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Havelok The Dane written by Charles Whistler

C >> Charles Whistler >> Havelok The Dane




In a moment the Welshman was back in his crouching guard, leaving a
great ragged hole in the shield whence he had wrenched his weapon point
in a way that told of a wrist turn that had been long practised. Ragnar
had needed no leech, had his quick eye not saved him from that thrust.

Then for a breathing space the two watched each other, while we held our
breath, motionless. And then Griffin slowly began to circle round his
foe, still crouching.

Then, like a thunderbolt, Ragnar's axe swept down on the thane, and
neither shield nor helm would have been of avail had that blow gone
home. Back leapt Griffin, and the axe shore the edge only of his shield;
and then, shield aloft and point foremost, he flew on the earl before
the axe had recovered from its swing, and I surely thought that the end
had come, for the earl's shield was lowered, and his face was unguarded.

But that was what he looked for. Up and forward flew the round shield,
catching the thane's straightened arm along its whole length, and then,
as sword and arm were dashed upwards, smiting him fairly in the face;
and, like a stone, the Welshman was hurled from it, and fell backward in
a heap on the grass three paces away. It seemed to me that he was off
his feet in his spring as the shield smote him.

There he lay, and Havelok strode forward and stood between the two, with
his face to Griffin, for Ragnar had dropped his axe to rest when his foe
fell.

"No blood drawn," said my brother, "but no more fighting can there be.
The man's arm is out."

And so it was, for the mighty heave that turned the thrust had ended
Griffin's fighting for a long day. But he did not think so.

The sweat was standing on his face in great beads from the pain, but he
got up and shifted his sword to his left hand.

"It is to the death," he cried; "I can fight as well with the left.
Stand aside."

"An it had been so, you were a dead man now," said Havelok, "for the
earl held his hand where he might have slain. If he had chosen, you
might have felt his axe before you touched the ground."

Thereat, without warning other than a snarl of "Your own saying,"
Griffin leapt at my brother fiercely, only to meet a swing of his axe
that sent his sword flying from his hand. And that was deft of Havelok,
for there is nothing more hard to meet than a left-handed attack at any
time, and this seemed unlooked for.

"Well, I did say somewhat of this sort," said Havelok; "but it was lucky
that I had not forgotten it."

Then he took the thane by the waist and left arm and set him down
gently; and after that all the fury went from him, and he grew pale with
the pain of the arm that was hurt. But both I and the Welshmen had
shouted to Griffin to hold, all uselessly, so quick had been his onset
on his new foe.

Cadwal held his peace, biting his lip, but the other Welshman began to
blame Griffin loudly for this.

"Nay," said Havelok, smiling; "it was my own fault maybe. The thane was
overhasty certainly, but one does not think with pain gnawing at one.
Let that pass.

"Now, earl, I think that you may say what you have to say that will set
things right once more."

"Can none of us put the arm back first?" I said. "I will try, if none
else has done such a thing before, for it will not be the first time."

"Put it back, if you can," said Cadwal. "If there is anything to be
said, it had better be in some sort of comfort."

So I put the arm back, for when once the trick is learned there is not,
as a rule, much trouble. But Griffin never thanked me. He left that to
his seconds, who did so well enough.

Then Ragnar came forward and said gravely, "I was wrong when I called
you 'nidring,' and I take back the word and ask you to forget it. No man
who is that will face the Danish axe as you have faced it, and I will
say that the British sword is a thing to be feared."

But Griffin made no answer, and when Ragnar held out his hand he would
not see it.

"Maybe I have not yet made amends," Ragnar went on. "I will add,
therefore, as I know that my words will go no farther, that I am sure
that the thing concerning which we quarrelled yesterday was done by you
at the orders of another. It was not your own doing, and no thought of
cowardice is in my mind now."

But Griffin never answered; and now he turned his back on the earl, who
was plainly grieved, and said no more to him, but turned to us and the
two Welshmen.

"I do not think that I can say more. If there is aught that is needed,
tell me. We have fought a fair fight, and I have taken back the words
that caused it."

Then said Cadwal, "No more is needed. I did not think that we had met
with so generous a foe. If Griffin will say naught, we say this for him.
He has no cause for enmity left. And I say also that he has to thank
this thane for his life as well as the earl."

