Tales of a Wayside Inn Part 6

Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.

They found the doors securely barred, They found the watch-dog in the yard, There was no footprint in the gra.s.s, And none had seen the stranger pa.s.s.

Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.

King Olaf crossed himself and said: "I know that Odin the Great is dead; Sure is the triumph of our Faith, The one-eyed stranger was his wraith."

Dead rides Sir Morten of Fogelsang.

VII.

IRON-BEARD.

Olaf the King, one summer morn, Blew a blast on his bugle-horn, Sending his signal through the land of Drontheim.

And to the Hus-Ting held at Mere Gathered the farmers far and near, With their war weapons ready to confront him.

Ploughing under the morning star, Old Iron-Beard in Yriar Heard the summons, chuckling with a low laugh.

He wiped the sweat-drops from his brow, Unharnessed his horses from the plough, And clattering came on horseback to King Olaf.

He was the churliest of the churls; Little he cared for king or earls; Bitter as home-brewed ale were his foaming pa.s.sions.

Hodden-gray was the garb he wore, And by the Hammer of Thor he swore; He hated the narrow town, and all its fas.h.i.+ons.

But he loved the freedom of his farm, His ale at night, by the fireside warm, Gudrun his daughter, with her flaxen tresses.

He loved his horses and his herds, The smell of the earth, and the song of birds, His well-filled barns, his brook with its watercresses.

Huge and c.u.mbersome was his frame; His beard, from which he took his name, Frosty and fierce, like that of Hymer the Giant.

So at the Hus-Ting he appeared, The farmer of Yriar, Iron-Beard, On horseback, with an att.i.tude defiant.

And to King Olaf he cried aloud, Out of the middle of the crowd, That tossed about him like a stormy ocean:

"Such sacrifices shalt thou bring; To Odin and to Thor, O King, As other kings have done in their devotion!"

King Olaf answered: "I command This land to be a Christian land; Here is my Bishop who the folk baptizes!

"But if you ask me to restore Your sacrifices, stained with gore, Then will I offer human sacrifices!

"Not slaves and peasants shall they be, But men of note and high degree, Such men as Orm of Lyra and Kar of Gryting!"

Then to their Temple strode he in, And loud behind him heard the din Of his men-at-arms and the peasants fiercely fighting.

There in the Temple, carved in wood, The image of great Odin stood, And other G.o.ds, with Thor supreme among them.

King Olaf smote them with the blade Of his huge war-axe, gold inlaid, And downward shattered to the pavement flung them.

At the same moment rose without, From the contending crowd, a shout, A mingled sound of triumph and of wailing.

And there upon the trampled plain The farmer Iron-Beard lay slain, Midway between the a.s.sailed and the a.s.sailing.

King Olaf from the doorway spoke: "Choose ye between two things, my folk, To be baptized or given up to slaughter!"

And seeing their leader stark and dead, The people with a murmur said, "O King, baptize us with thy holy water!"

So all the Drontheim land became A Christian land in name and fame, In the old G.o.ds no more believing and trusting.

And as a blood-atonement, soon King Olaf wed the fair Gudrun; And thus in peace ended the Drontheim Hus-Ting!

VIII.

GUDRUN.

On King Olaf's bridal night s.h.i.+nes the moon with tender light, And across the chamber streams Its tide of dreams.

At the fatal midnight hour, When all evil things have power, In the glimmer of the moon Stands Gudrun.

Close against her heaving breast, Something in her hand is pressed; Like an icicle, its sheen Is cold and keen.

On the cairn are fixed her eyes Where her murdered father lies, And a voice remote and drear She seems to hear.

What a bridal night is this!

Cold will be the dagger's kiss; Laden with the chill of death Is its breath.

Like the drifting snow she sweeps To the couch where Olaf sleeps; Suddenly he wakes and stirs, His eyes meet hers.

"What is that," King Olaf said, "Gleams so bright above thy head?

Wherefore standest thou so white In pale moonlight?"

"'Tis the bodkin that I wear When at night I bind my hair; It woke me falling on the floor; 'Tis nothing more."

"Forests have ears, and fields have eyes; Often treachery lurking lies Underneath the fairest hair!

Gudrun beware!"

Ere the earliest peep of morn Blew King Olaf's bugle-horn; And forever sundered ride Bridegroom and bride!

IX.

THANGBRAND THE PRIEST.

Short of stature, large of limb, Burly face and russet beard, All the women stared at him, When in Iceland he appeared.

"Look!" they said, With nodding head, "There goes Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest."

All the prayers he knew by rote, He could preach like Chrysostome, From the Fathers he could quote, He had even been at Rome.

A learned clerk, A man of mark, Was this Thangbrand, Olaf's Priest.