Orm gave the necklace to Ylva and told her of all that had happened to them; and even Rapp was less scant of speech than usual as he praised the excellence of the little priest’s throw.
“I hope he felt it,” said Ylva.
“There was blood on his mouth as he fell,” said Rapp. “I saw it clearly.”
“Little priest,” said Ylva, “I have a mind to kiss you for striking that blow.”
Orm laughed. “That is what I have always been most afraid of,” he said, “that you would become enamored of priests in your piety.”
Brother Willibald protested vehemently that he had no wish to be kissed; nevertheless, he appeared to be not altogether displeased at the praises that were being showered upon him.
“That kiss that King Sven received he will not soon forget,” said Orm, “and it is not his habit to leave such things unavenged. When we reach home, if we do so safely, my mother will have to pack with speed, for I think it will be safest for us to depart into the forests, where no king ventures. And there I shall build my church.”
And of Orm’s subsequent adventures in the forest country far north toward the border, the story also shall be told; of his zeal for Christianity, and Brother Willibald’s triumphs of conversion; of the opposition they encountered from the Smalanders, and their feuds with them; and of how the wild oxen returned to the land.
PART THREE
In the Border Country
CHAPTER ONE
HOW ORM BUILT HIS HOUSE AND CHURCH AND HOW THEY NAMED HIS RED-HAIRED DAUGHTERS
THREE years had passed since Orm, after selling in haste his father’s house on the Mound in order to flee from the wrath of King Sven, had toiled up to the border country with all his household, his wife and mother, his servants, and his little priest, his horses and cattle and as much silver and valuables as his beasts could carry. The estate that Asa had inherited from her father in the border country was called Gröning; but for some years now it had been a neglected wilderness of sagging roofs and overgrown fields, inhabited only by an ancient and infirm bailiff, his wife, and a gaggle of scrawny geese. Orm found little to be enthusiastic about when he saw the place, and thought it a poor homestead for a man of his quality and for a woman who was King Harald’s daughter; and Asa ran to and fro weeping and calling to God in her misery, and inveighing violently against the old couple; for she had not visited the place since the days when she had been a girl and her father had lived there in wealth and prosperity, before he and his two sons had been killed in a feud.
But Ylva was contented; for here, she said, they would be safe from King Sven and his ruffianly following.
“This is a place that will suit me well enough,” she said to Orm. “if you can prove yourself as skillful at house-building as you have shown yourself to be at fighting and handling a ship.”
Their first winter there they fared meagerly, for there was little food for man or beast, and they found their neighbors hostile. Orm sent men to a thane of the district, Gudmund of Uvaberg, whom men called Gudmund the Thunderer, and who was famed for his wealth and pugnacity, to buy hay and hops; but the men returned to Orm empty-handed, having received short shrift, for a newcomer to the border who was a follower of Christ to boot did not appear to Gudmund to be worthy of his notice. Then Orm saddled his horse and set forth with One-Eyed Rapp and three other good men. They arrived at Uvaberg a little before dawn. He succeeded without much difficulty in gaining entry to Gudmund’s house, picked him out of his bed, carried him out through his own front door, and dangled him by one leg over his own well, while Rapp and the others set their backs against the door that the people in the house might not disturb their parley. After Orm and Gudmund had argued the matter for a while over the mouth of the well, a bargain was concluded between them by which Orm was to receive all the hay and hops he required at a fair price; whereupon Orm turned him right ways up again and set him on his feet, pleased at having been able to settle the transaction without being forced to resort to violence.
The Thunderer’s wrath, though considerable, was equaled by the respect in which he now held Orm, and was a good deal less than his astonishment at finding himself still alive.
“For, you must know,” he said, “that I am a dangerous man, even though you are somewhat larger of frame and may therefore have to wait awhile before you sample the flavor of my wrath. Few men would have dared to let me escape alive after serving me as you have done; indeed, I hardly know if I myself would have been bold enough to do so, had I been in your trousers. But perhaps your wisdom is not commensurate with your strength.”
“I am wiser than you,” said Orm, “for I am a follower of Christ, and therefore possess His wisdom in addition to my own. It is His wish that a man shall be gentle unto his neighbor, even though that neighbor should do him mischief. So if you are sensible, you will go on your knees and thank Him; for your well looked to me to be somewhat deep. But if it is your wish that we two should be enemies, you will find that I can be wise in more ways than one; for I have encountered more dangerous adversaries than you, and no man has yet worsted me.”
Gudmund said that he would have to endure much mockery for the indignity that he had been forced to undergo, and that his good name would suffer in consequence; besides which, his leg had been painfully stretched by having to support his weight over the well. As he was speaking, the news was brought to him that one of his men, who had rushed at Orm with a sword as the latter was carrying Gudmund out of the house, was now being tended by the women for a broken shoulder that Rapp had given him with the blunt edge of his ax. Gudmund then asked what the attitude of Orm and Christ might be to this piece of information, and whether they thought that such an aggregate of injury and insult was not worth some compensation.
Orm pondered this problem for a while. Then he replied that the man whose shoulder had been broken had only himself to blame for his injury, and that he would give him nothing.
“It was lucky for the foolish fellow,” he said, “that Rapp is as devout a believer in Christian principles as I am; otherwise the man would not now require any attention from your women. He should count himself fortunate to have escaped so lightly. But as regards the injury and insult that you claim to have suffered, I think there is some justice in what you say, and I shall give you compensation. If you will accompany me, I will introduce you to a holy doctor who is a member of my household at Gröning. He is the cleverest physician in the world and will speedily cure the pain in your leg; indeed, so holy is he that, after he has treated it, you will find it sounder than its fellow. And it will greatly add to your honor, and to the respect in which your name is held, when it becomes known that you have been attended by a man who was, for a long period, King Harald’s personal physician and treated him for the many ailments from which he suffered, and cured them all marvelously.”
They argued about this at some length, but in the end Gudmund agreed to ride back with Orm to Gröning. There Father Willibald applied soothing salves to the leg and swathed it in bandages, while Gudmund plied him eagerly with questions about King Harald; but when the priest tried to tell him about Christ and the advantages of baptism, he became very violent and told him that he could keep his mouth shut on that subject. For, he roared, if it became known that he had fallen a victim to such nonsense, it would damage his reputation worse than the news of his suspension over the well, and men would never cease to laugh at him. It was a poor thing, he concluded deafeningly, that anyone should hold so low an opinion of his intelligence as to suppose him capable of being gulled by such foolish prattle.