The Long Ships

CHAPTER FOUR

HOW ORM PREACHED TO THE SALT-PEDDLER

THE NEWS of the fight at Gröning soon spread throughout the district, and Gudmund of Uvaberg came riding over with a flock of distant neighbors whom Orm had not seen before to learn the details of it from his own lips. They drank deeply of Orm’s ale and rejoiced exultantly as he described the battle to them. This, they vowed, was a fine thing, for it would increase still further the good name of the border country and the respect in which its inhabitants were held by the world outside. They had much, too, to say in praise of the great hounds, and begged that their own bitches might be allowed the favor of contact with them; and when all the salt and cloth was shown to them, together with the rest of the booty that Orm had won, they sighed that such luck had not come their way. They bargained for the salt-peddlers’ horses, and a satisfactory agreement was soon reached, for Orm had by now many more horses than he required, and felt that he could not honorably ask too high a price, since he had paid nothing for them himself. Then the more muscular of his guests tried their strength at lifting the chopping-block; and though those who watched them named dead men they had known in their childhood who had been able to perform more difficult feats than this, still, nobody was able to throw it as far as Orm had done. This still further improved Orm’s spirits, and he told them not to take their failure too hard.

“I am not sure that even I could throw it so far again,” he said, “without the help that great anger gives a man.”

They were all curious to see Östen and wondered greatly that Orm had spared his life. A knife in the throat, they declared, was always the best medicine for men of that sort; and they counseled him earnestly not to stock up trouble for himself and others by allowing the man to go free. To do so, they said, would surely bring unpleasantness in its wake; of that he could be certain, for they were accustomed to the ways of Smalanders and knew them to be a people who nursed their wrongs. Many of them wanted to go into the church to look at the man and talk to him; it would be interesting, they said, to hear whether he regarded the border country as good terrain for head-hunting. But Father Willibald bolted the door and remained deaf to their entreaties to be allowed to enter. They might, he said, be granted admission at some later date, if God so willed it, but he would not permit them to taunt a wounded man who was still hardly able to lift his head.

So they had to forgo that pleasure; but before riding away, they agreed over their stirrup-cups that Orm must now be regarded as a chieftain even among the Göings, and that he was a worthy scion of Sven Rat-Nose, even though he had allowed himself to become baptized; and they swore that they would take his part in any feud that might develop as a result of all this.

Orm gave each of them his measure of salt as a parting gift and for the maintenance of neighborly relations. Then they rode away from Gröning at a thunderous gallop and in the best of spirits, swaying in their saddles and screeching like jays.

The boy was greatly alarmed when he heard that Östen looked likely to recover, and thought it a bad thing for him; for, he said, if Östen lived he would surely kill him in revenge as soon as he got the chance. But Orm assured him that no harm would come to him, and said that he was to lose no sleep on that score, whatever might be Östen’s feelings in the matter. The boy was called Ulf, and from the first he was much cosseted by Asa and Ylva, who hardly knew how to reward him for the great service he had done them all. Asa set to work sewing him better clothes with her own fingers; and she and Father Willibald agreed that the boy was, without doubt, an instrument of God, sent to save them from the machinations of the Devil. They asked him how he had come to join the peddlers. He replied that he had run away from a cruel uncle with whom he had lived down on the coast and at whose hands he had suffered great unkindness and privation ever since his mother and father had been drowned while fishing; and that the peddlers had engaged him to look after their horses.

“But they gave me little to eat,” he continued, “so that I was always hungry except when I could steal food from houses; and I had to stay awake each night to watch the horses, and was beaten if anything happened to them. But the worst was that I was never allowed to ride, however leg-weary I became. In spite of all this, I fared better with them than with my uncle; but I never bore them any love, and am glad to be free of them. For here I have what I never knew before: food enough to eat and a bed to sleep in, so that I will gladly remain with you forever if you do not send me away. I am not even afraid to be baptized, if you think it necessary.”

