Havelok The Dane written by Charles Whistler

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"His name," fairly shouts Griffin.

"Curan, the kitchen knave," says Alsi, chuckling.

"O fool, and doubly fool!" cries Griffin; "now have you outdone
yourself. Was it not plain to you that the man could be no thrall? Even
Ragnar looks mean beside him, and I hate Ragnar, so that I know well how
goodly he is."

Now Alsi grows uneasy, knowing that this had become plainer and plainer
to him as the wedding went on.

"Why, what do you know of this knave of mine?" he asks. "He was goodly
enough for the sake of my oath, and the Witan will have none of him.
That is all I care for."

"What do I know of him? Just this--that you have married the queen of
the East Angles to Havelok, son of Gunnar Kirkeban of Denmark, for whom
men wait over there even now. The Witan not have him? I tell you that
every man in the land will follow him and Goldberga if they so much as
lift their finger. Done are the days of your kingship, and that by your
own deed."

Alsi grows white at this and trembles, for he minds the wondrous ring
and the names of the Asir, but he asks for more certainty.

Then Griffin tells him that he was with Hodulf, and knew all the secret
of the making away with the boy, and how that came to naught. Then he
says that Hodulf had heard from certain Vikings that they had fallen on
Grim's ship, and that in the grappling of the vessel the boy and a lady
had been drowned. It is quite likely that they, or some of them, thought
so in truth, seeing how that happened. After that Hodulf had made
inquiry, and was told that there were none but the children of Grim with
him, and so was content. So my father's wisdom was justified.

"Now I learned his name the other day; and I have a ship waiting to take
me at once to Hodulf, that I may warn him. I have ridden back from
Grimsby even now to say that, given a chance, say on some lonely ride,
that might well have been contrived, I would take Goldberga with me
beyond the sea. I thought more of that than of Hodulf, to say the truth."

Now Alsi breaks down altogether, and prays Griffin to help him out of this.

"Follow the party and take her. They are few and unarmed, and it will be
easy, for men think that there is a plot to carry her off, and this will
not surprise any. Go to the sheriff and tell him that it has happened,
and he will hang the men on sight when you have taken them. Then get to
sea with the girl, and to Hodulf, and both he and I will reward you."

"Thanks," says Griffin, with a sneer; "I have my own men. Yours might
have orders that I am the one to be hanged. It would be worth your while
now to make a friend of your kitchen knave. You are not to be trusted."

So these two wrangle for a while bitterly, for Alsi is not overlord of
Griffin in any way. And the end is that the thane rides towards Grimsby
first of all, with twenty men at his heels, knowing more than we
thought. But he hears naught of us, and presently meets Arngeir on his
way thence to see us. Him he knows, for already he has had dealings with
him in the hiring of the ship. So he learns from him that certainly no
such party as he seeks is on the road, and therefore rides off to the
Ermin Street to stay us from going south.

But now we had time for a long start; and so he follows the Roman road
when he reaches it all that day and part of next, and we hear no more of
him at that time. There are many parties travelling on that way, and he
follows one after another.

Now Arngeir knew at once that somewhat had happened when he heard from
Griffin that the most notable man of those whom he sought was named
Curan, and therefore he turned back at once and waited for us. And when
we came in sight of the long roof of the house that Grim, our father,
had built, standing among the clustering cottages of our fishers, with
the masts of a trading ship or two showing above it in the haven, he was
there on the road to greet us, having watched anxiously for our coming
from the beacon tower that we had made.

Maybe we were two miles out of Grimsby at this time, for one can see far
along the level marsh tracks from our tower; and Withelm and Mord and I
rode on to him as soon as we saw him, that we might tell him all that
had happened, and we rode slowly and talked for half a mile or so.

Then Withelm waited and brought Havelok to us, staying himself with the
princess, that he might tell her the wondrous story of her husband; for
we thought that it would be easier for him than for our brother maybe.
Havelok was not one to speak freely of himself.

And when Goldberga had heard all, she was silent for a long way, and
then wept a little, but at last told Withelm that all this had been
foretold to her in her dream.

"Yet I am glad," she said, "that I did not know this for certain, else
had my Havelok thought that I did but wed him for his birth. Tell him,
brother, that it was not so; say that I knew him as the husband Heaven
sent for me when first I saw him."

