Matthew Phipps Shiel

“ And to the vala Gerda did run, and sobbed the tale into the sibyl’s ears. At midnight Gunhild stood alone, mumbling spells over a fire in a platter, and before morning a plan had matured in the world-wise old brain.
She had Hrolf into her room. At the news “ Tyrfing ” leapt out, and Hrolf was all for open war. But the vala, threatening and entreating, won him to a calmer mood.
“The will of Loki is set strongly against your ever having Gerda at all,” she said; “ everything is against you. Unless you have the manhood to curb that hot blood, you may give up hope and be done.” ”

“ No mischief is meant you. There breathes no more harmless a rascal than thy old Gurth to them who let him go his way in quietness."
And, as if in answer, a faint cheer came wafted from the bay. In a momentary lull of the festal noise it came, and everyone seemed to hear. A silence fell. Gurth looked, questioning, round.
At the moment a churl came running to him, and whispered —
“ Sigurd Sigurdsson is come back, and half his champions with him. He is but now landed on the bay.” ”

“ Toward morning a shriek went piercing through· the burg, like the strong hinny of a horse in pain. But the dawn brought mercy.
Men knew not what to think. It was so sudden. None dreamed of foul play. Gurth, who might have had motive, was away. His chosen champions lingered round the bed, full of low-spoken anecdotes of his worth, his kingly rage, and social heart. He was the greatest of the Vikings, they said; the type of a good man.
On the third morning, Hrolf and Gerda stood with the rest over him, for the new-returned champions had insisted upon their release. ”

“ Once more let the oars march regimental over the broad sea-room, and the blast load the loosened lug! With every swoop of the thirty blades, Gurth poised his body forward, as if to help her flight. His heart whispered to the knave strange fears. His hands were as cold as the hands of Sigurd. ”

“ Gurth, meanwhile, had “conquered the living.” The rovers disliked him, but the trophies of their excursions they laid at his feet. That slight, dark man acquired an iron power over them. They feared him. Ditlew, the Berserk, the jotun-furious, and least erect of all the spirits of the burg-guard, returning from a voyage on the Throndheim coast, and deeming himself ill-rewarded with his share of booty, deserted at dead of night, and sped fugitive, his horse burdened with stolen things. ”

“ I am for gathering together and husbanding. No idleness on the lands while I lord it here! Let every thrall do his sweating: everyone bring his share from land or sea. He who fails will know me better. I call a cheer! ”
Silence reigned. Malignity and a painful anxiousness contorted the face of Gurth. But, slowly, the men stood up and drank.
When a snore or two began to sound, he rose and glided across the courtyard. Frigga’s lamp, westering low, burned dim in the heavens. After passing three corridors, he tapped at a door, and was admitted into a chamber by old Gunhild, the vala of the burg. ”

“ Sigurd’s eyes were looking far away, as men, after a long night of storm, watch for morning. The goad which was urging Gurth was the necessity to be far — at once — far from the burg! and to be known by all men to be far.
Before nightfall he had forty of the men on board the Skidblednir, a swift dragon. Below decks, alone with Ditlew, he smuggled a phial containing a green liquid in the Berserk’s hand.
‘‘There is enough for two,” he said; “if you fail, you had better drink the rest."
Ditlew and others rowed to shore, and the Skidblednir moved down the fjord. ”

“ There’s near danger a-hanging over the youth’s head.”
“ Danger! ”
“ Well, you know Gurth Hermodsson. He is a man must have his way. He does not say anything, but I know well enough what he will do, if you hold out against him.”
“Do? — to Hrolf, you mean? "
“ Ay. If the lad’s in the way, he will be removed, I tell you. Every moment the danger is near him. Perhaps this very night — in his sleep ”
“Oh!” she leapt to him, caught him by his two sleeves, fell to her knees — “ Ditlew! you are a man! save him for me! Have you a tiger’s heart, good Ditlew? ”

“ Racing, two cable lengths behind them, was the ship which had hunted them to their doom, invisible in the perfect darkness, till a lamp, shattered in the fore-hold of the Skidblednir by her mad flight, sent forth a vomit of red reek and flame. ”

“ Harm, vala? Why should not I, myself... ’’
“ What? ”
“ Well — rain — marry her."
Gunhild looked calmly sidelong at the cunning, oily face.
“ And so make quite sure of the wealth of the dead Jarl, Gurth? ”
He chuckled low. “ A wish to get, and increase in store, is but natural to us all.”
“ Yet do you, Gurth,” she answered, shaking a warning finger, “curb well your lust for wealth! for if I read right the signs . . . but fie! Gerda is for none of your marrying. There is whiteness already in your hair.”
“ When — when will Sigurd return? ”

“ Well, Gurth, the world is the field of battle for us poor godsons, and a man must even fight his best in it, and die. I have been away in Britland, joined to a host of Saxon men, fighting with Scot, fighting with Piet, fighting here, fighting there. ”

“ The rovers, hardly now observing, could not perceive from the distance that the sunset Haines which wrapped her were not the flames which destroy.
Old Gunhild, by some lucky stroke of divination, had said to Gurth: “ You will conquer the living — but beware of the dead. ”