THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 MAURICE : HEWLETT
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 V 
 
 ITYOF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN WEG 
 LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 BY 
 
 MAURICE HEWLETT 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 1920
 
 Copyright, iojo 
 
 by 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 gj j Ontnn A gotten tmptmf 
 
 BOOK MANUFACTURERS 
 RAHWAV NW JERSEY
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Of this heroic, naked story, three fragments sur- 
 vive in Origines Islandicce, that learned repository; 
 but to compound one plain tale of them it has been 
 necessary to go for the catastrophe to the Saga of 
 King Olaf. As a result of my hunting and piecing 
 I am able to give an orderly account of the life of 
 a young man which, I think, justifies the title I have 
 given it. Thormod indeed had a light heart, and 
 a high heart. Acting upon an unwritten law, which 
 (if it were not an instinct) must be called a moral 
 law, inasmuch as it swayed the Northmen's nature 
 to the very roots, he feared nothing except love, and 
 dared everything for love's sake. Very heroic was 
 his daring; very beautiful, to me at least, was the 
 transfer of his allegiance from his dead friend Thor- 
 gar to the live King Olaf, made lightheartedly upon 
 a moment's impulse, but when made, made for life. 
 If I can claim anything for myself as the interpreter 
 
 y
 
 vi PREFACE 
 
 to modern readers of a bygone day, it is to have 
 brought up from the depths of an old tale this ex- 
 ample of swift and final self -surrender in obedience 
 to an intuition ; not merely to have handed it on, but 
 to have revealed it 
 
 It is by such facts as those that Thormod must 
 be adjudged poet, for of the two poems by which 
 he obtained his recognition nothing survives. I don't 
 regret the lay which earned him his title of Coal- 
 brow's Poet, because it is pretty clear that he did 
 not take Coalbrow seriously. We may infer from 
 that the nature of the poem. That cannot be a very 
 sincere utterance which can be improvised into an 
 address to another person. A poem of conceits, I 
 take it to have been, not unlike the affair which 
 called it forth. Thormod was no hand with 
 women; the story puts that beyond doubt. They 
 were his pastime; he gave his fancy to them for 
 a while, reserving his heart for men. On that ac- 
 count his lament for Thorgar must be reckoned a 
 real loss to Icelandic literature. It would have been 
 a great thing to have had it beside David's for Jon- 
 athan, Milton's for Edward King; beside Adonais
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 too, and In Memoriam. It has gone, however, and 
 it was not for me to dare a substitute. In my ver- 
 sion of Kormak's Saga, where I paraphrased many 
 of the hero's poems, I had in any case something to 
 go upon. Here there is nothing. 
 
 In the shaping of The Light Heart I have had 
 to contend with that formidable fact that the story 
 splits in two in the middle. It has two endings 
 the consummation of the vengeance for Thorgar, 
 and that of the second love-affair of Thormod's life. 
 There is no coherence possible between these two 
 parts except such as may be gained from the nature 
 of the hero of both. To my mind a good deal can 
 be gained that way; and I believe that the title I 
 have bestowed upon the book, which makes Thormod 
 the subject of it rather than Thormod's deeds, is 
 justified on that ground alone, if on no other. Every 
 story which is worth the name, which is not a mere 
 anecdote, or string of anecdotes, but has a reasonable 
 soul in human words subsisting, embodies either a 
 moral idea or a personality. 
 
 You may write round either without denying 
 yourself the help of the other ; but one or the other
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 will be substance, one or the other accident. Thus 
 the Iliad is written about an idea, which character 
 subserves ; but the Odyssey is written about a char- 
 acter, and the idea in it is the idea of Odysseus. 
 So it is with the Sagas of Iceland. Njala, which, 
 like Thormod, breaks into two parts, is composed 
 round about ideas, to which Gunnar of Lithaid and 
 Njal himself are subject. But Thormod has char- 
 acter for its core, and the moral idea of sworn 
 brotherhood and its implications, which only lasts 
 halfway through the piece, seems to me to be tacked 
 on to the personality of the hero. The reader who 
 wishes to satisfy himself that I am right about all 
 this, should compare the treatment of a blood- feud 
 here with that of the Saga of Gisli Surssan, which 
 I have paraphrased as The Outlaw. 
 
 I have called The Light Heart a story both 
 heroic and naked, and might say a word about 
 the second of those epithets. Romantic litera- 
 ture has always concerned itself with clothes, that 
 is, atmosphere; but it is a foolish criticism which 
 tries to confine classicism and romanticism within 
 enclosing dates. The Iliad has practically no atmos-
 
 PREFACE ix 
 
 phere, the Odyssey has a great deal. I don't know 
 of any Saga which can properly be called romantic; 
 yet out of the same country and age comes a lay 
 like Halgi and Sigrim, which is drenched in atmos- 
 pheric glamour. The difference is by no means one 
 of means alone; it is obvious that the writer of 
 the Saga and poet of the lay are looking at their 
 matter through different eyes. The Saga-man never 
 for a moment forgot that he was an historian. He 
 was telling of real people to their descendants of a 
 few generations; he was telling of them within a 
 few miles of where the deeds he related actually 
 occurred. He was telling a plain tale to men who 
 would have been scandalised by any other. The 
 things laid to his heroes would have been done in 
 the same fashion by his hearers ; it would have out- 
 raged their sensibilities to have enhanced such deeds 
 by rhetoric, just as it would have been ridiculous 
 in him to have described picturesquely what they 
 knew as well as, or better than, he did. But scene- 
 painting is a modern embellishment of literature, 
 and I have been careful to avoid anything more than 
 an indication of the landscape in which, for instance,
 
 * PREFACE 
 
 the desperate dealings of Thormod with his fellow- 
 creatures were enacted. 
 
 Atmosphere then, landscape-painting, purple 
 shreds and patches, are not in my original, nor 
 to be looked for here. But the nakedness of the 
 Sagas goes far beyond those accessories of tale- 
 telling, to such lengths indeed that I have painted 
 by the roadside. They omit, as I have found, 
 things which are essential to a tale for modern 
 understanding; and the chief of these things is 
 human nature. The secret springs of conduct 
 instinct, emotion, passion are scarcely hinted at. 
 Character itself must be inferred. All this is too 
 excellent and wonderful for me. As I have said 
 once before, the Sagas are of all classics " the 
 most unapproachable." " Their frugality freezes 
 the soul; they are laconic to baldness." Finally, 
 I have admitted that " the starkness of the Sagas 
 shocks me." It can only be some such astringency 
 in them which has denied them popularity in such 
 a nation as ours which worships heroism, as well 
 it may, and extremely dislikes any display of it. 
 It is that astringency which I have been at pains
 
 PREFACE xi 
 
 to soften by a few lines of dialogue, by an aside 
 of my own, by a comment here and there, or by a 
 deliberate evocation of character-outline. One has 
 to create the illusion of reality when one is ad- 
 dressing an audience to whom the people of the 
 tale and their environment alike are strange and 
 uncouth. Neither a nod nor a wink is any encour- 
 agement to a blind horse; but an apple at his nose, 
 or an ashplant on his quarters may do much for 
 him. Certainly it is not the fault of my readers 
 if they are blind to the merits of the Sagas, as they 
 may be extracted from Origines Islandicce. Those 
 learned tomes were not printed for the likes of 
 them. Very gingerly and with all due respect, 
 therefore, I have applied encouragement or stimulus 
 as the case may be, and seemed to require; but I 
 hope I have in no case done violence either to the 
 person of my reader, or the dignity of my original. 
 I have never presumed to invent incident that be 
 far from me. On the other hand, I have taken 
 leave to account for it. Nothing that I could have 
 done would have added a cubit to the stature of 
 Saint Olaf, or embellished the swift and salient
 
 xu PREFACE 
 
 outline of young Thormod. It has rather been a 
 case of fitting myself to see them as the Saga-man 
 showed them to his kindred. If in so doing I have 
 cleared other English eyes, why, then I have done 
 something. 
 
 Broadchalke, 
 October n, 1919.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PACI 
 
 Chapter I 3 
 
 Chapter II 12 
 
 Chapter III 18 
 
 Chapter IV 24 
 
 Chapter V 28 
 
 Chapter VI 37 
 
 Chapter VII ., . 44 
 
 Chapter VIII 53 
 
 Chapter IX 61 
 
 Chapter X 73 
 
 Chapter XI 81 
 
 Chapter XII 97 
 
 Chapter XIII 104 
 
 Chapter XIV in 
 
 Chapter XV 116 
 
 Chapter XVI 124 
 
 Chapter XVII 132 
 
 Chapter XVIII 141 
 
 Chapter XIX 154 
 
 Chapter XX 160 
 
 Chapter XXI 174
 
 THE LIGHT HEART
 
 Thormod was the name of a man known after- 
 wards as Coalbrow's Poet, though nobody had 
 known that he was a poet until he met with Coal- 
 brow, and least of all had he known it himself. 
 But from what I can find out about him his poetry 
 was in him from the beginning. He had the poet's 
 way of thinking rather than of doing, that knack 
 of working out the ways of a deed so fully in the 
 mind that when the time comes to do it, it seems 
 already done, and done with : wherefore you simply 
 leave it undone. Another trick he had, which be- 
 trays his quality. He always viewed himself and 
 his actions, himself with his friends, or with his 
 family, as if his thinking self were no part of him- 
 self. He was intensely curious about his own ac- 
 tions, and for ever asking his great friend Thorgar 
 how the things they did together struck him, so 
 that he himself might get a clearer view of them, 
 
 3
 
 4 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 or another view. And one more thing about him, 
 to my mind very significantly his quality. He 
 would never, for his life, surprise Thorgar, come 
 upon him unawares. Sooner than do that he would 
 not see him at all ; and as he saw him nearly every 
 day, he was often at great pains to warn him of 
 the exact time of his approach. If everything else 
 failed he would stand well out of sight, and shout, 
 "Ho, Thorgar!" until he heard the answer come 
 back which he could recognize as Thorgar' s voice. 
 He found himself out in this queer trick one day 
 by accident, and thereafter never rested till he had 
 got to the bottom of it. He was afraid that 
 Thorgar might be different; he was afraid that 
 he might catch Thorgar doing something, or look- 
 ing like something, which would prove that he 
 had never known Thorgar that is, the real 
 Thorgar; for he felt sure that the real you was 
 only visible when you were alone, or believed your- 
 self so. Now he loved Thorgar so much, and knew 
 that he did, saw himself daily, hourly, loving Thor- 
 gar so utterly that he simply dared not risk the 
 chance of surprising a different Thorgar. When
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 5 
 
 he knew all this he told Thorgar about it, of course. 
 And Thorgar laughed. 
 
 " I thought you were a queer fish," he said, " but 
 not that you were so queer as that." 
 
 Thormod said, " You surely see what I am afraid 
 of and why I am afraid of it?" 
 
 " But I do not," said Thorgar. Thormod 
 frowned. 
 
 "You see," he said, "you are my greatest 
 friend." 
 
 " Granted." 
 
 "You are only my friend because I love what 
 you are." 
 
 "Well ?" 
 
 "Well but if you were different I might not 
 love you at all." 
 
 Thorgar's eyes flashed. He had got hold of 
 something at last. " Yes but you might, on the 
 other hand, love me more." And he insisted upon 
 arguing about that, which to Thormod's mind had 
 nothing whatever to do with it. So Thormod had 
 to give up talking about it at all, but did not cease 
 giving notice of his approach. So it happened that
 
 6 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 he met, quite by accident, with the happiest moment 
 of his life, a moment which he never forgot. 
 
 Thormod was perhaps a year older than Thorgar ; 
 but Thorgar took the lead in most of their esca- 
 pades from the time when they were boys until 
 the age of manhood. After that Thormod's mind 
 outran Thorgar's and dominated it. They were 
 much of a height, but Thorgar was the stouter, and 
 in constitution the tougher of them. In looks they 
 were very different. Thorgar had a high colour, 
 straight, dense brown hair, blue eyes. He was 
 not very good-looking, for his teeth showed too 
 much ; he was rough and graceless ; he had no pity ; 
 but he was quite without fear. Thormod was all 
 black and white. He had black and curly hair, 
 black eyes, or rather yellow eyes, which looked black 
 when the pupils dilated, as they always did in cer- 
 tain lights. He was often pale in the face, some- 
 times burnt brown by the sun, but never red. He 
 had a good straight nose, a sharp chin with a dimple 
 in it, a good mouth with very red lips. When he 
 smiled few girls could resist him. He stammered 
 a little and girls liked that too. He did not find
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 7 
 
 out his powers with women until he was eighteen 
 or thereabouts, but when he did he made as much 
 use of them as his countryside afforded, and began 
 to take himself seriously as a lover. Presently he 
 found that he was taking himself seriously every 
 time he met with an attractive girl, and from that 
 time on he was less serious. It struck him as comi- 
 cal, and therefore he ceased to consider himself in 
 love; but he did not by any means cease to enjoy 
 girls' society. 
 
 The truth was, he told himself, his friendship 
 with Thorgar was too serious a matter to allow 
 any room for a great love-affair. That, in all its 
 phases, absorbed him. He took it much harder 
 than Thorgar did; but Thorgar was as clear as 
 water in summer, and always the same therefore 
 there was no risk of any of the ridiculous mis- 
 understandings, tiffs, jealousies, suspicions which 
 are always heading up love-affairs with girls dam- 
 ming them like brooks, until the current swells over 
 the obstruction and runs boiling and foaming for 
 a time, carrying everything before it. That was the 
 glory of friendship; it was a state of peace and trust.
 
 8 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 But he did not realise how intensely he loved Thor- 
 gar until he ran the risk of losing him altogether. 
 
 That happened when he was twenty years old, 
 and Thorgar, maybe, nineteen. It was high sum- 
 mer, and they had gone off together to the cliffs 
 at the Horn to get angelica. The pipy stalks of 
 the plant make a good sweetmeat, and the best ones 
 come from the Horn where the cliffs are sheer over 
 the sea : a wild and dangerous place, the extreme 
 north-west of Iceland. Below the edge of the cliff, 
 a man's height down, there was a grassy shelf 
 where the angelica grew finest. Thorgar let him- 
 self down to that dangerous place, and what he 
 cut of the stuff he passed up to Thormod on the 
 brink. 
 
 Thormod, with an armful, was away for a few 
 minutes, bearing it out of the wind to the shelter 
 where they had left their cloaks and weapons. 
 While he was away the scree on which the angelica 
 grew gave way under Thorgar, who slipped off the 
 shelf and, had he not caught hold of a plant close 
 to the root, he must have dropped to the sea, some 
 sixty fathoms below him. There he hung, while
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 9 
 
 Thorraod, in no sort of hurry, sat himself down on 
 the cliff, clasped his hands about his shins and 
 watched the wheeling birds or the seals far off on 
 the rocks, or the weather. By and by, without stir- 
 ring from his place, he called out to his friend, " Ho, 
 there are you never coming? You must have 
 enough by now." 
 
 Thorgar's voice sounded far and faint. " I guess 
 I shall have enough by the time I have pulled this 
 one up." 
 
 Thormod did not hear what he said, though he 
 heard him speak. He got up slowly and went to 
 the edge to look over. Then he saw Thorgar's hand, 
 and nothing else of him. His first shock was that 
 he was seeing Thorgar unawares, and the concern 
 of that occupied him for a full minute. Then, all 
 at once, he saw his instant danger, and grew grey 
 in the face. 
 
 In a moment he had dropped over the edge on to 
 the shelf, threw himself flat and caught Thorgar 
 by the wrist. As he hauled him up the angelica 
 root broke away from the scree. He brought him 
 safely to bank, however, and sat down to recover
 
 io THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 himself. He was still grey- faced, and trembling; 
 but Thorgar was not in any respect moved by his 
 experience. Thormod could not speak for some 
 time. Then he said, " What were you thinking 
 of when I saw your hand, and nothing else of 
 you?" 
 
 Thorgar said, " I don't know when you did see 
 my hand." 
 
 " I saw it a minute before I caught hold of you." 
 
 " Oh well, I expect I was wondering how long 
 it would be before the root came away." 
 
 " Were you not thinking, where shall I be after- 
 wards?" 
 
 " No, indeed." 
 
 "Don't you want to know that?" 
 
 " No. It is nothing to me." 
 
 " It is much to me," Thormod said ; " but I never 
 thought about it till I saw your hand." 
 
 On the way home Thormod proposed that they 
 should swear that either of them should avenge the 
 death of the other; and Thorgar agreed. They 
 swore it with lifted hands, and afterwards shook 
 hands upon it. They were Christian in Iceland
 
 THE LIGHT HEART u 
 
 at the time, but only newly so, and not very much 
 so. They were Christian enough, however, to for- 
 bear any more ceremony than they made. There 
 should have been a turf-girdle lifted, under which 
 they should have crawled. They should have each 
 let blood from the arm, and mixed it with the earth 
 under the turf-girdle. But those things were left 
 out when they swore their friendship. 
 
 It is not certain how far Thorgar was playing 
 at a heathen pact, how far he merely lent himself 
 to Thormod's mood, as he thought it. But he 
 was wrong there. It was no mood of Thormod's 
 at all, but an outcome of his whole nature. It was 
 a dedication of his life to an idea.
 
 II 
 
 These two young men, perfectly happy in them- 
 selves and in each other, were not liked in their 
 country. It was a country where life was hard, 
 where winter was long and summer short, where 
 stormy weather for weeks together stopped the fish- 
 ing, where you might be at your wits' end how to 
 keep the stock alive until the grass began to grow. 
 But Thorgar and Thormod had no heed for all 
 this. They did very little work, and (as it seemed) 
 could only be amused if their neighbours did as 
 little. 
 
 And they were high-spirited, and Thorgar at 
 least inclined to be quarrelsome. He was known 
 to have killed his man at a horse-fight it had been 
 done, in a sudden tempest of rage. He had rushed 
 at him, with a great stone in both his hands, lifted 
 it and brought it down on the top of his head. 
 There had been a great stir, although the man was 
 
 12
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 13 
 
 only a thrall. His father had paid weregild, and 
 the thing had quieted down. Thorgar had gone 
 south for a season, and Thormod with him. They 
 had stayed with a man called Thorgils at Reek-hill ; 
 those two with a huge man of great fame, Grette 
 by name, Grette the Strong. There had been fine 
 doings all the winter they were there games, hunt- 
 ing, battles on the ice and what-not. Thormod and 
 Thorgar together were almost a match for Grette. 
 Thorgils was fond of talking about it afterwards. 
 'He was accustomed to say that he had housed that 
 winter the three bravest men in all Iceland; but 
 once, when he had said it, he was challenged. Did 
 they then fear nothing? Why, yes, he said, two 
 of them did. Grette, he said, was afraid of the 
 dark, and Thormod was afraid of God; but as 
 for Thorgar, there was nothing here or elsewhere 
 that he was afraid of; and " I never saw him show 
 a sign of fear at any sudden danger he might fall 
 in with." 
 
 Thorgar was clear about the future. He would 
 sail the seas, visit King Olaf, and if there was fight- 
 ing to be done, he would fight. When they got
 
 14 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 upon this topic Thormod always felt a black hu- 
 mour seize upon him. He too desired to travel, but 
 fighting made no call for his ears. He was the 
 happier of the two in the friendship. He often 
 thought about it, and whenever he did he felt his 
 heart beat the faster. Thorgar took it for granted, 
 and did not think about it at all. Nor did it sway 
 his ambition, nor interfere with his plans. But 
 it coloured the whole of Thormod's outlook; he 
 would not consider of a life in which it did not 
 take the chief part. So he did not care to talk 
 of the future for fear that Thorgar should make 
 too free. But Thorgar made very free, and as he 
 grew stronger and older would always discuss the 
 future. The more he talked the grimmer grew 
 Thormod; and it did not make him the less grim 
 that he knew he was dishonouring friendship by 
 treating it with the petulance of a love-affair. That 
 knowledge made him cross. He said to himself, 
 A friendship that is in danger is a friendship lost 
 already. In a sort of sense, then, he was prepared 
 for what was coming. 
 
 I don't know whether Thorgar made any prepa-
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 15 
 
 rations for going abroad, or whether he acted on 
 impulse. If it came to him suddenly, it came on the 
 doing of Thormod, who, having conceived the pos- 
 sibility, was impatient until he knew the worst. 
 What exactly happened was this. The pair of them 
 were riding one day in early summer eastwards 
 along Gilsfirth, which is the extremity of Broad- 
 firth. They rode on the shore below the cliffs, and 
 were in a hurry to pass the Drifta, which is a great 
 headland and impassable at high water, before the 
 tide caught them. Thorgar was in high spirits, put 
 his horse to a gallop, and outdistanced his friend. 
 Presently he reined up and looked back, flushed 
 and laughing, while Thormod came up with him. 
 Then they rode on together, Thormod a little put 
 out by the bustle and his beating. Thorgar said, 
 " I beat you fairly, yet the pace you made would 
 have foundered anybody else." 
 
 Thormod said nothing, but Thorgar went on. 
 " Now I should like to know if there are two others 
 the like of us, young men, sworn brothers, in all 
 Iceland. What do you say?" 
 
 Thormod said, "Why not? Iceland is a large
 
 16 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 country. Look far enough into it and you will find 
 all sorts." 
 
 " Never," cried Thorgar. " Not in all Iceland, 
 at least. Norway, Denmark, I don't say but not 
 Iceland." Then he was quiet, looking at the rising 
 tide, which was already up to the horses' 
 knees. They were close to the cliff by now, and 
 could see the breaking waves lipping at the 
 rocks. 
 
 " Now tell me this," he said, looking saucily 
 at Thormod, who was frowning; "tell me this. 
 If you and I were put to it, which of us do you 
 think would come off the better man? " 
 
 It was an unwise question, because he had just 
 outpaced his friend. Thormod grew angry. " I 
 don't know," he said hotly, " but I will tell you 
 what I do know, that your question breaks up our 
 ride together." 
 
 Thorgar, who was ahead again, with the water 
 over his knees and up to his horse's shoulder, 
 laughed and waved his hand, without looking back. 
 Thormod had reined up and was watching him. 
 Before he rounded the cliff Thorgar looked back.
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 17 
 
 " Come on, man," he called out. " You must swim 
 for it." 
 
 Thormod heard him. "I am not coming," he 
 shouted. " Farewell and good fortune ! " Then he 
 turned and rode west, and on to Bathbow, where 
 his father lived. He did not know then that he 
 should never see Thorgar again, but as winter suc- 
 ceeded winter without news, he became reconciled 
 to it. It was two years certainly before he heard 
 from some seafarer that Thorgar had gone abroad. 
 
 By that time he was involved in other affairs, 
 and his friendship of twenty years had taken the 
 place of a sacred memory. He never forgot Thor- 
 gar, and had no bitterness at all in his memories 
 of him. It all showed clear and beautiful and 
 far-off, like an island in the sea full in the sun, 
 when the mainland is heavy with cloud and driving 
 rain. There was no fear that he would ever fail in 
 his oath. In fact, it was always before him, like a 
 career. He had no other in prospect, and it seemed 
 to him as good as any. But it did not prevent him 
 from amusing himself. He fell more than usually 
 in love, and found out that he was a poet.
 
 Ill 
 
 But I must deal first with Thorgar, who held on 
 his way along Gilsfirth, making his road into 
 Sowerby. It was in Swinedale down there that 
 he expected to come up with some friends of his, 
 Luge and Thorgils, who, with a company, were 
 meaning to take ship in Midfirth. That had been 
 the intention also of Thormod. 
 
 He rode on briskly to the head of the firth, then 
 up a narrow dale and out into the open country, 
 without seeing anything of the men he was looking 
 for; and presently he came to a homestead called 
 Marswell, where meadows sloped down to a river, 
 and he could see a man working his way up to 
 the house with a load of rushes on his back. That 
 man's name was Torve, but Thorgar neither knew 
 nor cared what his name was. He got within hail- 
 ing distance across the river and shouted to him. 
 No answer. He trotted forward, still calling; he 
 
 18
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 19 
 
 called several times, but had no answer. The fact 
 was that Torve didn't hear him. The wind was 
 pretty fresh and whistling in the rushes on his 
 back. But again Thorgar neither knew nor cared. 
 He was very angry, and to go on shouting, as he 
 did, made him furious. He spurred forward in a 
 fume, crossed the river, overtook Torve, and drove 
 his spear clean through his back. The man 
 dropped in a heap, with the rushes all over his 
 head. Thorgar rode on along the river. 
 
