The North Star/Chapter 43
XLII
FALSE FRIENDS
Thorgills was sorely troubled as he journeyed home with the king. The scald was thinking within himself: “O my King! there do be worse things and more dangerous than a woman’s fancies; and these be a woman’s hate and a passionate woman’s promise of revenge. These will hurry a man to the brink of the grave; and when he falls in, they will keep his poor bones in toil.”
A few days after Olaf’s return to Nidaros from his unsuccessful mission to Queen Sigrid, Thorgills met Earl Sigvalde upon the street. After their greeting the chief of the Jomsvikings asked with a sneer: “How comes Olaf Tryggevesson back so soon from his wooing of Erik’s rich widow? He is a mighty viking, but surely he did not gain the alliance with Sweden and all Queen Sigrid’s wealth in so short a space. A queen is not so quickly courted as a peasant maid.”
Thorgills was plainly embarrassed. In his own keen dread at the result of his king’s wooing, he sorely felt Earl Sigvalde’s sneers, and answered shortly: “There will be no marriage between King Olaf and Queen Sigrid.”
“So! so!” laughed Earl Sigvalde. “That were a pity, for our Olaf doth surely need a friend in power; he hath turned so many of his people against him by his insisting upon their becoming Christians. Then too he is filling the land with churches and priests, and they are covering Norway with learning. True the people are gaining in knowledge; but what use have the Norsemen for psalm-books and for the runes of other lands? The true viking should love better to fight than to read or to pray. Olaf hath dwelt so long in other lands he is but half a Norseman. In Ireland he was taught to write upon parchment; and he can read the runes of other lands as swift and sure as an Irish priest can read the language of Rome or Constantinople. Of what use is writing to a man that should live by his sword? Olaf doth even keep tablets of parchment under his pillow, where he can find them when he would write a sudden thought in the night. These be queer days, when a Norse viking takes to writing in the night, when he should be snoring after his ale.”
Thorgills was listening impatiently. “King Olaf keeps the needs of his kingdom very close to his heart day and night,” he said. “Even in this matter of his marriage to Erik’s widow, he thought more of his kingdom than of his own choice of a wife.”
Earl Sigvalde shrugged his shoulders: “I am no longer concerned with the plans of the king. My wife is his kinswoman and is as firm a Christian. For myself, I hold my Jomsvikings together and Olaf Tryggevesson will need to treat us gently. We will brook no show of authority from the king.”
“Thou art not keeping full faith with the king, my Earl Sigvalde,” said Thorgills sternly. “And thy lady is of such fealty.”
“Oh, my Lady Aastrid!” laughed the old earl cynically. “She hath all the virtues in the books of the Christian priests. So many hath she taken there were none left for me. Moreover I am a true Norseman, and when my own welfare needs a blow, I strike no blow for any other man. But I must part with thee here, for I see thou art going toward the palace, and my way no longer lies in that direction. Before I go, I must report to thee that Thore Klakka, the former steward of Jarl Haakon, hath joined my crew of vikings, at our stronghold, at Jomsborg.”
Thorgills walked thoughtfully along after parting with Sigvalde. He was now thoroughly distrustful of the Earl of the Jomsvikings, and Thore Klakka he had never liked. It boded no good to the king when these two were joined together.
One day as Thorgills was walking he met Lady Aastrid. “Ah! Thorgills,” she exclaimed, “where is thy master?”
“Hast thou not heard?” the scald answered, his face beaming.
“What good news is there of King Olaf? Tell me quickly, Thorgills, for my poor Jarl Sigvalde hath shut out the sunlight for me.”
Thorgills’ face clouded. “Yea, Jarl Sigvalde is not faithful. I know that, and but for thy fealty, my lady, he would before now have wrought our Olaf some harm.”
“But,” said Aastrid, more cheerfully, “after all he is but one false jarl among many trusty vassals. He did say, however, that he had joined with him in Jomsborg one Thore Klakka.”
Thorgills nodded. “He indeed hath taken Thore Klakka into his council! Then in truth, my lady, they will devise some harm to the king. I did believe that Thore had laid a snare for Olaf when he brought him from Ireland; but God had a work to be done and the Norsemen took Olaf to their hearts so speedily that he was saved from treachery. I have never known any real evil of Thore Klakka, but whenever he comes in my sight I shudder as if I had suddenly trod upon a serpent raised to sting me. And my young wife! Out of her own clear soul she can feel the presence of evil; even as the white robe soonest shows a soil. Maidoch doth so shrink away when Thore is near. One day I asked her if she thought that Thore knew aught of Father Meilge’s murder; for Thore always hated King Olaf’s priests. She grew so pale and her eyes were so full of suffering, that I did repent of asking her, and grieving her tender heart with that remembrance. She was in such fear of that recollection, that she could only whisper: ‘It was such an awful deed! So terrible a sacrilege!’ And then in a lower whisper: ‘God’s mercy on the wretched soul that bears so black a crime.’ I wot my lady that some of Thore Klakka’s traitors do know who did this murder; but my gentle young wife knows naught—still, she fears this Thore.”
Lady Aastrid sighed, then looking up said in a brighter tone: “Tell me thy good news, Thorgills. We have gone down go far on a gloomy way that we have wandered off from the pleasant track on which thou didst start.”
“I was about to tell thee, my lady, of King Olaf’s victorious journey against Raud the Strong. We have just returned and I have come from my home, where I went on our landing at Nidaros. We had a hard journey pursuing Raud, but King Olaf had sworn to cut off the deeds of this viking, who has been harrying all the south coast of Norway. King Olaf rode in his grand new ship, the ‘Crane,’ and Raud rode in the ‘Serpent.’ Oh, but it was a fine chase! We had almost caught them when the winds and the sea did plot against us. Such roaring of the storm and such lashing of the waves! Some of the crew, who were heathens, began to swear that Raud was a wizard, and that by his own magic he had raised up the storm against us. The heathens on the ‘Crane’ cried out to King Olaf to appease the gods; that Thor was angry and had sent his thunders and that Njord was angry and would not curb the wild sea, when the Yotun, Aeger, lashed the waters into fury. They prayed to Olaf to promise a sacrifice to Njord that he might quiet the strong sea.”
“And what did Olaf, our Christian king?” asked Aastrid anxiously.
“The Saxon Bishop Sigurd was with the king and Father Reachta. These three stood together in the prow of the ship. ‘Bring hither the blessed water and the blessed candles and the great crucifix,’ said the bishop. I helped the priest to carry them. Bishop Sigurd lifted the tall crucifix and lighted the candles around it. Though the wind had a giant’s force, the candles never flickered. Then the bishop scattered the blessed water over the raging tide. All about the ‘Crane’ the waves lay down as if asleep; and the wind grew faint and hushed as a sweet zephyr of the summer. Beyond the ‘Crane’ the storm roared and the sea rose up like a lofty mountain of water and the heavens were black. In the calm around them, the oarsmen moved swiftly to the little island where Raud on his great dragon ship was anchored. He and his wild crew were overcome and exterminated; and King Olaf comes back to Nidaros, having rid his kingdom of the wicked Raud; and meekly following the ‘Crane’ is the terrible ‘Serpent’ that had threatened to devour us at sea.”
“It was a noble victory,” said Aastrid, “and now will our Norsemen love Olaf Tryggevesson firmer than ever. I thank thee, Thorgills, for thy happy news.”