King Alfred's Viking: A Story of the First English Fleet, Charles W. Whistler [hardest books to read .txt] 📗
- Author: Charles W. Whistler
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Then his grave voice changed, and he laughed.
"Heavy things are these to speak in the ears of a bridegroom, but you know all I mean. Now go your ways, and seek Odda, who will rejoice to see you; for word comes from him that his master, Thord the viking, is saying hard things to him because the men do not come in readily to man the ships. At the summer's end I shall be in Winchester, and thence I will come to Wareham to see the fleet, and your wedding also. Go now, and all good go with you."
So Alfred the king set me forth in brotherly wise, speaking on the morrow to my men to bid them serve him and England well under me. And after that all came to pass as the king had planned, and at the summer's end there was a bright wedding for us in Wareham town, while in the wide haven rode at anchor the best fleet that England had ever seen.
So that is how I came to be called "King Alfred's Viking," and made this land my home. What this Wessex fleet of mine has done since those days has been written by others in better words than I can compass; and Harek, whom they call "King Alfred's Scald" nowadays, has made song of what he has seen at my side in English waters; and more he may have to make yet, for the North has not yet sent forth all her hosts. Only I will say this, that if we have not been altogether able to stay the coming of new Danish fleets to the long seaboard that must needs lie open to them here and there till our own fleets are greater, at least they know that the host may no longer come and go as they will, for Alfred's ships have to be reckoned with.
Now of ourselves I will add that Thora and I have many friends, but the best and closest are those whom we made in the days when Hubba came and fell under the shadow of the Quantock Hills, and they do not forget us.
Into our house sometimes come Heregar and Ethered, Denewulf the wise and humble, Odda, and many more, sure of welcome. Only the loved presence of Neot the holy is wanting, for he died in Cornwall in that year of the end of the troubles, and I think that in him I lost more than any save Alfred himself.
Osmund went back to East Anglia for a time, but there he grew wearied with the wrangling of the Danish chiefs as they shared out the new land between them; so he bides with us, finding all his pleasure in the life of farm and field, which is ever near to the heart of a Dane. With him goes old Thord, grumbling at the thralls in strange sea language, and yet well loved. Not until he was wounded sorely in a sea fight we had and won under the Isle of Wight would he leave the war deck; but even now he is the first on board when the ships come home, and he is the one who orders all for winter quarters or for sailing.
Now for long I would that I might look once more on Einar of the Orkneys, my kind foster father, who still bided there in peace, hearing of him now and then as some Norse ship, on her way to join Rolf's fleet in the new land of the Northmen beyond our narrow seas, put into our haven for repair, perhaps after the long voyage, or to see if King Alfred would hire her men for a cruise against the common foe--the Danes. And it was not until the news of his death came thus to me that the home longing for the old lands altogether left me; but since that day my thoughts have been, and will be, for England only. I have no thought or wish that I were sharer in Rolf's victories, nor have my comrades, Harek and Kolgrim and Thord; for we have with Alfred more than the viking could have given us.
I suppose that in days to come out of this long strife shall be wrought new strength and oneness for England, even as Alfred in his wisdom foresees; but as yet sword Helmbiter must be kept sharp, and the ships must be ever ready. But unless the wisdom of Alfred is forgotten, there will never again be wanting a ship captain of English race, as when I, a stranger, was called to the charge of the king's ships in Wessex. The old love of the sea is waking in the hearts of the sons of Hengist.
Therefore I am content, for here have I found the sweetest wife, and the noblest master, and the fairest land that man could wish. And the fear of the old gods is taken from me, and to me has come honour, and somewhat of the joy of victory in a good cause--the cause of freedom and of peace.
Now I write these things as springtime grows apace, and at any time--today, or tomorrow, or next day--into our hall may come Kolgrim my comrade, his scarred face bright with the light of coming battle, to say that Danish ships are once more on the gannet's path; and the sword of Sigurd will rattle in the golden scabbard, and a great English cheer will come from the haven, for King Alfred's ships are ready.
The End. Notes.i A Norse homestead consisted of several buildings--the great hall standing alone and apart from the domestic arrangements.
ii The Norse assembly, corresponding to a Saxon "Folkmote," or representative council for a district.
iii Unearthly. The trolls were the demons of the Northern mythology.
iv Byrnie, the close-fitting mail shirt.
v The consecrated silver ring kept in the temple of the district, and worn by the godar, or priest, at all assemblies where it might be necessary to administer an oath. Odin, Frey, and Niord were always called to witness an oath on this ring.
vi God-rede = "good counsel," or "God's counsel," as Alfred means "elves' counsel."
vii Asser's "Life of Alfred." This illness never left the king from his twentieth year to his death. Probably it was neuralgic, as it seems to have been violent pain without lasting effect.
viii This was called "prime signing," and was practically the admission of the heathen as a catechumen.
ix The "Havamal" was the Northern poem which practically embodied the ancient code of morals and behaviour.
x The use of bells was popular early in England, and not less so because a freeman who could afford to build a church with a bell tower became a thane in consequence.
xi The national representative assembly, and origin of our parliament.
xii Now Normandy, and so called after Rolf's Northmen.
xiii This charm against the "evil eye" was used in the west of England until quite lately, and may still linger. The charm against sprains is one yet recorded in the original tongue.
xiv Alfred had Denewulf instructed, and made him Bishop of Winchester.
xv In 845 A.D. Bishop Eahlstan and the levies of Somerset and Dorset defeated the first Danes who landed in Wessex, at the mouth of the Parret.
xvi Trading vessel, more heavily built than the swift longships.
xvii The "wild hunt" is still believed to pass over Cannington and the Quantock Hills, the sounds of the migration of flocks of sea fowl probably keeping the tradition alive.
xviii Athelstan = "noble stone."
xix Confirmation.
End of Project Gutenberg's King Alfred's Viking, by Charles W. Whistler
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