J. A. Friis

“ CHAPTER V. JUSSI AND UNNAS.
There was something so attractive about the monk Ambrose that everybody liked him. The old, white-haired Superior, Gurij, loved him as if he had been his son, and the other monks had a high regard for him. His pale, handsome and manly face not only inspired feelings of confidence, but called forth even warmer feelings. The better he was known, the more certain did it appear that he was a man who might be thoroughly trusted, and would respond to trust in times of peril, when courage and energy were demanded. ”

“ What would it be to me to return without you, Annita? What do I care for castle, and estate, when there are no sunbeams on them? What good does it do to a man if he conquers all the world, but cannot win a woman’s heart? All with you, Annita, or nothing without you.’
The band of pilgrims soon left the ruins of the monastery at Petschenga, and went southwards again, and one of them promised to make for Olonets, and inform Theodore’s mother that he and Annita were alive, and had found one another. Four weeks later it was possible to remove the bandage from Theodore’s eyes. ”

“ No other woman smiles like you.’
It was late one winter evening when Theodore and Annita drove into the courtyard at Olonets. The whole house was in darkness. Only in one room was a light burning, and it shone on them, and welcomed them like a friendly star on a dark night.
‘There is a light in your mother’s room,’ said Annita. ‘She is still awake. Come!’ she said, and took Theodore by the hand.
They went quietly to the window and looked in. The old lady was kneeling on a rug which she used at church, with a book before her, absorbed in prayer. ”

“ I was once a soldier, and I still know how to give a blow with a sword better than most men.’
‘Will you not take some of our men with you?’
‘No; I will go quite alone.’
‘But you have neither sword nor armour.’
‘You can let me have the sacred sword hanging in the church, and the coat of mail belonging to it,’ said Ambrose. ‘Let me have the sword and coat of mail, Father Gurij, and bless me, and let me go. ”

“ Then we must turn to the south, up a small fjord which is called in Russian Petschenga, but in Norwegian Munkfjord. The latter designation can scarcely fail to attract attention, but the visitor looks in vain for the slightest sign or trace of monks or of monasteries. The banks of the fjord are very lovely; there are undulating ridges of ground clothed with birch, but the banks are in other parts wild and desolate. Not an individual is to be seen anywhere. No smoke rises from a single hearth to point out the dwelling of man. ”

“ The island was now full of life. The news flew like lightning from one boat’s crew to another that a strange soldier had arrived, who was going to fight a duel with the much-dreaded Anika. All work stopped, and the people crowded together from all parts to see the stranger. The crew of Anika’s ship also came ashore to be present at the fight. A place was chosen on Fiskerö where the fight was to take place. At last they made their way thither, each with his own company: Anika with his sailors, and Ambrose followed by the fishermen. ”

“ Ambrose was not as yet a full monk, but he had completed his novitiate, and it was decided that he should take the vow on Christmas Eve, 1589. The venerable and aged Superior, Gurij, had frequently discoursed with him, and had earnestly explained to him the unalterable nature of the vow which he was to take, and which would, for all his future life, bind him to the monastic life. Ambrose had declared that he was ready to take the vow, and with it to bid farewell to everything in the world which was not consistent with the strict, secluded life of a monastery. ”

“ From this level piece of land there is a view across the river, which flows still and deep just below, and there is another view over the fjord towards the north, while very far to the south-east, mountains with the snow upon them can be seen. A more lovely spot for a dwelling could scarcely be found anywhere, even in Norwegian Finmark.
For about an hour we were busily occupied in pitching our tents, strewing thin fragrant birch twigs on the ground, spreading reindeer-skins over the twigs, and arranging our baggage according to each one’s taste, and idea of order. ”

“ Andrew watched him with anxiety, and when he again recovered consciousness, he asked him in great fear:
‘What does Jabmek, the dead one, demand?’
‘He demands either the immediate sacrifice of a horse on this spot, or the surrender of some other man’s life,’ answered the brother-in-law.
These were hard terms. To procure a horse at once was impossible; and who was likely to volunteer to give his own life in order to save that of the boy?
Then the legend says that the old father determined, out of love for his son, to offer his own life, and to die himself, that his son might live. ”

