Swan's Path

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  THAT NIGHT THE priest stood up before the empty highseat, and he seemed cheerful enough. ‘So it seems good to me, that we should speak words of Olaf, about the good deeds he did in life,’ he said. ‘So we may entrust his soul cheerfully to God. Surely, Olaf’s soul is near us even now: maybe he will hear our words and smile on us. Gudruda, won’t you start?’

  ‘All right, father,’ Gudruda said. She rubbed at her eyes with the inside of her apron. ‘I mind me of that time Olaf first came to decide to disown the heathen gods. We had been wed then but a short time, and I was praying before bed. My husband looked at me strangely but said no word. Later that night he asked me if he had not done many things in his life God would not approve of. I answered, so have we all, being only mortals, and fallen. Then he bade me tell him what should gain him the Christ’s good grace. I answered, “There is but one way, and that is you must take the Cross; yet if you shall not, then never will you be saved.” Then he asked me much about Hell, and I told him all I knew of it. My husband misunderstood this a long while, and kept asking me what offerings should be most pleasing to God. Yet later he became a devout Christian, and thought only of his salvation, the peace of the land, and the welfare of others.’

  ‘That is well said, Gudruda,’ said the priest. ‘Now Erik, what have you to say?’

  Erik looked at the highseat. ‘I would speak of the time when we first came to Hof. Then was my mother unsure of her skills, for that this is so large a household. I also was fearful, for our folk were not outstanding, and this was a well-known man’s hall. But Olaf was kinder than any might have hoped: greatly he heartened my mother. And to me he was ever kind and generous. He dealt with me as though I were his own son: taught me the use of sword and fishing-spear. He always saved a smile for me, and I did all I might to pay back his kindnesses.’

  Orvar-Odd was the next to speak; he blinked his dim eyes and shook his head. ‘Now I know not of Olaf’s good deeds: it seems to me that what goes for good is not what it was whenas I was a lad. Yet Olaf was ever open-handed and helpful to his neighbors; and in the winters when the hay ran short he always had plenty, and shared out his meal also. By anyone’s reckoning he was a good godi, and what I would say is what a shame he left no sons behind him, not even baseborn. Not so long ago it seems to me that Fat Olaf, Kari and Thorlief were strong men in this land; and now all that is left of Godi Hardbein’s kin is little Swanhild here, and some folk in Norway. That such a mighty family should have dwindled so is beyond my understanding; but Odin was ever a fickle one, and what he gave with one hand he was as like to take back with a grin with the other. That is all I would say.’ Then he leaned back and scratched his head.

  The priest said with a gentle smile, ‘Very good, grandfather. Now Swanhild, you surely knew your father best. Can’t you remember some good thing he did, and would have wanted known after us death?’

  ‘Yes, I do,’ she answered. She looked about her, and her long eyes were dark in the bright glare of the firelight. She seemed very mild, and unlike herself.

  ‘What my tale tells I did not witness; but my father told me it many times when I was younger. Once he told me I knew it even better than he himself. He was a younger man then, and went abroad: to the Finnmark, for furs and whale-meat. But this was against the orders of the King. Thorold Skeggi’s son went along with him; but they lost each other in the wood.

  ‘My father saw a white deer, and it was both fair and fine: he chased it with his bow. All the morning he followed its trail, and all the afternoon. Then it was nigh to even, and he came into a clearing, and there the trail ended. But there was a maiden there, and she was bound to a tree-stump with white rope.

  ‘Lovely was the maiden to behold: unbraided was her hair, and it hung like a black net over her body; and her skin was like fresh cream. She told him she was a princess, and was captive to the two master-wizards of the Finns: they were teaching her their craft, and would come back to the glade at sunset. “Now,” she said, “if you will slay these two for me, than I will lie with you and glut you with sweetness such as you have never known heretofore of any woman.”

  ‘My father hid behind a tree, and that night slew both those wizards: the maiden thwarted their spells. Then he cut her free, and she fulfilled all her vows to him.

  ‘The next day they went down to ship: great was Thorold’s cheer, for he had deemed my father dead. They sailed to the maiden’s home, and my father called forth the king from his hall. Then he told him, “Sir, I’ve just raped your daughter and saved her from those troll-wise men: give her to me to wive or I’ll make her my concubine and slander you with verses.” The Finnish king waxed wrothful at this, and set his board-men on my father; but Olaf slew them all.

  ‘ “Well,’ he said then to the king, “for that I will want more dowry. Three men of yours have I slain, and more I might, but that should be a waste: these were fine fighters.” At that the king grumbles, but yields, so those twain are wed; then was the wedding right by law, and my father got a fortune out of it. He bore her away to Iceland after three years’ time, and that woman was my mother, and the woman my father loved best in his life.’

  There were few words when Swanhild ended. Gudruda sat and stared, and made the Cross; Erik’s eyes were big, and the priest might not stop gaping.

  Skarphedin grinned. ‘He was a good man in his day,’ he said mildly.

  After awhile Erik arose and looked warily at his mother out of the corner of his eye. ‘Let it be known,’ he said, ‘that I shall hold the arvel, the inheritance-feast, upon the first days of summer. Then I will drink the memory-cup to Olaf, and sit upon the highseat. Then too will the land be shared out: let any owed money by Olaf come then, and they shall get their goods. Not hard-handed will I be at that feast: I mean to bid all of you and all the other great men of the quarter; and the mead will flow then somewhat quicklier than honey.’ The guests were heartened at this, and praised Erik’s words.