Then all of a sudden Frey leaped from the cart into the midst of the fight
"Then all of a sudden Frey ... leaped from the cart into the midst of the fight."Frey and his Wife][Page 241
"Then all of a sudden Frey ... leaped from the cart into the midst of the fight."
Frey and his Wife][Page 241
Then all of a sudden Frey roared aloud, making a terrible booming noise, and leaped from the cart into the midst of the fight. Sigurd now saw that he had in his right hand an axe, and remarked with pleasure how doughtily he laid about him with it, and how men fell before him. Frey kept up his roaring, which was like the noise of a great buzzing windmill, and seemed to paralyze his enemies, who gave back in confusion until they were at the water's edge.
"Now is our time," said Sigurd, and gave the order to set on.
So they did, with spears, and completed the rout. All the remnant of the assailants was slain. Then Sigurd turned him to Frey.
"This is the last of your miracles, brother," he said, "or the last but one. You had no need of us."
Gunnar turned upon him in wonderment. "Ah, it is you, Sigurd! I cry you hail!" Then they shook hands and embraced each other with great joy.
Gunnar told Sigurd that he had had suspicions of some such thing, "since the people on this side of the river have no love for Frey," and knew what a treasure he had in his wagon. He had prepared himself beforehand with a tolerable company; but the marauders were in greater force than he had thought for. "So it was needful for Frey himself to make an example of them."
Then Sigurd asked to be shown the treasure; "And they tell me, Gunnar, that you have more than gold and silver with you."
"So I have," said Gunnar, "as you shall see." He called Sigrid, who then came down from the cart and greeted Sigurd with gravity and timidity mingled. She stood very close to Gunnar all the time.Sigurd approved highly of her, and "I see that the crowning wonder of Frey's life on earth is to be accomplished in her." This he said to Gunnar when they were alone, and Gunnar did not deny it.
When they had eaten, drunken and rested themselves, Gunnar desired to know what had brought his brother adventuring into these wilds. Sigurd said, Well! he had heard rumours of Frey's doings which put him in mind of Gunnar. These had been spoken of in the king's council, and authority given to him to go out and satisfy himself. "And I may tell you," he continued, "that King Olaf's anger with you is over, and that you need not fear the sight of a tree any more. But we will talk about that another time. Let me see this fine treasure of yours which your magic has drawn from the Swedes."
Gunnar said, "I don't know that there was much magic about it. I gave them what they wanted, they gave me what Iwanted. It seems a fair barter. And let me tell you, it is no light matter for me to be silent when men are feasting; and to fill up your nostrils with red paint every morning—that is worth its price also."
"But you had a pretty wife to talk with," said Sigurd.
"To be sure I had," Gunnar replied, "and a great to-do before I had her."
Sigrid brought out the treasure to show to Sigurd. He was amazed. "I had not believed there was so much gold and silver in Sweden," he said. Then he saw the cloths, the tissues of silk and linen, and the raiment. By and by he turned over the green and brown cloak which Gunnar had brought with him from Drontheim. "Here is a notable cloak," he said, "the like of which I have seen before."
"Have you though?" said Gunnar, and laughed. "That is Frey's own cloak, which I vowed to him when I took service under him, and long before I made palings of him."
Sigurd said, "Wait a little. I think I can match it." He went away to his company and came back with Gunnar's red-hooded cloak in his hands. "Here," he said, "is a fellow to it, somewhat tousled and time-worn. Do you know it?"
Gunnar handled it with affection. "That is an old friend which I never thought to see again," he said. "The last time I saw it, it was on the back of a dirty rascal."
Sigurd told him the tale of its recovery, and how a great stone had come up in the hood of it. Gunnar said, "I see it—but I saw it all at the time."
"I did not," said Sigurd, "but now I do. I shall keep both of these cloaks, by your leave," he said. "King Olaf requires to be convinced."
Gunnar said that he was ready to go back with his brother the way he had come, but that he would send Frey's wagon home across the ford. "If they need a newFrey," he said, "they will make one for themselves."
"There's a new Frey on the road," said Sigurd, "who would give them great satisfaction," but Gunnar said that he had had enough godship.
So they returned along the river road, and Sigrid had her first sight of the sea, and a taste of its quality.
THE END OF THE TALE
Gunnar found himself rich with all his Swedish treasure, and bought land in a dale of Drontheim, and set to work building a fine house. About Christmas-time Sigrid gave birth to a son, which was a great affair. But before any of these things happened to him he had to see King Olaf, who received him with a wry smile.
"So you are not only contumacious, but inveterate in sin," he said; but Gunnar could see that he wasn't angry. "You not only deny my God, but set yourself up as His rival. And now you are in my hands, what am I to do?"
