“Aye, he knew as soon as we saw this grave mound. But Steinar was
telling me that some ghost haunts it, and I begged him to stay awhile,
since there is nothing I desire so much as to see a ghost, who believe
little in such things. So he stayed, though he says he fears the dead
more than the living. Freydisa, they tell me that you are very wise.
Cannot you show me this ghost?”
“The spirit does not ask my leave to appear, lady,” answered Freydisa
in her quiet voice. “Still, at times it does appear, for I have seen it
twice. So let us bide here a little on the chance.”
Then she went forward a few steps and began to mutter to herself.
Some minutes later the clouds broke and the great moon was seen riding
low down in a clear sky, illumining the grave mound and all the plain,
save where we stood in the shadow of the mount.
“Do you see aught?” asked Freydisa presently. “If not, let us be gone,
for when the Wanderer comes at all it is at the rising of the moon.”
Steinar and Iduna answered, “No,” but I, who did see something, said:
“Look yonder among the shadows. Mayhap it is a wolf stirring. Nay, it is
a man. Look, Iduna.”
“I look and find nothing,” she answered.
“Look again,” I said. “He reaches the top of the mount and stands there
staring towards the south. Oh! now he turns, and the moonlight shines
upon his face.”
“You dream, Olaf,” said Steinar. “If you do not dream, tell us of the
likeness of this spirit.”
“Its likeness,” I answered, “is that of a tall and noble man, worn as
though with years and sorrows. He wears strange rich armour that
is dinted and soiled; on his head is a cap of mail with two long
ear-pieces, beneath which appears his brown hair lined with grey. He
holds a red-coloured sword which is handled with a cross of gold. He
points the sword at you, Steinar. It is as though he were angry with
you, or warned you.”
Now, when Steinar heard these words he shook and groaned, as I
remembered afterwards. But of this I took no note at the time, for just
then Iduna cried out:
“Say, Olaf, does the man wear a necklace? I see a necklace hanging in
the air above the mount, but naught else.”
“Yes, Iduna, he wears a necklace above his mail. How does it appear to
you?”
“Oh, beautiful, beautiful!” she answered. “A chain of pale gold, and
hanging from it golden shells inlaid with blue, and between them green
jewels that hold the moon.”
“That is what I see also,” I said, as indeed I did. “There! All is
gone.”
Freydisa returned and there was a strange smile on her dark face, for
she had heard all our talk.
“Who sleeps in that mound, Freydisa?” asked Iduna.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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