 That was the kind of young man he was, careless 
 of his own life and careless of other men's. He 
 thought no more of Torve at all, being set on find- 
 ing his friends. It was well past noon when he 
 came up with them, and told them what a chase 
 they had led him. "Why," he said, "I had to 
 kill a man before I could get at you." They stared 
 at him, and then it all came out. He had no praise 
 from them for the deed; he found them, on the 
 contrary, cool with him, got in a pet again and 
 refused to stop at Horneddale, where Luge and 
 Thorgils stayed to dine. He would wait for them 
 at Borgfirth, he said, and rode on.
 
 20 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 But his day's work was by no means over with 
 the slaying of Torve. He must have been in a 
 mad mood, since this is what he did. He reached 
 a place called Sharpfell, with a good homestead, 
 and the men, just off work, standing about the 
 doors. He had to cross two or three fields to reach 
 the track which led past the house, and there, in 
 the last of them, he saw two men talking by a 
 turf wall one was sitting on the wall, the other, 
 with his crook between his knees, was sitting on 
 his heels, leaning his head forward and looking at 
 the ground. Thorgar passed quite close to him 
 with an axe swinging loosely in his hand. As he 
 went by, without thinking what he was doing, he 
 swung up the axe and let it fall on the back of 
 the man's neck. It cut like a razor, took the head 
 clean off. All the men stared at him, too much 
 astonished to cry out. Thorgar rode on his way 
 and passed out of sight: nobody came after 
 him. 
 
 But by the time Luge and the other man came 
 on the household at Sharpfell had collected its wits 
 and was ready for them. Luge, in perfect inno-
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 21 
 
 cence, asked, had they seen a horseman go by, and 
 described Thorgar. "Is he a friend of yours?" 
 " He is." " Then we will trouble you with a deed 
 of his." Whereupon they displayed the headless 
 corpse of the shepherd. No help, they must 
 pay weregild and so they did, very unwillingly, 
 and then they rode on their way to Borg- 
 firth. 
 
 There, on the hard, was Thorgar, all his ill- 
 humour blown away, who hailed them cheer- 
 fully. "Well met," he said, "but you ride 
 slowly." 
 
 Luge and Thorgils looked at each other. 
 "Ah," said Luge, "and perhaps if you were 
 slower in your deeds you would be none the 
 worse." 
 
 " As for the speed we make," Thorgils said, 
 " that is as may be. I suppose you haven't reck- 
 oned the time we may have spent in repairing your 
 mischiefs." 
 
 At first Thorgar honestly did not know what 
 all this implied. He knit his brows over it and 
 gazed darkly from under them at the two arrivals.
 
 22 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 Then his face cleared. " Ah, you came by- 
 Mars well? Now I understand you." 
 
 He looked rather serious. " It must be confessed 
 I did thoughtlessly up there." 
 
 " Thoughtless enough and heartless enough," 
 said Luge. " What grudge did you owe the 
 man?" 
 
 " None at all none at all." 
 
 " Then," said Luge, " I don't know what to say 
 to you." 
 
 " I don't think you will understand me," Thorgar 
 said. " It is the truth that I had nothing against 
 him. But as I was passing him close, his head was 
 stretched out in such a way that it was difficult to 
 resist a cut at it. The axe, do you see, was swinging 
 in my hand. And it sliced him like a turnip. But 
 it was a thoughtless act." 
 
 " It was a manslaughter for which we have been 
 compelled to pay handsomely," Thorgils told 
 him. 
 
 " I pay, I pay," says Thorgar. 
 
 " Why, yes," Thorgar said, " you pay, no doubt. 
 But are you always so handy with your steel ? "
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 23 
 
 " No, no," said Thorgar. 
 
 " It is to be hoped not. On board ship, you must 
 know, we stand thick between decks." 
 
 " You are very right," said Thorgar. " I will 
 take care." 
 
 That evening they went on board, and betimes 
 they up-anchor and rowed out of the firth.
 
 IV 
 
 There is but little more to be told of Thorgar, 
 the manner of whose death, like the fact of it, was 
 not known for many years. The ship made a long 
 voyage before they saw land; and when they saw 
 it, and knew it for Ireland, they were in two 
 minds whether to go ashore or not. The Icelanders 
 were not loved in Ireland, and as Luge wished to 
 trade and had no desire either to kill or be killed, 
 he gave orders that they should cast anchor out 
 of bow shot from the land, and hide a while before 
 they manned the boat. They could see a dense 
 company awaiting them, and a company which 
 was constantly increasing, and a company which 
 was heavily armed. They saw spears in such a 
 number that they looked like a wood of young 
 trees. But no boats put off, and they were too far 
 out for a shore attack. Nevertheless, Luge did not 
 like the look of things, and soon made up his mind 
 
 24
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 25 
 
 that nothing could be done there. Thorgar was 
 on fire to make a landing, but the other two were 
 afraid of him, and with reason. After waiting 
 for a fair wind, they sailed directly they got it, 
 and made a good landing in England, where they 
 were well received. King Cnut of Denmark was 
 king of that country, and welcomed them. From 
 thence, having letters from the King, they went to 
 Denmark, wintered there, and then separated. Luge 
 and Thorgils went home, but Thorgar took ship 
 with some merchants of his new acquaintance, and 
 went to Norway. 
 
 There, on all hands, he heard such things of 
 King Olaf that he determined to see him. Olaf 
 was at Trondjem, sitting in his hall with his chiefs 
 about him, when Thorgar came in. He looked 
 very fine, having grown a full beard, having a 
 goodly crimson cloak, a winged casque in his hand, 
 and his weapons clanging about him as he moved. 
 
 He walked up to the hall and greeted the King. 
 
 " You speak me fairly," says Olaf, " and I take 
 it fairly. But I must know who greets me. Who 
 are you, and whence are you?"
 
 26 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 " I am from Iceland," he said, " and my name 
 Thorgar." 
 
 The King looked more sharply at him. There 
 were very few men of any note in the world whom 
 he did not know. "Are you Thorgar Hawars- 
 son?" 
 
 Thorgar said, " That is who I am." 
 
 Olaf kept his eyes upon him. " I have heard 
 of you, and am glad to see you. You are a fine 
 man, and have the air of a man. You have done 
 some notable deeds, they tell me, and I hope you 
 will do some more. But you must not look to 
 come off unscathed in all things and indeed I don't 
 see that fortune for you." 
 
 Thorgar said that he had learned to take things 
 as they came. " At this moment," he said, " I think 
 well of my fortune." 
 
 Olaf was drawn to him, and made up his mind 
 quickly, as he always did. "If you will stay with 
 me," he said, "you will be welcome, and I desire 
 your better acquaintance. I don't make many mis- 
 takes in the company I keep." 
 
 Thorgar said, " I accept that offer."
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 27 
 
 There he stayed, it is said, for a year or more, 
 high in honour with King Olaf. And then came 
 the end of him. The King's affairs in Greenland 
 called for ships and armed men. Thorgar was 
 made chief of a company. He went, and was swal- 
 lowed up in that land of fog and storm. Report 
 came long afterwards to Olaf in Norway that he 
 had been slain by one Thorgrim Trolle, but nothing 
 of the manner of his death. Later still, the news 
 reached his friend Thormod at Bathbow.
 
 When Thormod had receonciled himself to the 
 loss of his friend, and was content to keep him 
 as a beautiful memory, he began to cast about for 
 a more active occupation not for his body, for 
 he never wanted that, but for his mind. He turned 
 over the young men of his acquaintance, and had 
 no interest in any of them. Then he realised that 
 the pursuits, desperate enough as some of them 
 were, which he had shared with Thorgar had only 
 pleased him because they pleased Thorgar. He 
 did not care for horse-fighting in itself, or for 
 football upon the ice; he did not wish to drink 
 or be drunk ; he did not want to fight with any one 
 or to draw blood. He knew that he was unlike other 
 young men, but did not at all know why. What 
 he liked best of all was to see a beautiful thing, 
 and sit still and look at it and think about it. 
 Now it happened that there was a beautiful thing 
 
 28
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 29 
 
 near at hand; so he got into the way of going to 
 look at it. It was a young girl called Thordis, about 
 fifteen years old, the only daughter of Grima, the 
 widow, who lived at Augre a place close by the 
 water of Icefirth. 
 
 Grima was rather old to have a child of that age, 
 very well off, and supposed to be wise. That means 
 to say that she knew things unlawful witchcraft, 
 spaedom and suchlike. She was always very pleas- 
 ant to Thormod when he came; and Thordis, her 
 girl, was more than that. 
 
 She was a very good-looking girl, tall and beau- 
 tifully formed, with a delicate colour and bright 
 eyes. She knew that Thormod admired her, which 
 enhanced her good looks; and as she trusted him 
 the two became more than friendly. She used to 
 kiss him when it grew dusk, but never in the day- 
 light; so Thormod got into the habit of coming 
 rather late and staying till nightfall. He had plenty 
 to say to her, and she was a good listener. They 
 used to sit together in the summer twilight and 
 watch the smooth-flowing water of the firth, while 
 Thormod would tell her his fancies about every-
 
 30 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 thing in the world in one long stream of murmur. 
 Grima would be mostly indoors at such times; 
 but she knew pretty well what was going on, 
 and thought no harm so long as nobody else 
 did. 
 
 But the worst of it was, as always happens, the 
 neighbours, who knew much less than Grima did, 
 as a consequence thought much more. After the 
 first winter of this pleasant intercourse, when the 
 open weather began, and the long days, and Thor- 
 mod continued his visits to Augre, the people of 
 that countryside began to whisper, to nod, wink 
 and talk. Then presently something of all this 
 drifted past Grima's ears; she heard it and was 
 offended. As their saying went, Thormod was be- 
 guiling her daughter, than which nothing more 
 harmful could be said of any girl. 
 
 So by and by Grima, choosing her time, had 
 a word or two with Thormod. " I have had words 
 come by me," she said, " that you are beguiling 
 my Thordis. That miscontents me, because you 
 know as well as I do that a girl's person is like 
 a polished mirror. Breathe upon it and she is tar-
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 31 
 
 nished. Young men will not ask for a girl whose 
 fame is spotted." 
 
 Thormod was troubled. " There is no harm be- 
 tween us, mother," he said. " We like each other 
 well but not in that way." 
 
 "If I had thought there was harm in it you 
 would not be listening to me now," said Grima. 
 " I like you well myself, and think that you two 
 are happy together. But there can only be one 
 end to such companionships. If you choose to ask 
 me for her I shall give her to you. So it is in 
 your choice." 
 
 Now Thormod looked rather foolish. He did 
 not find any words for some time, but then he 
 thanked Grima for her kindness. " You treat me 
 very friendly," he said, " and I shall treasure your 
 speeches. But I told you just now that we had 
 no thought of setting up house. I haven't said a 
 word of it to Thordis I am not a marrying man 
 myself, so far as I see. If I were such, be 
 sure I should look for no better wife than 
 Thordis. But that will not be the end of our 
 friendship."
 
 32 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 Grima looked at him, her lips pressed together. 
 "Oh, well " she said. 
 
 "Well?" said Thormod. 
 
 " I can't have her a byword." 
 
 Thormod rose to his feet, stayed irresolute for 
 a little, then shrugged, threw up his head, wished 
 her good day, and walked out of the house. He 
 saw Thordis in the cowhouse, and waved his hand 
 to her. She stood there looking after him; but he 
 did not turn his head. He kept away for the rest 
 of the summer. 
 
 But when the winter dark began he was horribly 
 hipped at home, and began to think longingly of 
 Augre and Thordis's kisses. The bay froze hard 
 and gave him a short cut; he did not attempt to 
 resist his desires. He was rather sheepish facing 
 Grima again, but she was pleasant enough to him, 
 thinking that perhaps he had thought it over and 
 found himself more of a marrying man than he 
 had believed. "If he can't get her society any 
 other way, he will have it that way." That was 
 what she thought. There was no doubt of the 
 welcome he had from Thordis at least. She was
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 33 
 
 shy, but it made her kisses all the sweeter when 
 they came, to have to beg for them. Very soon 
 he came daily and went away nightly. Then gossip 
 began again. Grima bore it as long as she could, 
 and then asked Thormod plainly to cease his visits. 
 Thormod laughed, said he would be more careful, 
 and wasn't so. And then Grima grew angry. 
 
 She kept a thrall, Colbac by name, a big and 
 strong fellow. One afternoon, while Thormod and 
 Thordis were in the house together, Grima went 
 out into the byre and found Colbac at work. She 
 beckoned him with her forefinger, then put it to 
 her lips. He followed her into the house, and 
 found her groping in a great coffer that stood there. 
 She brought out presently some skeins of what 
 looked like waxed silk, and holding them in her 
 two hands, said, " Hold up your arms that I may 
 make you invisible." He did as she bade him, 
 and she wound the skeins round and round his 
 body underneath his outer coat, from the armpits 
 well down to the buttocks. " Nothing will bite 
 you now," she said. Then she brought a short, 
 straight two-edged sword out of her coffer. " Take
 
 34 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 this," she said; "better not go unarmed." She 
 looked up at the sky and snuffed about. " There 
 is a thaw coming, but the bay will hold to-night. 
 Be wary; you will take no harm." That was all 
 she said. 
 
 After supper, when Thormod got up to go home, 
 Thordis went to the door with him. She put her 
 hand on his shoulder, and said, " I want to ask 
 you something." 
 
 " It is yours," said Thormod. 
 
 " Don't cross the bay to-night, then. Take the 
 upper road above Augreswick, and then the track 
 over the brae to Bathbow. Will you promise me ? " 
 
 "Why do you want me to do that?" he asked 
 her. 
 
 " Oh," she said, " the ice may not be safe who 
 knows? I don't want to think of any harm coming 
 to you." 
 
 " No harm will come to me," said Thormod. 
 " The ice will bear for another day and night." 
 
 Thordis took her hand away. " How many 
 favours do I ask of you that you grudge me this 
 one?"
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 35 
 
 Thormod said immediately, " Put your hand 
 where it was, and I'll grant you anything." She 
 did; and then she kissed him, and he left her. 
 
 When he was a little of his way he thought 
 that after all he would go over the ice. It was 
 much shorter, and he could keep along the edge 
 for a good distance, and then make a rush. So 
 he took his usual course. When he came to the 
 sheep-cote which stood down by the water, and was 
 in the act of passing it, a man jumped out and cut 
 at him. He felt a sting upon his right upper arm, 
 felt the blood flow freely, and found that he had 
 no power in it. He dropped his shield, pulled out 
 his sword with his left hand and attacked his 
 assailant, who only defended himself and hit him 
 no more. Thormod fought fiercely and hit the 
 man many times, but without effect. He felt that 
 the sword would not bite, and presently gave over, 
 and stood looking at the shrouded form against 
 him. Colbac it was, who then said, " I have you 
 now, Thormod but enough done." He turned and 
 faded into the night. Thormod felt faint and sick, 
 but managed somehow to tie up his arm with the
 
 36 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 only rag he had to spare, namely, his linen drawers. 
 When he reached home he could hardly speak for 
 exhaustion, and neither eat nor drink. The maid 
 who had been waiting for him called up his father, 
 and between them they put him to bed. He was 
 in a fever, and light-headed.
 
 VI 
 
 Thormod may have been a bad subject, but at 
 any rate he was very ill, and never recovered the 
 use of his right arm. The power in it was gone. 
 He became expert with his left, however, and was 
 nearly the same fine swimmer he had always been 
 but that was much later. There was no swimming 
 for him the summer following Colbac's onslaught. 
 Any ideas that he may have had of swimming over 
 the firth to see Thordis were far from him at that 
 time as, indeed, she herself was. He neither 
 thought of her with regret nor cherished any 
 grudge. He laughed at his father when he spoke 
 of vengeance. "Vengeance for what?" he said. 
 "Had she not a right to rid her of a nuisance? 
 That was what I proved to her." 
 
 Said his father, " You could have wed your lady 
 for a nod." 
 
 " That nod would have cost me more than a 
 37
 
 38 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 slack arm," Thormod said. " I shall never marry 
 Thordis." 
 
 When his health was better he began to chafe 
 at his home-staying, and made many plans. But 
 they came to nothing, and presently he fell in with 
 a plan of his father's, which was that he should 
 go out to the fishing on the Banks beyond Bolewick. 
 " Why not ? " he said, when it was proposed ; and 
 off he went. 
 
 They sailed out of Icefirth on a fair wind, and 
 it looked like a good passage; but when they were 
 off Ernedale it shifted and blew in their teeth. As 
 it looked like holding, they cast anchor as close 
 inshore as they could get, landed and pitched a tent. 
 Thormod took to wandering over the country, and 
 so wandered into a new distraction. 
 
 A homestead stood in a snug valley which ran 
 out of Ernedale. A woman named Catla held it, 
 with her daughter Thorbeorg, and her son, called 
 Glum. Thorbeorg was a pretty girl, not at all like 
 Thordis, for she was little, and had a high colour, 
 and with very blue eyes had hair as black as night. 
 Her eyebrows, for which she was famous, perfect
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 39 
 
 half-circles, deeply black, gave her the nickname of 
 Coalbrow. She was a merry-hearted girl, and gave 
 herself no airs. Everybody liked her. 
 
 Into that house, where she and her mother were, 
 Thormod walked one day, and stood smiling in his 
 queer way, waiting for a welcome. And he got 
 it. Catla, still a young woman, was glad to see 
 him, or any one in that lonely country, and when 
 she heard his name she nodded and smiled at it. 
 " We have often heard of you," she said, " and will 
 make you welcome." He and Thorbeorg looked at 
 each other more than once, and liked what they 
 saw. Thormod had a good way with women, for 
 he treated them as equals, which all poets do not, 
 and took pains to be at ease and set them so. He 
 soon had Thorbeorg talking to him as freely as 
 her mother; so there he stayed all day. 
 
 He walked back over the fell to his tent happier 
 than he had been for a long while. Thorbeorg 
 moved him as Thordis had never done. It was 
 not that she was more beautiful for she was not 
 but that there was that about her which charmed 
 him more. As he went he began to make up sen-
 
 40 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 tences about her, to string them together into a 
 kind of pattern. Before he was in the tent he had 
 made a poem. He was too excited to sleep; the 
 moon was up and throwing a golden pathway over 
 the firth. He walked about, declaiming his verses 
 and thinking about Coalbrow. That name attracted 
 him, too. It was a rich and strong name. Cer- 
 tainly he had never seen anything like her eye- 
 brows hoops of jet, black bows over dark-blue; 
 arches of cloud over the sea. He walked fiercely 
 about, thinking of Coalbrow and her hoops of jet. 
 She was a sweet and lovely person whom it was 
 happiness to flatter excessively. He would like to 
 say of her something never said about a girl before. 
 Arches in the storm-cloud revealing the dark-blue 
 sea or if her eyes were two lakes, were not her 
 brows like the black pines arched above them? 
 They were like everything where deep blue and 
 black met and enhanced each other. But then he 
 thought that if he were to make a great poem about 
 Coalbrow he must give time to it. " I see my way 
 I see my way but you must give me time, you 
 beautiful creature." He turned to where the house
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 41 
 
 was which held her sleeping, and her hooped brows 
 and spoke to her softly on the wind. " Now I 
 shall go in and sleep, and dream about you, Coal- 
 brow." 
 
 Not surprising that he went out to the farm 
 again, and soon was there every day. He read his 
 verses to Thorbeorg, and some of them to her 
 mother. They thought this fine fun. Glum, the 
 son of the house, was away from home; there was 
 no other man in the house but the servants. Catla 
 presently proposed that Thormod should stay with 
 them altogether, and let his mates go fishing alone. 
 That was arranged, and he lived as a son of the 
 family for the better part of a month. 
 
 In the course of that he finished his poem about 
 Thorbeorg's coalbrows, and not only read it to her, 
 but declaimed it to company. It was much ad- 
 mired, and once at a feast where he delivered it, 
 and Coalbrow herself sat demure to hear it, and 
 to be marked of all, Catla her mother took a fine 
 ring off her finger, and put it upon Thormod's 
 finger before the assembled guests. " I give you 
 this for your verses," she said, " which do honour
 
 42 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 to my daughter and to me. And you shall be 
 known far and wide as Coalbrow's poet, whereby 
 my girl will be remembered when men speak of 
 you." 
 
 Thormod took the gift and the name with be- 
 coming modesty. He was proud of them and proud 
 to be accepted as Thorbeorg's lover. Indeed, he 
 firmly believed himself to be in love with her, but 
 we may suppose that his chief pride lay in the 
 ability he had shown to pay her a magnificent and 
 unexpected compliment. 
 
 But when his men came back from the fishing 
 it was necessary to say good-bye. His parting with 
 Thorbeorg was tender, and took a long time. She 
 had a sweet nature and did not seek to hide her 
 unhappiness, or her belief in him. He held her 
 fondly and believed in himself as he swore that he 
 loved her. From her he turned to her mother. 
 " You have been mother to me, who have no mother 
 at home. Do you believe in me also, as Coalbrow 
 does?" 
 
 He had Thorbeorg's hand as he spoke, and there 
 were tears in his eyes.
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 43 
 
 " Come back to us," Catla said. " Never pass 
 
 by this house as if it held strangers." 
 
 " Trust me," said Thormod, and as he said it 
 
 he trusted in himself. And then he turned away, 
 
 and Thorbeorg cried with her face on her mother's 
 
 shoulder.
 
 VII 
 
 For a good while after reaching home he 
 thought tenderly of Coalbrow, and at the turning 
 over of the name had a vision of her glowing face, 
 deep-blue eyes and arched eyebrows. But if he 
 had known as much about love as he thought he 
 did he would have known that it is a bad sign 
 when you can recall clearly the face of the beloved. 
 The greater your longing the more blurred is the 
 image, hidden up as it were in the mists of desire. 
 But Thormod knew nothing about all that, and 
 as long as the image of Thorbeorg pleased him so 
 long did he feel himself in love with her. 
 
 By and by he mostly forgot Thorbeorg, and as 
 it was then the winter, with the firth icebound, it 
 was natural that he should remember a short cut 
 to Augre, and who, and what, lay at the end of 
 it To take the way was also natural; and he 
 did take it, with only one thought for Colbac's am- 
 
 44
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 45 
 
 bush by the sheepfold, and with not more than 
 three thoughts of Thorbeorg in Ernedale. How- 
 ever, he was to have more thoughts of her before 
 he was out of Augre. 
 
 Grima received him well, though not without a 
 backward hint or two. " So you come to see 
 us again! And bringing peace, I hope, with 
 you." 
 
 " Oh, peace ! " says Thormod. " I am not one 
 to store things in the mind." 
 
 " We are not all masters of the mind," said 
 Grima; "but there should be no feud between us." 
 She gave him to drink, and sat talking with him 
 of indifferent things; then presently Thordis came 
 in, with a heightened colour, and a certain stiffness. 
 Thormod thought her much more beautiful than 
 Thorbeorg, and she certainly was, though not so 
 charming. When Grima left them together he did 
 his best to restore the old footing, but found that 
 Grima had been right in saying that we are not all 
 masters of the mind. 
 
 Thordis was not to be drawn so easily. She 
 had very little to say, and did not appear interested
 
 46 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 in what Thormod had to tell her. That nettled 
 him. 
 
 " You are changed a good deal," he said. " Now 
 if I bear no grudge for what happened on my last 
 visit, I cannot think that you need." 
 
 Thordis' eyes flashed. 
 
 " Perhaps you forget that it was not my fault 
 that anything happened to you. Forgetting seems 
 to come easy." 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" said Thormod. 
 
 " I mean that you forgot my prayer to you to 
 take the long road that night," said she. 
 