Now Havelok listened to Arngeir as he told him the well-kept secret, and
now and again asked a question.

And when all was told he said, "Now have the dreams passed, and the
light is come. I mind all plainly from the first."

And he told all that had happened after Hodulf caught him, from the
murder of his sisters to the time when I helped my father to take him
from the sack. Only he never remembered the death of his mother or the
storm, or how we came to Grimsby. Maybe it is rather a wonder that after
all those hard things gone through he should recall anything, for he was
nearly dying when we came ashore, as I have told.

"But I am Grim's son," he said, "for all this, and never shall I forget
it. By right of life saved, and by right of upbringing, am I his, and by
right of brotherhood to his sons. Gunnar, who was my father, would have
me say this, if I am like him, as Mord tells me I am."

Then he looked at us in brotherly wise, as if we would maybe not allow
that claim now; but there needed naught to be said between us when he
met our eyes. He was Grim's son indeed to us, and we his younger
brothers for all the days that were to come.

"One thing there is that makes me glad," he said, "and that is because I
may now be held worthy of this sweet bride of mine so strangely given,
as indeed I fear that I am not. Men will say that she has done no wrong
in wedding me; and for all that Alsi may say, it will be believed that
she knew well whom she was wedding. There will be no blame to her."

That seemed to be all his thought of the matter now, and it was like
him. Then he went back to his princess, and we spurred on to Grimsby,
and set all to work, that the greeting might be all that we could make it.

And so, when those two rode into our garth, and the gates were closed
after them, we reined our horses round them, and drew our swords, and
cried the ancient greeting with one mighty shout:

"Skoal to Havelok Gunnarsson--Skoal to Goldberga, Havelok's wife!
Skoal! Yours we are, and for you we will die! Skoal!"

CHAPTER XVIII. JARL SIGURD OF DENMARK.

Now one would like to tell of quiet days at Grimsby; but they were not
to be. Three days after Havelok's homecoming we were on the "swan's
path," and heading for Denmark, with the soft south wind of high summer
speeding us on the way. And I will tell how that came about, for else it
may seem strange that Havelok did not see to the rights of his wife
first of all.

That was his first thought, in truth, and we brothers planned many ways
of getting to work for her, for it was certain that Alsi would be on his
guard. And on the next day came a man from Lincoln to seek Berthun, with
news. That good friend had done what none of us had been able to manage,
for he had told the merchant, his friend, to bide in the hall and hear
what went on, and then to let him know all else that seemed needful that
we should hear. Now he had learned all from the words of Griffin and
Alsi, who took no care in their speech, thinking that none in the hall
knew the Welsh tongue that they used.

It being the business of a merchant to know that of every place where he
trades, and he travelling widely, there was no difficulty to him, and
mightily he enjoyed the sport. Then he sent off straightway to us; and
now it was plain that we were in danger--not at once, maybe, but ere
long. Griffin would hear sooner or later that his quarry was in Grimsby
after all. So we went to our good old friend, Witlaf of Stallingborough,
and told him all.

"Why," he said, "I will have no Welsh outsiders harrying my friends.
Light up your beacon if he comes, and shut your gates in his face, and I
and the housecarls will take him in the rear, and he will not wait here
long. I have not had a fight for these twenty years or so, and it does
me good to think of one."

So we thought that there was little fear of the Welshman.

When I came back from this errand, however, I chose to pass the mound
where my father slept, and on it, hand in hand, sat Havelok and
Goldberga--for it was a quiet place, and none came near it often. It
was good to see them thus in that place, and happy they seemed together.

Goldberga called me when I came near, and I sat down beside them as she
bade me.

"Here we have been talking of what we shall do now, for it seems that to
both of us are many things to hand," she said. "Good it would be if we
could set them aside; but we were born to them, and we cannot let them
be. And, most of all, here in this place we may not forget the duty that
Grim would remind us of. Havelok must go to Denmark and win back his
kingdom from Hodulf first of all."

"We have thought that East Anglia was to be won first from Alsi," I said.

"So says Havelok; but I do not think so. For, indeed, I am but the wife,
and the things of the husband come first of all. Now, this is what I
would say. Sail to Denmark before Hodulf knows what is coming, and there
will be less trouble."

"I am slow at seeing things," said Havelok; "but the same might be said
of your kingdom."

