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Havelok The Dane written by Charles Whistler

C >> Charles Whistler >> Havelok The Dane




At first we thought that we would make for Grimsby; but then it seemed
best to land elsewhere, and more to the south, for we would have
messages sent at once to Ragnar to call East Anglia to Havelok's banner,
and Alsi would have less chance of cutting us off from him. So we sailed
to Saltfleet haven, which lies some twenty-five miles southward from
Grimsby. Raven piloted us in safely, and there were none to hinder our
landing. The town was empty, indeed, when the ships came into the haven,
for all had fled in haste, except a few thralls, for fear of the Vikings.

Yet when we sent these thralls to say that Goldberga had come for her
own, the people came back and made us welcome, for her story was in
every mouth; and after that we fared well in Saltfleet, and men began to
gather to us.

We sent to Arngeir and to Ragnar at once, and next day the Grimsby folk
were with us, but long before any word could come to Norwich, Alsi had
set about gathering a host against us.

But we had not come to fight him for Lindsey, and our errand was to bid
him give up her own rights to Goldberga. One must be ready with the
strong hand if one expects to find justice from such a man; and Havelok
had thought it possible that if we came here first we should bring him
to reason at once, whereas if we went to Norfolk there would be fighting
with all the host of the Lindsey kingdom before long; while if he did
fight here we might save Goldberga's land from that trouble, and maybe
have fewer to deal with.

So a message was to be sent to Alsi at once, bidding him know that
Goldberga had come to ask for her rights, and that he might give them to
her in all honour. Arngeir was to take this, for it did not seem right
that a Dane should do so, and he was one who would be listened to. I was
to go with him, with my courtmen as guard; and we rode to Lincoln on the
fourth day after our coming to Saltfleet. Good it was to ride over the
old land again, and I thought that it had never looked more fair with
the ripening harvest, for when last I had seen it there was none. The
track of the famine was yet on all the villages, for fewer folk were in
them than in the days before the pestilence and the dearth, but these
had enough and to spare.

And when these poor folk heard from us that Curan and his princess had
come again for what was hers, they took rusty weapons and flint-tipped
arrows and stone hammers from the hiding places in the thatch of their
hovels, and went across the marshlands to where the little hill of
Saltfleet stands above its haven, that they might help the one whom they
had loved as a fisher lad to become a mighty king.

So we came to Lincoln, and already there was a gathering of thanes and
their men in the town, and they knew on what errand we had come well
enough. But they were courteous, and we were given quarters in the town
at once, that we might see Alsi with the first light in the morning.

I will not say that we had a quiet night there, for we did not trust
Alsi; but we had no need to fear. In the morning Eglaf came to bid us to
the palace to speak with the king.

"This is about what I expected, when I heard of the mistake that our
king had made," he said, "and so far you are in luck. It is not everyone
who is a fisher one day and captain of the courtmen next, as one might
say. I like the look of your men, and I am going to take some of the
credit of that to myself, for a man has to learn before he can command."

"I will not deny your share in the matter," I answered, laughing, "for
had it not been for my time with you I had been at sea altogether. Now,
shall we have to fight you?"

He shrugged his broad shoulders.

"Who knows what is in the mind of our king? I do not, and you know
enough of him by this time to be certain that one cannot guess. He may
be all smiles and rejoicing that his dear niece has come back safely, or
just the other way. He has been very careful how he has dealt with the
Norfolk thanes of late, and what that means I do not know."

Then he asked what had become of Griffin, and I told him. I do not think
that he was surprised, for some word of the matter had reached here by
the news that chapmen bring from all parts.

Now there was no more time for talk, for we came to the hall; and we
went in, Arngeir leading, and the rest of us following two by two. The
hall was pretty full of thanes and their men, and it was just as I had
last seen it. Alsi sat alone on his high seat, and there was no man with
him on the dais. I thought that he looked thinner and anxious.

Arngeir went up the hall at once, and stood before the king, and greeted
him in the English way, which seemed strange to me after the two years
of Danish customs; and then Alsi bade him tell his errand.