 " I acknowledge that I disobeyed you," he told 
 her, " but not because I forgot what you said. I 
 found the ice would carry me, so I took that road. 
 It would have been well for me if I had kept 
 faith." 
 
 " To keep faith is always well," said Thordis 
 drily; "but that does not come easily to you, I 
 understand." 
 
 At first he was puzzled. " What is this? " 
 
 " I hear of you as a poet," said Thordis. " I 
 hear of you as a lover."
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 47 
 
 " Do you say I am a poet ? " 
 
 " No, indeed." 
 
 " Do you say I am a lover ? " 
 
 " Nay, that is what you say of yourself." 
 
 " When have I said so ? Where have I said so ? " 
 
 " In the poem which you made to Thorbeorg 
 Coalbrow in Ernedale," said Thordis. 
 
 There, then, he had it, and he did on the spot 
 what I suppose every man would have done that 
 is, lied. 
 
 He said very quietly, and without moving from 
 his place by the board, " That is quite untrue, as 
 you put it. It is true that I made a poem in Erne- 
 dale, and that Thorbeorg heard it, for I spoke it 
 to her. But the poem was about yourself, though 
 she may not have known that. If a man is to 
 write a poem about a lady he will write the more 
 strongly about her when he is face to face with 
 another whose beauty and conversation make to 
 shine by contrast those of the woman of his love. 
 Now I can recite you the poem which I made, if 
 you choose to hear it. And I will write it down 
 for you, if you care to have it." Then he looked
 
 48 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 straight at Thordis and saw the cloud of doubt 
 
 lift a little from her fine eyes. 
 
 She avoided his bold gaze, and looked down at 
 her hands in her lap. Presently she said that she 
 should like to hear the poem. 
 
 Thormod began to speak the Coalbrow poem, and 
 as he went on, so struck was he with desire of 
 Thordis that he was fired with words, and made 
 a new thing of it. He did not falter once, or be- 
 tray himself. He felt as he went on that he was 
 improving the poem, and attributed that entirely 
 to the greater beauty of Thordis. She listened 
 closely, was plainly moved by his fervour the signs 
 could not be mistaken; and at the end she looked 
 up with a divine light in her eyes, and without a 
 word gave him her hand. Thormod sprang to- 
 wards her, and they kissed. He felt happy and 
 triumphant; for he had made what was really a 
 new poem out of one which he now thought 
 meanly of. 
 
 But on his way home his mood changed, and he 
 felt very badly of what he had done. " I am a 
 dog," he said to himself, " to trick two good and
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 49 
 
 lovely girls. It is what a thrall would do." When 
 he was at home and abed, he could not sleep, be- 
 cause whenever he was drowsing off, by some fate 
 Thorbeorg or Thordis seemed to stand vividly be- 
 fore his eyes, and he grew hot all over. However, 
 in the morning he felt better about it, and by dusk 
 had but one care in the world, which was to see 
 and be kissed by Thordis. Happy with her for a 
 few hours, his remorse attacked him at night. 
 Thorbeorg was always by his bedside, but not the 
 glowing little beauty of his experience. A new 
 Thorbeorg this was, pale and reproachful, whose 
 black brows stared fiercely from a white face. He 
 fought the vision desperately, and got some sleep 
 towards morning. That went on nightly, until he 
 became ill with want of proper rest, and gradually 
 the conviction was forced upon him that he must 
 confess to Thordis what he had done. Finally 
 he knew that nothing else would satisfy his con- 
 science or give him sleep. 
 
 He did it, and it was the hardest thing he had 
 ever had to do. He took with him the poem he 
 had first made about Coalbrow, and gave it to
 
 50 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 Thordis. More than that, he forced himself to read 
 it to her. He was so beaten down by shame that 
 the girl could not be angry, nor even scorn him. 
 On the contrary, she pitied him, and to his great 
 surprise said presently that she too had something 
 to confess. 
 
 " It cannot be worth setting by my own confes- 
 sion," said the unhappy Thormod. 
 
 Thordis said, " It is bad, because it will make 
 you unhappy, but it was not a wilful fault of mine. 
 I should have told you of it before, but " 
 
 " Let me know it," said Thormod. " I forgive 
 it you beforehand." 
 
 She said, " I hope you will remember what you 
 have said. It is that word was brought to us a 
 while ago that your friend Thorgar has been slain." 
 
 A chill seized Thormod's heart. He stared at 
 Thordis. 
 
 " It was a seafarer from Augreswick who was 
 here before you came back to us. He had been 
 in Greenland. The news was all about there that 
 there had been an affray." 
 
 " Who was his slayer? Did you hear that? "
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 51 
 
 " His name is Thorgrim Troll," she said. " He 
 is a high chief out there; one of the great men." 
 
 Thormod sat quiet for a time. Then he asked 
 her, " Why did you not tell me when I came here 
 first?" 
 
 She did not answer quickly. " Do you ask me 
 that?" 
 
 " Yes, I must know that." 
 
 " It was because I was happy to see you again, 
 when I thought that you were as you used to be, 
 and afraid that you would forget me when you 
 knew it." 
 
 Thormod did not consider what it cost her to 
 say so much. She did not exist for him at the 
 time. 
 
 " I am well punished," he said, " by you and Thor- 
 beorg, and I deserve it." 
 
 Thordis was crying. " Oh, don't take it like 
 that. I am more than sorry for you." 
 
 " No, no," he said. " You have been kind. I 
 did not mean that you were revenging yourself. 
 Don't think that." Then he rose to go. 
 
 " Farewell, Thordis," he said. " I have work
 
 52 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 on hand now. Maybe we shan't meet for a long 
 
 time." 
 
 " I know it," she said, and let him go without 
 another word. He went straight home.
 
 VIII 
 
 It might be thought that Thormod's first act 
 would have been to make a poem upon the life 
 and death of his friend; but that was his second 
 act. He went immediately from Grima's house 
 to Augreswick, and was not long in tracing out 
 the sailor who had told the news to Thordis. The 
 sailor now repeated all that he knew, and added 
 more. The quarrel had begun with a vaunting 
 match in Earl Eric's hall at Ericsfirth. High words 
 had passed, and Thorgar was said to have insulted 
 Thorgrim Troll. The sailor thought he had been 
 insulting. "If the upshot had been an affray," he 
 said, " then and there, no one could have said any- 
 thing, though maybe the end would have been the 
 same." 
 
 " How do you know that ? " Thormod asked. 
 
 " Master," the sailor replied, " Thorgar and his 
 Icelanders were few. Thorgrim Troll had a great 
 company of his own. Moreover of the Earl's house- 
 
 53
 
 54 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 hold and guests three parts, I suppose, would have 
 upheld a chieftain of their land. And Thorgar 
 was in the wrong, being far gone in drink. To 
 call a man a dog and a great man, too is one 
 thing; to say that he has maggot on his liver is 
 in excess." 
 
 "Did Thorgar tell him that?" 
 
 " Those are two of the things he told him. He 
 told him a number of things." 
 
 "And what then?" 
 
 "Thorgrim Troll challenged to wager of battle; 
 and it was agreed. But on the day set for that 
 trial Thorgrim Troll with his friends lay hid by 
 the way Thorgar was to come; leapt out at him 
 and his following, and began the affray. Thorgar 
 killed two of Thorgrim' s men, and jumped into the 
 firth, to swim. Then Thorgrim Troll bade launch 
 a boat, which was done, and himself in the bows. 
 Therefrom he slew Thorgar with a harpoon in the 
 middle of his back, between the shoulders. His 
 body was not recovered, but floated out with the 
 tide. But Thorgrim did not win much glory for 
 the deed."
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 55 
 
 Thormod was not able to see for the mist in his 
 eyes. Nor could he speak for a while. " It was 
 the deed of a dog," he then said. 
 
 " What became of Thorgar's friends? " he asked, 
 and the man said that while all of those who ac- 
 companied him on the day of his death were killed 
 with him, those who had stayed behind escaped. 
 " I was of his ship's company," he said, " and found 
 a hiding-place until Thorgrim Troll had gone home 
 to his own country. Then after a time I found 
 a ship going to Iceland; and in due course I will 
 find another going to Norway, which is where I 
 come from." 
 
 " Maybe," said Thormod, " you will find my 
 ship; for I shall be going east before long." 
 
 Then he went home, and made his poem. 
 
 It has been lost now, so I cannot give it here. 
 It was the greatest thing of the kind he ever did, 
 was famous itself, and made Thormod famous in 
 his day. It was not so much a lament as a celebra- 
 tion of the life and deeds of a man who had never 
 known fear. Most of it came unsought into his 
 mind so soon as the thought to make it had come;
 
 56 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 but for some of it he had to make inquiry. Thor- 
 gar's deeds in England, what he did in the service 
 of King Olaf these things he had to learn. He 
 may have learned among them of his purposeless 
 killing of two men on the day before he left Ice- 
 land; but if he heard it is unlikely that he put it 
 into his poem. Thormod himself was not by na- 
 ture a fighting man, and nothing that he ever did 
 would give colour to a charge of heedless slaughter 
 against him. Nor, when he closed his poem with 
 lament for the delights of intercourse gone for good, 
 and for the untimely death of a young man so 
 beautiful and swift as his friend, did he give a 
 hint of that vengeance which he intended to take. 
 His poem was declaimed throughout the north and 
 north-west of Iceland, and Thormod was held to 
 be as famous a poet as Cormac of Broadfirth, who 
 indeed made only love-poems. And he was to find 
 out before very long that it flew oversea, and 
 reached the Eastern kingdoms before he did; for 
 he allowed half of the following summer to slip 
 away before all his preparations were made. 
 
 And when he set sail, having a ship and ship's
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 57 
 
 company to his mind, it was to Denmark that he 
 went, instead of Norway, for it was thither that 
 the voyage was purposed by the undertakers. For 
 himself, he had all along intended for Norway, 
 because he had found out that Thorgar had been 
 of King Olaf's household. But ships were not 
 plenty in the north-west, and he was on fire to be 
 off so he went to Denmark. 
 
 Cnut the Great, as they called him, and with 
 reason, was King of Denmark, a king who made 
 himself obeyed. Thormod's ship had not been long 
 in the haven before a messenger came down from 
 the King: greetings, a handsome cloak, and a call 
 to visit him, which was a command. Thormod set 
 off at once, and was brought into the King's pres- 
 ence. A strong, square-headed man he proved to 
 be, with bent and shaggy brows over a pair of 
 sharp eyes. Thormod, not lightly abashed, walked 
 up between two lines of warriors and greeted the 
 King very honourably. In answer the King held 
 out his hand. 
 
 " You are welcome to Denmark," he said, " as 
 are all good men. But what is it brings you here? "
 
 58 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 " Sir, it is your own word." 
 
 " That I can understand. But before you had 
 word from me you were in my haven." 
 
 " Sir," said Thormod, " after a while a man 
 knows his own country very well, and may desire 
 to know others." 
 
 The King nodded. " I see that you keep your 
 own counsel and you may be right. Now I hear 
 of you as a man in all ways fitted to be in a court 
 and in some ways rarely fitted. You are a poet, I 
 hear." 
 
 Thormod said, " I have the name at home, but 
 here you have famous poets at your call. Now I 
 am not proven poet enough to mate with the like 
 of them; and to be plain, the verses that I 
 make come to me unbidden, as they will, not as I 
 will." 
 
 Again the King nodded. " That is as it should 
 be. I am content if you are content." 
 
 Thormod was not content, however. " Sir," he 
 said, " you are contented now because you know 
 me little; but it is needful that you should under- 
 stand that I am a hot-tempered man, and not always
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 59 
 
 sure of myself. Sometimes blow follows mood 
 faster than I should wish." 
 
 " It is the way of your kind," said the King. 
 " We understand all that here." He now looked 
 as if it was a settled thing. 
 
 But Thormod wanted to get away, and so he 
 might have done, if King Cnut had not divined 
 him and become intent on having him. 
 
 " Sir," he said, after a time of choosing his 
 words, " I hope you will not take it amiss if I 
 say yet something more." 
 
 " Not a bit," said the King. 
 
 " It is that Thorarin the poet was here with 
 you, and yet not altogether happily. For they say 
 that his life was at one time hanging by a hair. 
 Yet Thorarin was a much better poet than I am." 
 
 The King was not angry, as he might well have 
 been; but he was not used to find men difficult. 
 " You set a high price on yourself," he said, " and 
 no doubt you do wisely. But I intend to pay it." 
 
 " God will reward you, sir, for your nobility, 
 and He will pardon me, as you do, my working for 
 myself. I would not have you take me into your
 
 60 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 service unwittingly, nor would I take service until 
 
 I knew my footing." 
 
 "Well," said the King, "I like you none the 
 worse for your haggling, and am willing to pay 
 for what I want. Now Thorarin had of me a mark 
 of gold for his wages, and you shall have the same. 
 That will show you whether I wish for you or not." 
 
 " Sir," said Thormod, " I take your offer, if with 
 it you will give me your friendship and comfort, 
 which I shall sorely need." 
 
 " If you don't have them," said the King, " it 
 will be your own doing. So let that be a settled 
 thing between us." 
 
 There, then, Thormod settled himself, and all 
 went well for a while. He had free quarters and 
 the run of his teeth; the King was friendly, and 
 the courtiers in consequence more than friendly. 
 He was so much in favour that not a word could 
 be said against him and not a word was. But 
 in fact he never felt that he grew into the place, 
 and was always looking about for a way of escape. 
 He got it in the winter, when Harek came to 
 court.
 
 IX 
 
 Harek was a wicking, that is a pirate, but the 
 King liked him none the less for that; for of the 
 plunder he took he was careful to let his high friend 
 share liberally. He came to court during Thor- 
 mod's first winter, and proved to be a genial com- 
 panion, though no beauty to look at. Thormod 
 made a poem about him, in which his unchancy 
 appearance was not spared ; but Harek thought it a 
 good poem, and himself fair game. He watched 
 Thormod unbeknown, and took to him. When the 
 time came for the opening of his errand there came 
 with it Thormod's chance. 
 
 Harek, it seemed, had lost his best man, the man 
 who commanded the forecastle of his ship, and had 
 all the talking and much of the adventure to con- 
 duct. He had been, as he had need, very free with 
 his tongue, and once, at close quarters, had been 
 a thought too free for those with whom he was 
 
 6l
 
 62 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 dealing. One of them had knocked him off the 
 bows with a sweep, and there was the end of 
 him. 
 
 " A pity," said Thormod, " that he made so free." 
 
 " Ah, but you must make free, standing up there," 
 Harek told him ; " free with your tongue and handy 
 with your weapon. Now," he said, blinking heavily 
 at Thormod, " I make no doubt as to your freedom 
 in both kinds." 
 
 " Ah," said Thormod, " with the tongue I am 
 a match for most men " 
 
 " I'll warrant you," said Harek. 
 
 " And with the arm I can do something for my- 
 self, or I could. But I had trouble with a man at 
 home who carved into the sinews of my right arm, 
 and shall never be good again there. You are 
 speaking to a left-handed man." 
 
 " Whose left hand will do the work of other 
 men's rights, I'll engage. Hey ? " 
 
 " Oh, much can be done with the left," said 
 Thormod. " And it is as well, for much remains 
 to do." 
 
 " Enough said," Harek concluded, and deter-
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 63 
 
 mined on him as the ornament and stay of his fore- 
 castle. 
 
 He had to talk King Cnut round to his way of 
 thinking, and managed it. But when the thing was 
 put square before Thormod, that queer-angled 
 young man boggled at it. He said that it was very 
 well, that he would do it to oblige the King, but 
 that he knew nothing of Harek except that he was 
 a robber. Nevertheless, to oblige the King, he would 
 do it on terms. " But I make the condition, sir, 
 that it be left to my choice to bring up the ship 
 where I will, whether in haven or outside." 
 
 The King frowned. " What is your meaning? " 
 
 " My meaning is as I have said, sir," said Thor- 
 mod, and would not say any more. 
 
 There was much trouble over it, and he very 
 nearly lost the offer; but Harek wanted him, and 
 so gave way. 
 
 And then there was trouble about getting his dues 
 out of Cnut. The monarch was not a good pay- 
 master, and while it was true that Thormod's pred- 
 ecessor had been granted a certain wages, it is not 
 true that he received it. But there was a pertinacity
 
 64 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 about Thormod which the other had not possessed. 
 It cost him two impromptu poems, for each of 
 which he received a gold armlet. Having weighed 
 them, he judged them equal to a mark of gold, 
 and told the King that he was contented. The 
 King took it all in good part. " If you find Harek 
 as easy to deal with as you have found me," he 
 said, " you will be thinking yourself somebody." 
 Thormod modestly smiled. He thought himself 
 that already. 
 
 He made no use of his discretion in the berth- 
 ing of the ship until the end of the summer. The 
 voyage was prosperous, with much fighting, and 
 fair weather, too. Thormod came up to all Harek' s 
 expectations. He was ready in speech, and remark- 
 ably handy with his weapons. It was found to be 
 true of him, as of Thorgar, that he feared nothing, 
 except perhaps God. What fears he had there were 
 not called upon, for God had very little to do with 
 Harek's voyages. As far as he was concerned, all 
 was well while nothing better offered; but he had 
 sharp eyes, and the moment a chance came to him
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 65 
 
 he jumped for it and that is what he literally did. 
 One evening, which wanted some three or four 
 hours of dusk, Harek's ship was rowed into a fair 
 haven in the main island of a group of them. 
 Thormod, standing up in the bows, directed the 
 helmsman, chose his mooring and at the right mo- 
 ment held out his hand as a signal to bring her 
 to. He let go the bow anchor, and turned to watch 
 them drop the other astern, when he saw men look- 
 ing out to sea, and pointing others' eyes the same 
 way. He looked out then himself, and saw a fleet 
 approaching in line: ships of war, for he could 
 see the shields along the gunwales, and the gleam 
 of spears close together. They came on swiftly 
 and headed directly for the place where he had 
 berthed his own ship, but for some time he took 
 no notice of that, being lost in admiration of the 
 fine sight. High-prowed, painted vessels, driving 
 the foam before them, churning the sea to yeast 
 with their great oars ; ten or twelve of them in line 
 ahead, with distances kept to a yard : it was a sight 
 to make the heart leap; and Thormod's leapt high. 
 On the leading vessel the forecastle man was mak-
 
 66 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 ing signals with his arms; more than that, he was 
 shouting at the top of his voice, though nobody 
 could hear what he said. Thormod, watching him, 
 then saw that that ship in particular had a golden 
 dragon at the prow; and at that his heart stood 
 still, for he knew that there must be a great man 
 on board, who could hardly be any one than King 
 Olaf himself. He forgot everything now in the 
 excitement of searching in the crowd astern for 
 the figure of the hero and meantime the ship drew 
 near. 
 
 On his own ship there was bustle and confusion. 
 Harek was crimson in the face : " Up anchor, up 
 anchor, you cow-face ! " he shouted to Thormod. 
 Then Thormod saw that they were in danger of 
 being run down. The King's ship was driving 
 straight into them, and now you could hear what 
 the man in the forecastle was calling. " Out of 
 the King's haven ! Out with you ! " he was saying, 
 and on all sides were ships' crews busy at the 
 anchors. 
 
 Aboard Harek's ship two men were busy 
 enough, but Thormod would not have the bow-
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 67 
 
 anchor touched. " No, no," he said, " the berthing 
 is my business. That was agreed upon." 
 
 Harek raved at him. " Do you want to have us 
 cut in two ? Are you mad ? " and so on. But 
 Thormod would not stir. 
 
 The Dragon-ship came on, and all of Harek's 
 people thought it was their last hour but not so. 
 At the last moment she sheered off, and ran along- 
 side, and as the bows came level the man on the 
 King's forecastle cut at Thormod with an axe, and 
 only just missed him. 
 
 Thormod, with a longsword, replied, and to some 
 purpose, for he caught him on the back of the 
 neck and felled him into the water. Immediately 
 after that he jumped on to the King's ship, his 
 shield on his right arm, his naked sword in his 
 left, and ran clean up the deck toward the poop. 
 
 The thing was so sudden and done so vehemently 
 that he got more than halfway before he was 
 stopped. Men simply made a road for him, some 
 no doubt supposing him mad. But as he neared 
 the poop of the vessel he was surrounded, and then 
 it was all over with him. He was disarmed, tied
 
 68 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 up and guarded, while word was passed astern to 
 King Olaf that the fool had been taken. 
 
 " Good," said the King; " and now let some one 
 serve him as he served my man." 
 
 Fin Ernesson, a fine tall man, heard the saying 
 and went forward to look over the prisoner. He 
 was a chief, and nobody cared to gainsay him. 
 Thormod was quite cool, and met Fin's looks with 
 a steady and good-humoured one of his own. 
 
 " Now, what possessed you, I wonder, to do the 
 like of that? " Fin asked him. 
 
 Thormod, with his engaging stutter, replied: 
 " Curiosity." 
 
 " Were you anxious to see death, then ? " 
 
 " No," said Thormod. " I was curious to see 
 the King, and so I hope to do before he has me 
 killed." 
 
 "And why did you wish to see the King?" 
 
 " Because he is the greatest man alive, and the 
 man of all men I have most desired to see. If I 
 could get into his power, I thought that was the 
 first thing; and I thought of nothing else. So I 
 jumped for it."
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 69 
 
 " Yes, you jumped for it," said Fin. " I saw 
 you. But first you cut down a man of ours." 
 
 " Yes, I did," said Thormod, " but that was be- 
 cause he tried to cut me down." 
 
 Fin rubbed his chin under his beard, and thought 
 about it. " Hold your hands a little," he said to 
 the men round about him. " I will see the King 
 upon this." 
 
 He made his way back, and found the Bishop 
 Bishop Siffrid it was as he went. " Come with 
 me and help me save a fine man's life," he said. 
 So the two of them went to the King. 
 
 Fin Ernesson worked hard for Thormod, and 
 the Bishop allowed he was a gallant man. " That is 
 as may be," the King said, "but I have to learn 
 whether he is only a fool." 
 
 "You will learn it, sir, in two words, if you 
 will have him brought before you." 
 
 " Bring him, then," said the King. So Thormod 
 was led before him. 
 
 He was not even now abashed or put out of 
 countenance before that great man. King Olaf 
 looked sternly at him, very square in the jaw, very
 
 70 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 chilly in the bright blue eyes. Thormod in turn 
 looked him full in the face. He was much too 
 interested to think of what was going to happen 
 to him. The King did not speak for some time. 
 Then he said, " Are you a fool, or are you a 
 rogue ? " 
 
 " Neither," said Thormod, " but a poet." 
 
 " You kill my look-out man, on my own ship, 
 in my own haven; then you run baresark among 
 my warriors. What am I to think of that? Is 
 that your poetry ? " 
 
 " No, sir," said Thormod, " but this is my poetry 
 which comes to me as I look at you. I say that I 
 should think I had all Heaven in my two hands 
 if I stood to you as your man. And again I say 
 that life and death are one to me if I find life 
 and death beside you and Fin." 
 
 " Lord," said Fin, " that was well spoken, and 
 by a man of mark." But King Olaf did not heed 
 Fin, considering rather the man before him. 
 
 " I see you are a wild fellow enough," he said. 
 " Life means little to you in comparison with your 
 desire. Yet I see also that you will likely be faith-
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 71 
 
 ful if I keep you. How do you call yourself, and 
 whence are you come ? " 
 
 " I am Thormod Bearnesson and from Iceland," 
 the poet answered ; " and more than that, I am 
 sworn-brother to Thorgar Hawarsson, who was a 
 man of yours." 
 
 King Olaf nodded, but grimly. " So he was ; 
 and I told him when he came to me that he would 
 not be lucky. Nor was he. But you, from the look 
 of you, may fare better than he did." 
 
 " If I cause not one man at least to fare worse 
 than my brother," said Thormod, " I shall deem 
 myself the unluckiest man living." 
 
 "How many men's deaths lie at your door?" 
 the King asked, not noticing his declared purpose. 
 