"Sir," said Gunnar, "it is rather true that the only way I had of escaping yourrope was to run among the heathen. As for my godhead, that in a sense was forced upon me. I would have you remark that I slew a god before I became one myself."
"You slew a god and took his wife," said the king. "I should like to see Frey's wife. You shall bring her to me, if you please. I have many questions to put to her."
So Sigrid was brought to King Olaf, who questioned her alone. But he found it one thing to question and another thing to get answered. As for her origin she was quite willing to repeat all that she had told Gunnar early in her acquaintance with him. King Olaf knew her country and the city of Prag, from which it seemed she had come, very well. Then he wanted to know about her marriage with Frey, and she became dumb. How long was it before she knew that Frey was nought? No answer. What sort of communication had passed between her and Frey? No answer.Was Frey kind to her? Did he beat her? Was it his eyes which dominated her? No answers.
Lastly he said this: "Have you told Gunnar everything that there is to tell?"
To that she answered, "Yes," and her eyes were unclouded and not afraid of the king's.
"Well!" said Olaf; and that was all there was to say about it.
The king told Gunnar that he was not married at all, to which Gunnar answered, "Ho, am I not?" But he went on to say that he had vowed himself to Christianity on the night of his marriage, and that he and Sigrid were very ready to accomplish the vow. The king agreed to it; so the pair of them went into the water with the Bishop of Drontheim, and were afterwards married again by the laws of Christendom and Holy Church.
Men sat still then for the winter, and in the spring King Olaf gathered his hostsand fitted out his long ships for work in Iceland. Gunnar excused himself, saying that he was busy with his new house and his child; but he spoke more freely to Sigurd.
"I know one thing which you intend doing over there," he said, "and I will have no share in it myself. I owe no grudge to Ogmund Dint, though it was a dirty trick he played me for his own beastly ends. But I got Sigrid out of the adventure and everything I possess, and that's enough for me."
"Plenty," said Sigurd, "and I am with you, and should do the same if I were in your place. But the king won't have slayings done in Norway unavenged. He is very bitter against Ogmund, and I fancy it will go hard with him."
"I don't doubt that," said Gunnar. "King Olaf is a hard nut to crack."
The expedition sailed, and sailed north.The landing was made in Shaw Firth where Ogmund's father, Raven, was a great man. But Ogmund himself was not there. Wigfus, who was in the host, told the king where he would be found, and when matters had been settled in the north the fleet sailed about to the east of Iceland and made a new landing, not far from Thwartwater.
Ogmund was one of the first of the chieftains in those parts to submit himself to King Olaf's baptism.
The king received him coldly and put him on one side. "I will consider of it," he said, "but first I wish to see old Battle-Glum, who is a man after my own heart."
Battle-Glum was brought before him, and refused to have anything to do with Christianity. "I am an old man now," he said, "looking out for my end. It is late for me to change my opinions. Thor is the god I worship, and in that faith will I die. It matters very little to me whetherI die at your hands, or in my bed. I have settled all my affairs. Wigfus will take Thwartwater after me. He is young and can follow what gods he pleases. So also can Ogmund, my foster-son."
"Wigfus your son," said the king, "is a Christian already; but Ogmund your foster-son is not. He is here at hand, and I will have him in before you that you may know something about him before you die."
Ogmund was brought in, and Sigurd also was present. Sigurd said, "The last time you were in Drontheim you left something behind you which I desire to give back. But there is some doubt left open which of two things is yours, and I would have you settle it, Ogmund."
Ogmund said that he would do so with pleasure.
Then Sigurd said, "You left a dead man lying in his blood, and a cloak."
Ogmund Dint said that he left no cloak, "and as for the man, I slew him fairly."
Sigurd said, "You left two cloaks, one in the water with a great stone in it, and one on the back of my brother Gunnar. Here they are. Which do you say is yours?"
Ogmund was very troubled. He touched the fine cloak. "I say that that is mine."
"You lie, Ogmund," said Sigurd. "That was in Gunnar's keeping. He gave it to me."
Then Ogmund was for justifying himself to the king; but King Olaf told the story at length to Battle-Glum. Glum listened to it, and said little. "Thrall's blood will show itself," he said. "I expected something of the kind." Then he turned to King Olaf and said, "Do you propose to have this man baptized?" The king said, "I do."
Then Battle-Glum said, "And do you ask me to be of the same religion?" The king told him he could do as he pleased. "You are a credit to any religion," he told him.
Ogmund Dint asked vehemently for baptism.
"You shall have it," said King Olaf. "You shall be baptized first and hanged afterwards, lest your punishment be eternal as well as temporal."
Which was done.
THE END
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