"I have come from Goldberga of East Anglia, and from Havelok the Dane,
her husband, to say that she has returned to her land, and would ask
that you would give her the throne that you have held for her since the
day that her father made you her guardian. It has been said that she
might ask you to give account of your management of the realm to her;
but that she does not wish to do, being sure that all will be rightly
done in the matter, and she only asks to be set in the place that was
her father's."

So said Arngeir, plainly, and I could see that the thanes thought the
words good.

And Alsi answered, "Has this matter been put before the Witan of the
East Angles?"

I suppose that he thought to hear Arngeir say that there had been no
time for so doing at present, but my brother was readier than I should
have been.

"Doubtless it has," he said, "for that was your own promise to Goldberga
on her marriage."

At that Alsi flushed, and his brows wrinkled. He had said nothing to the
Witan at all, but had waited in hopes that he should hear no more of his
niece, telling the tale that we had heard.

"I have had no answer from them," he said at last, for Arngeir was
looking at him in a way that he could not meet. "It was her saying that
she would do this for herself."

"Then they do not refuse," said Arngeir quietly, "nor did I think that
they would do so. It only remains therefore, that you, King Alsi, should
do your part. Then can the queen speak to the Witan, even as she said,
concerning her husband."

Now it must have been clear to the king that nothing short of a plain
answer would be taken, and he sat and thought for a while. One could see
that he was planning what to say, as if things had not gone as he
expected. Maybe he hoped to put off the matter by talk of asking the
Witan, and so to gain time, for we had certainly taken him unawares.

At last he said, "How am I to know that you are here with full power to
speak for Goldberga? For this is a weighty matter."

Arngeir held out his hand, and on it was the ring of Orwenna the queen,
which Alsi had last seen here on the high place.

"There is the token, King Alsi, and it is one which you know well," he
answered.

"Ay, I know it," answered the king with a grin that was not pleasant.

And then he said, "I will speak with my thanes, and give you word to
carry back in an hour's time, now that I know you to be a true messenger."

"There should be no reason for waiting so long as that, nor do I think
that the matter of the throne of East Anglia is a question for Lindsey
thanes," answered Arngeir at once. "All this is between you and the
princess."

Thereat one of the thanes rose up and said, "If a kingdom has been
handed over to our king, it is not to be taken again without our having
a good deal to say about it. I do not know, moreover, if we can have a
foreigner over any part of our land."

"Goldberga never gave up her right to the kingdom," Arngeir answered,
"as anyone who was here at the wedding would tell you. And as for
Havelok, her husband, being a foreigner, it seems to me that a Jute who
has been brought up here in Lindsey since he was seven winters old is
less a foreigner than a Briton is to us."

None made any answer to that, and I could see that the king was growing
angry at being met thus at every turn. But he began to smile in that way
of his that I had learned to mistrust.

"That is not altogether courteous to either Goldberga or myself," he
said, as if he would think the words a jest, seeing that he was half
Welsh. "Give me time, I pray you, to think of this, as I have asked, and
you shall go back with your answer."

There was no help for it, and we had to leave the hall in order that
Alsi might say what he had to say to his thanes. And I said to Arngeir
that it seemed that we should have to fight the matter out.

"Alsi risks losing both kingdoms if he does that," he answered, "for we
shall take what we choose if we are the victors. The visions that have
been thus right so far say that we shall be so."

"I shall be glad if we do come out on the right side," I said; "but I
have not so much faith in these dream tellings as some. Nor do I think
that it seems altogether fair to fight on a certainty."

"When it is a matter of punishing one who does not keep faith, I do not
think that it matters much," he answered, laughing. "I should like
certainty that he would not get the best of the honest side in that case."

We were outside on the wide green within the square of the Roman walls
at this time, and now from within the hall came the sound of shouts and
cheering which we heard plainly enough. But whether it meant that the
thanes cheered Alsi because he would fight, rather than that they
applauded his justice to his niece, was not to be known as yet. As for
me, I thought that it was hardly likely to be the latter.

Then came three thanes from the hail with the message, and it was this,
"Alsi bids Havelok go back to his own land and bide content therewith."

"What word is there for Goldberga, then?" asked Arngeir.

"None. She has thrown in her lot with the Dane, and it is he with whom
we will not deal."

Then said I, "How was it that she had to throw in her lot with Havelok?
He was Alsi's own choice for her."