 Thormod rapidly reckoned. " I have slain six 
 men, lord," he said ; " and that man in the bows 
 of your ship was the sixth." 
 
 "And how old are you?" 
 
 " I am not yet thirty years old," said Thormod. 
 
 "If you live another thirty years," the King said, 
 " you will have done slaughter enough." 
 
 " There is but one man, so far as I can tell, whom
 
 72 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 I must call to account," Thormod told him, " and 
 that is Thorgrim Troll, who basely slew my brother 
 Thorgar. It was to that end I left Iceland, and 
 to that end I jumped into your ship. I should 
 have come to you before had I not been carried 
 to Denmark, for I knew very well that you would 
 never let your man's death go unavenged. Now I 
 am here and in your hands I am sure you will not." 
 
 The King turned to the Bishop and Fin, and 
 heard them both plead for Thormod. He did that 
 more for the form's sake than for any other reason. 
 His mind was made up already. Then he said to 
 the guards who held him, " Cut him free; " and to 
 Thormod, " You pay ransom for my man's life 
 with your own, which I consider belongs to me. 
 You have been open with me, and I approve of it. 
 Now serve me well, both with head and hand." 
 
 Thormod broke out into a verse, and King Olaf 
 heard him through. " I think we shall suit each 
 other," he said. Then Thormod walked forward 
 with Fin Ernesson, and was made much of.
 
 A ship came in from Greenland that autumn, 
 and the master of it was a man called Scuf. Scuf 
 was a Greenlander by birth and the long settlement 
 of his family; a middle-aged, reputable man well 
 known in Norway and highly esteemed by King 
 Olaf. When Thormod heard who and whence he 
 was, he said, " Here's my chance come suddenly," 
 and went to see Scuf. 
 
 They took to each other, though Scuf was a man 
 of five-and-f orty ; but, as he explained, brave men 
 were rare in any country that he had ever seen, 
 and ought to stick together. " And it will be well 
 for you," he said, " to have me at your back if you 
 are going adventuring in Greenland against Thor- 
 grim Troll. As well might you work against Eric 
 Red, or nearly so. What Eric Red is to Ericsfirth, 
 so is Thorgrim Troll to Einarsfirth. What ! a man 
 of wealth and lands, with a following from here 
 
 73
 
 74 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 to Easter. And a stout, gusty man, a great eater, 
 an abounding drinker; a man of blood, a man of 
 iron. And if he is stirred in his pride, nothing 
 will serve him but your life." 
 
 " He shall serve himself of mine if he can," 
 Thormod said, " but I hope to be beforehand with 
 him." 
 
 " You sail with me," said Scuf, " and you put 
 yourself in my hands. I know the country and I 
 know the man. I bear him no grudge myself, for 
 he has never done me any harm that I know of. 
 But a friend is a friend, and he is no friend of 
 mine. I need say no more." 
 
 " Not a word," said Thormod, " for I under- 
 stand you very well, and hope to deserve your 
 opinion." 
 
 After that Thormod waited, and served King 
 Olaf with his best, until the winter should be over. 
 
 When Scuf was ready for sea, Thormod made 
 his suit to his master. 
 
 " Greenland ? " said Olaf. " And what will you 
 do in Greenland? Trouble, I doubt. You will be 
 for finding Thorgrim Troll, I suppose."
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 75 
 
 " There are things to settle with him, certainly," 
 said Thormod. 
 
 " You will find him a hard dealer, and a close 
 one," said the King. 
 
 " They tell me that I am a good singling dog, 
 sir." 
 
 "You will have need to be. Well, you shall 
 go, and I wish you good speed. And if I 
 have my will with you, you will come back 
 to me when you have finished with Thorgrim 
 Troll." 
 
 " That I shall do, lord. I have told you what 
 my wish is to live and die with you." 
 
 Olaf gave him a ring for his finger and a sword 
 for his side, and so they parted. 
 
 Walking down to the ship together, Scuf and 
 Thormod went aboard. Presently they saw a 
 stranger mount the gangway and come towards 
 them : a huge man, with shoulders like a bull's and 
 the chest of a horse. His hood was over his brows, 
 so that little was to be seen of his face but a long 
 black beard. He was heavily armed, and shook the 
 gangway with his sturdy tread.
 
 76 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 " Who is this monster? " Thormod asked. Scuf 
 did not answer, but went to meet the stranger. 
 " I bid you hail," said Scuf. 
 The heavy man put back his hood. " And I greet 
 you fairly," he said. 
 
 " If you have business with me," Scuf said, " I 
 must know your name." 
 
 " Soon told," the man said. " My name is Gest." 
 
 " And whence are your people, Gest ? " 
 
 He tossed his head sideways. " Spread abroad 
 
 eastwards; spread abroad west." And he jerked 
 
 his head the other way. " Who knows where they 
 
 are, or are not ? " 
 
 " And how can I serve you now ? " 
 " I ask you for my passage to Greenland." 
 Scuf considered. " I don't know how that may 
 be. I know less of you than you seem to know 
 of me. And I have a ship's crew to think of." 
 
 " What have they to do with it ? " said Gest. 
 "If you are master of the ship I take it to be 
 your affair. But if your men think that they will 
 have to work for me, do you tell them that I shall 
 do my share of the work, and a little over. And
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 77 
 
 I see you have a passenger already, and can hardly 
 refuse a second." 
 
 Scuf looked at Thormod, who nodded and smiled. 
 "Shall I?" the look enquired. 
 
 "Why not?" the nod replied. 
 
 " Well," said he to Gest, " it shall be so." Gest 
 saluted him and went back into the town to fetch 
 his gear. It was nearly as big as himself, and two 
 men did not suffice to bring it aboard. He saw 
 it stowed, and immediately turned himself to be 
 of use. He worked well, but was very grim and 
 silent. Thormod thought him an oddity and worked 
 hard, after his manner, in studying him. At noon 
 they put out to sea. 
 
 The voyage was a bad one; heavy weather, dan- 
 gerous seas, much snow, and little rest. All worked 
 hard, but Gest did more than any one, and Thormod 
 less. It was long before these two understood each 
 other, if indeed they ever did. Gest thought noth- 
 ing of poets, and Thormod was jealous of the man's 
 strength and skill. Once at least they nearly came 
 to blood-letting. That was when the two of them 
 were at work baling ship. Thormod was below
 
 78 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 in the hold, filling the buckets ; Gest at the gunwale, 
 emptying them. Thormod as he grew tired did 
 not hand them high enough to please Gest, who 
 had to stoop down to reach them. " Send them up 
 smartlier, you half-man," Gest growled. But Thor- 
 mod took no notice, or at least made no response. 
 Gest bore it for a little while longer, then presently 
 let a bucket fall, and drenched Thormod to the 
 skin. That set him on fire; he jumped up and 
 caught Gest by the beard. There was a sharp tussle, 
 and then the pair of them parted and sought for 
 their weapons. Scuf stopped them, luckily, before 
 the fight began. He made them promise to keep 
 terms with each other while the voyage lasted ; and 
 so they did. Thormod was not one to keep a grudge 
 in his mind. 
 
 They were a long time at sea, and once came 
 near shipwreck, when a wave broke over them, 
 snapped the yard, and carried the sail overboard. 
 Gest was invaluable then; without him they had 
 lost the sail. Then it was a matter of splicing the 
 yard, since they had no other. Scuf set Gest and 
 Thormod at it, and each scoffed at the other. Gest
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 79 
 
 said, " Nay, let the poet shape the thing for you. 
 He'll sing them together while you and I take our 
 rest." 
 
 " Never," said Thormod. " Give the two pieces 
 to Gest, and bid him sit upon them. You'll never 
 part them again." 
 
 " Let me see you both at it," Scuf said, " and 
 then we shall know whether brain or brawn makes 
 the better workman." To it they went with their 
 axes, and Thormod was done by far the first. 
 Gest chipped away, working his tongue in his cheek 
 like a boy at a writing-lesson. Then they fitted 
 the two ends together, and even Gest owned that 
 had they made a good job of it. The splicing was 
 left to him by common consent, and when that was 
 done they were able to sail again. 
 
 It was late in the year when they ran into Erics- 
 firth and came to anchor in view of the town. 
 There, when the cargo had been taken ashore, Gest 
 took leave of Scuf and Thormod. To the poet 
 he said at parting, " It is likely we shall meet 
 again." 
 
 "How will that be?" Thormod asked him.
 
 80 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 Gest, with his expressionless eyes, looked over 
 the dreary snow-covered hills. " Common good 
 fortune or common ill fortune may bring us to- 
 gether. If it does, let your wit be mated to my 
 sinew, and maybe we shall find each other of use. 
 Let me tell you this, that I knew your friend Thor- 
 gar Hawarsson once upon a time." 
 
 Thormod pricked up his ears. "Did you so? 
 Then it was here that you knew him ? " 
 
 " No," said Gest, " it was not. It was in Nor- 
 way." Then they parted but they met again.
 
 XI 
 
 Greenland, great, gaunt, empty country, half 
 under ice and snow the year through, and all smoth- 
 ered in fog-fleeces for a six-month winter, was but 
 newly colonised when Thormod reached it. Two 
 firths run up into it, one from the south and one 
 from the west. Upon the shores of them huddled 
 the Norwegians who had settled the country and 
 made their living as best they could. Eric Red 
 was the great man of Ericsfirth, which had him- 
 self found, then settled, then named, and now 
 governed. The other settlement was called Einars- 
 firth, and there Thorgrim Troll and his clansmen 
 did as they pleased. The two colonies had no in- 
 terdependence, and the authority which King Olaf 
 claimed was more shadow than substance. 
 
 Scuf knew Ericsfirth, and was on the best of 
 terms with Eric and his feudatories. The first man 
 who came to meet him when the ship was moored 
 
 81
 
 82 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 was one Thorkel Leifsson, who lived at Brent-lithe, 
 and looked across the firth to Stockness, which was 
 where Scuf himself lived. It was to Thorkel that 
 Scuf recommended Thormod, whom he named as 
 court-poet to the King and a fine young man in 
 all ways. Thorkel at once offered him hospitality, 
 and Thormod took it gladly. He and Scuf parted 
 unwillingly, but were to meet again at Christmas, 
 when Thorkel meant to have a Yule-feast. 
 
 Brent-lithe was a great house, with a fine hall, 
 and a guest-room close by. That room was divided 
 up by curtains for the sleeping-quarters of Thorkel 
 and his friends. In the hall all the servants and 
 there were many used to sleep. There were maids 
 as well as men about the place, and one of the girls 
 was sent in to Thormod to wait upon him, pull his 
 clothes off, and make his bed ready. 
 
 Thormod noticed her at once, for he had a sharp 
 eye for a girl. She was not at all handsome, but 
 rather pale and mean-looking; nevertheless she had 
 a good figure, and a power of attracting men which 
 he felt at once, though he did not understand it. 
 He asked her name, and she told him, Sigrid. Did
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 83 
 
 she come from Iceland? She said, No, but her 
 father and mother had lived there. 
 
 "And are you married, Sigrid?" 
 
 She gave a half-laugh. " No, nor likely to be." 
 
 " I should think nothing more likely," Thormod 
 said, " judging by what I feel about you." 
 
 Then she said, " You had better not feel much 
 about me." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Because Lodin will have something to say 
 about it." 
 
 "And Lodin who is he?" 
 
 " He is steward here. That tall man, red- 
 bearded, who met you when you came in." 
 
 " I know the man now," said Thormod. " And 
 is Lodin your sweetheart ? " 
 
 " I don't know that," she said. 
 
 "Shall I ask him?" 
 
 " Better say nothing to him." 
 
 " But if he say something to me about you 
 when then ? " 
 
 " Then you will know what I can't tell you." 
 
 " Well, Sigrid, I am glad that you have been told
 
 84 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 to wait upon me. It will send me to bed in good 
 time." 
 
 "Why?" she asked. 
 
 " Because you draw me." 
 
 She looked at him, laughed, then looked away. 
 Thormod kissed her, and she kissed him back, but 
 wouldn't stay any longer. 
 
 It was not difficult to find out who and what 
 Sigrid was, or in what relation she stood to the 
 red-bearded and red-eyed Lodin; but Thormod did 
 not on any of those counts cease his commerce. He 
 had been wiser if he had but then he would not 
 have been Thormod. As he was, and as she was, 
 it ended in trouble. Lodin spoke to her, and she 
 tossed her head. Then he watched her, and, as 
 it seemed to him, she was betraying him. One 
 night after supper, when Thormod went off to his 
 sleeping-quarters, and Sigrid made to follow him, 
 Lodin with a curse sprang after her, caught her 
 round the waist and held her. She struggled, say- 
 ing, " Let me alone, let me alone," but could not 
 get away. Thormod came back from the doorway, 
 took her hands and tried to pull her free. There
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 85 
 
 was an unseemly tussle and much heat : then Thor- 
 kel cut in and stopped it all. " Let her alone," he 
 bade his man. " She will come to no harm in 
 there. Is there not a light burning, and am not I 
 there? If you can't trust her there you can trust 
 her nowhere, and are better without her." Lodin 
 let her go, and she followed the two into the guest- 
 house. Lodin would have beaten her if he dared, 
 but was afraid that she would tell of him. 
 
 Then came the Yule-feast at Brent-lithe, with a 
 great gathering to drink Thorkel's ale. Scuf and 
 Bearne, his partner, came over from Stockness, 
 Gest came from Wick, and many others. Here, 
 for the first time, Thormod learned what lay be- 
 fore him in the vengeance he had so long medi- 
 tated. He found it was likely to be a heavy matter. 
 
 Thorgrim Troll was the chief man in the settle- 
 ment at Einarsfirth. He had a great retinue of 
 his own, to say nothing of his family. Four 
 nephews he had, all fighting-men. Bodwar was the 
 eldest, himself older than Thormod; then came 
 Falgar, Thorkel and Thord. But that was not all. 
 In the house was Thorgrim's sister Thordis and
 
 86 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 Hamund her husband, with those four sons of 
 theirs ; near by was another sister settled at Long- 
 ness. She was Thorunn, and she had a son named 
 Leot, reputed one of the strongest men on the firth. 
 Between them the clan overrode the countryside, 
 and those who did not stand in with them had a 
 hard life of it. One man there was who, Gest 
 said, was not friendly with them, a steady, peace- 
 able man called Sigurd. He lived with his mother 
 at Cliff, and might be useful. " Your time if you 
 have a time " Gest said, " is not now, but in the 
 spring, when they hold the Moot, which you in 
 Iceland call the Thing." 
 
 Thormod wished to know more of the killing 
 of his friend. He found out that it had been as 
 he had been told, except that the slaughter had 
 been done on the water. " Thorgar and his friends 
 were in a boat nine of them altogether. Thor- 
 grim Troll and his five nephews were waiting in a 
 creek, in a longship, and rowed out and across the 
 boat's bows. Then all nine were slain in the boat 
 or in the water. Not one escaped. Thorgar was 
 killed as he swam, with a harpoon in his back."
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 87 
 
 " How do you know that none escaped? " Thor- 
 mod wished to know. 
 
 Gest said, " In a curious way. I will tell you, 
 if you wish to know." 
 
 " I do wish." 
 
 Gest said, " Two brothers, named Calf and 
 Steinolf, lived in Garpsdale, and live there still. 
 From them I have the tale. Now, in Olaf sdale, not 
 far away, there was a widow woman called Thordis, 
 and a good woman she was and is, and a well-to-do 
 woman. She had a son Eyolf, and a kinsman 
 Thorgeir, whom she brought up from the breast. 
 They called him Thorgeir Measureless, because he 
 was exorbitant in all that he took, and set no 
 bounds to his needs. Now these two were friends, 
 such as I daresay were you and Thorgar Hawars- 
 son; but they were boisterous company for each 
 other, full of tricks and all manner of rough play, 
 and at it all day long. There was no place for 
 them in the house or out of it; and no getting 
 any work done when they were within a hundred 
 yards of it. Well, one day it happened that -they 
 were wrestling in the hall, where an old wife sat
 
 88 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 at her needlework; and if they dragged it off her 
 knees once they dragged it fifty times. So at last 
 she grew angry, and muttered to herself; and then 
 she had a vision. She said, ' You may do your 
 worst to me and my needlework, but I can see 
 worse than that in it. Now I tell you that you 
 two foster-brothers will break friendship and as ill 
 as may be you will do it' 
 
 " They listened to her, deep-breathing, with their 
 arms about each other's necks. They laughed at 
 her and looked at each other. ' We hope your 
 needlework is better than your spaedom, mother.' 
 
 " She said, ' Ah, you may laugh, but that will 
 be the end of your play.' 
 
 " Now those two went out to Norway in the 
 summer, and there bought a ship, and put to sea. 
 When they were minded to come home they had an 
 ill voyage, and made Borgfirth late in the harvest. 
 Then it was that they disagreed about a landing. 
 Eyolf was for running before the wind into Stream- 
 firth, but Thorgeir was minded to keep the ship 
 on her course, to round the Jokul, and get in at 
 Dogworthness. There seemed no way of settling
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 89 
 
 it but by a vote, and those who wished to land 
 at once carried it, because most were sick of the 
 sea. But there was bad blood over it between the 
 foster-brothers, who came as near as might be to 
 crossing swords only they were parted for the 
 time. Directly they landed in Streamfirth Thorgeir 
 took to horse and rode west into Garpsdale. There 
 he stayed with Calf and Steinolf. Eyolf stayed 
 aboard-ship till she was laid up, and then went home 
 to his mother in Olafsdale. That winter's end the 
 old spae-wife died. She died on the Monday after 
 Palm Sunday and had to be taken a-shipboard 
 to go down to Holar, which was the nearest 
 church. 
 
 " Now Eyolf and his men took her into church 
 and set her down. Then the weather grew thick, 
 and it came on heavy snow, and then a frost that 
 held up the ship in the sound, and spread 
 thick ice far out into the firth. It was need- 
 ful that Eyolf and his folk should stay where 
 they were till Easter was past and so they 
 did. 
 
 " On Thursday after Easter Eyolf borrowed a
 
 90 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 horse and set off to ride home. He rode alone by 
 his own wish. He rode east of Reekness, then east 
 about Bearfirth and Crooksfirth. 
 
 " Now he was not far from Garpsdale on his 
 journey, though he was not yet in sight of it, when 
 Calf and Steinolf, who were out of doors under the 
 lee of a wall, saw men walking along the plain in 
 a row. They carried weapons, and there were nine 
 of them. They walked in file over the snow, and 
 past the house, a few fields below it. When they 
 were within fair view it was seen that they were 
 bare-headed, sightless, and covered with blood. 
 Looking closely at them, Calf and Steinolf seemed 
 to know them. They were Thorgar Hawarsson, 
 who walked in front, and eight men following him. 
 They went along the plain past the house, came 
 to the river that runs eastward from the house, 
 and there seemed to fade into nothing at all. Calf 
 and Steinolf were beaten down by this sight, and 
 neither to each other, nor to any one could they 
 speak of it. They went indoors and sat down, and 
 so remained without speech. 
 
 " One of their hands was in the byre when those
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 91 
 
 things took place. He also saw a man but only 
 one man and he was riding a fine horse. He was 
 armed, helm, spear and shield, and rode past the 
 house the very way which the ghosts had taken. 
 The cowman knew him. It was Eyolf on his way 
 home. He went indoors with his news. Thorgeir 
 Measureless was in the hall, and the two brothers 
 also. ' Eyolf of Olafsdale is riding by the house/ 
 says the man, and Thorgeir pricked up his ears. 
 He said nothing to anybody, but picked a spear from 
 the rack, and went out just as he was. Outdoors 
 he saw Eyolf, and ran after him, but Eyolf did 
 not heed him, and kept on his way till he reached 
 the river. There he was delayed by the ice-flood 
 and had to seek out a fording-place. Thorgeir called 
 out, ' Hold, man, hold. Wait for me if you dare.' 
 Eyolf heard that, looked round, saw who it was. 
 In a moment he came down from his horse, and 
 ran to meet his foster-brother. They met full front, 
 each with his spear. In the same encounter each 
 ran the other through with the spear, and they fell 
 together and so lay. So the spae-wife's prediction 
 was fulfilled.
 
 92 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 " When Calf and Steinolf found them they were 
 not yet dead. 
 
 " Now that was after Easter, and certifies me 
 when Thorgar Hawarsson met his death." 
 
 Thormod said, " You are right. But you know 
 otherwise that they were killed in the water." 
 
 " Yes, that is common report in Greenland," said 
 Gest. 
 
 Thormod said, " And you, Gest, are you minded 
 to stand in with me ? " 
 
 Gest shook his head. " It has been revealed to 
 me that the vengeance is to be yours, and that you 
 will succeed in it, though hardly. But if I can help 
 you I will so far as it is lawful." 
 
 "And who reveaeld these things to you?" 
 
 " It was King Olaf ," said Gest, " who came to 
 my bedside as I was lying awake, and told it all 
 to me." 
 
 " He might have told me something," said Thor- 
 mod ; " but these things do not come to me. As it 
 is, I take it from you." 
 
 These things set in order in his mind, Thormod
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 93 
 
 gave himself to the feasting, and enjoyed himself. 
 He was happy, and his friends were happy in him. 
 But when it was all over and the guests were going 
 away, there came upon him the trouble due on 
 Sigrid's account. 
 
 There was much bustle while the boats were get- 
 ting ready, and all the gear taken down and stowed 
 aboard. Scuf was down at the quay, Thorkel was 
 was with him; Lodin and the servants were run- 
 ning to and fro ; the house was emptied except for 
 the maids, and for Thormod and Bearne, who were 
 taking their ease in the hall. Thormod lay on his 
 back along a bench, supporting his head in his 
 clasped hands. Bearne sat by the table. They 
 talked idly. Presently Lodin came in from the 
 quay, four men with him. Thormod took no no- 
 tice, but Bearne looked round to see who it was. 
 He did not see that Lodin's red eyes were fixed 
 and angry; but he said, "What is it you want? " 
 
 " What is it I want? " said Lodin. " Why, lum- 
 ber for Scuf's boat and here is some that we can 
 do without at Brent-lithe." So saying, he caught 
 Thormod by the feet, pulled him to the floor, and,
 
 94 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 " Here," he called to the men in the door, " pull out 
 this evil carcase, and let Scuf take it over the firth." 
 Thormod was laughing at him, but he and one of 
 the men began to haul him along the floor. Then 
 Bearne said, " Enough of this outrage," and 
 jumped up and caught Lodin round the middle. 
 He swung him round two or three times, and then 
 let go. Lodin went swinging along the hall and 
 fell in a heap. Bearne cursed the men roundly for 
 what they were doing, and sent them out of doors; 
 but Thormod took it all coolly. 
 
 Presently they all left the hall and went down to 
 the boat at the quayside. Scuf was aboard, and 
 Thorkel on the quay was talking to him. Bearne 
 was ready, waiting till their conversation was over. 
 Lodin and his men stood together a little way off, 
 sharing the presents which they had been given. 
 Nobody was thinking of Thormod as he came 
 slowly from the hall and down the pathway to 
 the water; but as he passed the group of servants, 
 suddenly he swung his sword backhanded over his 
 shoulder and brought it down on Lodin's neck. 
 He felled him like an ox, and the wound was so
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 95 
 
 terrible that he was dead before he touched ground. 
 Then there was a great to-do. Thorkel's rage blazed 
 all over his face. He called out to his men to kill 
 Thormod; but Scuf had him by the arm and held 
 him. Bearne ran up to Thormod and told him 
 to get into the ship. So he did; Bearne jumped 
 down after him, and they threw off the gangway. 
 Scuf was left behind to soothe Thorkel, and settle 
 the case; but it took a deal of talking. As for 
 Sigrid, who had been much the cause of it, she saw 
 it all from the house, and would have gone after 
 Thormod if she could. 
 
 The rest of the winter Thormod spent at Stock- 
 ness, with Bearne and Scuf, making his prepara- 
 tions. He had to choose a servant, first, and of 
 all the household he picked out the most unlikely, 
 a great, clumsy, ugly dunce of a man, whose tongue 
 was too big for his mouth. His name was Egil, 
 but they called him Fool-Egil, and with every rea- 
 son. " Why do you choose such a blockhead as 
 that ? " they wondered. 
 