"Alsi is ready, and Hodulf is not," she answered, laughing; "any one can
see that.

"Is it not so, brother?"

So it was; and I thought that she was right.

"Let us ask the brothers," I said, "for here are many things to be
thought of; and, first of all, where to get men."

That was the greatest trouble to our minds, but none at all to hers.

"Get them in Denmark," she said, when we were all together in the great
room of the house that evening. "Let us go as merchant folk, and find
Sigurd, or his son if he is dead. If I am not much mistaken, all the
land will rise for the son of Gunnar so soon as it is known that he has
come again."

"Sigurd is yet alive," Arngeir said; "and more than that, he is waiting.
For he promised Grim that he would be ready, and I heard the promise. I
think that this plan is good, and can well be managed. Here is the ship
that Griffin was to have taken today, and he is not here. Gold enough I
have, for Grim hoarded against this time."

Then he showed us the store that, through long years, my father had
brought together to take the place of that of Sigurd's which had been
lost; and it was no small one. And so we planned at once; and in the end
we three brothers were to go with Havelok and Goldberga, leaving Mord to
get to Ragnar and tell him that Goldberga was following the fortunes of
her husband, and would return to see to her own if all went well.
Berthun would go with him, and Arngeir would bide at home, for we needed
one to whom messages might come; and while none would know us now in
Denmark, either Arngeir or Mord might be seen, and men would tell Hodulf
that the men of Grim had come home, and so perhaps spoil all. Word might
go to Denmark from Griffin even yet.

We had little thought of any sorry ending to our plans, for the dreams
that had come so true so far cheered us. And so, with the evening tide
of the next day, we sailed in the same ship that had been hired for Griffin.

But first Havelok spent a long hour on my father's mound alone, thinking
of all that he owed to him who rested there. And to him came Goldberga
softly, presently, lest he should be lonely in that place. And there she
spoke to him of her own faith, saying that already he owed much to it.
For he was making his vows to the Asir for success.

"Shall you pray yet again to the Asir, my husband?" she asked.

"Why should I? I have vowed my vows, and there is an end. If they heed
them, all is well; and if not, the Norns hinder."

"There is One whom the Norns hinder not at all," she said gently, and so
told him how that her prayers would go up every day.

Fain was she that he also prayed in that wise to her God, that naught
might be apart in their minds.

Then he said, "I have heard this from David and Withelm also, and it is
good. Teach me to vow to your God, sweet wife, and I will do so; and you
shall teach me to pray as you pray."

So it came to pass that Havelok in the after days was more than ready to
help the Christian teachers when they came to him; for that was how the
vow that he made ran, that he would do so if he was king, and had the power.

Now there is nothing to tell of our voyage, for one could not wish for a
better passage, if the ship was slow. Indeed, she was so slow that a
smaller vessel that left Tetney haven on the next day reached the same
port that we were bound for on the night that we came to our old home.
And that we learned soon after she had come.

Into Sigurd's haven we sailed on the morning tide, and strange it seemed
to me to see the well-known place unchanged as we neared it. My father's
house was there, and Arngeir's, and the great hall of the jarl towered
over all, as I remembered it. Men were building a ship in the long shed
where ours had been built, and where the queen had hidden; and the
fishing boats lay on the hard as on the day when Havelok had come to us.
The little grove was yet behind our house, and it seemed strange when I
remembered that the old stones of its altar were far beyond the seas. I
wondered if Thor yet stood under his great ash tree; and then I saw one
change, for that tree was gone, and in its place stood a watchtower,
stone built, and broad and high, for haven beacon.

On the high fore deck stood Havelok, and his arm was round Goldberga as
we ran in, but they were silent. The land held overmuch of coming wonder
for them to put into words, as I think.

Presently the boats came off to us in the old way, and here and there I
seemed to know the faces of the men, but I was not sure. It was but the
remembrance of the old Danish cast of face, maybe. I could put no names
to any of them. And as we were warped alongside the wharf, there rode
down to see who we were Sigurd the jarl himself, seeming unchanged,
although twelve years had gone over him. He was younger than my father,
I think, and was at that age when a man changes too slowly for a boy to
notice aught but that the one he left as a man he thought old is so yet.
He was just the noble-looking warrior that I had always wondered at and
admired.

