CHAPTER XII--TIDINGS OF THE BATTLE IN MIRKWOOD
As the Hall-Sun made an end they heard in good sooth the feet of therunner on the hard ground without the hall, and presently the door openedand he came leaping over the threshold, and up to the table, and stoodleaning on it with one hand, his breast heaving with his last swift run.Then he spake presently:
"I am Gisli of the Shieldings: Otter sendeth me to the Hall-Sun; but onthe way I was to tell tidings to the Houses west of the Water: so have Idone. Now is my journey ended; for Otter saith: 'Let the Hall-Sun notethe tidings and send word of them by four of the lightest limbed of thewomen, or by lads a-horseback, both west and east of the Water; let hersend the word as it seemeth to her, whether she hath seen it or not. Iwill drink a short draught since my running is over."
Then a damsel brought him a horn of mead and let it come into his hand,and he drank sighing with pleasure, while the damsel for pleasure of himand his tidings laid her hand on his shoulder. Then he set down the hornand spake:
"We, the Shieldings, with the Geirings, the Hrossings, and the Wolfings,three hundred warriors and more, were led into the Wood by Thiodolf theWar-duke, beside whom went Fox, who hath seen the Romans. We were allafoot; for there is no wide way through the Wood, nor would we have itotherwise, lest the foe find the thicket easy. But many of us know thethicket and its ways; so we made not the easy hard. I was near the War-duke, for I know the thicket and am light-foot: I am a bowman. I sawThiodolf that he was unhelmed and bore no shield, nor had he any coat offence; nought but a deer-skin frock."
As he said that word, the carline, who had drawn very near to him and waslooking hard at his face, turned and looked on the Hall-Sun and stared ather till she reddened under those keen eyes: for in her heart began togather some knowledge of the tale of her mother and what her will was.
But Gisli went on: "Yet by his side was his mighty sword, and we all knewit for Throng-plough, and were glad of it and of him and the unfencedbreast of the dauntless. Six hours we went spreading wide through thethicket, not always seeing one another, but knowing one another to benigh; those that knew the thicket best led, the others followed on. Sowe went till it was high noon on the plain and glimmering dusk in thethicket, and we saw nought, save here and there a roe, and here and therea sounder of swine, and coneys where it was opener, and the sun shone andthe grass grew for a little space. So came we unto where the thicketended suddenly, and there was a long glade of the wild-wood, all setabout with great oak-trees and grass thereunder, which I knew well; andthereof the tale tells that it was a holy place of the folk who abided inthese parts before the Sons of the Goths. Now will I drink."
So he drank of the horn and said: "It seemeth that Fox had a deeming ofthe way the Romans should come; so now we abided in the thicket withoutthat glade and lay quiet and hidden, spreading ourselves as much aboutthat lawn of the oak-trees as we might, the while Fox and three otherscrept through the wood to espy what might be toward: not long had theybeen gone ere we heard a war-horn blow, and it was none of our horns: itwas a long way off, but we looked to our weapons: for men are eager forthe foe and the death that cometh, when they lie hidden in the thicket. Awhile passed, and again we heard the horn, and it was nigher and had amarvellous voice; then in a while was a little noise of men, not theirvoices, but footsteps going warily through the brake to the south, andtwelve men came slowly and warily into that oak-lawn, and lo, one of themwas Fox; but he was clad in the raiment of the dastard of the Goths whomhe had slain. I tell you my heart beat, for I saw that the others wereRoman men, and one of them seemed to be a man of authority, and he heldFox by the shoulder, and pointed to the thicket where we lay, andsomething he said to him, as we saw by his gesture and face, but hisvoice we heard not, for he spake soft.
"Then of those ten men of his he sent back two, and Fox going betweenthem, as though he should be slain if he misled them; and he and theeight abided there wisely and warily, standing silently some six feetfrom each other, moving scarce at all, but looking like images fashionedof brown copper and iron; holding their casting-spears (which bemarvellous heavy weapons) and girt with the sax.
"As they stood there, not out of earshot of a man speaking in his wontedvoice, our War-duke made a sign to those about him, and we spread veryquietly to the right hand and the left of him once more, and we drew asclose as might be to the thicket's edge, and those who had bows thenighest thereto. Thus then we abided a while again; and again came thehorn's voice; for belike they had no mind to come their ways covertlybecause of their pride.
"Soon therewithal comes Fox creeping back to us, and I saw him whisperinto the ear of the War-duke, but heard not the word he said. I saw thathe had hanging to him two Roman saxes, so I deemed he had slain thosetwo, and so escaped the Romans. Maidens, it were well that ye gave me todrink again, for I am weary and my journey is done."
So again they brought him the horn, and made much of him; and he drank,and then spake on.
"Now heard we the horn's voice again quite close, and it was sharp andshrill, and nothing like to the roar of our battle-horns: still was thewood and no wind abroad, not even down the oak-lawn; and we heard now thetramp of many men as they thrashed through the small wood and bracken ofthe thicket-way; and those eight men and their leader came forward,moving like one, close up to the thicket where I lay, just where the pathpassed into the thicket beset by the Sons of the Goths: so near they werethat I could see the dints upon their armour, and the strands of the wireon their sax-handles. Down then bowed the tall bracken on the furtherside of the wood-lawn, the thicket crashed before the march of men, andon they strode into the lawn, a goodly band, wary, alert, and silent ofcries.
