King Alfred's Viking: A Story of the First English FleetWhistler, Charles W. (Charles Watts)
History
King Alfred's Viking: A Story of the First English Fleet
Whistler, Charles W. (Charles Watts)
Great Britain -- History -- Alfred, 871-899 -- Juvenile fiction
And it was strange to see what manner of place this was in
daylight, for until the mist lifted we could not tell in the least,
and it was confused to us. Now all the hillsides glowed purple with
heather in a great cup round us, and we were on a little rise in
the midst of them whereon stood the dolmen, and the same hands
doubtless that raised it had set up a wide circle of standing
stones round about it, such as I have seen in the Orkneys. It was
not a place where one would choose to spend the night.
There was no sign of the wild folk anywhere outside the stone
circle. They had gone, and there seemed no cover for them anywhere,
unless they dwelt in clefts and caves of the bare tors around us.
So we feared no longer lest there should be any ambush set for us,
and went about to see what they had left.
There were the long line that had noosed me, the earthen drum with
its dry skin head, the raw hide thongs we had been bound with, and
the food and drink; and that was all save what weapons lay round
the slain, and the bodies of the two good greyhounds.
"These are but men, and not trolls as one might well think," I
said, looking on those who lay before us.
One whom I had slain had a heavy gold torque round his neck, and
twisted gold armlets, being the chief, as I think. Kolgrim took
these off and gave them to me, and then he went to the drum and
dashed it on a stone and broke it, saying nothing.
"Let us be going," I said. "These folk will come back and see to
their dead."
But Kolgrim looked at the drumhead and took it, and then coiled the
long line on his arm.
"Trust a sailor for never losing a chance of getting a new bit of
rigging," said Harek, laughing; for he seemed none the worse for
the things of last night, which indeed began to seem ghostly and
dreamlike to us all. "But what good is the bit of skin?"
"Here be strange charms wrought into it," Kolgrim said. "It will
make a sword scabbard that will avail somewhat against such like
folk if ever we meet them again."
Truly there were marks as of branded signs on the bit of skin, and
so he kept it; and I hung the gold trophies in my belt, and Harek
took some of the remains of our supper: and so we went to the
horses, seeing nothing of the wild men anywhere.
Very glad were the good steeds to see us come, and the falcon, who
still sat on the saddle where I had perched her, spread her wings
and ruffled her feathers to hear us. I unhooded and fed her; and we
washed in the stream, and set out gaily enough, making southward,
for so we thought we should strike the great road. And at last,
when we saw its white line far off from a steep hillside, I was
glad enough.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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