“ My name is really, like his, Theodore Ivanovitsch, and I come of an old Russian boyar family. A pious mother taught me in my early youth to read the lives of the saints and martyrs, and to go to church. But as I am of noble birth, and at some period would have to serve the Czar, I also learned to ride and fence and hunt and shoot. I have been an officer. You see this scar which I have on my forehead? I received it in battle. There has, as you know, been variance for many years between the monastery of Solowetski and the Swedish Finns in heretical Finland. ”

“ The pilgrims were naturally greatly alarmed, when they crossed the Petschenga River, which was at the time covered with ice, and saw, instead of a splendid monastery, with church, and buildings, and guest-houses for pilgrims, nothing but a heap of blackened ruins, and among them a number of unburied corpses. Some of the monks, who had been away, had returned, as has already been mentioned, and had taken refuge in the bathing house, but as yet they had not had time to remove all the corpses for burial. It was of course a pious work for the pilgrims to assist in. ”

“ PETSCHENGA MONASTERY. CHAPTER I. THE MILLSTONE.
Come with me, and let us take a trip far away to the North Country, to the coast of the White Sea, to the land of the midnight sun, to the shores of Russian Lapland. There is very much in those parts that is still quite unknown. The district to which we journey has never yet been described, nor has it even been explored. The fisherman has not visited it. The rivers, with their flowing streams, and their beautiful pools swirling beneath the waterfalls, remain in their virgin purity, and have never been whipped by the salmon-fisher. ”

“ Many of the pilgrims, even cripples who drag themselves along with great difficulty, make pilgrimages of this character in fulfilment of some vow, and in the hope that by fulfilling the vow they may be healed of their sickness. A pilgrim is accounted a holy person in the eyes of a Russian. No door, not even that of the richest, is closed against a pilgrim, and no voice is ever raised against one. ”

“ There were eleven of them, and they came walking together towards the enclosures. At the head walked a large goose, with a red band round its neck. It cackled, ‘Kah! kah! kah!’ as if to say, ‘How do you do? Here I am again, and all my children with me;’ and so it waddled with the others following it, straight into the enclosure, and into the little barn. The children rushed in and told Jussi that their beloved Hanhi had at last come back, that it had gone into the barn, and that it had a whole flock with it. ”

“ When Ambrose came to the monastery, there was a pirate who had for years made descents on the shores of the Fishers’ Isle, and his visits were the terror and temporary ruin of the inhabitants. The pirate was named Anika, and every year he came, late in the summer, with a big ship, and anchored beside a small island, which took its name, Anikief, from him. Whence he came nobody knew, nor where he went with his fish when he had laden his ship. In the winter time no one ever saw anything of him. ”

“ I was of a noble family, and a rich man’s only heir, and I was on intimate terms with many families of quality at Moscow. I had seen many women, and many women had smiled on me, but their smile was cold and cheerless, and nothing to that which, in my own home, beamed on me from Annita. I decided, therefore, at once to return home, and openly tell my parents that I loved Annita, and that I wished to have her for my wife, and nobody else.
‘ “But what will Annita say?” I thought while I was on the way. “She has never heard any man whisper a word of love. Perhaps she will be frightened. ”

“ He was not a mere heathen, but was an active sorcerer (a ‘Noide’) or wiseman. He had, therefore, his sorcerer’s or magician’s drum, which he consulted whenever anything of particular importance was to be taken in hand, or to be prevented.
When Unnas was taken ill, his father sought at once, by means of sacrifice, to come to terms with one of his chief gods, who, in the form of a weather-worn stone, was standing a long way up by the side of the Kujasuga River, in a birch-wood, and was surrounded by a fence made of reindeer horns. But it was of no avail. His son grew worse and worse. ”

“ She and I had quite accepted this arrangement, and it had never occurred to us to think of raising objections to our parents’ plans.
‘You well know, Father Gurij, that a Russian master is a patriarch, and is despotic in his house and family. No person has any right to question his orders, not even the noblest in the town, not even the Czar. The house-father is above all written law. His house is not merely a castle, but a church as well, and whatever he does is sacred and holy. ”

