on his left hand and sawhow Roman men were pouring thick from the wood out of all array, followedby a close throng of the kindreds: for on this side the Romans wereoutnumbered and had stumbled unawares into the ambush of the Markmen, whohad fallen on them straightway and disarrayed them from the first. Thisflight of their folk the Romans saw also, and held their men together,refraining from the onset, as men who deem that they will have enough todo to stand fast.

  But the second battle of the Markmen, (who were of the Nether-mark,mingled with the Mid-mark) fought wisely, for they swept those fleersfrom before them, slaying many and driving the rest scattering, yet heldthe chase for no long way, but wheeling about came sidelong on toward thebattle of the Romans and Thiodolf. And when Thiodolf saw that, he set upthe whoop of victory, he and his, and fell fiercely on the Romans,casting everything that would fly, as they rushed on to the handplay; sothat there was many a Roman slain with the Roman spears that those whohad fallen had left among their foemen.

  Now the Roman captains perceived that it availed not to tarry till themen of the Mid and Nether-marks fell upon their flank; so they gavecommand, and their ranks gave back little by little, facing their foes,and striving to draw themselves within the dike and garth, which, aftertheir custom, they had already cast up about the Wolfing Roof, th
eirstronghold.

  Now as fierce as was the onset of the Markmen, the main body of theRomans could not be hindered from doing this much before the men of thesecond battle were upon them; but Thiodolf and Arinbiorn with some of themightiest brake their array in two places and entered in amongst them.And wrath so seized upon the soul of Arinbiorn for the slaying of Otter,and his own fault towards him, that he cast away his shield, and heedingno strokes, first brake his sword in the press, and then, getting hold ofa great axe, smote at all before him as though none smote at him in turn;yea, as though he were smiting down tree-boles for a match against someother mighty man; and all the while amidst the hurry, strokes of swordsand spears rained on him, some falling flatwise and some glancingsideways, but some true and square, so that his helm was smitten off andhis hauberk rent adown, and point and edge reached his living flesh; andhe had thrust himself so far amidst the foe that none could follow toshield him, so that at last he fell shattered and rent at the foot of thenew clayey wall cast up by the Romans, even as Thiodolf and a band withhim came cleaving the press, and the Romans closed the barriers againstfriend and foe, and cast great beams adown, and masses of iron and leadand copper taken from the smithying-booths of the Wolfings, to stay themif it were but a little.

  Then Thiodolf bestrode the fallen warrior, and men of his House wereclose behind him, for wisely had he fought, cleaving the press like awedge, helping his friends that they might help him, so that they allwent forward together. But when he saw Arinbiorn fall he cried out:

  "Woe's me, Arinbiorn! that thou wouldest not wait for me; for the day isyoung yet, and over-young!"

  There then they cleared the space outside the gate, and lifted up theBearing Warrior, and bare him back from the rampart. For so fierce hadbeen the fight and so eager the storm of those that had followed afterhim that they must needs order their battle afresh, since Thiodolf'swedge which he had driven into the Roman host was but of a few and thefoe had been many and the rampart and the shot-weapons were close anigh.Wise therefore it seemed to abide them of the second battle and join withthem to swarm over the new-built slippery wall in the teeth of the Romanshot.

  In this, the first onset of the Morning Battle, some of the Markmen hadfallen, but not many, since but a few had entered outright into the Romanranks; and when they first rushed on from the wood but three of them wereslain, and the slaughter was all of the dastards and the Romans; andafterwards not a few of the Romans were slain, what by Arinbiorn, what bythe others; for they were fighting fleeing, and before their eyes was theimage of the garth-gate which was behind them; and they stumbled againsteach other as they were driven sideways against the onrush of the Goths,nor were they now standing fair and square to them, and they were hurriedand confused with the dread of the onset of them of the two Marks.

  As yet Thiodolf had gotten no great hurt, so that when he heard thatArinbiorn's soul had passed away he smiled and said:

  "Yea, yea, Arinbiorn might have abided the end, for ere then shall thebattle be hard."

  So now the Wolfings and the Bearings met joyously the kindreds of theNether Mark and the others of the second battle, and they sang the songof victory arrayed in good order hard by the Roman rampart, whilebowstrings twanged and arrows whistled, and sling-stones hummed from thisside and from that.

  And of their song of victory thus much the tale telleth:

  "Now hearken and hear Of the day-dawn of fear, And how up rose the sun On the battle begun. All night lay a-hiding, Our anger abiding, Dark down in the wood The sharp seekers of blood; But ere red grew the heaven we bore them all bare, For against us undriven the foemen must fare; They sought and they found us, and sorrowed to find, For the tree-boles around us the story shall mind, How fast from the glooming they fled to the light, Yeasaying the dooming of Tyr of the fight.

  "Hearken yet and again How the night gan to wane, And the twilight stole on Till the world was well won! E'en in such wise was wending A great host for our ending; On our life-days e'en so Stole the host of the foe; Till the heavens grew lighter, and light grew the world, And the storm of the fighter upon them was hurled, Then some fled the stroke, and some died and some stood, Till the worst of the storm broke right out from the wood, And the war-shafts were singing the carol of fear, The tale of the bringing the sharp swords anear.

  "Come gather we now, For the day doth grow. Come, gather, ye bold, Lest the day wax old; Lest not till to-morrow We slake our sorrow, And heap the ground With many a mound. Come, war-children, gather, and clear we the land! In the tide of War-father the deed is to hand. Clad in gear that we gilded they shrink from our sword; In the House that we builded they sit at the board; Come, war-children, gather, come swarm o'er the wall For the feast of War-father to sweep out the Hall!"

  Now amidst of their singing the sun rose upon the earth, and gleamed inthe arms of men, and lit the faces of the singing warriors as they stoodturned toward the east.

  In this first onset of battle but twenty and three Markmen were slain inall, besides Arinbiorn; for, as aforesaid, they had the foe at adisadvantage. And this onset is called in the tale the Storm of Dawning.