“He is too good a man to have to climb trees,” she said to Orm and the house-folk that evening as they were sitting at their meal, full of merriment at the manner in which the magister had ended his sojourn in the tree, “and he shall not be forced to do it any more.”
“I know little of his goodness,” said Orm, “but if you mean that he is too clumsy to do so, you have my agreement. What he is fitted for is more than I know; but the Smalanders will, no doubt, be able to hit upon something. Most of the cherries are ripe now and can be picked before the birds steal them, so that we shall lose little by this accident. But it is good that the time for the Thing is almost upon us.”
“Until that time arrives,” said Ylva firmly, “I myself will keep watch over him; for I do not want him to be mocked and fare miserably during the last days that he will spend among Christians.”
“Whatever he does, women swarm to his assistance,” said Orm. “But you may do as you think best in this matter.”
Everybody in the house laughed themselves crooked whenever any mention was made of the magister and his bee-swarm; but Asa said that this was a good omen, for she had often heard wise old people say that when bees settled on a man’s head it meant that he would have a long life and many children. Father Willibald said that in his younger days he had heard the same asserted by learned men at the Emperor’s court at Goslar; though, he added, he was not sure whether this was altogether applicable when the person in question was a priest.
Father Willibald could not find anything very wrong with the magister’s sore shoulder; none the less, the magister preferred to remain in bed for the next few days, and even when he felt well enough to get up, he continued to spend most of his time in his room. Ylva watched over him with care, preparing all his meals herself, and saw to it strictly that none of her servant-girls should be allowed to come near him. Orm chaffed her about this, saying that he wondered whether she, too, might not have gone crazy about the magister; besides which, he said, he could not but grudge all the good food that was taken daily into the weaving-room. But Ylva answered firmly that this was a matter for her to decide; the poor wretch, she said, needed good food to put a little flesh on his bones before he went to live among the heathens, and, as regards the servant-girls, she was merely anxious to preserve him from temptation and spiteful mockery.
So Ylva had her way in this matter; and things continued thus until the time arrived for the dwellers on both sides of the border to ride to the Thing at the Kraka Stone.
CHAPTER TEN
CONCERNING THE WOMEN’S DOINGS AT THE KRAKA STONE, AND HOW BLUE-TONGUE’S EDGE BECAME DENTED
EVERY third summer, at the first full moon after the heather had begun to bloom, the border peoples of Skania and Smaland met, by ancient tradition, at the stone called the Kraka Stone, in order to take vows of peace, or of war, against one another until the time of their next meeting.
To this place came chieftains and chosen men from Finnveden and Värend and from all the districts of Göinge, and a Thing was held, which usually continued for several days. For even when peace prevailed along the border, there were always many problems to be settled; disputes regarding hunting and pasturing rights, murders resulting from these disputes, cattle-thefts, woman-thefts, and the extradition of slaves who had escaped across the border. All such matters were duly weighed and judged, by wise men from all the various tribes, sometimes in a manner satisfactory to everyone, as when, for example, murder could be repaid by murder, or rape by rape, and sometimes by an agreed fine. When, though, a difficult altercation had arisen between stubborn men, so that no agreement could be arrived at, the matter would be decided by single combat between the parties concerned, on the flat grass before the Stone. This was regarded as the best entertainment of all, and any Thing during which at least three corpses had not been carried from the combat ground would be thought a poor and unworthy session. Most often, however, the Thing sustained its reputation as an occasion of much sport and displaying of wisdom, and everyone left it well contented, with fine stories to tell their wives and house-folk on their return home.
Much buying and selling also took place there, of slaves, weapons, and oxen, forged iron, and cloth, skins, wax, and salt, so that sometimes traders came to it from as far afield as Hedeby and Gotland. In former times the King at Uppsala and the King of the Danes had been wont to send trusted men to the Thing, partly to safeguard their rights and partly to keep an eye for outlaws who had escaped their clutches; but the farmers had greeted these envoys by removing their heads, which they had then smoked over juniper fires and sent back to their masters, to signify to the kings that the border peoples preferred to manage their own affairs. But stewards and ships’ chieftains from the jarls of Skania and West Guteland still occasionally came there, to enlist the services of any good warrior who had a mind to go a-viking overseas.
Accordingly the Thing at the Kraka Stone had come to be regarded by the border peoples as a great occasion, so that they often reckoned time from Thing to Thing.
Men said that the Stone had been set up in ancient times by Rolf Krake, during a journey that he had made through these parts; and neither kings nor border-dwellers had dared to erase this mark which he had raised to show where the country of the Danes ended and that of the Swedes began. It was a tall and mighty stone, such as only heroes of ancient times could have had the strength to raise; it stood in open ground on a hill, and was shadowed by a hawthorn tree, which was held to be sacred and of equal age with the Stone. On the evening before each Thing, it was the custom of the Virds, the inhabitants of Värend, to sacrifice two goats at the Stone and perform strange rites; their blood was allowed to spread over the ground, and it was held that this blood, together with that which was spilled around the Stone during combats, gave much strength to the tree, so that it continued to flourish, despite its age, and always bloomed most richly in the year following a Thing. But few saw it bloom save the birds that nested in its branches, and eagles and kites and the wandering animals of the earth; for all around the Kraka Stone for many miles the land was desert and uninhabited.
As Orm was making ready to journey to the Thing, many farmers came to Gröning to accompany him thither—Gudmund of Uvaberg, Black Grim, and others. Orm left Rapp behind to guard the house and took with him both the priests and two of his men. All the women wept because the magister was now leaving them to become a slave, but he said that there was nothing else for it, and that it was to be so. Asa and Ylva had sewn new clothes for him, a tunic and shirt and skin breeches; Orm said that it was well that they had done this, for it would make it easier for them to negotiate the exchange if he had good clothes on his back, which his new employer would be able to make use of.
“For you must not suppose,” he said, “that he will be able to wear them for long himself.”
Torgunn brought the magister a basket of birch bark filled with good food for his journey, which she had herself prepared specially for him. Rapp scowled when he saw it, but she insisted that the magister should have it, saying that she was giving it to him as a thanks-gift for the prayers he had read over her knee; besides which, she said, she hoped to get a good blessing from him in return for it. The magister sat palely on his horse and blessed her and all the others with beautiful words, so that tears appeared in all the women’s eyes. Father Willibald, who was also seated high on a horse, then offered up a prayer for a lucky journey and protection against wild beasts, robbers, and all dangers that threaten men who travel. Then the company rode away to the Thing, strong in numbers and well armed.