“ In that respect he is quite different from the Finn, who for a short time can be eager enough; but the energy is only a spurt, and never lasts long. The Kvaen, on the other hand, is tough and true as steel, and can even be cold-blooded and cruel, and as heartlessly ferocious as a wolf.
The monk and the Kvaen fought in earnest; but if the Kvaen was as physically strong as Ambrose, the latter was his superior in the expertness with which he administered his blows with the closed fists, and on this occasion no other weapons were employed. Unnas was not present ”

“ Then they set to work upon the others, and struck them down man by man. There was only one who offered anything like resistance. Ambrose had rushed into the Sanctuary and put on the coat of armour and seized the sword. Thus armed, he thrust himself forward, and restrained some of the enemy who were on the point of killing the rest of the monks. He struck out all round, and defended himself with great spirit, his back being against the Sanctuary, while the bodies of his dead and dying brethren lay in a heap at his feet, and the whole of the floor of the church flowed with their blood. ”

“ If the dog can lick the Stallo’s blood he comes to life again; that is why a Stallo always has a dog with him.’
There was great rejoicing in Petschenga Monastery when Ambrose returned, victorious over the pirate, and the next day a thanksgiving service was held in the church. The sword and coat of mail were hung up again in their place, and Ambrose relapsed once more into his usual silence. ”

“ The most zealous of the pilgrims who went to the monastery at Solowetski sometimes extended their wanderings as far as the chapel at Petschenga, and made there, at the altar in the church, their pious offerings, crossing themselves, and beseeching and praying God for remission of their own sins and the sins of others. ”

“ In a good eight-oared boat we can (we are three in number—sportsman, fisherman, and botanist) take with us all that we shall need: tents, bed-clothes, meat and drink, as well as hunting and [3] fishing tackle. We can sail or row according to the state of the weather. If we wish to do so, we can, as we go, fish for huge cod and wonderful haddocks, which bite very differently from the small fish which are taken in the Christiania fjord. The bait which we shall need is not an artificial fly from Christiania, but something as thick and solid as the line itself which is used there. ”

“ Unnas was an only son. His mother died young, and his father, Andrew, was exceedingly fond of his only son. There was nothing in the world for which he cared except his son. But when Unnas was twenty years old, he had a very serious illness, and it was not thought possible that he could recover from it.
Unnas had been baptized by one of the priests of Petschenga Monastery, but his father, Andrew, was still a heathen. He would not consent to be baptized; he declared that he would live and die believing in his old gods. ”

“ Meanwhile the Swedish Finns, out of their old hatred of the Russians, had been making piratical incursions into Karelen, attacking our orthodox people, and the Solowetski people did not hesitate to retaliate. In this way, about twelve years ago, I was sent as a young officer to Karelen with a troop of Cossacks to protect the inhabitants against these Swedish Finns. I must admit that the Cossacks whom I had to command were wild and cruel men. Young, and unused to the horrors of war, I often tried to restrain them from needlessly killing men and women, while they were plundering their dwellings. ”

“ According to the rules of the monastery, the monks had both ‘to till the ground and to follow all such profitable employment as was practicable.’ There were people among them who had a very fair knowledge of secular affairs, and who, moreover, did not always despise the good things of the world. Accordingly, the monks summoned competent artisans and work-people from Russia, and with their help they devised boat and ship building on the river Pasvig, and also further out in the Munkfjord at the Warehouse Inlet, where the water was clear of ice even in the winter. ”

“ When he exerted himself unduly, or became unusually excited, the scar assumed the appearance of a red gash, and the monks learned by degrees that he was not a man to be trifled with, though, as a rule, his disposition was amiable and gentle. It was easy to see from his broad shoulders and his general build that he was a man of great physical strength. This was fully shown when he began to take part in the different kinds of daily manual labour. Both among the Brothers of the monastery and among the work-people, he came to be known as Ambrose the Strong. ”