"That is not what we have heard," the spokesman answered. "Now it is
best that you go hence, for you have the answer."

"This means fighting for Goldberga's rights," said Arngeir, "and I will
tell you that Havelok will not be backward in the matter."

"In that case we shall meet again on the battlefield ere long," answered
the thane. "I will not say that Havelok is in the wrong, and things
might have been better settled. Farewell till then. The Norns will show
who is right."

So we went, and I thought, as did Arngeir, that there was some little
feeling among his men that Alsi was wrong.

Now Alsi set to work to gather forces in earnest, and he went to work in
a way that was all his own: for, saying nothing about Goldberga, he sent
to all his thanes with word that the Vikings had come in force and
invaded the land, led by the son of Gunnar Kirkeban, whose ways were
worse than those of his father, for he spared none, whereas Kirkeban
harried but the Welsh Christian folk. He prayed them therefore to
hasten, that this scourge might be driven back to the sea whence he
came. And that brought men to him fast, for no Englishman can bear that
an invader shall set foot on his shore, be he who he may. Few knew who
the wife of Havelok was at that time, but I do not know that it would
have made so much difference if they had. None thought that into England
had come the fair princess who was so well loved.

Sorely troubled was Goldberga when she heard this answer, but it was all
that the rest of us looked for. And the next question was how best to
meet the false king.

In the end we did a thing that may seem to some to have been rash
altogether, but it was our wish to compel Alsi to fight before his force
was great enough to crush us. It might be long before Ragnar could raise
a host and join us, for there was always a chance that he might have
trouble in getting the Norfolk thanes to come to his standard for a
march on Lindsey. If we had gone to Norfolk at once there would have
been no fear of that kind, but the fighting might have been more bitter
and longer drawn out.

We sent the fleet southward into the Wash, that it might wait for us at
the port of the Fossdyke, on what men call the Frieston shore; and then
we left Saltfleet and marched across country to the wolds, and southward
and westward along them, that we might draw Alsi from Lincoln. And all
the way men joined us for the sake of Curan, whom they knew, and of
Goldberga, of whom they had heard, so that in numbers at least our host
was a great one. Ragged it might be, as one may say, with the wild
marshmen, who had no sort of training and no chiefs to keep them in
hand; but I knew that no host Alsi could get together had any such
trained force in it as we had in the fifteen hundred Vikings, for they
had seen many fights, and the ways of the sea teach men to hold together
and to obey orders at once and without hesitating.

So we went until we came to Tetford, above Horncastle town; and there is
a great camp on a hilltop, made by the British, no doubt, in the days
when they fought with Rome. There we stayed, for Alsi was upon us. We
saw the fires of his camp in the village and on the hillsides across the
valley, but a mile or two from us that night; and it seemed that his
host was greater than ours, as we thought it would be, but not so much
so as to cause dread of the battle that was to come.

Now there were two men who came to us that night, and we thought that
they had brought some message from Alsi at first. But all that they
wanted was to join Havelok, and we were glad of them. They were those
two seconds of Griffin's, Cadwal and the other, whose name was Idrys,
and with them was David the priest, who had fled to us.

"We know that Havelok is one who is worth fighting for," they said, "for
we have proved it already. We are not Alsi's men, and our fathers fought
for his mother's Welsh kin against the English long ago. Let us fight
for the rights of Goldberga, at least."

Havelok welcomed them in all friendliness, though he asked them if they
had no grudge against him for the slaying of Griffin.

"As to that," they said, "after the duel we think that he deserved all
that has befallen him. We were ashamed to be his seconds."

Now these two took in hand to lead the marshmen, and set to work with
them at once, for they were ready to follow them as known thanes of the
British. And that was something gained.

We slept on our arms that night, and all night long David woke and
prayed for our success, and I think that his prayers were not lost.


CHAPTER XXIII. BY TETFORD STREAM.

In the early morning Alsi set his men in order in the valley, and seemed
to wait for us to come down to him, for it was of no use to try to take
the strong camp which sheltered us. And so, after council held, we did
not keep him waiting, but left the hill and marched on him. We had the
camp to fall back on if things went the wrong way, and beyond that the
road to the sea and the ships was open, with a chance of meeting Ragnar
on the way, moreover.