 " Because I want a man who will do what I tell 
 him. Anybody else of yours would say, ' That is
 
 96 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 fool's work you ask for,' and would be right. If I 
 want fool's work done I must have a fool to do it." 
 Another thing to be done was to get a weapon 
 made after his own mind. Bearne, who was a 
 good smith, made him that. It was an axe, with a 
 shortish handle; but not a common axe. Where 
 should be a hammer was a spike; where should be 
 the broad blade there was a knife-blade, double- 
 edged. It was strong, and very tough, and the 
 edges of it as sharp as razors. When these things 
 were done Thormod thought himself ready for the 
 Moot at Einarsfirth.
 
 XII 
 
 The Moot was to be held at Garth, which is 
 midway of the firth; and when the weather was 
 open and the ice broken up, Scuf said that it was 
 time to be off. He did not take a large company 
 with him, because he said that however many he 
 took they would be outnumbered there, " should it 
 come to fighting." For himself, he said, he was 
 not a fighting man, and he proved it by being care- 
 ful not to inquire what business led Thormod into 
 the other country. Bearne knew more about it 
 than he did, for Bearne had not made a weapon for 
 nothing. 
 
 So then they ran down Ericsfirth into the open 
 sea, and with a fair wind from the south-west 
 sailed up Einarsfirth without difficulty, and saw 
 presently the church at Garth, and the booths for 
 the Moot-men laid out in a broad green meadow. 
 " Those booths," Scuf said, " are for Thorgrim 
 
 97;
 
 98 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 and the men of his allegiance. We shall hold on 
 round that spit, and find our quarters behind the 
 knoll." 
 
 There was a good deal of shipping to be seen, 
 and much activity ashore. Men were busy airing 
 and cleaning the booths, and others were carrying 
 merchandise ashore for the stalls in the fair which 
 was held between the two settlements. Thorgrim 
 Troll's ship had not come in yet, but was expected 
 daily. Meantime there was plenty to be done, and 
 plenty to see. Thormod was very much amused 
 and spent his time either watching other men work, 
 or considering the lay of the land. He had no 
 plans ready, but that was no concern to him. He 
 felt that he was being blown forward to his des- 
 tiny as by a strong wind, such a wind as had driven 
 them up the firth, and was now driving Thorgrim 
 Troll to the same place. One thing about the shores 
 of Einarsfirth he noted, and that was that the fur- 
 ther side was cut up into narrow creeks, and that 
 there were no good landing-places there. The land 
 shelved very much; there were ledges of rock, some 
 of them not covered by the tide. " If I have to run
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 99 
 
 for it," he thought, " it will be over there that I 
 must travel. It will trouble them to bring a long- 
 boat in after me." He saw another thing pres- 
 ently : the banks and islands of rock stretched away 
 down the firth as far as the eye could carry. " A 
 man could slip down to the mouth of the firth 
 without treading either shore." He took the trou- 
 ble to make sure of that before he left the thing 
 alone. 
 
 A day or two later he was told, " Thorgrim Troll 
 is coming in." Bearne told him, and Thormod's 
 face lighted up. 
 
 " That will be worth seeing." He went down 
 to the shore with his friend. 
 
 A fine ship was coming down the firth with the 
 tide, ten oars to a side were pulling her. Others 
 came behind her, three or perhaps four, but none 
 presumed to come abreast. 
 
 " He comes like a king," Thormod said. 
 
 " And that is what he thinks himself," Bearne 
 told him. "Why, the firth is named after his 
 father, and he claims the lordship of every green 
 patch on this side, and of many on the other. Soon
 
 ioo THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 or late he will measure himself with Eric, and then 
 
 we shall see something." 
 
 " I hope you won't see that," said Thormod, but 
 Bearne thought it as well to take no notice of 
 him. 
 
 The ship was close at hand, and was a brave 
 sight. From bows to stern there were shields along 
 the bulwarks, and from amidships to the poop the 
 spears rose as dense as a woodland. About the 
 poop were great men standing in bright helmets. 
 Bearne pointed out Thorgrim himself, seated, 
 with a great white bearskin about his shoul- 
 ders. 
 
 Thormod said, " He's a big man." 
 
 " Ah," said Bearne, " you may say so but wait 
 until you have seen his nephews." 
 
 "Yes, I must see his nephews too," Thormod 
 said, and studied the standing chiefs about the 
 chair. 
 
 They brought the ship ashore; the men leapt out 
 and hauled her up the rollers. Then a gangway 
 was made fast, and the spearsmen came down. 
 After them the chiefs : there was not a man among
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 101 
 
 them, Thormod thought, under six feet in height, 
 and he felt that he would not care to measure his 
 chest against any one. Four young men came down 
 close together; a family likeness showed them to 
 be kinsmen. The sons of Hamund, Bearne said 
 they were, Bod war, Falgar, Thorkel and Thord. 
 They had sanguine faces, dark hair and beards, 
 and light-coloured proud eyes. Then came one 
 walking alone, older than any of the four, and 
 taller, but also fatter. He had a fat face, and a 
 big mouth which showed red through his beard. 
 " Who is that store-pig? " asked Thormod. He 
 was told Leot of Longness. Last came Thorgrim 
 Troll himself and was much saluted from the 
 shore, though he took little notice of it. He looked 
 about to see who greeted him and who did not. 
 A man of fifty or more, Thormod thought. He 
 had a dark flushed face, purple on the cheeks, a 
 broad grey-beard, small pig's eyes, which showed 
 a good deal of the white, and a nose out of the 
 straight. " Somebody punched that for him in his 
 youth," said Thormod, " and he has been touchy 
 about it ever since." The great man passed so
 
 102 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 close that Thormod felt the bearskin brush against 
 his leg, and could hear the short vehement breath- 
 ing of his gross body. He himself grew hot all 
 over at the moment, and the hairs on his back 
 bristled and stood up. 
 
 When they had all gone up to their booths the 
 men went back into the ship and began to clear 
 her of the arms and fishing-gear. All these things 
 they threw ashore as they came. Thormod picked 
 up a harpoon from one of the heaps, and began 
 to muse over it as his way was. Presently one 
 of the ship-men made a snatch at it. " Much use 
 to you, that weapon, I engage," he said. Thormod, 
 still holding the thing, looked at it. 
 
 " You think I know nothing of harpooning," he 
 said. " But there are more uses than one for a 
 harpoon." 
 
 The man gaped. " It would puzzle you to find 
 any use for it." 
 
 Then Thormod touched his axe which was at 
 his side. " I might find a handier weapon but a 
 harpoon would serve me at a pinch." He dropped 
 it then, and turned back to walk up the shore.
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 103 
 
 He saw them raising Thorgrim's standard outside 
 his booth, and stood to watch them. How long 
 would it stay there ? He saw that this booth stood 
 apart from the others, at the end of a street of 
 them, and noted the place.
 
 XIII 
 
 Thormod spied for his opportunity, but had to 
 be patient, for he could not find it for some time. 
 It is true that Thorgrim Troll was to be seen every 
 day; but so were his people, and he was never 
 without a following. It was to be seen how en- 
 tirely he ruled the Assembly whenever it was held. 
 It was his men only who were suffered to be there 
 in arms; he himself sat as president of every meet- 
 ing, and no verdict could be given unless he ap- 
 proved of it. In the booths he used less ceremony, 
 and seemed indeed to do his best to be popular. He 
 used to sit out the evenings on a stool outside his 
 own booth, and there, when he had a goodly circle 
 about him, he would tell tales, make jokes, and 
 talk about himself and his family till a late hour. 
 Thormod found that he was best away from these 
 parties, for the man made him so angry that he 
 
 104
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 105 
 
 feared he might lose control of himself, and, with 
 that, his life into the bargain. His plan, there- 
 fore, was to send his man Egil to listen, and come 
 back with a report of what might be going on. 
 
 That went on for some time, and as it fell out 
 Thormod was mostly left alone in the booth every 
 evening. Egil had nothing out of the common to 
 tell him, and with the sharp ears he had he could 
 mostly tell by the laughter or clamour of the crowd 
 how things were over the hill. 
 
 One night he lay asleep, alone in the hut. It 
 was chilly, and he had covered himself with his 
 fur cloak. It was fur on both sides black and 
 white. Egil came in presently and woke him. 
 
 " Master, you should be in the booths yonder. 
 There is rare sport." 
 
 Thormod listened, but could hear nothing. 
 " What are they doing then ? " 
 
 " It is at Thorgrim's booth half the Moot folk 
 is there." 
 
 "Yes, yes but what are they doing?" 
 
 " Thorgrim Troll is telling them a tale." 
 
 "What is it about?"
 
 106 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 "Ah, that's more than I can tell you, being a 
 fool at such things. All I can say is that the people 
 sit as quiet as mice round his stool, taking in every 
 word he has to tell them." 
 
 Thormod sat up on his bed. " Oh, you must 
 have heard something which will help me. Is no- 
 body named in the tale ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Egil, " there was a name I heard. 
 I heard the name of Thorgar, a fine champion; 
 and then Thorgrim named himself and great do- 
 ings that he did with this Thorgar." 
 
 "Oh, that is his tale?" said Thormod. "Has 
 he finished it yet ? " 
 
 " No, no. You should go and hear him finish 
 it." 
 
 " I think I will," Thormod said, getting on to the 
 floor. He put his cloak over his head and shoul- 
 ders, with the black side out, took his axe, and 
 went out. Egil went with him, and they walked 
 together round the hill and into the town of booths 
 beyond it. The streets were all empty, but they 
 could see the crowd about Thorgrim's booth. Thor- 
 mod turned off sharply and went behind the row
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 107 
 
 of huts and round that of Thorgrim Troll. He 
 stood under the eaves, but out of sight of the lis- 
 teners, and pulled back Egil, who, in pure igno- 
 rance, was for peering round the corner. 
 
 The evening, which had been sunny, suddenly 
 clouded over. Thormod looked up at the sky. 
 Then he looked at Egil. Then at the sky again. 
 "Master, what ails you?" Egil said. 
 
 Thormod replied, " Egil, there will be a storm 
 much thunder. Now the thunder-blast foretells 
 dire events. Heaven is angry, the sky cracks and 
 the wrath peals through the crack. When that 
 comes, beware what you do. Take to your heels, 
 man, and away. Slip along, get home to bed, and 
 lie there for safety. Do you heed me ? " 
 
 Egil's eyeballs showed white rims. " Yes, mas- 
 ter." At that moment the rain began, and the wind 
 which precedes the thunder came on swift and cold. 
 Egil's teeth began to chatter, but Thormod caught 
 his arm. " Not yet, not yet." The men before 
 Thorgrim's booth were all afoot now, and a stam- 
 pede for home began. Thormod looked round at 
 them. Men were crowding into Thorgrim's booth,
 
 108 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 the others were scuttling home, plashing through 
 the wet. But the great man sat still on his stool, 
 sheltered under the eaves. Thormod turned to Egil. 
 " Stay you where you are till you hear the crash. 
 Then run for home." So said, he slipped round 
 to the front of the booth and walked lightly up to 
 Thorgrim Troll. The hood of his cloak shadowed 
 his face. 
 
 Thorgrim took no notice of him, but Thormod 
 stood beside him and waited. 
 
 " Did you finish your tale ? " 
 
 " Ay," said Thorgrim, " all that mattered of it." 
 
 " What tale did you tell them? " 
 
 Thorgrim chuckled. " I cannot tell it to you 
 again." Then he looked at him. " And who might 
 you be?" 
 
 " Wigfus, they call me." 
 
 " And whose son are you, Wigfus ? " 
 
 " The son of Tortriggr." 
 
 "I don't like your name," said Thorgrim, "or 
 your father's name." He made as if he would 
 rise at his leisure. Thormod swung up his knife- 
 bladed axe and brought it down with a crash at
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 109 
 
 the back of his neck. Thorgrim's body fell in a 
 heap, his head pitched into the street. 
 
 Thormod put his axe into his belt under his 
 cloak and went to pick up the head. " Ho ! Ho ! 
 come out !" he called. " Somebody has slain your 
 chief ! " Men came streaming out of the booth 
 and saw Thormod holding the head. They were 
 dazed; all spoke at once, came crowding round, 
 gaping, wondering. "How?" "Who did it?" 
 "Where's the man?" 
 
 Thormod quietly said, " I saw him coming, but 
 didn't know what he was after. In a moment it 
 was done, and he was off. He went that way. 
 Let some one hold the head, and I will show you 
 where he went." 
 
 They were so astounded that he was obeyed. A 
 tall man took the head from him, others went 
 straying about; but most of them talked about it. 
 Presently there was an outcry from a distance and 
 Thormod heard, "After him! Head him off!" 
 and many men running. He guessed that they 
 were after Egil, as they were. He himself went 
 down to the shore, and, behind a rock, took off his
 
 no THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 fur cloak, turned it inside out, and showed all 
 white. 
 
 They caught Egil and examined him. But he was 
 in such a fright that, as the tale says, the fear ran 
 off him as heat off iron. " That's not a man at 
 all," they said. " It would need a man to kill Thor- 
 grim." 
 
 Men met Thormod also down by the shore, and 
 he gave his name as Tortriggr (Untrusty or Ill- 
 trusty). He said that he was looking for Thor- 
 grim's slayer, and was let alone.
 
 XIV 
 
 Scuf and Bearne were not long in hearing of 
 the hue-and-cry after Thorgrim's slayer, and not 
 long joining it either, for they valued their skins 
 as much as anybody. But after a while, when the 
 excitement had died down, they went home, and 
 there found Egil twittering in a corner. " What 
 ails thee, man? Has somebody been after thy life 
 also?" 
 
 "A frightful storm," said Egil, "the worst in 
 all my days. I heard the crash, and by the gods 
 I ran and men after me. They hailed me slayer 
 of a man, but let me alone when they saw who 
 I was." 
 
 " It was seeing what you were, not who," said 
 Scuf. " Where is your master? " 
 
 " Dead of the thunder-clap, you may be sure." 
 
 " What is all this of thunder, you fool ? There 
 has been no thunder to-day." 
 
 " When I tell you that I heard it, as the master 
 told me! Did I not run?" 
 
 in
 
 H2 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 They had it out of him by and by, and then 
 began to understand the state of Thormod's busi- 
 ness. They agreed that they had best go down the 
 firth in a boat and waft him across the water. 
 And that was what they did presently, and took 
 some provision with them. 
 
 Some way down, beyond the Ness, they saw 
 Thormod in his white cloak sitting on the rocks. 
 They ran the boat inshore, and called out to him 
 to get in, and to be quick about it. Thormod rose 
 and stretched himself at ease, then hopped from 
 rock to rock till he came to them. Then he jumped 
 down into the boat. 
 
 "Well?" said Bearne. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Is it well, man, or not? " 
 
 " It is very well with me at least," said Thormod. 
 
 Scuf said, "You are the man, I suppose?" 
 
 " I am the man they want up there, if you mean 
 that." 
 
 " That is what I mean. Well, well, that is some- 
 thing to have done so great a man! The second 
 man in Greenland well, well ! "
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 113 
 
 " He is not so great as he was," said Thormod, 
 " by a head." 
 
 " Did you smite it off him ? " Scuf asked. 
 
 " Yes, I did," said Thormod, " and picked it up 
 for him afterwards." 
 
 "You had better have left it lying. That was 
 near your last hour when they found you with the 
 head on your knees." 
 
 That was Scuf : Bearne chimed in, " And 
 another choice moment was when they found 
 you at the Ness. If they had guessed at it 
 then!" 
 
 " J am not a hard riddle to guess," said Thormod ; 
 " a stammering, black-avised, curly-polled fellow as 
 I am." 
 
 " How they came to miss you beats me," said 
 Scuf. 
 
 " It may prove an unlucky miss for some of 
 Thorgrim's kinsfolk," Thormod said. 
 
 " Hoho ! You are never going to have at the 
 rest of them ! " 
 
 " But I am," said Thormod. " For what else 
 did I come to Greenland ? "
 
 114 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 Both his friends did their hardest to dissuade 
 him. He was a notable man, they said; he was 
 too notable. How did he think he would get away 
 from Greenland ? It was not so easy. Thorgrim's 
 nephews would hunt the firth from end to end 
 after him; he would be made an outlaw at to- 
 morrow's Moot and so on. But Thormod was 
 very calm about it all. " One can die but once," 
 he told them, " and nobody knows who the next 
 dead man is to be, until he is dead." 
 
 By this time they were over the firth and inside 
 the chain of islands which are found on that side. 
 They left the boat and climbed the cliffs to a cave 
 which Scuf knew of. It was a roomy and dry 
 cave, midway the face of the cliff, and reached 
 by a grass ledge. You could climb down to the 
 water, or up to the mainland, but not easily. The 
 safest way was that by which they had come. 
 " Now," they told Thormod, " do you stay here, 
 and be careful how you show yourself. When the 
 Moot is over we will come for you. You will be 
 an outlaw by that time and anybody's capture but 
 we will not forsake you."
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 115 
 
 " Good," said Thormod. " Now let me eat and 
 drink something especially drink something." 
 
 They left him, and rowed back to the booths 
 without adventure; but next day they were sent 
 for to appear a*t the Moot, where Thorgrim's 
 nephews moved the outlawry of Thormod. The 
 other two, luckily for themselves, were able to 
 prove where they had been at the time of the 
 slaughter. As for their acquaintance wtih Thor- 
 mod, Bearne said that he had never set eyes on 
 him until he came to Ericsfirth in the ship from 
 Norway, and Scuf that he was a stranger to him 
 whom he had met on the quay before he sailed. 
 
 Then Thormod was pronounced outlaw, and 
 shortly afterwards the Moot broke up. Scuf and 
 Bearne did not at once go home; but making out 
 that they were going to buy cattle, went to stay 
 with the widow Sigrid at Cliff. They knew that 
 Sigurd, her son, was no friend to Thorgrim Troll 
 and his kin. But they saw Thormod before they 
 went there, took him more provender, and bid 
 him keep close. Thormod grinned and said that 
 he would look after himself.
 
 XV 
 
 It was certainly very dull in the cave, and 
 Thormod had never been able to bear dullness with 
 fortitude. For a day or two of fine weather he 
 contented himself with the grass ledge, upon which 
 it was easy to lie at length, and possible to sit. 
 Then, as he lay on his back looking up the cliff's 
 face, he thought it would be interesting and per- 
 haps useful to attempt the climb. No sooner 
 thought than attempted. He succeeded before long 
 in finding a straight way up. Next he tried for a 
 passage down to the shore, and in that too he was 
 lucky. After that he could not be contented to sit 
 about. He took short walks in the country and 
 amused himself very well without meeting any- 
 body. And then, one fine evening, he saw a man 
 coming along the top of the cliff a limping old 
 scarecrow of a man in a long cloak which showed 
 the light through in more than one place. There 
 
 116
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 117 
 
 was not much to be afraid of there, at any rate; 
 so Thormod went to meet him. 
 
 He was as dirty as he looked, and, as Thormod 
 judged, older than he looked. His cloak, which 
 barely held together, was verminous, and he had 
 a bag over his shoulder in which he carried, no 
 doubt, whatever he could pick up. He stood blink- 
 ing his blear eyes and waited for Thormod to speak 
 to him. He was too old to be frightened of any- 
 body. 
 
 " A good evening to you," Thormod said. " You 
 travel light, I see." 
 
 " Ay," said the old man, J* with all my wealth 
 on my back." 
 
 " And other things besides not so profitable," 
 Thormod told him. Then he asked him, " And who 
 may you be ? " 
 
 " Odde, sir, Odde is my name but mostly they 
 call me Lousy Odde, and very rightly so. I am 
 a beggar by trade, and by inclination also, for I 
 never did like work, and long ago determined that 
 I would have little to do with it. Now I go up 
 the firth and down the firth, and what I find is
 
 n8 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 mine, and what I can get out of the folk is mine 
 too." 
 
 " And do you do well at your trade ? " 
 
 " Better than you might think to look at me. 
 I am an idle old dog, and that's the truth. They 
 know that. But they know also that I am not a 
 fool, and not much of a liar, and on that knowl- 
 edge proceed the alms they bestow. Now, sir, you 
 are a stranger to me, yet I thought I knew this 
 country well. And what may your name be? " 
 
 " Oh, I am called Torrad." 
 
 " And what trade do you follow ? " 
 
 " None at all. I am a vagabond, very much of 
 your stamp. But I am ready to do some trading 
 with you if you will." 
 
 Odde looked doubtful. " My sack is light," he 
 said. " I have little worth your buying." 
 
 Thormod said, " Will you sell me the coat on 
 your back?" 
 
 " Now you are making game of me," said old 
 Odde. 
 
 " Not in the least," said Thormod. " I will make 
 an exchange with you. You shall have mine for
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 119 
 
 it, and do me an errand into the bargain. Get over 
 the firth and go to Cliff, where friends of mine, 
 Scuf and Bearne, are living. Tell them that you 
 met one Torrad walking out here and changed 
 coats with him. No more than that, and I shall 
 be satisfied. Now, will you do that for me, and 
 earn my cloak ? " 
 
 Odde looked at the speaker, looked at the 
 weather, looked at the water. He thought it would 
 be difficult to get a passage but he wanted Thor- 
 mod's cloak. Well, he said, he believed it might 
 be done. Finally, he promised, and the exchange 
 was made. Thormod saw him on the road before 
 he went back to his cave. 
 
 The next day, his axe in his belt, the lousy cloak 
 over him, he walked briskly up the firth till he 
 came opposite the settlement on the other side. 
 Then he turned away from the water and went 
 up into the country for a spell, and when he saw 
 what he wanted which was a flock of sheep he 
 made straight for it over broken ground with rocks 
 and bogs interspersed. Presently in some salt
 
 120 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 marshes beyond him he saw a man with the sheep 
 whom he guessed to be as indeed he was a 
 shepherd of Hamund of Longness and of Thordis 
 his wife, the sister of Thorgrim Troll. He turned 
 at once towards the man; but now he walked with 
 a limp, and pulled the hood down over his face. 
 
 It was getting dusk, and Thormod held the hood 
 close about his mouth to cover his lack of beard. 
 He asked the shepherd if the young masters were 
 at home or not. The shepherd said that Bodwar 
 was away, but that the others were out fishing and 
 should be home before dark. " Right," said Thor- 
 mod, and limped away. He went down to the water, 
 found the boat-house, and sat down there out of 
 sight. 
 
 He heard the oars knocking in the rowlocks from 
 a long way off, but had to wait till they were close 
 inshore before he made out the three sons of Thor- 
 dis. But he was able to satisfy himself of them 
 before they came in. Falgar sat aft, Thord was 
 amidships, and Thorkel was kneeling in the bows 
 ready to make fast when they ran her up the shore. 
 Just as they were about to touch the gravel Thor-
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 121 
 
 mod came limping out of the shadow and stood 
 waiting for the boat. Thorkel saw him, thought 
 it was old Odde, and thought no more of him. 
 
 But Thormod had his axe behind his back, and 
 when the boat ran in and Thorkel was stooping 
 forward with the chain in his hand, he gave him a 
 blow on the top of the head which killed him in- 
 stantly. Then Thormod pulled off the lousy cloak 
 and ran fleetly along the shore; the two young 
 men leapt into the water, splashed ashore, and after 
 him. He ran well, but they ran faster, for they 
 were hard upon his heels on the cliff, and when 
 he came to his cave, and jumped for the grass 
 ledge, almost in the same moment Thord leapt 
 after him but in leaping came down on all-fours. 
 That was Thormod's opportunity. He drove the 
 axe with all his force into the middle of his back. 
 
