A sample from an early work, based on a medieval Icelandic saga.
© 1975 by asotir. All rights reserved.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Swan-Maiden: Four
HE CAME INTO his home and hung up his cloak on a wall-peg. Behind and around him the door let in a bunch of men, shaggy, rain-wan, their eyes big from the night. Those were the house-carles who had gone with Olaf to the arvel-feast of Njal Thoroldsson at Breidamerk. With them was a stranger: that was a small man, and he took his first chance to break away from those others and chatter his teeth above the fire. But no one looked at him, unless maybe it was the black-haired girl nearby. The others saw only Olaf.
Tall he was, and strongly-made: taller even than Thorgrim; a man just leaving his prime, though of great strength still. His shoes and leggings were strewn with mud, and splatters of mud sprinkled tunic and arms. The folk clustered round him, like children seeking gifts. He nodded, and put one shoulder against a hall-post; and his back was bent, and his eyes lined. Thorgrim offered him drinking-horn, and that Olaf took with a thankful look, and drank slowly down. The voices of the folk rose from a murmuring round him, as he looked down and over them all. At the edge of the crowd stood Gudruda. Shy yet happy she seemed, and she offered no words but those of gentle greeting.
‘Well,’ said Olaf; and at that voice all others stilled. Rough was his voice from the drink and his age. ‘I am come back. Well was it said, ‘Land is good but hearth is better.’’
‘And the Thoroldsson?’ asked Thorgrim.
‘Be calm, hunt-bear,’ answered Olaf, and smiled wearily. ‘The arvel went well, and afterwards, whenas the other guests went homeward, we spoke long, Njal and I: and the word is peace. We have agreed to those same terms I had of his father, that whatever shall come between us, we will meet to agree to atonement between us. Hello, daughter.’
From across the reek of the fire Swanhild raised her witch-eyes, that seemed to see so much and tell so little. ‘Greetings, home-farer.’ He held her gaze, so that after a moment she let her head fall away, and the thick braid stirred and fell.
‘And there is truly peace?’ asked Gudruda.
‘There was no fighting,’ Olaf answered. He sighed, and refilled the horn, but did not leave the doorway, as if loth to take his place anew in the highseat. ‘Nor, wife, is there likely to be in nights to come. I have picked the peace-path.’ Now he came to the fire, and stood over the stranger that sat there.
‘This man I have taken to dwell here among us and teach us: and I would have you treat him with as much honor as you do me. From Irland in the Western Isles he is come: Kjartan is his name, and he is the priest of Christ, and we will take his ways now.’
There fell a silence athwart the hall then. Thorgrim was the first to speak then. ‘Are we to cast aside the old gods?’ he asked.
Olaf looked at him, but said no word.
‘How will you then rule over blood-offerings, Olaf, as it is your duty as our godi? Who will take in temple-tax and see to the holding of the temple, if you will not? I don’t much like this.’
Gudruda stood still, watching now her husband, now the priest, with speechless wonder: as if she feared to trust the truth of it.
‘There will be no more blood-offerings hereabouts,’ answered Olaf; ‘not if you will follow my lead. And the temple at Hof shall abide no more, but we will build there a church to stand in its stead. And then there will not be that cause of ill-will between us and the men of the Breidamerk, that they have these ways while we cling to the old.’
‘Now might we as well all don gowns!’ Thorgrim cried out woefully.
‘And when was the last time you went a-harrying?’ asked Orvar-Odd. At this Thorgrim waxed angry-red. It was well known he had never been out of sight of Iceland in all his life.
‘Thorgrim – all of you – you are good men, loyal and trustworthy,’ Olaf said, slowly, so that they might all catch and take hold of his words. ‘Yet if I am to be as good a godi as you are thingmenn, then I must look ahead and work as I see best. Times change, folk change – only the land does not change. Our ways were good for our grandfathers and we should worship them. Yet think back and ask yourselves, When was there ever a time when we had peace? What has the Raven-Lord to do with peace? What was Thor but a buffoon? We gave them offerings, and got foxish tricks in answer. Odin has no use for peace; but maybe we do.’
At his words they were somewhat stilled, not knowing how to give him answer. He walked through them round the hall: stood before the highseat. They all followed him, muttering among themselves.
‘Now many of you will not abide by this rede,’ Olaf said loudly. ‘To them I say, fine and fare-well! You may choose another chieftain: to him you may give your loyalty. But for the rest of you, them that will honor me as heretofore, know that I will be a Cross-man, even if all men forsake me. And if you will not have it so, then stop me: but else will I sit again in this highseat and be again your godi.’
Then they were still, though some muttered softly, but knew not what word to give aloud. But Thorgrim said, ‘This smells of a woman’s bed-words to me – nor will I be taken for a woman in my ways. And it might still be said that of old, Olaf would not have spoken out the matter so, but would have said, I made up my mind, and so it will be. Those nights are past, it seems. But until the days of choosing come round, you are my godi.’
‘That is well, then,’ said Olaf: and stepped up in the highseat. ‘And will you take the water, and be sworn in Christ?’
Thorgrim looked down and about for a bit. Then he saw Olaf’s daughter where she sat alone by the fire, her head bent low. ‘Not I,’ he said.
‘Yes, you – and you and you and I,’ said Olaf. ‘That, or follow another in the things. This is my will, that all my kin and thralls and men take the water and learn the outland cult. Only then, it seems to me, will men ever have peace in Iceland.’
‘Olaf is right,’ said one of those men that had gone with him. ‘Thorgrim, what is this Odin you give offering to, but a trouble-making, fickle god? My father followed him over the seas, but he never saw the good of it: lost his foot, a hand, and in the end his life. What more has he granted any of you? You all have given many offerings, and our temple is a good one: but still it seems to me is the life hard; and the sheep still die in winter. Do they care for our sheep, or any more for us? That seems bad bargaining to me, that they should take so much and give back so little. I will seek peace with this outland god then, and see what he has to offer me!’
Then there was great clamoring, and some men held to one side and others to the other. Some were for going to take the water that very night; but the rest held back, and said they would never forsake the old gods. In the end Olaf called for peace, and Gudruda and the women went among them, and said the time had come for sleep. And that was the only thing agreed upon that night. The women looked to the men that had come with Olaf, and gave them meat and bread and clean dry linen. One by one the men lay down upon the benches round the long-fire and drew cloaks over them, and in time stillness settled over the hall again.
Then Gudruda went to where Olaf still sat. She came from speaking with the priest, and feeding him.
‘Husband,’ she said, softly and with brimming eyes – ‘and is this really so?’
He looked on her, and his head fell a little, so that it was as if he nodded.
‘Husband, this is a fine thing you do. Greater was the bravery to try the other road. Only thus will we have peace. But you sit still in wet and muddy clothes, and are like to catch your death of cold from it. Will you not let me dress you in a goodly new tunic, that I have woven for you since you went to the arvel?’
Olaf lifted up his eyes and looked down on her. ‘No, wife,’ he said. ‘Tomorrow I will put on your new tunic. But for this night, these old clothes are good enough for me. Now go you to bed, and let me sit here in my seat awhiles.’
‘Yes, husband.’ She stepped up beside him, and kissed his brow. Then she went down round the big roof-trees of the highseat and into the shutbed they shared.