We had arranged in this way: Havelok was to be the merchant, and we his
partners in the venture, trading with the goods in the ship as our own.
That the owner, who was also ship master, had agreed to willingly
enough, as we promised to make good any loss that might be from our want
of skill in bargaining. One may say that we bought the cargo, which was
not a great one, on our own risk, therefore, hiring the vessel to wait
our needs, in case we found it better to fly or to land elsewhere
presently. Then Havelok was to ask the jarl's leave to trade in the
land, and so find a chance to speak with him in private. After that the
goods might be an excuse for going far and wide through the villages to
let men know who had come, without rousing Hodulf's fears.

And as we thought of all this on the voyage, Goldberga remembered that
it was likely that Sigurd would know again the ring that had been the
queen's, and she said that it had better be shown him at once, that he
might begin to suspect who his guest was. For we knew that he was true
to the son of Gunnar, if none else might still be so.

This seemed good to us all; and, indeed, everything seemed to be well
planned, though we knew that there are always some happenings that have
been overlooked. We thought we had provided against these by keeping the
ship as our own to wait for us, however, and it will be seen how it all
worked out in the end.

Now Havelok went ashore as soon as the ship was moored; and the moment
that he touched land he made a sign on his breast, and I think that it
was not that of the hammer of Thor, for Goldberga watched him with
bright eyes, and she seemed content as she did so. He went at once to
where the jarl sat on his horse waiting him, and greetings passed. I was
so used to seeing men stare at my brother that I thought little of the
long look that Sigurd gave him; but presently it seemed that he was
mightily taken with this newcomer, for he came on board the ship, that
he might speak more with him and us.

"Presently," he said, "you must come and dine with me at my hall; for
the lady whom I saw as you came in will be weary, and a meal on shore
after a long voyage is ever pleasant. Now what is your errand here?"

"Trading, jarl," answered Havelok.

"I thought you somewhat over warlike-looking for a merchant," said
Sigurd; "what is your merchandise?"

"Lincoln cloth, and bar iron, and such like; and with it all one thing
that is worth showing to you, jarl, for I will sell it to none but
yourself."

Now we went aft slowly, and presently Havelok and the jarl were alone by
the steering oar, by design on our part.

"This seems to be somewhat special," said Sigurd. "What is it?"

Havelok took the ring from his pouch, and set it in the jarl's hand
without a word; and long Sigurd looked at it. I saw the red on his cheek
deepen as he did so, but he said never a word for a long time. And next
he looked at Havelok, and the eyes of these two met.

"This is beyond price," said the jarl slowly. "Not my whole town would
buy this. It is such as a queen might wear and be proud of."

"Should I show it to Hodulf the king, therefore?" asked Havelok, with
his eyes on those of the jarl.

"Let no man see it until I know if I can buy it," answered Sigurd.
"Trust it to my keeping, if you will, for I would have it valued maybe."

"It is my wife's, and you must ask her that."

Then Havelok called Goldberga from her cabin under the after deck, and
the jarl greeted her in most courtly wise.

"I will trust it with you, Jarl Sigurd," she said, when he asked her if
he might keep the ring for a time. "Yet it is a great trust, as you
know, and it will be well to show the ring to none but men who are true."

"It is to true men that I would show it," he answered, with that look
that had passed between him and Havelok already; and I was sure that he
knew now pretty certainly who we were. Yet he could not say more at this
time, for the many men who waited for Havelok must be told somewhat of
his coming first.

Now men were gathering on the wharf to see the newcomers, and so the
jarl spoke openly for all to hear.

"Come up to my hall, all of you, and take a meal ashore with me; for
good is the first food on dry land after days at sea and the fare of the
ship."

So he went across the gangway, and to his horse, and rode away quickly,
calling back to us, "Hasten, for we wait for you. And I will find you
lodgings in the town for the time that you bide with us."

Now at first that seemed somewhat hazardous, for we had meant to stay in
the ship, lest we should have to fly for any reason suddenly. But it
seemed that we had no choice but to do as he bade us, and we could not
doubt him in any way. We should go armed, of course, as in a strange
place; and, after all, unless Hodulf heard of us, and wanted to see us,
he was not to be feared as yet. So I fell to wondering where our
lodgings would he, and if the old families still dwelt in the houses
that I had known, and then who had ours. Many such thoughts will crowd
into the mind of one who sees his old land again after many years, and
finds naught changed, to the eye at least.

