Vandrad the Viking.
by J. Storer Clouston.
CHAPTER I.
THE WEST SEA SAILING.
Long after King Estein had joined his fathers on the little holm beyond Hernersfiord, and Helgi, Earl of Askland, had become but a warlike memory, the skalds of Sogn still sang this tale of Vandrad the Viking. It contained much wonderful magic, and some astonishingly hard strokes, as they told it; but reading between their lines, the magic bears a strong resemblance to many spells cast even at this day, and as for the sword strokes, there was need for them to be hard in Norway then. For that was the age of the making of many kingdoms, and the North was beginning to do its share.
One May morning, more than a thousand years ago, so the story runs, an old man came slowly along a woodland track that uncoiled itself from the mountain pa.s.ses and snow-crowned inlands of Norway. Presently the trees grew thinner, and gra.s.s and wild flowers spread on either hand, and at last, just where the path dipped down to the water-side at Hernersfiord, the traveller stopped. For a while he remained there in the morning sunshine, watching the scene below, and now and then speaking out his thoughts absently in the rapt manner of a visionary.
Though his clothes were old and weather-stained, and bare of any ornament, his face and bearing were such as strike the mind at once and stay in the memory. He was tall and powerfully framed, and bore his years and the white volume of his beard in an altogether stately fashion; but his eyes were most indelible, pale blue and singularly cold in repose, very bright and keen and searching when his face was animated.
They saw much to stir them that morning. On the slope above Hernersfiord stood the royal hall of Hakonstad, the seat of the kings of Sogn; and all about the house, and right down to the water"s edge, there was a great bustle and movement of men. From the upland valley at the fiord head, warriors trooped down to the ships that lay by the long stone pier. The morning sun glanced on their helmets and coats of mail, and in the still air the clash of preparation rang far up the pine-clad hillside. He could see some bringing weapons and provisions down to the sh.o.r.e, and others busily lading the ships. Women mingled in the crowd, and every here and there a gay cloak and gilded helm marked a leader of rank.
"Ay, the season has come for Vikings to put to sea again," he said. "Brave and gay are the warriors of Sogn, and lightly they leave. When a man is young, all roads are pleasant, and all lead home again. Many have I seen set sail these last sixty years, and their sailing led them--where?"
And then again, as the stir increased, and he could see the men beginning to troop on board the long ships,--
"This voyage shall be as the falling of snowflakes into the sea; but what man can escape his fate?"
Meanwhile a party of men had just left the woods, and were coming down the path to the fiord, ten or twelve in all, headed by an exceedingly broad, black-bearded man, clad in a leather coat closely covered all over with steel scales, and bearing on his shoulder a ponderous halberd.
The path was very narrow at that point, and he of the black beard called out gruffly,--
"Make way, old man! Give room to pa.s.s."
Roused abruptly from his reverie, the dreamer turned quietly, but made no movement to the side. The party by this time were so close that they had perforce to halt, with some clash of armour, and again their captain cried,--
"Are you deaf? Make way!"
Yet there was something daunting in the other"s pale eye, and though the Viking moved the halberd uneasily on his shoulder, his own glance shifted. With the slightest intonation of contempt, the traveller asked,--
"Who bids me make way?"
The black-bearded man looked at him with an air of some astonishment, and then answered shortly,--
"They call me Ketill; but what is that to you?"
Without heeding the other"s gruffness, the old man asked,--
"Does King Hakon sail from Hernersfiord to-day?"
"King Hakon has not sailed for many a day. His son leads this force."
"Ay, I had forgotten, we are both old men now. Then Estein sails to-day?"
"Ay, and I sail with him. My ship awaits me, so make way, old man," replied Ketill.
"Whither do ye sail?"
"To the west seas. I have no time for talking more. Do you hear?"
"Go on then," replied the old man, stepping to one side; "something tells me that Estein will have need of all his men before this voyage is over."
Without stopping for further words, the black-bearded captain and his men pushed past and continued their way to the fiord, while the old man slowly followed them.
As he went down the hillside he talked again aloud to himself:--
"Ay, this then is the meaning of my warning dreams--danger in the south lands, danger on the seas. Little heed will Estein Hakonson pay to the words of an old man, yet I am fain to see the youth again, and what the G.o.ds reveal to me I must speak."
Down below, near the foot of the path that led from the pier up to the hall of Hakonstad, a cl.u.s.ter of chiefs stood talking. In the midst of them, Hakon, King of Sogn, one of the independent kinglings who reigned in the then chaotic Norway, watched the departure of his son.
He was a venerable figure, conspicuous by his long, wintry locks and embroidered cloak of blue, straight as a spear-shaft, but grown too old for warfare. His hand rested on the shoulder of Earl Sigvald of Askland, a bluff old warrior, long the king"s most faithful counsellor and companion in arms. Before them stood his son Estein, a tall, auburn-haired, bright-eyed young man, gaily dressed, after the fashion of the times, in red kirtle and cloak, and armed as yet only with a gilded helmet, surmounted with a pair of hawk"s wings, and a sword girt to his side. His face, though regular and handsome, would have been rather too grave and reserved but for the keenness of his eyes, and a very pleasant smile which at times lit up his features when he spoke.
After they had talked for a while, he glanced round him, and saw that the bustle was subsiding, and most of the men had gone aboard.
"All is ready now," he said.
"Ay," replied Thorkel Sigurdson, one of his ship captains, "they wait but for us."
"Farewell then, Estein!" cried the earl. "Thor speed you, and send you worthy foemen!"
"My son, I can ill spare you," said the king. "But it becomes a king"s son to see the world, and prove his valour in distant lands. Warfare in the Baltic seas is but a pastime for common Vikings. England and Valland, [Footnote: France] the countries of the black man and the flat lands of the rivers, lie before you.
There Estein Hakonson must feed the wolves."
"And yet, Estein," he added in a lower tone, as he embraced him, "I would that Yule were here again and you with it. I am growing old, and my dreams last night were sorrow-laden."
"Farewell, son of Hakon!" shouted a loud-mouthed chieftain. "I would that I too were sailing to the southern lands. Spare not, Estein; fire and sword in England, sword and fire in Valland!"
The group had broken up, and Estein was about to go on board when he heard himself hailed by name. He looked round, and saw the same old man who had accosted Ketill coming down the pier after him.
"Hail, Estein Hakonson!" he cried; "I have come far to see thee."
"Hail, old man!" replied Estein courteously; "what errand brings you here?"
"You know me not?" said the old man, looking at him keenly.
"Nay, I cannot call your face to mind."
"My name is Atli, and if my features are strange to thee, much stranger must my name be."
He took Estein"s hand, looked closely into his eyes for a minute, and then said solemnly,--
"Estein Hakonson, this voyage will have an ending other than ye deem. Troubles I see before ye--fishes feeding on warriors, and winds that blow as they list, and not as ye."
"That is likely enough," replied Estein. "We are not sailing on a trading voyage, and in the west seas the winds often blow high.