"But when they came into the lawn they spread out somewhat to their lefthands, that is to say on the west side, for that way was the clear glade;but on the east the thicket came close up to them and edged them away.Therein lay the Goths.
"There they stayed awhile, and spread out but a little, as men marching,not as men fighting. A while we let them be; and we saw their captain,no big man, but dight with very fair armour and weapons; and there drewup to him certain Goths armed, the dastards of the folk, and anotherunarmed, an old man bound and bleeding. With these Goths had the captainsome converse, and presently he cried out two or three words of Welsh ina loud voice, and the nine men who were ahead shifted them somewhat awayfrom us to lead down the glade westward.
"The prey had come into the net, but they had turned their faces towardthe mouth of it.
"Then turned Thiodolf swiftly to the man behind him who carried the war-horn, and every man handled his weapons: but that man understood, and setthe little end to his mouth, and loud roared the horn of the Markmen, andneither friend nor foe misdoubted the tale thereof. Then leaped everyman to his feet, all bow-strings twanged and the cast-spears flew; no manforebore to shout; each as he might leapt out of the thicket and fell onwith sword and axe and spear, for it was from the bowmen but one shaftand no more.
"Then might you have seen Thiodolf as he bounded forward like the wild-cat on the hare, how he had no eyes for any save the Roman captain.Foemen enough he had round about him after the two first bounds from thethicket; for the Romans were doing their best to spread, that they mighthandle those heavy cast-spears, though they might scarce do it, just comeout of the thicket as they were, and thrust together by that onslaught ofthe kindreds falling on from two sides and even somewhat from behind. Toright and left flashed Throng-plough, while Thiodolf himself scarceseemed to guide it: men fell before him at once, and close at his heelspoured the Wolfing kindred into the gap, and in a minute of time was heamidst of the throng and face to face with the gold-dight captain.
"What with the sweep of Throng-plough and the Wolfing onrush, there wasspace about him for a great stroke; he gave a side-long stroke to hisright and hewed down a tall Burgundian, and then up sprang the whiteblade, but ere its edge fell he turned his wrist, and drove the pointthrough that Captain's throat just above the
ending of his hauberk, sothat he fell dead amidst of his folk.
"All the four kindreds were on them now, and amidst them, and needs mustthey give way: but stoutly they fought; for surely no other warriorsmight have withstood that onslaught of the Markmen for the twinkling ofan eye: but had the Romans had but the space to have spread themselvesout there, so as to handle their shot-weapons, many a woman's son of ushad fallen; for no man shielded himself in his eagerness, but let theswiftness of the Onset of point-and-edge shield him; which, sooth to say,is often a good shield, as here was found.
"So those that were unslain and unhurt fled west along the glade, but notas dastards, and had not Thiodolf followed hard in the chase according tohis wont, they might even yet have made a fresh stand and spread from oak-tree to oak-tree across the glade: but as it befel, they might not get afair offing so as to disentangle themselves and array themselves in goodorder side by side; and whereas the Markmen were fleet of foot, and inthe woods they knew, there were a many aliens slain in the chase or takenalive unhurt or little hurt: but the rest fled this way and that way intothe thicket, with whom were some of the Burgundians; so there they abidenow as outcasts and men unholy, to be slain as wild-beasts one by one aswe meet them.
"Such then was the battle in Mirkwood. Give me the mead-horn that I maydrink to the living and the dead, and the memory of the dead, and thedeeds of the living that are to be."
So they brought him the horn, and he waved it over his head and drankagain and spake:
"Sixty and three dead men of the Romans we counted there up and down thatoak-glade; and we cast earth over them; and three dead dastards of theGoths, and we left them for the wolves to deal with. And twenty-five menof the Romans we took alive to be for hostages if need should be, andthese did we Shielding men, who are not very many, bring aback to thewain-burg; and the Daylings, who are a great company, were appointed toenter the wood and be with Thiodolf; and me did Otter bid to bear thetidings, even as I have told you. And I have not loitered by the way."
Great then was the joy in the Hall; and they took Gisli, and made much ofhim, and led him to the bath, and clad him in fine raiment taken from thecoffer which was but seldom opened, because the cloths it held wereprecious; and they set a garland of green wheat-ears on his head. Thenthey fell to and spread the feast in the hall; and they ate and drank andwere merry.
But as for speeding the tidings, the Hall-Sun sent two women and twolads, all a-horseback, to bear the words: the women to remember the wordswhich she taught them carefully, the lads to be handy with the horses, orin the ford, or the swimming of the deeps, or in the thicket. So theywent their ways, down the water: one pair went on the western side, andthe other crossed Mirkwood-water at the shallows (for being Midsummer thewater was but small), and went along the east side, so that all thekindred might know of the tidings and rejoice.
Great was the glee in the Hall, though the warriors of the House wereaway, and many a song and lay they sang: but amidst the first of thesinging they bethought them of the old woman, and would have bidden hertell them some tale of times past, since she was so wise in the ancientlore. But when they sought for her on all sides she was not to be found,nor could anyone remember seeing her depart from the Hall. But this hadthey no call to heed, and the feast ended, as it began, in great glee.
Albeit the Hall-Sun was troubled about the carline, both that she hadcome, and that she had gone: and she determined that the next time shemet her she would strive to have of her a true tale of what she was, andof all that was toward.