Men have told me that, as we came into the hall presently, they thought
us the most goodly company that had ever crossed its threshold; and that
is likely, for at our head were Havelok and Goldberga. Raven was a
mighty warrior to look on as he came next, grave and silent, with
far-seeing grey eyes that were full of watching, as it were, from his
long seafaring, and yet had the seaman's ready smile in them. And
Withelm was the pattern of a well-made youth who has his strength yet to
gather, and already knows how to make the best use of that he has. There
were none but thought that he was the most handsome of the three sons of
Grim. And last came I, and I am big enough, at least, to stand at
Havelok's back; and for the rest, one remembers what Eglaf said of me.
But I do not think that any noticed us with those twain to look at,
unless they scanned our arms, which were more after the English sort
than the Danish, so far as mail and helms are concerned, and therefore
might seem strange.

The old hall was not changed at all; and handsome it seemed after
Alsi's, though it was not so large. There were more and better weapons
on the walls, and carved work was everywhere, so that in the swirl and
heat-flicker of the torches the beams, and door posts, and bench ends,
and the pillars of the high seat seemed alive with knotted dragons that
began, and ended, and writhed everywhere, wondrous to look on. Our
English have not the long winter nights, and cruel frosts, and deep snow
that make time for such work as this for the men of the household.

There fell a silence as we came in, and then Sigurd greeted us; and we
were set on the high seat, and feasted royally. On right and left of our
host sat Havelok and Goldberga, and the jarl's wife next to Havelok, and
Biorn the Brown, the sheriff, next to our princess. This was a newcomer
here since my days, but well we liked him.

There is nothing to tell of what happened at this feast, for Sigurd
asked no questions of us but the most common ones of sea, and wind, and
voyage, and never a word that would have been hard for Havelok to answer
in this company, where men of Hodulf's might well be present. Withelm
noticed this, and said that no doubt it was done purposely, and he
thought much of it.

When we had ended with song and tale, and it was near time for rest,
Sigurd bade Biorn, the sheriff, take us to his house for the night,
telling him that he must answer for our safety, and specially that of
the fair lady who had come from so far. And then he gave us a good guard
of his housecarls to take us down the street, as if he feared some danger.

"Why, jarl," said Biorn, "our guests will have a bad night if they think
that in our quiet place they need twenty men to see them to bed thus!"

"Nay, but the town is strange to the lady," answered Sigurd; "and who
knows what she may fear in a foreign land!"

So Biorn laughed, and was content; and we bade farewell to the jarl, and
went out. And then I found that it was to my father's house we were to
go, for it had been given to Biorn.

Now, I was next to Goldberga as we came to the door, and there was a
step into the house which we always had to warn strangers of when it was
dark; and so, in the old way, without thinking for a moment, I said to
her, "One step into the house, sister."

"Ho, Master Radbard, if that is you, you have sharp eyes in the dark,"
said Biorn at once; "I was just about to say that myself."

"I have some feeling in my toes," I answered; and that turned the
matter, for they laughed.

And then, when we were inside, and the courtmen had gone clattering down
the street homewards, Biorn took the great door bar from its old place
and ran it into the sockets in the doorposts, as I had done so many
times; and the runes that my father had cut on it when he made the house
were still plain to be seen on it, with the notches I had made with the
first knife that I ever had. More I will not say, but everywhere that my
eyes fell were things that I knew, even to fishing gear, for it seemed
that Biorn was somewhat of a fisher, like Grim himself.

Then they put me and my brothers into our old loft, and Havelok and
Goldberga had the room that had been my father's. As for Biorn, he would
be in the great room, before the fire. There was only this one door to
the house, and therefore he would guard that. His thralls were in the
sheds, as ours used to be, so that we and he were alone in the house.

Now, as soon as we three had gone into our old place of rest, Raven went
at once, as in the old days, to the little square window that was in the
high-pitched gable, and looked out over the town and sea. We used to
laugh at him for this, for he was never happy until he had seen, as we
said, if all was yet there.

"There are yet lights in the jarl's hall," he said, "and there are one
or two moving about down in the haven. I think that there is a vessel
coming in."

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