Father Willibald said that it was, without a doubt, highly necessary, and baptized he would be as soon as he had received schooling in the Christian doctrine. Ylva set him to watch Oddny and Ludmilla, who were now able to walk and found no difficulty in escaping from the house and on two occasions had alarmed everybody by being discovered down by the river. The boy discharged this function assiduously, accompanying them wherever they went; this, he said, was better work than watching horses. He could whistle better than anyone they had ever heard, and knew many tunes, and could even imitate various birds; and both the girls loved him from the first. In time he came to be known as Glad Ulf, because of his merry temper.

Östen and his two wounded companions were by this time well enough to be moved; so they were taken from the church to the bathhouse, where an armed man kept constant guard over them. Father Willibald now tried to give them some instruction about Christian doctrine; but before long he came to Orm and said that the soil of their hearts was, in truth, stony and unreceptive to the seed of grace. This, though, he added, was no more than was to be expected.

“I am not a vain man,” he continued, “and do not hanker after fame or honor. None the less, I should feel that my life’s work had been well rewarded if I could become the first priest to baptize a Smalander. For there is no known instance of such a thing ever having been done before; and if it could be brought to pass, great indeed would be the rejoicing in heaven. But whether I shall be able to prevail upon these men is, I fear, doubtful, for their obstinacy is inordinate; and it would be a good thing if you, Orm, could help me with a word of admonition to this Östen.”

Orm thought this a wise and proper suggestion and said he would be glad to lend what help he could. “This I promise you,” he added, “that baptized they shall be, all three of them, before they set foot outside my gate.”

“But they cannot be baptized until they have listened to my exposition of the doctrine,” said Father Willibald, “which they absolutely refuse to do.”

“They will listen to mine,” said Orm.

They went together to the bathhouse, and there Orm and Östen met for the first time since the night of the battle. Östen was sleeping, but he opened his eyes as Orm entered. His head was swathed in bandages, which Father Willibald changed every day. He raised himself slowly into a sitting position, supporting his head between his hands, and looked unblinkingly at Orm.

“This is a good meeting for me,” said Orm, “for my head still remains on its shoulders, rather more securely, indeed, than yours; and I owe you thanks, too, for all the wealth you have so thoughtfully brought to my door. But I think you expected things to turn out otherwise.”

“They would have been otherwise,” said Östen, “if the boy had not served me treacherously.”

Orm laughed. “I never thought,” he said, “to hear you complain of treachery. But here is a question I should like you to answer. You have tried to take my head. Tell me, now, who has the best right to yours?”

Östen sat for some moments in silence. Then he said: “The luck has gone against me in this affair. I have nothing more to say.”

“Your luck would have been much worse,” said Orm, “if it had not been for this pious man, to whom your debt is indeed great. When I learned that King Sven wanted a head, my first thought was to send him yours, but this priest of Christ dissuaded me from carrying out my plan. He has saved your life and healed your wound, but even that has not satisfied his zeal, for he wants also to save your evil Smaland soul. So we have decided that you shall become a Christian, and your men with you. Nor have you any say in the matter, for your head belongs to me and I shall do as I please with it.”

Östen glared blackly at them both. “My family is great and powerful,” he said, “and no member of it sustains injury or insult without revenge. Know, therefore, that you will pay dearly for what you have already done to me, and dearer still if you force me to submit to any ignominy.”

“There is no question of anyone forcing you to do anything,” said Orm. “You are free to make your own choice. Will you have your head sprinkled by this holy man, who wishes you nothing but good, or would you rather have it stuffed in a sack and sent to King Sven? I can promise you that it will be packed very carefully, so that it will arrive in good condition, for I want him to know whose it was. It might be best to pack it in salt; I have plenty of that now.”

“No man of my family has ever been baptized,” said Östen. “Only our slaves are Christians.”

“You are evidently unaware,” said Orm, “that Christ specifically commanded that all men should be baptized, including Smalanders. Father Willibald can quote you the passage.”