"No thane am I," said Havelok, "but only Havelok Grimsson of Grimsby.
And even that name is set aside for a while, so that I must ask you to
forget it. I have seen a good fight, if a short one, and one could not
smite a wounded man who forgot himself for a moment."

There was nothing more to be had from Griffin, for we waited a minute or
two in silence to see if he would speak, and then we saluted and left
the wood.

The last thing that I saw seemed to be a matter of high words between
Griffin and his seconds; and, indeed, if they were telling him what they
thought, it is likely that he wished he had been more courteous. It is
easy enough for a man who wants a quarrel to have done with one and then
start another.


CHAPTER XII. IN LINCOLN MARKETPLACE.

We went quietly back to the town, and there was only one thing that I
wished, and that was that Havelok had not had to tell his name twice.
Ragnar was full of thanks to us for our help, and said that he would
that we would come to Norfolk with him.

"We have a man who knows you also," he said, "but he has been with our
princess for a long time now. He is called Mord, and is her chamberlain.
He has often told me how he came by his wry-neck at the time of your
shipwreck."

So he said, and looked at Havelok. But this was a thing that he had not
seen, as he was so sick at the time. I said that I remembered Mord well,
and would seek him some time in the day.

And as I said this I was thinking that I must find out from Mord whether
he knew and had told more than I could of who Havelok was and whence he
came to us. It seemed to me that the earl had heard some tale or other,
and unless it was from him I could not think from whence.

Now the earl said, "This business has ended better than I could have
hoped, and I think that Alsi will not hear of it. Griffin can well
account for a slipped shoulder by any sort of fall that he likes to own
to, and Alsi would be hardly pleased to hear that he had run the risk of
setting all Norfolk against him for nothing after all."

"There is no doubt that he meant you to know that he does not consider
the quarrel done with," I said. "You have an enemy there."

"Nothing new, that," answered Ragnar, laughing. "He thinks that I stand
in his way with the princess. I suppose it is common talk that if he
wedded her Alsi would still hold the East Anglian kingdom, making him
ealdorman, if only I were out of the way. But were I to wed the lady,
then it is certain that she would take the crown at once. I do not mean
to do so, for then it is likely that three people would be unhappy for
the rest of their days. But that would be less wretched for her than to
wed Griffin."

"This is no pleasant strait for the poor lady," said Havelok grimly. "Do
none ask what she herself can wish?"

"That is the trouble," said the earl, "for she is in Alsi's hand, and
there is some old promise and oath sworn between him and Ethelwald her
father that holds him back. Else had she been wedded to Griffin before now."

Then we came to the widow's house, and Havelok left his arms there, and
we went on to the marketplace. As we crossed the bridge we saw that
there was something going forward, for there was a gathering in the wide
space, and a shouting and cheering now and then, and even Berthun
himself was there looking on and seeming to be highly entertained.

"Here is a crowd that I will not face just now, in my arms," said the
earl; "for this hole in my shield looks bad, not having been there when
I went out. Farewell for the time, therefore, and think of what I said
about your coming to Norwich with me."

He turned away therefore, and Havelok looked after him for a moment. The
shield hung at his back, plain to be seen.

"It is a hole, for certain," he said; "but there is no need to show it
in that wise."

So he strode after him.

"By your leave, earl, I will arrange your cloak across the shield, and
then you can get it to your armourer without notice."

"That is well thought of," answered Ragnar, as Havelok did as he had
said. "I do not forget that I think that I owe you my life, though I
have said nothing as yet."

"How is that?"

"Griffin would have flown on me as he did on you, certainly; and it is
in my mind that you foresaw it, which I did not. I could not have stayed
him."

"Well I did," answered my brother; "else had either I or you a hole in
us like the one that is well covered now. But I feared what came to pass."

Ragnar held out his hand, and Havelok took it, and so they parted
without more words; but I knew that these two were friends from that
time forward, whatever happened.

There were some sports of some sort on hand, when we came to see what
all the noise was; and Berthun, seeing us, called Havelok to him.

"I have been looking for you," he said, with that curious tone of his
that always seemed to be asking pardon for his boldness in speaking to
my brother; "for here are games at which they need some one to show the
way."