 He drove too hard. Thord fell prone, but the 
 axe was immovable, and while he was tussling with 
 it Falgar jumped down to the ledge and hewed at 
 him with a sword. Thormod felt that he was 
 badly hurt between the shoulders, and turned to 
 face his new enemy. He let go of his axe, and
 
 122 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 springing forward caught Falgar under the arm- 
 pits and held him fast. Falgar dropped his sword 
 over the cliff, which was Thormod's luck; but he 
 was the stronger man, and an un wounded man, 
 and it would have gone hard with the poet if, as 
 chance would have it, they had not both gone 
 over the ledge and tumbled into the firth, strug- 
 gling together. Another lucky thing. If the tide 
 had not been high at the time Thormod at least 
 had been a dead man. 
 
 The water revived him for the moment, and he 
 swam level with Falgar, and waited his chance. 
 They snatched at each other more than once; but 
 Thormod could swim like an otter and ducked 
 more often than he was ducked. Diving once, he 
 caught Falgar by the breeches, felt something give 
 way, and guessed that he had broken the strap which 
 held them. He dived again, caught hold again and 
 pulled with all his might. Falgar's breeches slipped 
 away as he struggled in Thormod's hold. They 
 came down below his knees, held his legs together, 
 and he was done for. Thormod, with what little 
 strength he had left, swam to a ledge of rock and
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 123 
 
 pulled himself up. Then he fainted, and did not 
 see the drowning of Falgar, which after various 
 sousings and bobbings-up was the end of him. But 
 as for Thormod, there he lay all night.
 
 XVI 
 
 The lousy old man had been as good as his 
 word. He presented himself before Scuf and 
 Bearne before nightfall, at about the time when 
 Thormod was sitting in the shadow of the boat- 
 house. He would have been stronger with his 
 errand if he had been able to get a passage over 
 the firth but it was quite as well for Thormod, 
 as things turned out, that he had been delayed for 
 twenty- four hours. Directly Scuf heard the mes- 
 sage, he recognised the blue mantle the man was 
 wearing, and knew that he had spoken the truth. 
 He turned indoors and told Bearne about it. Bearne 
 said, " That is an old shift. Ogmund Dint played 
 it on Gunnar Helming not many years ago, and a 
 fine man lost his life through it. Now we had best 
 go out and look for our friend. Late as it is, I am 
 minded to go at once." 
 
 124
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 125 
 
 Scuf thought it wiser to wait till the hour be- 
 fore sunrise. " If, as I think, he has done some 
 notable deed, there will be some search-work going 
 on to-night in which you and I had better not be 
 seen." 
 
 Bearne was unwilling to wait, but Scuf stuck 
 to it. " What sort of fight can we make against 
 the sons of Hamund? " 
 
 That was unanswerable so they went to bed and 
 rose before dawn. 
 
 The firth was quiet enough when they put off. 
 They rowed down the further shore, with muffled 
 oars, and kept a sharp look-out over the water as 
 well as the land. After half an hour's rowing 
 Bearne suddenly stopped. 
 
 " Something lies out on the seaweed yonder. It 
 may be a man, and it may be a seal." 
 
 Scuf looked round. " It's a man," he said. " Pull 
 away." They knew it was Thormod before they 
 landed. 
 
 He was alive, and looked at them with one eye, 
 smiling, but not moving his head. 
 
 " How is it with you, man ? "
 
 126 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 " I can't move," said Thormod. He was shiver- 
 ing and deadly pale. 
 
 " You have been struck? " 
 
 "Yes, truly I have; but I have been striking 
 too. I gave more than I got." 
 
 "Whom did you engage?" 
 
 " The nephews Falgar, Thord and Thorkel." 
 
 " And which of them did you slay? " 
 
 " I slew all three." 
 
 "What, in one night?" 
 
 " In one night." 
 
 Scuf chuckled. 
 
 " That was a bad miss they made when you 
 slipped away from the Moot, I'm thinking. Three 
 champions in one night. Well, well." 
 
 " Good for a poet ? " says Thormod, shivering 
 away. 
 
 " We must get him out of this," said 
 Bearne. " Thormod, can you walk if we hold 
 you?" 
 
 " I can't move, I tell you. I am stiff from top 
 to toe." 
 
 " Fetch the sail," said Scuf. " We'll carry him."
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 127 
 
 "Yes, and bring me a dram with it," Thormod 
 called after him. 
 
 Bearne came back with his cordial. Thormod's 
 teeth were clenched, and had to be forced open 
 with a knife-blade. But he drank the fiery stuff 
 until his eyes watered. Then they turned him over 
 on to the sail and carried him into the boat. The 
 movement started his wound again, which must be 
 bandaged. Thormod bore everything with cheer- 
 fulness, and went on with his stammered jokes all 
 the time. 
 
 " Now," said Bearne, " we must look lively, for 
 we have a long way to go." 
 
 "Where are we going?" Thormod wanted to 
 know. 
 
 " We are going out of this firth altogether, and 
 as far up the other as we can get," Scuf said. " If 
 we are off soon the tides will serve us to rights." 
 
 " Don't forget to bring me my axe," said Thor- 
 mod. "You will find it up there on the ledge, 
 sticking in a man's back." 
 
 Bearne climbed the cliff to the ledge, and dis- 
 covered the dead Thord with the axe lodged in his
 
 128 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 spine. He came back with Thormod's clothes in a 
 bundle, and the axe as well. " I made you a handy 
 weapon here," he said. 
 
 " Yes, you did," said Thormod, " but the pattern 
 was mine." 
 
 He was easier now. The drink had warmed him, 
 and the flow of blood eased his stiffness. Presently 
 he was able to eat something, and as he munched 
 he talked to the two men rowing. He related the 
 whole affair to them. The drowning of Falgar 
 filled them with admiration. " You are a swimmer, 
 it is very plain. Whatever end you make I don't 
 suppose it will be in the water." 
 
 " N-n-no," said Thormod, " I shall d-d-ie in 
 b-b-attle." 
 
 " And where will your battle be? " 
 
 " Oh, not here. In Norway with King Olaf." 
 
 " You know something, then ? " 
 
 " Yes," he said, " I know a few things." 
 
 "You are a wonder of the world," Scuf said; 
 and Thormod replied, " All p-p-oets are." 
 
 "Why so?" Scuf asked; and was told, "Be- 
 cause they think of only one thing at a time."
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 129 
 
 The tides served them well, as Scuf had hoped 
 they would. The last of the ebb took them out of 
 Einarsfirth, and the flood took them up Ericsfirth 
 to the head of it. There they stayed. Bearne sat 
 in the boat with Thormod, while Scuf made his way 
 up the mountain to a little house close under the 
 glacier where a queer old couple lived no one knew 
 how. Gamle was the man a strange man, dark 
 and twinkling, uncertain in his temper, but known 
 to be a great hunter ; Grima was his wife, very wise, 
 very cunning, an old heathen, and something of 
 an old witch. They had never been Christian- 
 ised, they saw nobody, and did not want to see 
 anybody. When Scuf went into the house he 
 saw them sitting side by side over the fire, 
 blinking at him like two owls vexed by the 
 light. 
 
 But Scuf knew them well, and they him. They 
 made him welcome after their fashion, gave him a 
 horn of the right stuff, and a place by the fire. 
 Presently, when he had drunk somewhat, he opened 
 what he wanted of them hospitality and healing 
 for King Olaf , who had been badly wounded. They
 
 i 3 o THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 said nothing to that, but went on blinking at the 
 
 fire. 
 
 Presently the woman, Grima, said, "Who 
 wounded him ? " And then the whole story had 
 to come out, and Scuf reckoned he had better make 
 a clean breast of it. They blinked more than ever 
 after that, and Grima said, " Your man is not 
 everybody's man." 
 
 " No, he is not," Scuf said, " but I know nobody 
 who can serve him except yourself. And if any 
 action is brought against you for what you do, 
 you may reckon upon me to make good all that 
 you suffer. As for the charges you are at for 
 Thormod, there is plenty to meet that with. Now, 
 I wish you would do us this kindness." 
 
 The two of them looked into the fire for a long 
 time. Presently Gamle said, " Well ! " and Grima 
 said, " Ay, ay " and that was all that they did 
 say; but Scuf, who knew them, understood it, and 
 went down to the shore. 
 
 Presently they brought Thormod in between 
 them, and laid him on a bed. Grima, who treated 
 him as if he had been a child, turned him over, and
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 131 
 
 peered into the wound. She muttered fast to her- 
 self, grumbling and scolding at the bad appearance 
 of it, the dirt that had got in and the like. When 
 once she got to work, however, she showed her 
 quality; for she cleansed and bound up the gash, 
 and made Thormod easier than he had been since 
 he got it. Scuf could see very well that he and 
 his hosts were going to get on together, and soon 
 afterwards went off to Stockness, where they lived.
 
 XVII 
 
 The cold had settled in Thormod's wound, and 
 he was ill for many months they say twelve. So 
 slowly did he get on, that in the spring following 
 the deed which had earned it him he could walk 
 no further than from one room to another, that 
 is, between bower and hall. He used to make this 
 excursion many times in the course of the day, but 
 was always exhausted by it. 
 
 Meantime, and for long, it was supposed down 
 in the firths that he had been drowned with Falgar, 
 for that young man's body had been washed ashore, 
 and showed no wounds upon it. Thord had also 
 been found, and the earth-slide which the other 
 two had made when they fell off the ledge. Thor- 
 dis, the young men's mother, never believed it, but 
 everybody else did, including Bodwar, the only son 
 left to her. But in the following spring something 
 
 132
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 133 
 
 came to Thordis, a dream or a vision, which changed 
 the whole position. 
 
 She slept late one morning, and whined and 
 talked in her sleep. Bodwar would not have her 
 disturbed, for like every one else of his generation 
 he held strongly by dreams. No doubt but she had 
 the second sight, for presently she awoke with a 
 start and sat up, looking wild, in her bed. " What 
 have you been dreaming of, mother?" Bodwar 
 asked her, and "What have you seen?" 
 
 " Ah," she said, " I have been over the fells on 
 my broomstick this night, and now I know a thing 
 or two which I did not know when I went to bed." 
 
 "What things are they?" 
 
 " I know," she said, " that Thormod, who slew 
 your brothers, is alive and I know where to have 
 him, too." 
 
 "Where, then?" 
 
 " He is with old Gamle and his witch-wife under 
 the glacier at Ericsfirth Head." 
 
 Bodwar was much impressed. "Are you sure 
 of that?" 
 
 "How should I not be sure? Didn't I see him
 
 134 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 limping there ? Now, get your boat down, my son, 
 
 and choose your rowers, and we will go after him." 
 
 " He is a dead man if so be that we find him up 
 there," Bodwar said. 
 
 He made ready, and manned a boat, taking fifteen 
 men besides himself, well-armed. They rode down 
 the firth and out to sea, ran up Ericsfirth, and 
 stayed at Brent-lithe, where Thorkel lived, who had 
 been the first man to harbour Thormod when he 
 came out to Greenland. As it was now late, they 
 stayed there for the night, meaning to be off the 
 first thing in the morning. But this could not be 
 managed, for Thordis thought it was very neces- 
 sary to get Thorkel's countenance, and when he 
 had agreed to go with them it did not suit him to 
 take less men with him than she and Bodwar had. 
 In fact, he took more. Gamle was a tenant of his, 
 and entitled to fair play, especially from men out 
 of the other firth. 
 
 Now it was Grima's turn for visions, and we 
 are told that they did not fail her. She saw Thor- 
 dis's boat rowing up the firth, knew how many men
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 135 
 
 were in it, and what their errand was. She took 
 the direction of affairs at once, and Thormod was 
 amused to see how completely Gamle was at her 
 orders. He was to stay home, but not show himself. 
 And he was to put a kettle on the fire in the bower 
 and boil seal in it. Gamle went off obediently to 
 do as he was told. 
 
 " And what am I to do, mother ? " Thormod 
 wanted to know. 
 
 She drew forward the great chair which was 
 in the corner by the hearth. It was a huge, old- 
 fashioned chair, deep enough to hold two people. 
 It had a canopy; and on the pillar at the back was 
 carved a huge image of Thor who spread out his 
 arms and made the canopy. " Sit you there," said 
 Grima, " in the midst of the reek, and never move 
 out of it whosoever comes in or goes out. If you 
 are to die you will die, and it makes no matter 
 to you whether you die in a chair or against the 
 wall. So sit you still as a mouse until I bid you 
 out. Now I shall go and spin my yarn on the 
 threshold, and let them do their worst." By this 
 time the bower was thick with seal-reek impos-
 
 136 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 sible to see your hand in front of your face. Thor- 
 mod was so amused that he roared with laughter, 
 and made Grima angry. As for Gamle, the thicker 
 the smoke grew the more seal he put into the kettle. 
 
 Grima saw the two boats before long, and called 
 out to Thormod to stop fooling. She saw them land 
 their folk, saw the parley that ensued, then watched 
 Thorkel come alone up the path to the house. She 
 went on with her spinning. 
 
 " Well, mother, and how's it with you this day? " 
 
 " Eh, none too bad. Gamle's busy at home with 
 his seal-kettle, and I am here to be out of the reek. 
 And what brings you up so far from home? " 
 
 Then he told her what he had come about. 
 " Thordis of Longness has it in her mind that you 
 are harbouring an outlaw Thormod the poet from 
 Norway. Now I told her I thought that not likely 
 for that would be a heavy charge for you." 
 
 " Too much for me, master," said Grima. 
 "What would I be doing with a murderous out- 
 law, and me lonely in my house most days of the 
 week?" 
 
 " So I told her," said Thorkel. " But nothing
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 137 
 
 would suit her but she must come and ransack. 
 And that is our business with you." 
 
 " Ransack, with all my heart, if you ransack 
 alone. But I will not be over-run with a score of 
 armed men, and I don't want Thordis of Einarsfirth 
 turning my things over, either. You I know, and 
 am always glad to see her but of Einarsfirth peo- 
 ple, the more I know the less I like them." 
 
 " But, you see, mother, it is Thordis who is 
 hunting, and not me. I have obtained it from her 
 that I shall be present, in order to insure you against 
 malice. I hope then that you will be reasonable 
 
 otherwise " and he indicated the men-at-arms 
 
 on the shore with a sweep of his hand " other- 
 wise " 
 
 Old Grima tossed up her head. " Oh, I know, 
 I know Well, so you are with her " 
 
 " I shall be," said Thorkel, and went down to 
 the shore, whence he returned with Thordis, a 
 quick-eyed, black-browed woman. 
 
 They ransacked the byre, the storeroom and the 
 turf-shelter; they went through the hall and opened 
 the door into the bower. The seal-reek came out
 
 138 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 like a sea-fog. Thordis did her best, but could 
 not face that. " Somebody must be in there mak- 
 ing that foul reek," she said. " Thorkel, do you 
 go and see who it is." Thorkel went in a little 
 way, and was soon swallowed up in the reek. He 
 came back presently and said Gamle was there, boil- 
 ing seal-blubber. 
 
 " Did you tell him to stop it? " 
 
 " I did so but he shook his head at me, and 
 put on more blubber. He is hard of hearing, is 
 Gamle." 
 
 " Well," Thordis said, " we must go on the roof, 
 and open the vents. We can overlook the place very 
 well from there." 
 
 With a ladder they did so. The smoke lifted 
 somewhat and Thordis could see into the bower. 
 She saw Gamle by the fire, stirring his kettle; and 
 she saw Thor above the chair, with his arms apart. 
 Nothing else was to be seen ; so then they went down 
 the ladder, and renewed their search outside. 
 
 Then they came round the house to Grima, who 
 was spinning yarn and muttering to herself. She 
 took no notice at all of Thordis, but Thordis was
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 139 
 
 accustomed to be noticed. " We came up here to 
 find heathens, it seems. I see you have Thor over 
 your chair, dame." 
 
 " Ah, there he is, the old scamp, sure enough," 
 said Grima. "And let me tell you there is some 
 use in Blackbeard to people like me who cannot get 
 down to hear the priest of God in the church. For 
 I look Thor in the face, and say, ' You are a wooden 
 god, Thor, and if I chose for it I could light the 
 fire with you. But the God in church was not made 
 with hands; and when men slew Him, He rose the 
 third day. Now you if I put you in the fire 
 it is white ash you would be in the morning.' " 
 
 Thordis pressed her lips together. " It sounds 
 very well but if we were to push you hard, maybe 
 we should learn more about you and your prac- 
 tices. I have it in my mind that you could tell 
 us something of Thormod if my son and I, and 
 the men we have with us, were to make you 
 speak." 
 
 " More goes into the mind than sense," said 
 Grima, " and maybe it is the better for you that 
 Thormod is not in my house, if all I hear of him
 
 140 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 and your sons is true. But you are sore about that, 
 so I'll say no more." 
 
 There was no more to be said or done by the 
 ransackers, who presently went off to their boats, 
 and set out for home. Then Thormod came out 
 of the reek and sat in the sun beside Grima. She 
 scolded him, and he laughed at her; but they had 
 grown very fond of each other. By the end of 
 the summer he was well of his wound, and anxious 
 to go down the firth to Stockness. But Grima would 
 not suffer that, and sent Gamle down instead.
 
 XVIII 
 
 Scuf and Bearne came up to fetch Thormod 
 away. He paid his farewells, giving handsome 
 presents to the good old couple. They were as 
 sorry to lose him as if he had been their son; but 
 Thormod himself was anxious to be doing some- 
 thing. They all three went to Stockness, where 
 a shelter in the storehouse had been fitted up for 
 him. He was there that winter his third in Green- 
 land and in the course of it Scuf sold the Stock- 
 ness estate, and made his plans for fitting out a ship. 
 They would all leave the country and settle in Nor- 
 way. That was the plan, which was only delayed 
 by Thormod's next venture. 
 
 As soon as the sea was open again he told his 
 hosts that he had affairs of his own which he must 
 settle before he left the country, and if they guessed 
 what those were he left them guessing, for he would 
 tell them nothing definite. He put some stores into 
 
 141
 
 142 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 a boat, took Egil to row, and set off. Thormod 
 steered, and took a course down Ericsfirth, and out 
 to sea ; then up into Einarsfirth once more. 
 
 They were well up Einarsfirth when Thormod 
 grew fidgety and began to rock the boat. " Easy, 
 master, or you will capsize us," Egil called out. 
 " Why, what's the matter with you ? " 
 
 " I have a fit," Thormod said, and went on with 
 his rocking. Egil gave over rowing, which was 
 not possible under such conditions, shipped his oars 
 and made them fast under the thwarts. Thormod 
 went on with his fit until he had filled the boat 
 with water. She settled down, and the two men 
 were swimming. Thormod, who had his axe with 
 him, dived immediately, and swam under water 
 until he was well away. Then he came up, to dive 
 again immediately; and so he went on until he 
 reached the shore. As for Egil, who was a good 
 swimmer too, he managed to get the boat over on 
 to the keel, and to row her with the rudder until 
 he was in water where he could stand. After that 
 he was not long baling her out, nor in floating her 
 again with himself aboard. He got out his oars
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 143 
 
 and set to rowing home as fast as he could lay to 
 the work. Arrived at Stockness, he had his tale 
 already. Thormod had drowned himself, and 
 there, so far as Egil was concerned, was the end 
 of him. He couldn't tell them whereabouts they 
 had been when the fit began, nor had he seen 
 Thormod after the boat filled. He was quite sure 
 his master was drowned. Scuf was not at all sure. 
 
 But Thormod had had his plans cut out. It 
 suited him that Egil should row him so far, but 
 not that he should come any further. So he took 
 the shortest way with him that occurred to him, 
 and with great success. When he came ashore he 
 took his clothes off, wrung them out, dried them 
 in the sun. Then, dressed, he set off walking, and 
 went on all day till he came to Cliff, where Sigrid 
 lived with her son Sigurd. These were a couple 
 whom he had known on his last visit as unfriends 
 of the Thorgrim clan. 
 
 It was dark when he came to Cliff and knocked 
 at the door. A heavy young man came out, opened 
 the door, said nothing except good evening, and 
 went back into the house. Thormod followed him
 
 144 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 in, and sat down by the fire. Sigrid was there, 
 
 watching him, and said to Sigurd, "And who is 
 
 this young man? " 
 
 Thormod said, " Slowman is my name." 
 
 " That's a name for many a man. Will Slowman 
 
 stay here the night ? " 
 
 " He will if he is asked," said Thormod. 
 
 They played out this play solemnly through the 
 evening meal; but in the morning Sigrid came to 
 Slowman's bedside, and said, " Now, Thormod, 
 what is it you purpose in these parts? " 
 
 He laughed, saying, " My name is Slowman." 
 
 " Not here," Sigrid said. " I knew you again 
 the moment you came in last night." 
 
 " Then let Slowman go his way," Thormod said. 
 " Now I will tell you that I am minded to go up 
 to Longness where Thorunn the sister of Thorgrim 
 Troll lives; and there I will meet if I can with Leot 
 her son. They tell me that he is something of a 
 champion, but I wish to teach him to keep a still 
 tongue in his head. He has been talking about me 
 so I hear."
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 145 
 
 Sigrid nodded her head. " If that is what you 
 intend, I will send my son Sigurd with you. Leot 
 and his mother have held our faces to the ground 
 this many a year." 
 
 " There's a remedy for that," said Thormod, 
 " but it does not always answer. Now if 
 we fail it makes no matter to me. But if 
 you fail you will lose your holding in this 
 firth." 
 
 " Oh," said Sigrid, " we would risk more than 
 that for a fair chance at Leot." 
 
 Presently the two young men set off together, 
 and by keeping to a river-bed, and then skirting a 
 hill, contrived to come at Longness without being 
 seen by anybody. They reached the house about 
 dinner-time, and saw it all lying quietly in the sun. 
 Thormod, without hesitation, went to the front 
 door and knocked upon it. Sigurd stood by 
 him. 
 
 A woman came to the door and asked what they 
 wanted. Sigurd said, " The master. Is he at 
 home?" 
 
 " Yes, surely. He is in the hall."
 
 146 the light heart 
 
 " Ask him to come out and speak with us." 
 
 She went back to Leot, who was eating his din- 
 ner. "Who is it?" 
 
 " Sigurd of Cliff is there, and a man with him. 
 They ask you to go out and speak with them." 
 
 "Who is the other?" 
 
 " I never saw him before." 
 
 "What does he look like?" 
 
 "A young man with light eyes. His hair is 
 black and curly. A smiling man." 
 
 " Oh, he smiles, does he ? That will be Thormod. 
 Good. I come." He got up, took a spear from the 
 wall and went to the door. He opened it suddenly 
 and drove the spear at Thormod, who was nearest 
 to him. 
 
 Thormod slashed at it with his axe, and turned 
 it downwards; but it caught him in the calf of the 
 leg, and tore a bad wound. But as Leot stooped 
 to follow his spear-thrust Sigurd smote him in the 
 shoulder with a sword, and shore the flesh away 
 from the bone. Leot turned and made for the hall ; 
 Sigurd slashed at him as he went and sliced him 
 from the thigh down to the calf. He fell, but he
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 147 
 
 was indoors, and the woman ran before him and 
 slammed to the door. 
 
 " That will keep him quiet for a time," said 
 Thormod. " You and I had best be trotting." He 
 made a bad business of his trotting, though, for 
 his left leg was stiff already. He had to stop within 
 a few hundred yards and bind it up. 
 
 When they were down by the water Thormod 
 told Sigurd to get away home as fast as he could 
 and tell his mother what had been done. " I ad- 
 vise you to go over to Scuf for a while. Now get 
 on with you, and leave me to shift for myself. I 
 shall hang about the boat-house out there on the 
 chance of getting a passage out of the firth." 
 
 He limped off cheerfully, and reached the boat- 
 house. It was empty, but there were signs that a 
 boat had been taken out lately. No doubt it would 
 be home by dark. He sought out a berth for him- 
 self in dry sea-weed, made himself comfortable and 
 slept out the rest of the day. In the dusk he was 
 awakened by the sound of rowing, and sat up to 
 listen to it. 
 
 It all fell out as he expected. Men brought in
 
 i 4 8 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 a boat, and came ashore. He heard them talking 
 about the weather and debating if the boat should 
 be pulled up or not. They decided to risk it, and 
 went their way home, carrying their fish and gear. 
 