Very long and deep seemed the line as we neared it, and it was formed on
the banks of a stream that runs down the valley, so that we must cross
the water to attack. But the stream was shallow now with the August
heat, and it was not much sunk between its banks.

When he saw that, Sigurd, who was a man of many fights, said that we had
better send the marshmen round to fall on the wings of the foe, while we
went straight for the centre of the line in the wedge formation that the
Viking loves. For so we should have no trouble in crossing the stream,
and should cut the force against us in two.

So the two Welsh thanes led their wild levies out on either side of us
Danes, who were in the centre, and then we formed the wedge. Havelok
himself would have gone first of all at its point: but that we would not
suffer, for if he fell the battle was lost at its beginning.

"Nay," he said, "for we fight for Goldberga."

"And what would she say were we to set you foremost of us all?" asked
Withelm. "Little love were there to either of you in that. You are the
heart of the host, and one shields that although it gives strength to
all the hands which obey it."

So Withelm and Arngeir and I went foremost, and behind us came the
courtmen, and in the midst of their shield wall was Havelok, with Raven
and the banner at his side. After them, rank on rank and with
close-locked shields, was such a force as had not been seen in Lindsey
for many a long day. Alsi's men grew very silent as they saw us come on,
until we reached, through a storm of arrows that could not stay us, the
bank of the stream, and then they raised a war song that roared and
thundered among the hills as though the tide was coming up the valley in
one great wave. But we saved our breath until the first of us were on
the banks of the stream, and then I shouted, and with a great shout of
"Ahoy!" in answer, we charged through the stream and up the far bank,
where Alsi's spearmen waited for us.

They crowded together as they saw how narrow our front was, and there
was a hedge of steel before us three brothers; but the spear is not the
weapon to use if one would check the onrush of the Northman's wedge, and
shield and axe between them dashed and hewed a way to the men who got to
their swords too late, and then we were in the midst of Alsi's line,
with the gap that we had made widening behind us with each step that we
took forward.

Now it was sheer hewing at the mass who crowded on us; and I mind how we
seemed to fight in silence, although the battle cries were unceasing,
and waxed ever louder; for it was as when one walks by the shore and
thinks not at all of the noise of breakers that never ends. Now and then
there was one shout that was new, and it seemed to be the only voice.
Most of all, the noise grew on the wings where the savage Welsh fell on
their masters and ancient foes in wild tumult.

We tried to cut our way to Alsi, for we could see him as he sat on his
horse--the only mounted man in all the hosts; but we could not reach
him. And presently the time came when we who were foremost must let
fresh men take our places. Sigurd stepped to my side, and Withelm fell
back, and another took the place of Arngeir, and then my turn came, and
we went slowly from the front to where the hollow centre of the wedge
gave us rest. Only a few arrows fell there now and then; but the time
for using bows was past, seeing that we were hand to hand with all the
Lindsey host. And then I saw that Sigurd had done what we had failed in,
for he had reached the shield wall that was round the king himself. And
for a moment I was savage that the chance came to him so soon after I
had left the fighting line; but then I minded that Eglaf, my friend,
would be there, and I was glad that I need not cross swords with him
after all. I had thought of that happening before the fight began, but
in the turmoil of hottest struggle I had forgotten it.

Now Sigurd was before the thick mass of the housecarls, and hand to hand
with them; and then he was among them, and he leapt at the bridle of
Alsi's horse and grasped it. I saw the king's sword flash down on his
helm, and he reeled under the stroke, but without letting go of the
rein. Then the housecarls made a rush, and bore back our men, and the
horse reared suddenly. There was a wild shout, and the war saddle was
empty; and again our men surged forward, so that I could not see what
had happened.

But now our Welshmen had been beaten back from the wings--not easily,
but for want of training--and they were forced back across the brook,
and there held our bank well, giving way no step further. The water kept
them in an even front, against their will, as it were; and Alsi's men
charged them in vain, knee deep in the stream that ran red. But that let
loose the men who had been held back from us; and now we were overborne
by numbers, and we began to go back. That was the worst part of the
whole fight, and the hardest hour of all the battle, as may be supposed,
for the wedge grew closer, as it was forced together by sheer weight.
None ever broke into it.