"This is a sport that I have not seen before," answered Havelok, looking
over the heads of the crowd. "I should make a poor hand at it."

They had been tossing a great fir pole, which was now laid on one side,
with its top split from its falls, and they, thanes and freemen in turn,
were putting a great stone, so heavy that a matter of a few inches
beyond the longest cast yet made would be something to be proud of. Good
sport enough it was to see the brawny housecarls heave it from the
ground and swing it. But no one could lift it above his knee, so that
one may suppose that it flew no great distance at a cast.

"Nay, but the thanes are trying," Berthun said. "It is open to all to do
what they can. One of your porters is best man so far."

"Well, I will not try to outdo him."

"I would that you would lift the stone, Curan. That is a thing that I
should most like to see."

"Well then, master, as you bid me, I will try. But do not expect too much."

The man who had the stone made his cast, which was nothing to speak of;
and then the stone lay unclaimed for a time, while all the onlookers
waited to see who came forward next. Then Havelok made his way through
the crowd, and a silence as of wonder fell on the people; for some knew
him, and had heard of his strength, and those who did not stared at him
as at a wonder. But the silence did not last long, for the porters who
were there set up a sort of shout of delight, and that one who had made
the longest cast so far began to tell him how best to heft the stone and
swing it.

Then Havelok bent to raise the stone, and the noise hushed again. I saw
his mighty limbs harden and knot under the strain, and up to his knee he
heaved it, and to his middle, and yet higher, to his chest, while we all
held our breaths, and then with a mighty lift it was at his shoulder,
and he poised it, and swung as one who balances for a moment, and then
hurled it from him. Then was a shout that Alsi might have heard in his
hilltop palace, for full four paces beyond the strong porter's cast it
flew, lighting with a mighty crash, and bedding itself in the ground
where it lit. And I saw the young thanes with wide eyes looking at my
brother, and from beside me Berthun the cook fairly roared with delight.

And then from across the space between the two lines of onlookers I saw
a man in a fisher's dress that caught my eye. It was Withelm, and we
nodded to each other, well pleased.

Now there seemed to be a strife as to who should get nearest to Havelok,
for men crowded to pat him and to look up at him, and that pleased him
not at all. One came and bade him take the silver pennies that the
thanes had set out for the prize, but he shook his head and smiled.

"I threw the thing because I was bidden, and not for any prize," he
said. "I would have it given to the porter who fairly won it."

Then he elbowed his way to Berthun, and said, "let us go, master; we
have stayed here too long already."

"As it pleases you," the steward said; and Havelok waved his hand to me,
and they went their way.

He had not seen Withelm, and I was glad, for I wanted to speak to him
alone first.

Now men began to ask who this was, and many voices answered, while the
porter went to claim the prize from the thane who held it.

Two silver pennies the thane gave him, and said, "This seems to be a
friend of yours, and it was good to hear you try to help him without
acrimony. Not that he needed any hints from any one, however. Who is he?"

"Men call him Curan, that being the name he gives himself; but he came
as a stranger to the place, and none know from whence, unless Berthun
the cook may do so. Surely he is a friend of mine, for he shook me once,
and that shaking made an honest man of me. He himself taught me what
fair play is, at that same time."

So said the porter, and laughed, and the thane joined him.

"Well, he has made a sort of name for himself as a wonder, certainly,
now. I think that this cast of his will be told of every time men lift a
stone here in Lincoln," said the thane.

They left the stone where he had set it, and any one may see it there to
this day, and there I suppose it will be for a wonder while Havelok's
name is remembered.

Then they began wrestling and the like, and I left the crowd and went to
Withelm, going afterwards to the widow's. I was not yet wanted by Eglaf
for any housecarl duty.

"I sent a man to Grimsby yesterday," I said; "but you must have passed
him on the way somewhere, for he could not have started soon enough to
take you a message before you left."

"I met him on the road last night, for I myself thought it time to come
and see how you two fared. I bided at Cabourn for the night, and your
messenger came on with me."

Then he told me that all were well at Grimsby; for fish came now and
then and kept the famine from the town, though there were none to send
elsewhere; and it was well that we had left, though they all missed us
sorely.

Then we began to talk of the doings here; and at last I spoke of
Havelok's trouble, as one may well call it, telling him also of the
strange dream with which it all began.

