The Roots of the Mountains: Wherein Is Told Somewhat of the Lives of the Men of Burgdale, Their Friends, Their Neighbours, Their Foemen, and Their Fellows in ArmsMorris, William
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The Roots of the Mountains: Wherein Is Told Somewhat of the Lives of the Men of Burgdale, Their Friends, Their Neighbours, Their Foemen, and Their Fellows in Arms
Morris, William
Fantasy fiction
And he strode on like a young man after those who had gone past, and
after him came the tall Hall-face and his men, a gallant sight to see:
two score bowmen girt with swords, and the others with naked swords
waving aloft, and each bearing two casting-spears in his left hand.
Then came a man of middle age, broad-shouldered, yellow-haired,
blue-eyed, of wide and ruddy countenance, and after him a goodly company;
and again great was the shout that went up to the heavens; for he said:
‘Scrivener, write down that Hound-under-Greenbury, from amongst the
dwellers in the hills where the sheep feed, leadeth the men who go under
the banner of Greenbury, to the tale of an hundred and four score.’
Therewith he passed on, and his men followed, stout, stark, and
merry-faced, girt with swords, and bearing over their shoulders
long-staved axes, and spears not so long as those which the Dalesmen
bore; and they had but a half score of arrow-shot with them.
Next came a young man, blue-eyed also, with hair the colour of flax on
the distaff, broad-faced and short-nosed, low of stature, but very
strong-built, who cried out in a loud, cheerful voice:
‘I am Strongitharm of the Shepherds, and these valiant men are of the
Fleece and the Thorn blended together, for so they would have it; and
their tale is one hundred and two score and ten.’
Then the men of those kindreds went past merry and shouting, and they
were clad and weaponed like to them of Greenbury, but had with them a
score of bowmen. And all these Shepherd-folk wore over their hauberks
white woollen surcoats broidered with green and red.
Now again uprose the cry, and there stood before the War-leader a very
tall man of fifty winters, dark-faced and grey-eyed, and he spake slowly
and somewhat softly, and said:
‘War-leader, this is Red-wolf of the Woodlanders leading the men who go
under the sign of the War-shaft, to the number of an hundred and two.’
Then he passed on, and his men after him, tall, lean, and silent amidst
the shouting. All these men bare bows, for they were keen hunters; each
had at his girdle a little axe and a wood-knife, and some had long swords
withal. They wore, everyone of the carles, short green surcoats over
their coats of fence; but amongst them were three women who bore like
weapons to the men, but were clad in red kirtles under their hauberks,
which were of good ring-mail gleaming over them from throat to knee.
Last came another tall man, but young, of twenty-five winters, and spake:
‘Scrivener, I am Bears-bane of the Woodlanders, and these that come after
me wend under the sign of the Spear, and they are of the tale of one
hundred and seven.’
And he passed by at once, and his men followed him, clad and weaponed no
otherwise than they of the War-shaft, and with them were two women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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