 Thormod waited till it was dark, and then pulled 
 up the stone which held the boat. He was soon 
 out in the firth a fine still moonlight night; but 
 that did not trouble him. 
 
 If he had known that Thordis, the spsewoman, 
 was having visions, he might have hurried, but I 
 doubt it. She had a vision, nodding over the fire, 
 and woke as usual with a start. " Where art thou, 
 Bodwar, my son? " 
 
 " Here, mother. What do you want of me? " 
 
 " There's fish to be taken to-night," she says, 
 "if you are the man to take him." 
 
 "lama man for any game," said Bodwar. " But 
 where are your fish, and what kind of fish are 
 they?" 
 
 " Thormod the outlaw is abroad on the firth, 
 and he is alone. Come thou with me, and we shall 
 catch him." Bodwar was all agog in a moment, 
 roused up some of the men, took his weapons, and
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 149 
 
 had the party down by the boats in a very short 
 time. They set off rowing and rowed fast. Thor- 
 mod heard them from a long way off, and looked 
 about to see what he had best do. There were 
 shelves of rock scattered about the firth, but a long 
 way from each other. These were his best chance, 
 he thought, though bad was best. He had the boat 
 bottom upwards in no time, and swam for the 
 nearest shelf. It was fairly long, and covered with 
 sea-weed. Whether the high tides covered it he 
 had no notion. " I must be drowned or speared, it 
 seems, and may be both. But who knows his 
 doom? " He dug himself into a cleft in the rocks, 
 covered himself in sea- weed, and waited. 
 
 They were long in coming, for they first found 
 the boat, and debated about that. Thordis thought, 
 certainly not; and it was by her directions that 
 they landed on the rock-island, and went over it 
 carefully with spears. Twice at least Thormod felt 
 them, and put up a prayer to King Olaf. They 
 passed right over him three times in all and finally 
 he heard Thordis calling to him. " Thormod, Thor- 
 mod, come out and fight my son. If you have more
 
 150 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 spunk than a goat, if you have a bolder heart than 
 a mare, come out and fight." It was on the tip 
 of his tongue to answer her but some wiser spirit, 
 perhaps King Olaf's, restrained him. Then, at last, 
 he heard them go grumbling away ; finally, he heard 
 the oars. He found out afterwards that they had 
 taken his boat with them. 
 
 He pulled himself out of the sea-weed and got 
 into the sea. Swimming was very difficult now, for 
 his left leg was stiff all the way up. He swam from 
 island to island, and by resting on every one man- 
 aged to make some way; but by the time the grey 
 began to show up in the east he knew he was done. 
 He crawled his last on to a shelf of rock, and there 
 he lay. 
 
 Then it was, as they tell the tale, that at Wick, 
 a homestead near at hand, the good man of the 
 house, whose name was Grim, dreamed a dream. 
 
 He dreamed that a man in a white cloak stood 
 by his bed. He saw him there plainly. He was 
 a fair man, bearded, broad-shouldered, blue-eyed, 
 not over-tall. He was leaning on a spear, and 
 seemed to be waiting until Grim should wake up.
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 151 
 
 When Grim sat up in bed, the man asked him, 
 "Grim, do you sleep or wake?" 
 
 " I am awake, as I believe," said Grim. " And 
 who are you ? " 
 
 "lam King Olaf, son of Harold, and I have a 
 commandment to give you, which is this. You shall 
 go out on to the firth and look for my poet Thor- 
 mod, who is lying spent and wounded on a ledge 
 of rock. He has not had fortunate travel, and 
 will die if he is not picked up. And if you are 
 not willing to go yourself, you have a man here 
 who will gladly do my errand. He is a guest of 
 yours, and calls himself Gest, but that is not his 
 name. His name is Steinar, and he is an Ice- 
 lander; and he is out here to avenge the death of 
 Thorgar Hawarsson. That he cannot do, but he 
 can succour the avenger and so he will if you 
 ask him." Hereupon it seemed to Grim that the 
 figure faded into the dark, but that he himself 
 remained, broad-awake and sitting up. 
 
 He got out of bed, put on his clothes, took his 
 sword, and went to wake Gest. 
 
 "What is it, host?"
 
 152 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 " Up with you. I have a word or two to 
 say." 
 
 Gest took his sword and went out with him into 
 the hall. 
 
 " Now," said Grim, " if it is for the first or last 
 time, tell me your name." 
 
 " You know my name." 
 
 " I know the name which you gave me, but not 
 whether it is truly your name." 
 
 "Why should it not be?" 
 
 " Because I believe it is Steinar." 
 
 "Who told you that?" 
 
 " It was King Olaf." 
 
 " And when did you see King Olaf ? " 
 
 "A moment since." He told him what he had 
 seen. 
 
 Gest said, " If he is right about me, he is right 
 about Thormod. I know Thormod well, and that 
 he has been beforehand with me in Thorgar's busi- 
 ness. Now we must go and look for him." 
 
 They took boat and searched the islands, and 
 presently found Thormod. " How is it with you, 
 fellow-traveller?" said Gest.
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 153 
 
 " Poorly just now," said Thormod, " but I left 
 a man up at Longness poorer than me." 
 
 "Who was that?" 
 
 " A heavy man called Leot." 
 
 "That makes four of them?" 
 
 "Yes, four." 
 
 " Thorgar may rest himself, I think." 
 
 " He must make the best job he can of it," said 
 Thormod. " It would take me two years to get " 
 him the fifth, and Greenland would not hold me for 
 so long." 
 
 " You will be safe with me," Grim said, " till 
 your leg is whole and then we will fit you aboard 
 Scuf's ship." Then they helped him into the boat, 
 took him home to Wick, and kept him quiet until 
 the next Moot was over. At that Moot Sigurd 
 was outlawed for his share in Leot's killing, but 
 he took that very little to heart because he was 
 leaving Greenland with Scuf. 
 
 As soon as the Moot was over Scuf sailed for 
 Norway.
 
 XIX 
 
 When Thormod looked in the face of King Olaf 
 again, he did not see much friendship in it, and 
 was dashed, because he himself felt that there was 
 nobody in the world like his king. By and by he 
 found out why that was, that a man had come to 
 the court before him and given out that he had 
 avenged Thorgar's death. On the strength of that 
 tale he had been rewarded and taken into friend- 
 ship; and when Thormod presented himself it was 
 as one who had failed in an undertaking, who might 
 be a good poet, but was not a man of any other 
 account. Thormod received a nod, and was hurt. 
 He was a careless and light-hearted soul, but capa- 
 ble of great worship, and even love. All the affec- 
 tion he had for Thorgar was now centred in the 
 King, and to be so received was to be cut to the 
 heart. 
 
 One day, at dinner, the King sent down the drink- 
 154
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 155 
 
 ing horn to Thormod, and called for a verse from 
 him in return. Thormod, white and furious, started 
 up and spoke what came to him on the spur of the 
 moment. It stung. It was to the effect that the 
 dream-king who stood by Grim's bed and interceded 
 for his life was a better friend to him than this 
 king who commanded verses. Everybody stared, 
 and Olaf stared longest. 
 
 " Who was your dream-king, and what did he 
 do?" 
 
 " He came to the bedside of Grim of Wick and 
 bade him seek me where I lay wounded and spent 
 on the reef." 
 
 " I asked you, who was he ? " 
 
 " He called himself Olaf Haroldsson." 
 
 The King looked queerly at him. 
 
 " Tell me what you did in Greenland, Thormod." 
 
 " I am glad that you wish to know it." Then 
 he recited his deeds, and the deaths of Thorgrim 
 Troll and his nephews Falgar, Thorkel, Thord and 
 Leot. 
 
 " But Glum tells us that he slew Thorgrim 
 Troll "
 
 156 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 " Then Glum is a liar. I, the left-handed man, 
 slew him, as I tell you." 
 
 " Well, said King Olaf, " no one can say that 
 you have not had good luck, and more than the 
 fisherman's luck. The fisherman reckons a fish 
 for himself, a fish for the boat, a fish for his hook, 
 and a fish for his line. But you are a fish to the 
 good." 
 
 "Yes, I am. But I left one fish in the water, 
 and regret it." 
 
 " I see that Glum has been valiant with his 
 mouth," said Olaf, "but you have deeds behind 
 your words. Come up here and sit by me." So 
 they made friends again, and Thormod began to 
 share Olaf's counsels, which were not of good 
 augury just then. In fact, it appeared that after 
 reigning fifteen years over Norway, fighting, and 
 in the main successfully fighting, against the might 
 of King Cnut of England and Denmark, he must 
 now, as he put it, set out on his travels again. Earl 
 Hakon, a steady enemy of his, was now in force 
 in the country, and to his banner the greater part 
 of the chiefs were going over for one reason or
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 157 
 
 another, but chiefly for this, that King Olaf had 
 rendered Norway a country where men could live 
 in peace and under the protection of his law. Now 
 the chiefs had been accustomed to live, on the 
 contrary, in war. Wickings at sea, they had also 
 chosen to be wickings on land. As for the law, 
 they had no use for that at all. If plunder were 
 to be punishable under King Olaf's law and it 
 was punishable and impartially punished a chief 
 was in no better case than a pickpocket, and for all 
 they could see there was no virtue in chiefhood at 
 all. Earl Hakon had no such prejudice concerning 
 justice, and his strength was increasing from day 
 to day. 
 
 These things King Olaf confided to Thormod by 
 degrees, and by increasing degrees as his affection 
 for the young man grew. He had no reason to 
 repent his confidence, for Thormod had always had 
 a turn for devotion, and now that his dues to his 
 murdered friend Thorgar were paid he had leisure 
 of heart to admire and to love this great king. 
 " Sir," he said, " it seems to me that you have 
 not Christianised Norway by dipping all the Nor-
 
 158 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 wegians in water, and that you will have to dip 
 many more of them in blood before you can hope 
 to save their souls. Now whether you are as strong 
 as your cause deserves, I cannot say, but of this 
 I am sure, that by going into exile for a time you 
 will grow stronger rather than weaker. To begin 
 with, those who follow you thither will be men 
 on whom you can rely; second, a very short time of 
 ill-government under Earl Hakon and the chiefs 
 will convince the people that yours has been good 
 government and theirs is no government at all. 
 When you come back, you will find the Norwegians 
 ready for you. That is what I think." 
 
 The King had his chin in his hand, and was look- 
 ing at his poet. " And do you follow me if I go 
 into exile ? " he asked. 
 
 " I do," said Thormod. 
 
 "And what is your reason?" 
 
 " You are my King," said Thormod, " and I will 
 share life and death with you. When I leapt into 
 your ship in the harbour I put my life into your 
 hands, and you gave it back to me. The reason I 
 had then is the reason I have now."
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 159 
 
 " I was not your King then, my friend." 
 "You were not. But I saw you throned there 
 upon the ship of war, and a voice spoke to me and 
 said, There, Thormod, is your King. And so it 
 has turned out. Now I know that my life is bound 
 with yours, and if you are willing it shall cease 
 with yours also." 
 
 " Ah," said King Olaf, "who knows when his life 
 will cease?" 
 
 " I do," said Thormod. " I know that my life 
 will cease when yours ceases." 
 
 The King gave him his hand. " A few more of 
 your sort, and I shall come back to Norway." 
 
 " You will find plenty of my sort in Iceland," said 
 Thormod.
 
 XX 
 
 King Olaf, however, did not go West, but 
 rather to the East, where he was certain of a wel- 
 come. His queen, Astrid, his daughter, Ulfhild, 
 his son, Magnus, went with him; and he mustered 
 in all some two hundred adherents, of whom there 
 are known to this tale Fin Ernesson and Thormod 
 the poet. There had been others, and in particular 
 Biorn the marshal, a famous man on whom he 
 counted. But Biorn asked leave to go home to his 
 lands, saying that he was too old for adventure, 
 and King Olaf had not known how to refuse him. 
 If he were compelled to go it would have been 
 against his will; if he stayed behind he might re- 
 main true to the King's cause. So Biorn was let 
 off, and others fell off; but two hundred persons 
 remained to Olaf of all his kingdom of Norway, 
 and with these he threaded the Swedish forests 
 and took ship for Russia. He was well received 
 
 1 60
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 161 
 
 by the King, Jarisleif, and offered a barony on 
 which to maintain himself and his family. He took 
 that thankfully, and there we lose sight of him for 
 about three years. 
 
 During those years everything in Norway turned 
 to favour Earl Hakon, who had the support of 
 King Cnut of England, and of his money. The 
 money, among other effects it had, seduced Biorn 
 the marshal from his loyalty. He was tempted to 
 swear fealty to the Earl, and he fell. But towards 
 the end of Olaf's sojourn in Russia Earl Hakon, 
 on a voyage home from England to Norway, was 
 lost in a storm off the north of Caithness, he and 
 his whole ship's company; and when news of this 
 was brought to Biorn that the Earl was drowned, 
 and Norway without a lord he felt that he had 
 been a fool. " Who is so fit to be lord of Norway 
 as the great King I have forsworn? Are we to see 
 here a creature of King Cnut's ; and is that mighty 
 man to be lord of half the earth? That will not 
 suit either Norway or me. I will seek out King 
 Olaf, as the Prodigal Son sought out his father, 
 and what he said that I will say."
 
 162 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 He arrayed himself then and there, and with a 
 trusty retinue set out on his journey to the East. 
 He travelled night and day, by land as well as by 
 sea, and did not stay anywhere, or sleep in a bed, 
 until he had come up with King Olaf. The King, 
 who knew nothing of his defection, was glad of 
 him and welcomed him as a friend. Having heard 
 all his news from home, he was full of thought, 
 but by no means decided what to do. The Russian 
 King had offered him a province, the province of 
 Kasan, to rule over; his people, however, were home- 
 sick; as for himself, he was tempted to renounce 
 all worldly affairs, to go pilgrim to Jerusalem, and 
 there settle himself a hermit. Now came this news 
 of Norway, and he must make up his mind. 
 " Biorn," he said, " between now and then 
 God will decide my road tar me, and not I. 
 But tell me first of those who called them- 
 selves my friends, how many call themselves so 
 now." 
 
 Biorn said, " It has gone differently with different 
 men. But many are against you." 
 
 "If you cannot tell me more about them you
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 163 
 
 cannot tell me anything that I don't know," said 
 Olaf. " Tell me at least of yourself." 
 
 Then Biorn felt that his time had come. He 
 rose up ; he said, " Sir, I am here to answer for 
 myself." Then he grew very red in the face, and 
 suddenly fell upon his knees, bowed his head, and 
 took King Olaf by the foot. " Sir, Sir, I am in 
 your hands and in God's. I am unworthy to live, 
 for I have taken money from the King of England 
 and sworn fealty to him but now I renounce that 
 service, and am yours altogether." 
 
 King Olaf nodded his head, looking down at the 
 prostrate chief. " Stand up, Biorn, stand up, and 
 be my friend," he said. " Make excuses to 
 God for your false oaths, and may He be as 
 merciful to you as I will be. I see very well 
 that all's to do in Norway if you can be 
 false." 
 
 Biorn kissed the King's foot before he got up 
 from his knees. He was now sincerely repentant, 
 and meant to do well; but King Olaf was not en- 
 couraged by his report of himself, and not at all 
 certain what he would do. He took full time to
 
 164 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 consider of it, consulting nobody until he had made 
 up his own mind. 
 
 It was a dream he had in the small hours of 
 a morning which decided him. He had slept badly, 
 and that only in the morning hours, and so lightly 
 that when he was awake (as he supposed) it seemed 
 to him that he had not slept at all. A small and 
 level grey light was over the hall where he lay. 
 He could see all the things in the great room quietly 
 in their places; and then presently, as his eyes 
 ranged from one thing to another, from that to 
 this, they fell upon a tall, grave and noble figure 
 sitting by his bedside. This man was elderly, for 
 his beard was grey, and his bushy eyebrows were 
 grey too. His head was cowled, and over the cowl 
 was a circlet of gold. Between his knees stood a 
 long-sword, on the pommel of which were both 
 his hands. As he looked it came into his mind 
 that here was no other than the spirit of King Olaf 
 Tryggvasson whom all Norway revered ; but he said 
 nothing not because he was frightened, but out of 
 respect to the great dead king. 
 
 Presently the dead spoke to him as follows:
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 165 
 
 " You are sick of thinking what you shall do here- 
 after; but it is wonderful to me that it should seem 
 open to you to renounce the realm which God has 
 given you, and of taking as a gift from a foreigner 
 a kingdom where you would be a vassal. Go you 
 back rather to the country which is your own, and 
 rule it with your own strength and virtue. If 
 you give it up to those who are your subjects you 
 make yourself lower than they. It is glorious to 
 defeat your enemies, it is glorious to die in war; 
 but it is inglorious to fear the trial of your right. 
 Doubt not, hide nothing, dare everything. God 
 will declare Himself, and let His be the arbitra- 
 ment, as right is." Then the spirit rose and went 
 down the hall. King Olaf watched him go, but 
 heard not a sound. When he came to the door of 
 the hall, like mist he was lost in it. 
 
 After that he would not doubt; and that very 
 day he called an assembly and declared his purpose. 
 But be these things as they may, they belong to the 
 saga of King Olaf the Holy, which exists and is 
 very worthy to be read; whereas we are only con- 
 cerned with the rest of the fortunes of Thormod
 
 166 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 the poet, whose light heart had led him to bind 
 them up with those of his king. Let it be enough, 
 therefore, to say that King Olaf returned the way 
 he had come, and quartered himself for a winter 
 with his brother-in-law the King of Sweden. At 
 that court he collected about him some six hundred 
 loyal Norwegians, and added to them four hun- 
 dred men furnished, not very willingly, by his 
 brother-in-law. Then came in one Dag Ringsson, 
 a high-descended chief long exiled from Norway, 
 whom now, by promises of the restitution of his 
 estates, King Olaf won over to his side him and 
 twelve hundred men behind him. Now then, hav- 
 ing well over two thousand men to his banner, King 
 Olaf set out to conquer Norway or to fall. 
 
 On his way through the forest country towards 
 the great ridge which divides Sweden from Norway 
 many more men joined him forest-dwellers for 
 the most part, with some great rogues among them. 
 Two mighty robbers, Gank-Thorer and his brother 
 Afarfarte, came with thirty men behind them, and 
 asked the King's leave to go with him. Fine men 
 they were, and well-armed. The King said that
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 167 
 
 he would take them if they were Christians, but if 
 not, not. Gank-Thorer said that he was neither a 
 Christian nor a heathen. " I believe in myself," he 
 said, " and in my strength. They have never failed 
 me yet, and I shall trust in them until they do." 
 
 Said King Olaf, " I find it a pity that such a 
 fine murdering man as yourself should not believe 
 in Christ." 
 
 But Gank-Thorer replied that maybe if he did 
 so believe he would not be such a good murderer. 
 And then he said, " Show me, King, a Christian 
 in your company who has my inches or shoulders." 
 
 " Come," said King Olaf, " into the water with 
 you, and after me. You shall have great honour 
 and advancement." 
 
 A far f arte refused, and was for turning away, 
 but his brother kept him from going. " Hold still, 
 you fool, and let the King go forward. We will 
 follow in the rear and get our share in the battle; 
 and after that it is not likely he will plague us with 
 his religion." And that was what they did. 
 
 The army climbed the ridge and looked West
 
 168 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 over all Norway to the sea. King Olaf stood for 
 a long time regarding it, and Thormod stood beside 
 him, gazing with all his eyes. Both were silent, 
 but Thormod's eyes were filled with tears, though 
 he was very happy. King Olaf presently noticed 
 him. "Why do you cry?" he asked. 
 
 Thormod said, " It is because it is all so beautiful, 
 and that the things we do are shameful and pitiful 
 at once. And also I think that a man's life might 
 be as beautiful as that far prospect, if he did but 
 know how to accomplish it. I am crying because 
 it is beautiful and I can never have it." 
 
 " Why, silly one, are we not here with a great 
 army to get it?" 
 
 " Beauty of that sort is not to be won with an 
 army," said Thormod. 
 
 " Maybe the Kingdom of Heaven will look as 
 fair as that," said the King; and Thormod 
 
 " Maybe it will. But of that I know nothing, 
 and of this much." 
 
 The army, to call it so, which was more like a 
 horde than an army, descended the Fjeld in loose
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 169 
 
 order, but assembled at Suul, which was a farm- 
 stead in Vaerdale held by a bondsman called Thor- 
 geir Flek, well affected to the King's party. Olaf 
 stayed with Thorgeir all night, and in the morning 
 early gave the signal for the march. Two of Thor- 
 geir's sons, much against their father's will, ac- 
 companied the King. They marched to Staff, and 
 had Staff Moor before them ; there King Olaf heard 
 that his enemies were on the march against him, 
 and that he must adopt battle-order so as to be 
 ready for them. The first thing he did was to 
 muster all ranks, and the first thing that came of 
 that was that he found nine hundred heathens un- 
 der arms. He was clear that he would not have 
 them on those terms. " Our force is small indeed 
 without the help of God," he said, " and that I 
 cannot expect if I mix up heathenry with my men. 
 Now let those men be christened, or let them go 
 home. Of two things one." The heathen held 
 an assembly and talked the matter up and down. 
 Four hundred would go into the water, five hun- 
 dred would not. Those stiff-necked King Olaf sent 
 away. Then he came once more upon the two
 
 170 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 brother-murderers, Gank-Thorer and Afarfarte. 
 " Now are you two Christian men, or are you 
 not?" 
 
 " We are not." 
 
 " Then you cannot come with me. I give you 
 strict command," he said. " Go into the water, or 
 go away." 
 
 They said they would talk of it, and that was 
 allowed them. 
 
 " Now," said Afarfarte, " I have come so far 
 in the prospect of a battle, and I don't intend to 
 turn back; but I don't care two straws on which 
 side I fight; and maybe the other side will not be 
 so stiff about this religious affair as the King is. 
 I am for sounding them first of all before anything 
 else is done. What is your opinion?" 
 
 " My opinion," Gank-Thorer said, " is that I shall 
 fight on the King's side; for a king he is, and if 
 he win the day he will reward kingly. And as 
 for religion, if I must believe in a God, it may 
 be Christ as well as any other, for the odds are 
 that all gods are but names of one God. If it will 
 please King Olaf to have us Christians, why, let
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 171 
 
 us go into the river. There's nothing in that and 
 then for the battle." 
 
 Agreed. The thing was done there and then by 
 the King's priest, and immediately after they were 
 confirmed by a bishop. 
 
 " Now," said Olaf, " two such fine men as you 
 shall have all honour from me. I appoint you 
 my bodyguard." 
 
 Then he ordered his forces, taking the centre 
 himself, giving Dag Ringsson the right wing, and 
 the Swedes the left. The Cross was to be painted 
 on all shields and helms in white. The battle-cry 
 was " Christ ! the Cross ! the King ! " 
 
 He held a council of war wherein it was debated 
 whether the army should waste the country or not. 
 Fin Ernesson was strongly for it, and Thormod, 
 who was present, broke into vehement song: 
 
 1 Fire house and hut, 
 
 Burn steading and stall; 
 See the doors are shut 
 
 Till the roof-trees fall ! 
 Then trust the sword 
 
 And let it alone 
 To prove the King's word 
 
 And win him his own."
 
 172 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 He sang that resonantly, and the chiefs made a 
 hero of him but King Olaf would not have it. 
 " With fire and sword have I swept Norway afore- 
 time but that was reward of idolatry and sin 
 against God. This time they have sinned against 
 me and what is this offence compared with that? 
 No, I can have mercy, but God, Who is just and 
 perfectly good, can have none. And there is an- 
 other thing to be said. If I give you leave to 
 plunder, and, loaded up to the neck with your 
 spoils, you are beaten in the battle, what will befall 
 you? You will be like men in shipwreck who stuff 
 their pockets with silver and gold, and find that 
 cork would have suited them better. But suppose 
 you win. Then it will be as well to think of plun- 
 der, and useful to have well-filled stockyards wherein 
 to make your profit. Take what cattle you want 
 for your day's ration; take and kill spies of the 
 enemy but spare all else, for they are my people 
 and not yours." And then he turned to where 
 Thormod and the rest of his poets were standing. 
 There were there besides Thormod, Gissur and 
 Thorfinn Mudr. Sigvat, who was the most re-
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 173 
 
 nowned poet at the King's court, was not there then. 
 " You poets," said the King, " have other weapons 
 than your axes and swords, though I know that 
 some of you can give an account of yourselves 
 with them too. Now you shall be within my own 
 shield-wall, that you may be free to call upon my 
 men as they need your voices." 
 