“His very words,” said Father Willibald. “He said: ‘Go ye out into the world and preach my gospel to all men, and baptize them.’ He also said, on another occasion: ‘He that believeth and is baptized, his soul shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall burn in hell-fire.”’

“You see?” said Orm. “The choice is yours:

Thou shalt to hell

Without thy head,

Or else with water

Be baptizèd.”

“Your sins are many and great,” said Father Willibald, “and your spiritual condition most foul; but it is so with most men in this land. If, though, you allow yourself to be baptized, you will be numbered among the blessed and, by Christ’s mercy, stand in the ranks of the saved when He appears in the sky to judge mankind, which is due to happen very shortly.”

“One other thing,” said Orm; “from the moment that you are baptized, God gives you His support: and you have doubtless observed, from the result of your attempt to kill me, that His hand is strong. I myself have never prospered so well as since I began to follow Christ. All that you have to do is to renounce your old gods and say: ‘There is no god save God, and Christ is His Prophet.”’

“Not His Prophet!” said Father Willibald severely. “His Son!”

“His Son,” said Orm quickly. “That is what I meant to say. I knew the text well; I was not thinking, and my tongue slipped, because of the false beliefs I used to hold in the days when I served Almansur of Córdoba, in the Andalusians’ land. But that was long ago, and it is now four years since I was baptized by a holy bishop in England, ever since when Christ has supported me in all my enterprises. He delivers my enemies into my hand, so that not only men such as you are powerless to harm me, but King Sven also. And I have gained many other advantages besides. I was born with excellent luck, but it has increased considerably since I went over to Christ.”

“There is no denying,” said Östen, “that your luck is better than mine.”

“But it only became as good as it is now,” said Orm, “after I got baptized. For in former days, when I knew no religion save that of the old gods, I suffered many misfortunes, and sat for two years as a slave in Almansur’s galley, chained to a bench with iron. It is true that I won this sword you see here, which is the finest weapon that was ever forged, so that Styrbjörn himself, who knew more about swords than any other man, vowed when he weighed it in his hand in King Harald’s hall that he had never seen a better; but even that was scant compensation for all that I underwent to secure it. Then I embraced the religion of the Andalusians, at the bidding of my master Almansur, and thereby won a necklace, a jewel of royal worth. But for that necklace’s sake I was wounded almost to death in King Harald’s hall, despite my good Andalusian chain shirt, and if it had not been for this little priest and his healing skill I should have died from that wound. Then, at last, I became baptized and came under the protection of Christ and straightway won King Harald’s daughter, whom I count the most precious jewel that I own. And now you yourself have witnessed how Christ helped me to overcome you and all the men you brought with you to kill me. If you consider the matter well, you will, being a wise man, realize that you will not lose anything by being baptized, but will, instead, gain much profit, even if you do not regard it as important that your head should remain on its shoulders.”

This was the longest sermon that anyone heard from Orm in the whole of his life, and Father Willibald told him afterwards that he had acquitted himself by no means poorly, considering his inexperience in the art.

Östen sat and pondered for a long while. Then he said: “If all that you say is true, I must agree that you have not lost by becoming a Christian, but have rather gained; for it is no small feat to have won King Harald’s daughter, nor are the wares that you have got from me to be despised. But in Smaland, where I live, there are Christian men who are thralls, and they have little to show for their religion; and I cannot be sure whether I may not have their luck instead of yours. But there is one thing I wish to know. If I do as you bid me, what do you intend to do with me then?”

“Set you free, and let you depart in peace,” replied Orm. “And your men with you.”

Östen eyed him suspiciously, but at length he nodded.

“If you are ready to swear this before us all,” he said, “I shall believe that you mean to keep your word. Though what good it can do you to see me baptized is more than I can understand.”

“It is no more than just,” said Orm, “that I should do something to please God and His Son, after all that They have done for me.”