"All this is strange," he said thoughtfully; "but if Havelok our brother
is indeed a king's son, it is only what he is like in all his ways. Wise
was our father Grim, and I mind how he seemed always to be careful of
him in every way, and good reason must he have had not to say what he
knew. We will not ask aught until the time of which Arngeir knows has
come. Nor can we say aught to Havelok, though he is troubled, for we
know nothing. As for the dream, that is part of it all, and it is a
portent, as I think."

"Did I know the man who could read it, I would go to him and tell him it."

"There is one man who can read dreams well," Withelm answered, flushing
a little, "but I do not know if you would care to seek him. I stayed
with him last night, and he is on his way even now to Lincoln, driven by
the famine. I mean the old British priest David, who has his little hut
and chapel in the Cabourn woods. His people have no more to give him."

I knew that Withelm thought much of this old man of late, and I was not
surprised to hear him speak of him now. All knew his wisdom, and the
marsh folk were wont to seek him when they were in any trouble or
difficulty. But I did not care to go to him, for he seemed to belong to
the thralls, as one might say.

"Well, if he comes here, no doubt you will know where to find him if we
need him," I said. "Bide with us for a few days at least, for here is
plenty, and there is much going on."

So we went into the town, and then to the palace, and found Havelok, and
after that I had to go to the gate on guard. And what these two did I
cannot say, but, at all events, there is nothing worth telling of.

Now, however, I have to tell things that I did not see or hear myself,
and therefore I would have it understood that I heard all from those who
took some part or other in the matter, and so know all well.

I have not said much of the meetings of the Witan, for I had naught more
to do with them than to guard the doors of the hall where they met now
and then; but since the princess and Ragnar came they seem to have
somewhat to do with the story, as will be seen.

On this day one of the Norfolk thanes asked in full meeting what plans
the king had for his ward Goldberga, and her coming into her kingdom,
saying that she, being eighteen years of age, was old enough to take her
place.

Now Alsi had thought of this beforehand, and was ready at once.

"It is a matter of concern to us always," he said, "and much have I
thought thereof. It is full time that she took her father's place with
the consent of the Witan, which is needed."

He looked round us for reply to this, and at once the Norfolk thanes
said, "We will have Goldberga for our queen, as was the will of Ethelwald."

"That," said Alsi, "is as I thought. I needed only to hear it said
openly. Now, therefore, it remains but to speak of one other thing and
that is a weighty one. It was her father's will and I swore to carry it
out, that she should be wedded to the most goodly and mightiest man in
the realm. It seems to me that on her marriage hangs all the wealth of
her kingdom; and ill it would be if, after she took the throne, she took
to herself one who made himself an evil adviser. I would say that it
were better to see her married first, for it does not follow that you
would choose to have the man whom I thought fitting to be over you, as
he certainly would be."

Now all this was so straightforward in all seeming that none of the
thanes could be aught but pleased. Moreover, it took away a fear that
they had had lest Griffin was to be the man. None could say that he
fulfilled the conditions of the will of Ethelwald. The spokesman said,
therefore, that it was well set before them, and that it was best to
wait, saying at the end, "For, after all, we might have to change our
minds concerning the princess, if with her we must take a man who will
prove a burden or tyrant to us all."

Then they asked the king to find a good husband for the princess as soon
as might be, so that he was not against her liking.

"Well," said Alsi, "it is a hard task for a man who has no wife to help
him; but we will trust to the good sense of my niece. Now, I had thought
of Ragnar of Norwich; but it is in my mind that the old laws of near kin
are somewhat against this."

I suppose that he had no intention of letting the earl marry the
princess; but this was policy, as it might please the thanes. However,
the matter of kinship did not please some, and that was all that he
needed, for there was excuse then for him if he forbade that match,
which was the last he wanted.

Ragnar sat in his place and heard all this, and he wished himself back
at Norwich.

So there the matter ended, and that was the last sitting of the Witan.
There was to be a great breaking-up feast that night before the thanes
scattered to their homes.

Now while this was going on I ended my spell of duty, and bethought me
of Mord the chamberlain, and so went to Berthun and asked for him. He
said that if I had any special business with Mord I might see him; and I
said, truly enough, that my errand was special, having to do with
friends of his; so it was not long before they took me to him. He was in
a long room that was built on the side of the great hall, as it were,
and I could hear the murmur of the voices of those who spoke at the
Witan while I waited.

