DESCRIBES WARLIKE PREPARATIONS, AND A NORSE HALL IN THE OLDEN TIME-TELLS ALSO OF A SURPRISE

Instead of returning to Ulfstede, Erling directed his steps homeward at a brisk pace, and in a short space of time reached the door of his forge.  Here he met one of his father’s thralls.

“Ho! fellow,” said he, “is thy mistress at home?”

“Yes, master, she is in the hall getting supper ready against your father’s return.”

“Go tell her there will be no men to eat supper in the hall to-night,” said Erling, unfastening the door of the forge.  “Say that I am in the forge, and will presently be in to speak with her.  Go also to Thorer, and tell him to get the house-carles busked for war.  When they are ready let him come hither to me; and, harkee, use thine utmost speed; there may be bloody work for us all to do this night before the birds are on the wing.  Away!”

The man turned and ran to the house, while Erling blew up the smouldering fire of the forge.  Throwing off his jerkin, he rolled up his sleeves, and seizing the axe on which he had been engaged when Hilda interrupted him, he wrought so vigorously at the stubborn metal with the great forehammer that in the course of half an hour it was ready to fit on the haft.  There was a bundle of hafts in a corner of the workshop.  One of these, a tough thick one without knot or flaw, and about five feet long, he fitted to the iron head with great neatness and skill.  The polishing of this formidable weapon he deferred to a period of greater leisure.  Having completed this piece of work, Erling next turned to another corner of the forge and took up the huge two-handed sword which he had made for his friend Glumm.

The weapon was beautifully executed, and being highly polished, the blade glittered with a flashing light in the ruddy glare of the forge fire.  The young giant sat down on his anvil and put a few finishing touches to the sword, regarding it the while with a grim smile, as if he speculated on the probability of his having formed a weapon wherewith his own skull was destined to be cloven asunder.  While he was thus engaged his mother Herfrida entered.

The soft-eyed dame could scarcely be called a matronly personage.  Having married when about sixteen, she was now just thirty-eight years of age; and though the bloom of maidenhood was gone, the beauty of a well-favoured and healthy woman still remained.  She wore a cloak of rich blue wool, and under it a scarlet kirtle with a silver girdle.

“How now, my son,” she said; “why these warlike preparations?”

“Because there is rumour of war; I’m sure that is neither strange nor new to you, mother.”

“Truly no; and well do I know that where war is, there my husband and my son will be found.”

Herfrida said this with a feeling of pride, for, like most of the women of that time and country, she esteemed most highly the men who were boldest and could use their weapons best.

“’Twere well if we were less noted in that way, and more given to peace,” said Erling half-jestingly.  “For my own part, I have no liking for war, but you women will be for ever egging us on!”

Herfrida laughed.  She was well aware of what she was pleased to term her son’s weakness, namely, an idea that he loved peace, while he was constantly proving to the world that he was just cut out for war.  Had he ever shown a spark of cowardice she would have regarded those speeches of his with much anxiety, but as it was she only laughed at them.

“Erling, my boy,” she said suddenly, as her eye fell on the axe at his side, ­“what terrible weapon is this?  Surely thou must have purchased Thor’s hammer.  Can ye wield such a thing?”

“I hope so, mother,” said Erling curtly; “if not, I shall soon be in Valhalla’s halls.”

“What are these rumours of war that are abroad just now?” asked Herfrida.

Erling replied by giving his mother an account of King Harald’s recent deeds, and told her of the calling of the Thing, and of the appearance of the Danish vikings off the coast.

“May good spirits attend thee, my son!” she said, kissing the youth’s forehead fervently, as a natural gush of tenderness and womanly anxiety filled her breast for a moment.  But the feeling passed away as quickly as it came; for women who are born and nurtured in warlike times become accustomed and comparatively indifferent to danger, whether it threatens themselves or those most dear to them.

While mother and son were conversing, Thorer entered the smithy, bearing Erling’s armour.

“Are the lads all a-boun?” [armed and ready] enquired Erling as he rose.

“Aye, master; and I have brought your war-gear.”

The man who thus spoke was Haldor’s chief house-carle.  He was a very short and extremely powerful man of about forty-five years of age, and so sturdy and muscular as to have acquired the title of Thorer the Thick.  He wore a shirt of scale armour, rather rusty, and somewhat the worse of having figured in many a tough battle by land and sea.  A triangular shield hung at his back, and his headpiece was a simple peaked helmet of iron, with a prolongation in front that guarded his nose.  Thorer’s offensive armour consisted of a short straight sword, a javelin and a bow, with a quiver of arrows.

“How many men hast thou assembled, Thorer?” asked Erling as he donned his armour.

“Seventy-five, master; the rest are up on the fells, on what errand I know not.”