 Thormod said to Gissur, " Don't stand too close 
 to me, brother. Leave room for Sigvat, in case he 
 comes up in a hurry, and the King find that he can- 
 not do without him." 
 
 King Olaf heard that. " No need to make light 
 of Sigvat because he is not here. He has served 
 me well in his time, and now maybe he is serving 
 me better. He is in Rome, I believe, and at his 
 prayers. God knows we need them." 
 
 " Sir," said Thormod, " may God hear his 
 prayers, and may that serve your need. But if 
 all of us were just now saying our prayers, it 
 would be roomy about your banner, I am thinking." 
 
 " Peace to your tongue, young man," said King 
 Olaf. "You are never without an answer."
 
 XXI 
 
 The army marched down to Sticklestead and 
 encamped there for the night. It was known 
 that the enemy was close at hand. " To-mor- 
 row will settle affairs between us," the King 
 said. 
 
 He ate his supper in a tent which had been put 
 up for him, and was himself much as usual, con- 
 fident, plain-spoken and cheerful. But he noticed 
 that Thormod was very glum, and kept him back 
 when the rest of the company retired, in order to 
 comfort him. 
 
 " What is the matter with you, poet ? Why are 
 you without a word among us?" 
 
 Thormod muttered something inaudible, and then 
 declared himself in a rush. " It is because I don't 
 know how it will be to-morrow whether you will 
 keep troth with me or not." 
 
 174
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 175 
 
 " What do you wish me to do for you ? " 
 
 " To keep your promise that we have the same 
 quarters to-morrow night as to-night." 
 
 The King smiled at him. " My lad, it may be 
 that I shall not have the ordering of our quarters 
 to-morrow night but so far as I am able I promise 
 you that we shall share whatever lodging may 
 be assigned to me." 
 
 Their eyes met, and the young man's face was 
 lit all over by a smile. " Why, then, I shall do 
 well," he said. " Now I am ready for the Spear- 
 Moot with you, and no fumbling about it. Trust 
 me to be at hand whether the other poets are here 
 or not." 
 
 King Olaf nodded his head and smiled upon 
 him. " I know that you have been faithful 
 to me in life, and so will I be to you. But 
 it may be that I shall lose my life in this 
 battle." 
 
 " Then it is certain that I shall lose mine too," 
 said Thormod. " I have cast my mind back over 
 the deeds of my life, and I don't know a better 
 thing that ever I did than when I leapt into your
 
 176 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 ship. I have served Thorgar, who was my sworn- 
 brother, and have killed more men for his ac- 
 count than I have for yours. But wait a little 
 till to-morrow's bill be cast. Then my score 
 for you may be higher than it was for Thor- 
 gar. 
 
 "How old are you?" says the King. "And 
 how many men have you killed in fight?" 
 
 " I am thirty-five, and I think that I have been 
 the death of ten men at least and there may be 
 more." 
 
 "You are not very old yet," says King 
 Olaf, "and much purgatory will not be asked 
 of you, I daresay. Yet there must be al- 
 lowed a twelve hours for each of your dead 
 men, and after that I engage you will have 
 ease." 
 
 " It will be little ease to me if I am not with 
 you," said Thormod. 
 
 " I shall be there," said King Olaf. 
 
 He lay down on his bed, and Thormod, with no 
 leave asked, covered himself with his cloak and lay 
 on the floor. He was soon asleep; but the King
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 177 
 
 could not sleep at all until near dawn, and even 
 so he awoke with the early light. 
 
 He lay for a time thinking of life past and to 
 come, in a state of strange calm, seeing that he had 
 a clear vision of what the day was to bring him. 
 He saw Thormod on the floor of the tent, deeply 
 asleep, and had a kind thought for him. " There 
 are not many like him about me now," he thought. 
 " He is very little of a Christian, but very much 
 of a man." Then he called to him gently, " Thor- 
 mod, Thormod." 
 
 Thormod opened his eyes in a moment, then sat 
 up. " Did you call me? " 
 
 " Yes. It is yet very early, but we had better 
 be stirring. Do you awaken the host with a song." 
 
 Thormod rose to his feet and went to the door 
 of the tent. He looked out. The sun was burning 
 the mountain-tops. " It is not very early," he said, 
 and as he said so he was thinking of what he would 
 sing. Then he began the old Lay of Bearse, who 
 had been a mighty hero of modern times. So loud 
 he sang that the whole army heard him and knew 
 what he was singing.
 
 178 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 " The day is breaking, 
 The house-cock shaking 
 His rustling wings ; 
 The priest-bell rings 
 To cry the morn; 
 The sounding horn 
 Calls up the thralls to work and to weep. 
 
 " Now, sons of Adil, cast off sleep ! 
 Wake up, wake up, 
 No wassail cup 
 Nor maiden's cheer 
 Awaits you here; 
 Wake, Rolf of the bow, 
 Wake, Hare, to your blow; 
 Up in your might, the day is breaking, 
 'Tis Hildr's game that waits your waking ! " x 
 
 It was fine to see on all sides armed men rise 
 up in the heath and shake their spears in the air. 
 Many of them came about the singer in the tent- 
 door and thanked him for the song. " The house- 
 carles' whet," they called it. King Olaf was much 
 pleased. He held out to Thormod a gold arm-ring. 
 " Here's for the song a brave one." 
 
 Thormod thanked him. " Sigvat prays for you, 
 and I sing. Each of us does what he is fitted for. 
 But now I will do better than he, it may be, for I 
 shall fight for you. To you, Sir, I say, remember 
 
 1 The translation is Samuel Laing's (Seo-Kings of Norway, 
 H,3i4).
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 179 
 
 your promise that we go to the same quarters this 
 evening." 
 
 " So we shall, if we both leave Sticklestead 
 alive." 
 
 " We will leave it, alive or dead," said Thormod. 
 
 Now they arrayed the battle, and stood facing 
 each other for a space of time. It was a clear and 
 fine day, promising great heat. King Olaf , looking 
 to right and left of him, could not see Dag Ringsson 
 and his men, though the Swedes were there on the 
 left wing. In front of him was a host twice the 
 size of his own, but, as he judged, undisciplined 
 and likely to be ill-led. He let it be known to the 
 Swedes that he should advance his banner at once, 
 and look to them to support him should he be 
 checked. Then, looking about him, he lifted up his 
 sword by the point, and cried aloud, " Advance, 
 men of the Cross ! " The whole of his bodyguard 
 swept down the slope, and met and were swallowed 
 up in the ranks of the bondsmen. 
 
 At the first onset the bondsmen were thrown 
 back and there was great confusion ; but their num-
 
 180 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 bers were such that the wings overlapped and en- 
 folded the King's small force. The Swedes, who 
 were languid fighters at all times, were slow in 
 support, and there was serious danger that the 
 King's army might be destroyed in detail. Dag 
 Ringsson on his right was just in time to prevent 
 this; but on his left King Olaf's flank was turned. 
 The fighting was now hand-to-hand, such as North- 
 men love, and there was neither time nor place in 
 which to see who lived or who fell. As a fact, the 
 two great robbers, Gank-Thorer and Afarfarte, fell 
 in the first charge, while the King himself and all 
 of his household behind the shield-wall were un- 
 touched. But now that the enemy had closed about 
 them on all sides, the King's itch for fighting irked 
 him, and he said to Thormod, " Stay you within 
 the wall, but I am going through them if I can." 
 
 " I shall go with you," Thormod said, and fol- 
 lowed him. He was unarmed about the body, and 
 had no weapon with him but his notable axe of 
 his own contrivance. But he was far beyond notic- 
 ing such things, and beside the King and Fin 
 Ernesson mowed a swathe through the host, as if
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 181 
 
 he was cutting meadow-grass. Great men fell on 
 both sides. Thorgeir of Quitstead, a leader of the 
 bondsmen, was one; Thord, the King's banner- 
 bearer, was another. By this time the sun was 
 veiled, and a heavy darkness began and grew 
 denser and denser; and so it remained for the rest 
 of the day. 
 
 Now, as he hewed his way, King Olaf with his 
 bodyguard came to a knoll in the ground where 
 stood the chief of his enemies, Kalf Arnesson and 
 Thorer the Dog. Of all men in the world King 
 Olaf hated Thorer, and he hewed at him as if he 
 hated him. But the sword turned aside; it was 
 as if he did but beat the dust out of him. Time 
 and again he slashed at him but without profit. 
 So then he turned to see who was beside him, and 
 saw it was old Biorn the marshal. " Kill me that 
 dog," he said, and the marshal hewed at him with 
 his axe. The axe did not wound him, but the blow 
 knocked him down. At that moment the King had 
 slain Olaf Arnesson, and as he fell Thorer the Dog 
 drove his spear clean through Biorn, and cried out, 
 " That is how we kill the bear." Just then Thor-
 
 182 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 stein Knarsmead struck the King with an axe upon 
 the left thigh a grim wound. Fin killed him 
 outright but the King could hardly stand, and 
 had to draw off for a while, using his sword for 
 a walking-stick. Thorer the Dog sprang after him 
 and drove his spear into his back. Then came on 
 Kalf Arnesson and hit him in the neck with an 
 axe. Those were his death-wounds. He fell on 
 his face, and the battle rolled over him. But as 
 soon as he found opportunity Thorer the Dog came 
 back to where the King had fallen, and laid the 
 body out fairly and straight, and covered it with 
 a cloak. He wiped the blood away from his face 
 and closed his eyes. Very noble he looked, still 
 ruddy-cheeked, and at peace, as if he was asleep. 
 Thorer said afterwards that the King's blood ran 
 up between his ringers to a wound of his own upon 
 the forearm which wound healed of itself without 
 need of any bandaging. 
 
 The battle had by this time rolled off to the 
 King's right, where Dag Ringsson was pressing the 
 enemy hard. Thormod, who had been wounded in 
 the shoulder, did not know that the King was dead,
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 183 
 
 and followed the lead of Fin Ernesson to support 
 Dag. By the time he came up with the fighting 
 it was so dark that no more could be done. Each 
 side was drawing off and making ready to spend 
 the night on the hillside. Then came a man by 
 Thormod, who knew him, and told him the news. 
 Thormod stared at him stupidly. "He is dead ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes, he is dead, with three great wounds 
 on him." 
 
 Thormod sat down. " Then he has used me ill 
 for I am alive." 
 
 " You won't be alive very long if you stay here," 
 the man said. Arrows were shrilling overhead. 
 Thormod waved him off, and sat on. 
 
 " King Olaf ," he said, " wherever you may be, 
 do you mean to forsake me now? Did you not 
 promise me that you would not cast me off ? Have 
 you forgotten me?" 
 
 An arrow struck him in the dark. He heard 
 it come, he felt it pierce his side. Then he felt 
 nothing more than a little throbbing in his side. 
 " That was a good draw of somebody's. Now I 
 know that it shall all be as I wished for it." He
 
 1 84 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 stood up and felt the arrow. The head was buried. 
 He broke off the shaft close to the skin. 
 
 He heard a wounded man calling through the 
 dark. " Is there any here will crack a joke with 
 me ? Many a man can die laughing, and so I would. 
 But who can laugh by himself? " 
 
 Another answered him from near at hand. " 111 
 have you fared, because you have done ill this day," 
 this man said. " Is that nothing to you? " 
 
 " Who are you to scold me ? " said the first. 
 
 " You may call me Heming. And who may 
 yourself be?" 
 
 " My name is Hearrand, and I had a son of your 
 name, whom I loved." 
 
 " And I have a father called Hearrand, and have 
 no love for him at all, since he has done ill by the 
 King." 
 
 " Is that my son Heming? Nay, but I have done 
 amiss, and now I know it. But come over 
 to me, my son, and let me see where thou art 
 hurt." 
 
 " I'll not come," said Heming; " I'll not mix my 
 blood with the blood of traitors. But come you
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 185 
 
 here to die. Maybe the blood of the King's men 
 will recommend you where you are going." 
 
 " Tell me what thy hurt is, my son," says Hear- 
 rand. 
 
 " I cannot. I only know that I am on my knees 
 because the dead are too thick to let me down; 
 but my guts, I believe, are in the heather. And 
 how's yourself, father?" 
 
 " I have a spear through me," said Hearrand, 
 "and can't get it out." 
 
 Thormod lifted him and dragged him to where 
 his son was. He left them together, and wandered 
 off. 
 
 He now felt light-headed and empty, as though 
 there was nothing at all in his body. But he had 
 no pain, and was perfectly quiet and easy in his 
 mind. Men carrying wounded went past him, and 
 he followed their lead, which brought him to some 
 farm buildings in the byres of which they were 
 laying their burdens. He went to the door of a 
 barn and leaned against the door-post, feeling very 
 sick. Idly in his mind he wondered why he bled 
 so little; then thought that the head of the arrow
 
 186 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 might stop the outflow. Likely he was bleeding 
 internally. " I must be as full as a black-pudding," 
 he thought. 
 
 A man stood by him and began to talk to him. 
 " You were in the battle, I suppose ? " 
 
 " Yes, I was there." 
 
 " On which side were you? " 
 
 " On that which had the better." 
 
 " Nay, then, that won't carry, that word." He 
 was looking at the gold arm-ring which Thormod 
 wore. " That is a King's gift. It is easy to see 
 you were a King's man. Give me that ring. I'll 
 hide it for you, and then you will be safe with 
 the rest. Are you wounded ? " 
 
 " Oh, a scratch," said Thormod. " You can have 
 the ring if you want it. It makes little odds to 
 me now." 
 
 The man held out his hand, and Thormod with 
 a quick slash of his axe took it off at the wrist. 
 
 " Hey, you have cut off my hand !" 
 
 " It is so that you should steal no more with it," 
 said Thormod, and turned away his eyes from 
 him.
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 187 
 
 Then came out a young woman with a kettle 
 and saw him. She stopped. "You look very 
 sick." 
 
 "I am sick enough," said Thormod. 
 " Are you a King's man ? " 
 " I was. But they have killed him." 
 " Will you have your wound dressed ? " 
 " It is a small wound for a dressing but as you 
 will." 
 
 She went away and came back to him with some 
 hot milk, which he refused, saying it was not 
 worth while. Then she felt for the iron, and tried 
 to move it, but could not. Thormod watched her 
 languidly. " Get your knife," he said, " get your 
 knife and cut down to the iron. Then I can get 
 a good hold with the pincers." 
 
 With a sharp knife she made a cut across the 
 wound, and touched the iron with it. Thormod, 
 still leaning to his door-post, took the ring off his 
 arm and gave it to her. " King Olaf gave me that 
 this morning for a song," he said. Then he took 
 the pincers from her, and himself fixed them about 
 the iron of the arrow. " Now for it," he said, and
 
 188 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 wrenched it out. Black and curdled blood gushed 
 after it; then red blood flowed freely. 
 
 Thormod was looking at the barb, held by the 
 pincers' claws. " The King has fed us well," he 
 said. " There's a co-coat of fat about the root of 
 my heart." As she looked at him she saw his eyes 
 fix and glaze. His head dropped forward, and 
 then he fell. Thormod was dead. 
 
 THE END 
 

 
 FIRECRACKER JANE 
 
 By Auce Calhoun Haines, author of " The Luck of the 
 Dudley Grahams," " Cock-a-doodle Hill," " Partners for 
 Fair." $1.50 
 
 Firecracker Jane is the motherless, lovable, red-haired 
 daughter of an American cavalry officer, and has grown up 
 with her father and " S. O. S.," a younger officer, for her 
 " pals." Stung by what she thinks is her father's indifference, 
 she elopes with Riccardo, her Mexican cousin, and is plunged 
 into the midst of the Mexican chaos of three years ago. 
 Follows then a series of adventures which culminate in her 
 capture by Valdes, the Lion of the North, a brutal revolution- 
 ary leader. Her escape, and the manner in which the love 
 tangle is unraveled after war with Germany began, provide 
 a happy ending. 
 
 The New York Evening Sun: "Lives up to its title, much strenu- 
 ous adventure." 
 
 San Francisco Bulletin: "Thrilling . . . calculated to stir the 
 blood of the most jaded fiction reader." 
 
 THE CHINESE PUZZLE 
 
 By Marion Bower and Leon M. Lion. 
 
 The characters, vitally drawn, are gathered at a great 
 English country house, and include, in the group of brilliant 
 worldlings, a Chinese Ambassador, wise, loyal, and finally ? 
 There is a secret treaty, crime, intrigue and sparkling talk. 
 $1.60. 
 
 New York Times: " That all too rare literary product, an absorb- 
 ing mystery tale." 
 
 THE HAPPY YEARS 
 
 By Inez Haynes Irwin. The third of the " Phoebe and 
 Ernest" Series. $1.60. 
 
 The author's response to the request that she tell what 
 happened to Phoebe and Ernest when they grew up. We here 
 see each of them married, with children of their own, and with 
 delightful friends, and perhaps the happiest of all are 
 grandfather and grandmother Martin. The life of them all is 
 rich with responsibility, friendship, love, sorrow and happi- 
 ness. 
 
 New York Evening Post: " Has as much humor, truth, and appeal- 
 ing warmth as any of its predecessors." 
 
 Boston Evening Transcript: "What marks Mrs. Irwin's work is 
 her ability to catch the mood of the average American." 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS (vi 'x) NEW YORK
 
 AT FAME'S GATEWAY 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF A PIANISTE 
 
 By Jennie Irene Mix. $1.75. 
 
 An often humorous story of the adventures of a beautiful 
 American girl from an oil-boom town, in search of musical 
 fame in New York, where she meets interesting people in 
 musical and Bohemian circles, including the great teacher 
 Brandt (who hides a secret), his masterful Bohemian house- 
 keeper, Novak a fascinating violinist, and Stanhope, a very 
 dependable novelist. The viewpoint throughout is fresh, and 
 the outcome cannot be foreseen by the reader, especially as to 
 how the heroine will succeed in both love and music. The 
 characters are an unusually likable lot, not the amorous 
 freaks that novelists have too often pictured musicians as 
 being. 
 
 THE GIRL FROM FOUR CORNERS 
 
 A CALIFORNIA ROMANCE 
 
 By Rebecca N. Porter. $1.75. 
 
 An inspiring story of a girl's struggle between the evil in- 
 fluence of her father and the benign one of her mother, told 
 in action, which contains much of the unexpected. We begin 
 with Fredrica's girlhood on a lonely ranch. Later, still alone, 
 she faces the vicissitudes of San Francisco. The gaiety of 
 that metropolis is well indicated. Strange to say, the heroine 
 comes the nearest to disaster from pity for one who needs 
 her. 
 
 THE UNCENSORED LETTERS 
 OF A CANTEEN GIRL 
 
 ANONYMOUS ga.oo 
 
 The only book of its kind so far produced by the Great 
 War. A remarkably sympathetic and fresh account of 
 A. E. F. happenings by an unpracticed writer. She gives us 
 the ingenuous joys and sorrows, the jokes, squabbles and 
 loves of our own great-hearted Yanks, mostly when they 
 were not fighting but occasionally when they were. Her 
 understanding both of officers and men seems equally clear 
 and sympathetic. 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 19 W. 44TH ST. (ii '20) NEW YORK
 
 THE LIGHT HEART 
 
 By Maurice Hewlett. $2.00. 
 
 Hewlett has never done anything more brilliant than 
 this northern story of adventure in which the epic starkness 
 of the plot, drawn from the Iceland sagas, is softened by the 
 humanity of a gentler day. The result is a surprising com- 
 bination of thrilling narrative and delicate characterization, 
 seldom to be matched in literature. 
 
 THE BLACK KNIGHT 
 
 By Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick and Crosbie Garstin. $2.00. 
 
 A young Englishman is involved in the financial ruin and 
 disgrace of his father, and emigrates to Western Canada. 
 At first a penniless laborer, he eventually makes a fortune, 
 after many humorous adventures strongly reminiscent of 
 Owen Wister's " Virginian." Finally he returns to Paris, 
 where he finds the girl of his choice in the clutches of schem- 
 ing relatives, and then . A fascinating up-to-date romance. 
 
 TRUE LOVE 
 
 By Allan Monkhouse, Literary Editor of the Manchester 
 Guardian. $1.75. 
 
 This novel deals with the spiritual struggles of a young 
 playwright, torn between his love for a woman and his love 
 of country at one of the great moments of the world's history. 
 No more gallant struggle was ever made, and Monkhouse's 
 handling of it is worthy of a high place in contemporary 
 fiction. The picture given of the dramatic and literary life in 
 Manchester is of particular interest. 
 
 CAPE CURREY 
 
 By Rene Juta. $1.75. 
 
 This remarkable historical novel, which is also a first novel, 
 tells one of the strangest stories which has seen the light, even 
 in these wonder-loving days. Many of the characters have 
 descendants playing their parts now on the British imperial 
 stage. But the strange figure of Dr. James Barry has only 
 old wives' tales and this novel for memorial. The mysterious 
 garden is likewise no fiction, Sir Charles Somerset being 
 credited with the foundation of the first of its kind in the 
 Cape Province. 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 19 W. 44TH St. (iii '20) NEW YORK
 
 THE TURN OF THE TIDE 
 
 Fully illustrated with original maps and sketches 
 
 By Likut-Col. JENNINGS C. WISE, author of "The Long Arm of 
 Lee." " Gunnery." " Empire and Armament," etc., etg. $2.00 
 
 To what extent were the great German reverses of the summer of 
 19 18 due to American military prowess? What were Cantigny and 
 Chateau-Thierry from the military standpoint? And how much help 
 did Foch get from the Americans at the Second Marne? Such are 
 the questions to answer which Colonel Wise has written the " Turn of 
 the Tide." Fresh from France and the Historical Section of the 
 General Staff at Chaumont, Colonel Wise is the first writer to return to 
 this country fully equipped to discuss with authority our share in the 
 war from the point of view of a battalion commander who saw much 
 action and as an Army Historian. 
 
 FIRST REFLECTIONS ON THE 
 CAMPAIGN OF 1918 
 
 By R. M. JOHNSTON, author of " The French Revolution." "Leading 
 American Soldiers," " Napoleon," etc, $1.50. 
 
 In undertaking to offer constructive criticism of our combat army 
 in France, Major Johnston does not speak without authority. He was 
 attached to the General Staff at Pershing's Headquarters for twelve 
 months or more. During this period he made a number of intimate 
 visits to the active fronts, and was also special envoy to Paris and 
 London on one occasion. Thus he was able to get a perspective on the 
 activities of our war machine without being detached from it and 
 without a sacrifice of the detailed knowledge which comes from per- 
 sonal contact. He sees the war whole and retains an unusual breadth 
 of point of view. 
 
 " SIMSADUS-LONDON " 
 
 AT U. S. NAVAL HEADQUARTERS ABROAD 
 
 By J. L. LEIGHTON. With numerous illustrations from actual photo- 
 graphs, and picture jacket. $4.00. 
 
 The facts and information offered in this book have a most opportune 
 interest as they throw light on the Naval affairs now receiving so much 
 public and official attention. The author's close personal contact with 
 conditions at the various Naval bases, his relations with the staff in 
 London and his active service on the ships of which he writes, vouch 
 for the authenticity of his work. 
 
 ARMY MENTAL TESTS 
 
 By CLARENCE S. YOAKUM and ROBERT M, YERKES, of the 
 National Research Council. Illustrated. $150. 
 
 Authorized by the War Department, this_ book provides for business 
 men an account of a great achievement in scientific management whereby 
 the United States, employing suddenly four million soldiers, found the 
 right men for the right places. 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 19 W. 44 St. (II 'ao) NEW YORK
 
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