Now Mord was not so much changed as I, and at first he did not know me
at all.

"Well, master housecarl, what may your message be, and from whom is it?"
he said, without more than a glance at me.

"Why, there are some old friends of yours who are anxious to know if you
have forgotten the feeling of a halter round your neck," I said in good
Danish.

Then, after one look, he knew me at once, and ran to me, and took my
hand, and almost kissed me in his pleasure, for since I could handle an
oar he had known me, and had taught me how to do that, moreover.

Then he called for wine and food; and we sat down together and had a
long talk of the old days, and of how we had fared after he left, and of
all else that came uppermost. And sorely he grieved at my father's
death, and at the trouble that was on us. The famine had not been so
sore in the south, and pestilence had not been at all.

As for himself, he had been courtman, as we call the housecarls, at
first, and so had risen to be chamberlain to the king, and now to the
princess, and had been with her everywhere that Alsi had sent her since
her father died.

"It was a good day for me, and wise was Grim when he bade me go to
Ethelwald to seek service," he said; "yet I would that I had seen him
once more. I have never been to this place before, else I should have
sought him."

Now I was going to ask him about Havelok, but hardly knew how to begin.
He saved me the trouble however, by speaking first.

"Who were the lady and the boy we had on board when we came to England?"
he said. "I never heard, and maybe it was as well that I did not."

"My father never told me. But why do you think that it was well not to
know?"

"Because I am sure that Grim had good reason for not telling. Before I
had been a year at Norwich there came a ship from Denmark into the
river, and soon men told me that her master was asking for news of one
Grim, a merchant, who was lost. So I saw him, not saying who I was or
that I had anything to do with Grim; and then I found that it was not so
much of the master that he wanted news as of the boy we had with us. He
did not ask of the lady at all, and I was sure that this was the man who
came and spoke to Grim just as we were sailing, if you remember. So then
it came to me that we knew nothing of the coming on board of these two,
only learning of their presence when we were far at sea. And now, if
Hodulf troubled himself so much about this boy, there must be something
that he was not meant to know about his flight, for he must be of some
note. Did I not know that the king's son was in his hands at that time,
I should have thought that our passenger was he. However, I told him of
the shipwreck as of a thing that I had seen, saying that Grim and his
family and a few men only had been saved; and I told him also that I had
heard that he had lost some folk in an attack by Vikings. With that he
seemed well satisfied, and I heard no more of him. I have wondered ever
since who the boy was, and if he was yet alive. I mind that he was like
to die when he came ashore."

Then I laughed, and said that he would hear of him soon enough, for all
the town was talking of him; and he guessed whom I meant, for he had
heard of the cook's mighty man.

Now I said no more but this:

"My father kept this matter secret all these years, and with reason, as
we have seen; and so, while he is here, we call this foster-brother of
mine Curan, until the time comes when his name may he known. Maybe it
will be best for you not to say much of your knowledge of him. What does
Earl Ragnar know of our wreck? For he told me that you knew me."

"I told him all about it at one time or another," Mord answered. "He
always wanted to hear of Denmark."

So that was all that the chamberlain knew; but it was plain to me that
the earl had put two and two together when he heard Havelok's name, and
had remembered that this was also the name of Gunnar's son. Afterwards I
found that Mord had heard from Denmark that Hodulf was said to have made
away with Havelok, but he never remembered that at this time. Ragnar
knew this, and did remember it.

Pleasant it was to talk of old days with an old friend thus, and the
time went quickly. Then Mord must go to his mistress and I to my place,
and so we parted for the time. But my last doubt of who Havelok my
brother might be was gone. I was sure that he was the son of Gunnar the
king.


CHAPTER XIII. THE WITAN'S FEASTING.

Now I have to tell of a strange thing that happened in the night that
was just past, the first that the Lady Goldberga had spent here in
Lincoln for many a year, for on that happening hangs a great deal, and
it will make clear what I myself saw presently at the breaking-up feast
of the Witan. That puzzled me mightily at the time, as it did many at
the feast, but I see no reason why it should not be told at once.