“Oh, they don’t tell anyone to do anything—at least, if they do, nobody ever does it, as far as I can see; but they talk about suns and stars, and right and wrong, and ghosts and spirits, and that sort of thing; and about not enjoying oneself too much. Not that I ever saw that they were any happier than anyone else.”
“She must have been an Alruna-maiden,” said Wulf, half to himself.
“She is a very conceited creature, and I hate her,” said Pelagia.
“I believe you,” said Wulf.
“What is an Alruna-maiden?” asked one of the girls.
“Something as like you as a salmon is like a horseleech. Heroes, will you hear a saga?”
“If it is a cool one,” said Agilmund; “about ice, and pine-trees, and snowstorms. I shall be roasted brown in three days more.”
“Oh,” said the Amal, “that we were on the Alps again for only two hours, sliding down those snow-slopes on our shields, with the sleet whistling about our ears! That was sport!”
“To those who could keep their seat,” said Goderic. “Who went head over heels into a glacier-crack, and was dug out of fifty feet of snow, and had to be put inside a fresh-killed horse before he could be brought to life?”
“Not you, surely,” said Pelagia. “Oh, you wonderful creature! what things you have done and suffered!”
“Well,” said the Amal, with a look of stolid self-satisfaction, “I suppose I have seen a good deal in my time, eh?”
“Yes, my Hercules, you have gone through your twelve labours, and saved your poor little Hesione after them all, when she was chained to the rock, for the ugly sea-monsters to eat; and she will cherish you, and keep you out of scrapes now, for her own sake;” and Pelagia threw her arms round the great bull-neck, and drew it down to her.
“Will you hear my saga?” said Wulf impatiently.
“Of course we will,” said the Amal; “anything to pass the time.”
“But let it be about snow,” said Agilmund.
“Not about Alruna-wives?”
“About them, too,” said Goderic; “my mother was one, so I must needs stand up for them.”
“She was, boy. Do you be her son. Now hear, Wolves of the Goths!”
And the old man took up his little lute, or as he would probably have called it, fidel, and began chanting to his own accompaniment.
Over the camp fires
Drank I with heroes,
Under the Donau bank
Warm in the snow-trench, Sagamen heard I there,
Men of the Longbeards,
Cunning and ancient,
Honey-sweet-voiced.
Scaring the wolf-cub,
Scaring the horn-owl out,
Shaking the snow-wreaths
Down from the pine-boughs,
Up to the star-roof
Rang out their song.
Singing how Winil men
Over the icefloes
Sledging from Scanland on
Came unto Scoring;
Singing of Gambara
Freya’s beloved.
Mother of Ayo
Mother of Ibor.
Singing of Wendel men,
Ambri and Assi;
How to the Winilfolk
Went they with war-words—
“Few are ye, strangers,
And many are we;
Pay us now toll and fee,
Clothyarn, and rings, and beeves;
Else at the raven’s meal
Bide the sharp bill’s doom.”Clutching the dwarfs’ work then,
Clutching the bullock’s shell,
Girding gray iron on,
Forth fared the Winils all,
Fared the Alruna’s sons,
Ayo and Ibor.
Mad of heart stalked they
Loud wept the women all,
Loud the Alruna-wife;
Sore was their need.Out of the morning land,
Over the snowdrifts,
Beautiful Freya came,
Tripping to Scoring.
White were the moorlands,
And frozen before her;
But green were the moorlands,
And blooming behind her,
Out of her golden locks
Shaking the spring flowers,
Out of her garments
Shaking the south wind,
Around in the birches
Awaking the throstles,
And making chaste housewives all
Long for their heroes home,
Loving and love-giving,
Came she to Scoring.
Came unto Gambara,
Wisest of Valas—
“Vala, why weepest thou
Far in the wide-blue,
High up in the Elfin-home,
Heard I thy weeping.”“Stop not thy weeping,
Till one can fight seven.
Sons have I, heroes tall,
First in the swordplay;
This day at the Wendels’ hands
Eagles must tear them;
While their mothers, thrall-weary,
Must grind for the Wendels.”Wept the Alruna-wife;
Kissed her fair Freya—
“Far off in the morning land
High in Valhalla,
A window stands open,
Its sill is the snow-peaks,
Its posts are the waterspouts
Storm rack its lintel,
Gold cloud-flakes above it
Are piled for the roofing.
Far up to the Elfin-home,
High in the wide-blue.
Smiles out each morning thence
Odin All-father;
From under the cloud-eaves,
Smiles out on the heroes,
Smiles out on chaste housewives all,
Smiles on the broodmares,
Smiles on the smith’s work:
And theirs is the sword-luck,
With them is the glory—
So Odin hath sworn it—
Who first in the morning
Shall meet him and greet him.”
Still the Alruna wept—
“Who then shall greet him?
Women alone are here:
Far on the moorlands
Behind the war-lindens,
In vain for the bill’s doom
Watch Winil heroes all,
One against seven.”Sweetly the Queen laughed—
“Hear thou my counsel now;
Take to thee cunning,
Beloved of Freya.
Take thou thy womenfolk,
Maidens and wives:
Over your ankles
Lace on the white war-hose;
Over your bosoms
Link up the hard mailnets;
Over your lips
Plait long tresses with cunning;—
So war-beasts full bearded King Odin shall deem you,
When off the gray sea-beach
At sunrise ye greet him.”Night’s son was driving
His golden-haired horses up.
Over the Eastern firths
High flashed their manes.
Smiled from the cloud-eaves out
All-father Odin,
Waiting the battle-sport:
Freya stood by him.
“Who are these heroes tall—
Lusty-limbed Longbeards?
Over the swans’ bath
Why cry they to me?
Bones should be crashing fast,
Wolves should be full-fed,
Where’er such, mad-hearted,
Swing hands in the swordplay.”
Sweetly laughed Freya—
“A name thou hast given them—
Shames neither thee nor them,
Well can they wear it.
Give them the victory,
First have they greeted thee;
Give them the victory,
Yokefellow mine!
Maidens and wives are these—
Wives of the Winils;
Few are their heroes
And far on the war-road,
So over the swans’ bath
They cry unto thee.”Royally laughed he then;
Dear was that craft to him,
Odin All-father,
Shaking the clouds.
“Cunning are women all,
Bold and importunate!
Longbeards their name shall be,
Ravens shall thank them:
Where the women are heroes,
What must the men be like?
Theirs is the victory;
No need of me!”3
“There!” said Wulf, when the song was ended; “is that cool enough for you?”
“Rather too cool; eh, Pelagia?” said the Amal, laughing.
“Ay,” went on the old man, bitterly enough, “such were your mothers; and such were your sisters; and such your wives must be, if you intend to last much longer on the face of the earth—women who care for something better than good eating, strong drinking, and soft lying.”
“All very true, Prince Wulf,” said Agilmund, “but I don’t like the saga after all. It was a great deal too like what Pelagia here