“Seventy-five will do.  Haste thee, carle, and lead them to my longship the Swan.  Methinks we will skate upon the ocean to-night. [Longships, or war-vessels, were sometimes called ocean-skates.] I will follow thee.  Let every man be at his post, and quit not the shore till I come on board.  Now fare away as swiftly as may be, and see that everything be done stealthily; above all, keep well out of sight of Ulfstede.”

Thus admonished, Thorer quickly left the forge; and a few seconds later the clanking tread of armed men was heard as Erling’s followers took their way to the fiord.

“Now I will to the hall, my son, and pray that thou mayst fare well,” said Herfrida, once more kissing the forehead which the youth lowered to receive the parting salute.  The mother retired, and left her son standing in the forge gazing pensively at the fire, the dying flames of which shot up fitfully now and then, and gleamed on his shining mail.

If Erling the Bold was a splendid specimen of a man in his ordinary costume, when clad in the full panoply of war he was truly magnificent.  The rude but not ungraceful armour of the period was admirably fitted to display to advantage the elegant proportions of his gigantic figure.  A shirt or tunic of leather, covered with steel rings, hung loosely ­yet, owing to its weight, closely ­on his shoulders.  This was gathered in at the waist by a broad leathern belt, studded with silver ornaments, from which hung a short dagger.  A cross belt of somewhat similar make hung from his right shoulder, and supported a two-edged sword of immense weight, which was quite as strong, though not nearly so long, as that which he had forged for Glumm.  It was intended for a single-handed weapon, though men of smaller size might have been constrained, in attempting to wield it, to make use of both hands.  The youth’s lower limbs were clothed in closely-fitting leather leggings, and a pair of untanned leather shoes, laced with a single thong, protected his feet.  On his head he wore a small skull-cap, or helmet, of burnished steel, from the top of which rose a pair of hawk’s wings expanded, as if in the act of flight.  No gloves or gauntlets covered his hands, but on his left arm hung a large shield, shaped somewhat like an elongated heart, with a sharp point at its lower end.  Its top touched his shoulder, and the lower part reached to his knee.

This shield was made of several plies of thick bull-hide, with an outer coat of iron ­the whole being riveted firmly together with iron studs.  It was painted pure white, without device of any kind, but there was a band of azure blue round it, near the margin ­the rim itself being of polished steel.  In addition to his enormous axe, sword, and dagger, Erling carried at his back a short bow and a quiver full of arrows.

The whole of this war gear bore evidence of being cherished with the utmost care and solicitude.  Every ring on the tunic was polished as highly as the metal would admit of, so that the light appeared to trickle over it as its wearer moved.  The helmet shone like a globe of quicksilver, and lines of light gleamed on the burnished edge of the shield, or sparkled on the ornamental points of the more precious metals with which the various parts of his armour were decorated.  Above all hung a loose mantle or cloak of dark-blue cloth, which was fastened on the right shoulder with a large circular brooch of silver.

The weight of this panoply was enormous, but long habit had so inured the young Norseman to the burthen of his armour that he moved under it as lightly as if it had been no heavier than his ordinary habiliments.  Indeed, so little did it impede his movements that he could spring over chasms and mountain streams almost as well with as without it; and it was one of the boasts of his admiring friends that “he could leap his own height with all his war gear on!”

We have already referred to Erling’s partiality for the axe as an offensive weapon.  This preference was in truth ­strange though the assertion may appear ­owing to the peculiar adaptation of that instrument to the preservation of life as well as the taking of it!

There are exceptions to all rules.  The rule among the Northmen in former years was to slay and spare not.  Erling’s tendency, and occasionally his practice, was to spare and not to slay, if he could do so with propriety.  From experience he found that, by a slight motion of his wrist, the edge of his axe could be turned aside, and the blow which was delivered by its flat side was invariably sufficient, without killing, to render the recipient utterly incapable of continuing or renewing the combat ­at least for a few days.  With the sword this delicate manoeuvre could not be so easily accomplished, for a blow from the flat of a sword was not sufficiently crushing, and if delivered with great force the weapon was apt to break.  Besides, Erling was a blunt, downright, straightforward man, and it harmonised more with his feelings, and the energy of his character, to beat down sword and shield and headpiece with one tremendous blow, than to waste time in fencing with a lighter weapon.

Having completed his toilet and concluded his meditations ­which latter filled him with much perplexity, if one might judge from the frequency with which he shook his head ­Erling the Bold hung Glumm’s long sword at his back, laid his huge axe on his shoulder, and, emerging from the smithy, strode rapidly along the bridle path that led to the residence of Ulf of Romsdal.

