Hero-Myths & Legends of the British RaceEbbutt, M. I. (Maud Isabel)
General
Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race
Ebbutt, M. I. (Maud Isabel)
Heroes; Romances, English
"No," said Guest, who distrusted Thorbiorn, "thou shalt pay here, and
now, fully; and I myself will pay one wergild, to help thee in
atonement." When this was agreed Howard sat down in the ring, and
Guest gave him the one wergild (a hundred of silver), which Howard
received in the skirt of his cloak; and then Thorbiorn paid one
wergild slowly, coin by coin, and said he had no more money; but Guest
bade him pay it all.
Then Thorbiorn drew out a cloth and untied it, saying, "He will surely
count himself paid in full if I give him this!" and he flung into the
old man's face, as he sat on the ground, the teeth of the dead Olaf,
saying, "Here are thy son's teeth!"
Howard sprang up, bleeding, mad with rage and grief. The silver rolled
in all directions from his cloak as he came to his feet, but he heeded
it not at all. Blinded with blood, and furious, he broke through the
ring of assessors, dashed one of them to earth, and rushed away like a
young man; but when he came to Steinthor's booth he lay as if dead,
and spoke to no man.
[Illustration: "The silver rolled in all directions from his cloak"]
Guest would have no more to do with Thorbiorn. "Thou hast no equal for
cruelty and evil; thou shalt surely repent it," he said; and he rode
to Bathstead, took his sister away, with all her wealth, and broke off
his alliance with Thorbiorn, caring nothing for the shame he put upon
so unjust a man.
Howard went home, told Biargey all that had happened, and took to his
bed again, a poor, old, helpless, miserable man; but his wife, who saw
her presage beginning to come true, kept up her courage, rowed out
fishing every day, and guided the household for yet another year.
Biargey and her Brethren
That summer, one day, as Biargey was rowed out to the fishing as
usual, she saw Thorbiorn's boat coming up the firth, and bade her man
take up the lines and go to meet him, and row round the cutter, while
she talked with Thorbiorn. As Biargey's little boat approached the
cutter Thorbiorn stopped his vessel for he saw that she would speak
with him, and her boat circled round the cutter while she asked his
business, and learnt that he was going with Vakr to meet a brother and
nephew of his, to bring them to Bathstead, and that he expected to be
away from home for a week. The little skiff had now passed completely
round the motionless cutter, and Olaf's mother, having learnt all she
wanted, bade her rower quit Thorbiorn; the little boat shot swiftly
and suddenly away, leaving Thorbiorn with an uneasy sense of
witchcraft. So disquieted did he feel that he would have pursued her
and drowned "the old hag," as he called her, had he not been prevented
by Brand the Strong, who had been helped in his need by Olaf.
As the little craft shot away Biargey smiled mysteriously, and said to
her rower: "Now I feel sure that Olaf my son will be avenged. I have
work to do: let us not go home yet."
"Where, then, shall we go?" asked the man.
"To my brother Valbrand."
Valbrand
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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