Presently our rear was on the water's edge, and it seemed likely that in
crossing there might be a breaking of the line; and when he saw that,
Havelok called to me, and he went to the front with the courtmen round
him. It was good to hear the cheers of our men as they saw the dancing
banner above the fight, and beneath it, in the bright sun, the
gold-circled helm of their king. The Lindseymen drew back a foot's pace
as they saw the giant who came on them, and I heard some call that this
was Curan of Grimsby, as if in wonder. Then we had to fight hard, and
Sigurd fell back past me, with a wound on his shoulder where Alsi's
sword had glanced from the helm. No life had been left to Sigurd had a
better hand wielded the weapon; but he was not badly hurt. I could not
see Alsi anywhere, nor Eglaf.

Steadily the numbers drove us back, though before Havelok was always a
space into which men hardly dared to come. The wedge was pushed away
from us, and we had to fall back with it, until we crossed the stream;
and there Sigurd swung the massed men into line, and then came the first
pause in the fight. The two hosts stood, with the narrow water between
them, and glared on each other, silent now. And then the bowmen began to
get to work from either side, until the arrows were all gone.

Now Havelok called to the foe, and they were silent while he spoke to them.

"Is Alsi yet alive?" he said; "for if not, I have no war with his men.
If he is, let me speak with him."

None answered for a while, and the men looked at each other as if they
knew not if the man they were fighting for lived or not.

Then one came forward and said, "Alsi lives, and we have not done with
you yet. Get you back to your home beyond the sea!"

And then they charged us again; but the water was a better front for us
than it had been for them, and across it they could not win. We drove
them back once and twice; and again came a time when both sides were
wearied and must needs rest.

So it went on until night fell. We never stirred from that water's edge,
and the stream was choked with valiant English and hardy Danes; and yet
the attacks came with the shout of "Out! out!" and the answer from us of
"Havelok, ahoy!"

At last one who seemed a great chief came and cried a truce, for night
was falling; and he said that if Havelok would claim no advantage
therefrom, the men of Lindsey would get back from the field, and leave
it free for us to take our fallen.

"But I must have your word that with the end of that task you go back to
the place you now hold, that we may begin afresh, if it seems good to
us, in the morning."

Then said Havelok, "That is well spoken, and I cannot but agree. Who are
you, however, for I must know that this is said with authority?"

"I am the Earl of Chester," he answered. "Alsi has set the leading of
the host in my hands, for he is hurt somewhat."

"I did not think that Mercians would have troubled to fight to uphold
Alsi of Lindsey in his ways with his niece," Havelok said.

"What is that?" said the earl. "Hither came I for love of fighting,
maybe, in the first place; and next to drive out certain Vikings. I know
naught of the business of which you speak."

"Then," said I, "go and ask Eglaf, the captain of the housecarls, for he
knows all about it. We are no raiding Danes, but those who fight for
Goldberga of East Anglia."

At that a hum of voices went down the English line, and this earl bit
his lip in doubt.

"Well," he said, "that is Alsi's affair, and I will speak to him. We
have had a good fight, and I will not say that either of us has the best
of it. Shall it be as I have said?"

"Ay," answered Havelok; and the earl drew off his men for half a mile,
and in the gathering dusk we crossed the brook, and went on our errand
across the field. It was not hard to find our men, for they lay in a
great wedge as we had fought. There had been no straggling from that
array, and no break had been made in its lines. Alsi had lost more than
we, for his men had beaten against that steel wall in vain, and the arms
of the Northman are better than those of any other nation.

We took the wounded back to the camp, and there Goldberga and the wives
of our English thanes tended them; and as we gathered up the slain the
Lindsey men were among us at the same work, and we spoke to them as if
naught was amiss between us, nor any fight to begin again in the
morning. And then we learned how few knew what we had come for. It was
with them as with the Earl of Chester. They had no knowledge of
Goldberga's homecoming, and least of all thought that at the back of the
trouble were the wiles of Alsi. It was two years ago that Goldberga had
gone, and her wedding had seemed to end her story. Now the men heard and
wondered; and it is said that very many left Alsi that night and went
home, angry with him for his falsehood.