Suddenly it occurred to him that he had not yet tried the temper of his new weapon, so he stopped abruptly before a small pine tree, about as thick as a man’s arm.  It stood on the edge of a precipice along the margin of which the track skirted.  Swaying the axe once round his head, he brought it forcibly down on the stem, through which it passed as if it had been a willow wand, and the tree went crashing into the ravine below.  The youth looked earnestly at his weapon, and nodded his head once or twice as if the result were satisfactory.  A benignant smile played on his countenance as he replaced it on his shoulder and continued on his way.

A brisk walk of half an hour brought him to Ulfstede, where he found the men of the family making active preparations for the impending journey to the Thing.  In the great hall of the house, his father held earnest discussion with Ulf.  The house-carles busied themselves in burnishing their mail and sharpening their weapons, while Ada and Hilda assisted Dame Astrid, Ulf’s wife, to spread the board for the evening meal.

Everything in the hall was suggestive of rude wealth and barbarous warlike times.  The hall itself was unusually large ­capable of feasting at least two hundred men.  At one end a raised hearth sustained a fire of wood that was large enough to have roasted an ox.  The smoke from this, in default of a chimney, found an exit through a hole in the roof.  The rafters were, of course, smoked to a deep rich coffee colour, and from the same cause the walls also partook not a little of that hue.  All round these walls hung, in great profusion, shields, spears, swords, bows, skins, horns, and such like implements and trophies of war and the chase.  The centre of the hall was open, but down each side ran two long tables, which were at this time groaning with great haunches of venison, legs of mutton, and trenchers of salmon, interspersed with platters of wild fowl, and flanked by tankards and horns of mead and ale.  Most of the drinking cups were of horn, but many of these were edged with a rim of silver, and, opposite the raised seats of honour, in the centre of each table, the tankards were of solid silver, richly though rudely chased ­square, sturdy, and massive, like the stout warriors who were wont to quaff their foaming contents.

“I tell thee, Ulf,” said Haldor, “thou wilt do wrong to fare to the Thing with men fully armed when the token was one of peace.  The King is in no mood just now to brook opposition.  If we would save our independence we must speak him smoothly.”

“I care not,” replied Ulf gruffly; “this is no time to go about unarmed.”

“Nay, I did not advise thee to go unarmed, but surely a short sword might suffice, and ­”

At this moment Erling entered, and Ulf burst into a loud laugh as he interrupted his friend:  “Aye, a short sword ­something like that,” he said, pointing to the huge hilt which rose over the youth’s shoulder.

“Hey! lad,” exclaimed his father, “art going to fight with an axe in one hand and a sword in the other?”

“The sword is for Glumm, father.  I owe him one after this morning’s work.  Here, friend Glumm, buckle it on thy shoulder.  The best wish that thou and I can exchange is, that thy sword and my axe may never kiss each other.”

“Truly, if they ever do, I know which will fare worst,” said Haldor, taking the axe and examining it, “Thou art fond of a weary arm, my lad, else ye would not have forged so weighty a weapon.  Take my advice and leave it behind thee.”

“Come, come,” interrupted Ulf; “see, the tables are spread; let us use our jaws on food and drink, and not on words, for we shall need both to fit us for the work before us, and perchance we may have no longer need of either before many days go by.  We can talk our fill at the Thing, an it so please us.”

“That will depend on the King’s pleasure,” replied Haldor, laughing.

“So much the more reason for taking our arms with us, in order that we may have the means of talking the King’s pleasure,” retorted Ulf with a frown; “but sit ye down at my right hand, Haldor, and Hilda will wait upon thee.  Come, my men all ­let us fall to.”

It is scarcely necessary to say that this invitation was accepted with alacrity.  In a few minutes about fifty pairs of jaws were actively employed in the manner which Ulf recommended.

Meanwhile Erling the Bold seated himself at the lower end of one of the tables, in such a position that he could keep his eye on the outer door, and, if need be, steal away unobserved.  He calculated that his little brother must soon return from his flying journey, and he expected to hear from him some news of the vikings.  In this expectation he was right; but when Alric did come, Erling saw and heard more than he looked for.

The meal was about half concluded, and Ulf was in the act of pledging, not absent, but defunct, friends, when the door opened slowly, and Alric thrust his head cautiously in.  His hair, dripping and tangled, bore evidence that his head at least had been recently immersed in water.

He caught sight of Erling, and the head was at once withdrawn.  Next moment Erling stood outside of the house.

“How now, Alric, what has befallen thee?  Hey! thou art soaking all over!”

“Come here; I’ll show you a fellow who will tell you all about it.”

In great excitement the boy seized his brother’s hand and dragged rather than led him round the end of the house, where the first object that met his view was a man whose face was covered with blood, which oozed from a wound in his forehead, while the heaving of his chest, and an occasional gasp, seemed to indicate that he had run far and swiftly.