CHAPTER XXIV--THE GOTHS ARE OVERTHROWN BY THE ROMANS
Now rose up a mighty shout when Thiodolf came back to the battle of thekindreds, for many thought he had been slain; and they gathered roundabout him, and cried out to him joyously out of their hearts ofgood-fellowship, and the old man who had rebuked Thiodolf, and who wasJorund of the Wolfings, came up to him and reached out to him theHauberk, and he did it on scarce heeding; for all his heart and soul wasturned toward the battle of the Romans and what they were a-doing; and hesaw that they were falling back in good order, as men out-numbered, butundismayed. So he gathered all his men together and ordered them afresh;for they were somewhat disarrayed with the fray and the chase: and now heno longer ordered them in the wedge array, but in a line here three deep,here five deep, or more, for the foes were hard at hand, and outnumbered,and so far overcome, that he and all men deemed it a little matter togive these their last overthrow, and then onward to Wolf-stead to stormon what was left there and purge the house of the foemen. HowbeitThiodolf bethought him that succour might come to the Romans from theirmain-battle, as they needed not many men there, since there was nought tofear behind them: but the thought was dim within him, for once more sincehe had gotten the Hauberk on him the earth was wavering and dream-like:he looked about him, and nowise was he as in past days of battle when hesaw nought but the foe before him, and hoped for nothing save thevictory. But now indeed the Wood-Sun seemed to him to be beside him, andnot against his will, as one besetting and hindering him, but as thoughhis own longing had drawn her thither and would not let her depart; andwhiles it seemed to him that her beauty was clearer to be seen than thebodies of the warriors round about him. For the rest he seemed to be ina dream indeed, and, as men do in dreams, to be for ever striving to bedoing something of more moment than anything which he did, but which hemust ever leave undone. And as the dream gathered and thickened abouthim the foe before him changed to his eyes, and seemed no longer thestern brown-skinned smooth-faced men under their crested iron helms withtheir iron-covered shields before them, but rather, big-headed men, smallof stature, long-bearded, swart, crooked of body, exceeding foul ofaspect. And he looked on and did nothing for a while, and his headwhirled as though he had been grievously smitten.
Thus tarried the kindreds awhile, and they were bewildered and theirhearts fell because Thiodolf did not fly on the foemen like a falcon onthe quarry, as his wont was. But as for the Romans, they had now stayed,and were facing their foes again, and that on a vantage-ground, since thefield sloped up toward the Wolfing dwelling; and they gathered heart whenthey saw that the Goths tarried and forbore them. But the sun wassinking, and the evening was hard at hand.
So at last Thiodolf led forward with Throng-plough held aloft in hisright hand; but his left hand he held out by his side, as though he wereleading someone along. And as he went, he muttered: "When will theseaccursed sons of the nether earth leave the way clear to us, that we maybe alone and take pleasure each in each amidst of the flowers and thesun?"
Now as the two hosts drew near to one another, again came the sound oftrumpets afar off, and men knew that this would be succour coming to theRomans from their main-battle, and the Romans thereon shouted for joy,and the host of the kindreds might no longer forbear, but rushed onfiercely against them; and for Thiodolf it was now come to this, that soentangled was he in his dream that he rather went with his men than ledthem. Yet had he Throng-plough in his right hand, and he muttered in hisbeard as he went, "Smite before! smite behind! and smite on the righthand! but never on the left!"
Thus then they met, and as before, neither might the Goths sweep theRomans away, nor the Romans break the Goths into flight; yet were many ofthe kindred anxious and troubled, since they knew that aid was coming tothe Romans, and they heard the trumpets sounding nearer and more joyous;and at last, as the men of the kindreds were growing a-wearied withfighting, they heard those horns as it were in their very ears, and thethunder of the tramp of footmen, and they knew that a fresh host of menwas upon them; then those they had been fighting with opened before them,falling aside to the right and the left, and the fresh men passingbetween them, fell on the Goths like the waters of a river when a sluice-gate is opened. They came on in very good order, never breaking theirranks, but swift withal, smiting and pushing before them, and so brakethrough the array of the Goth-folk, and drave them this way and that waydown the slopes.
Yet still fought the warriors of the kindred most valiantly, making standand facing the foe again and again in knots of a score or two score, ormaybe ten score; and though many a man was slain, yet scarce any onebefore he had slain or hurt a Roman; and some there were, and they theoldest, who fought as if they and the few about them were all the hostthat was left to the folk, and heeded not that others were driven back,or that the Romans gathered about them, cutting them off from all succourand aid, but went on smiting till they were felled with many strokes.
Howbeit the array of the Goths was broken and many were slain, andperforce they must give back, and it seemed as if they would be driveninto the river and all be lost.
But for Thiodolf, this befell him: that at first, when those fresh menfell on, he seemed, as it were, to wake unto himself again, and he criedaloud the cry of the Wolf, and thrust into the thickest of the fray, andslew many and was hurt of none, and for a moment of time there was anempty space round about him, such fear he cast even into the valianthearts of the foemen. But those who had time to see him as they stood byhim noted that he was as pale as a dead man, and his eyes set andstaring; and so of a sudden, while he stood thus threatening the ring ofdoubtful foemen, the weakness took him again, Throng-plough tumbled fromhis hand, and he fell to earth as one dead.
Then of those who saw him some deemed that he had been striving againstsome secret hurt till he could do no more; and some that there was acurse abroad that had fallen upon him and upon all the kindreds of theMark; some thought him dead and some swooning. But, dead or alive, thewarriors would not leave their War-duke among the foemen, so they liftedhim, and gathered about him a goodly band that held its own against allcomers, and fought through the turmoil stoutly and steadily; and othersgathered to them, till they began to be something like a host again, andthe Romans might not break them into knots of desperate men any more.
Thus they fought their way, Arinbiorn of the Bearings leading them now,with a mind to make a stand for life or death on some vantage-ground; andso, often turning upon the Romans, they came in array ever growing moresolid to the rising ground looking one way over the ford and the other tothe slopes where the battle had just been. There they faced the foe asmen who may be slain, but will be driven no further; and what bowmen theyhad got spread out from their flanks and shot on the Romans, who had withthem no light-armed, or slingers or bowmen, for they had left them atWolf-stead. So the Romans stood a while, and gave breathing-space to theMarkmen, which indeed was the saving of them: for if they had fallen onhotly and held to it steadily, it is like that they would have passedover all the bodies of the Markmen: for these had lost their leader,either slain, as some thought, or, as others thought, banned fromleadership by the Gods; and their host was heavy-hearted; and though itis like that they would have stood there till each had fallen over other,yet was their hope grown dim, and the whole folk brought to a perilousand fearful pass, for if these were slain or scattered there were no morebut they, and nought between fire and the sword and the people of theMark.
But once again the faint-heart folly of the Roman Captain saved his foes:for whereas he once thought that the whole power of the Markmen lay inOtter and his company, and deemed them too little to meddle with, so nowhe ran his head into the other hedge, and deemed that Thiodolf's companywas but a part of the succour that was at hand for the Goths, and thatthey were over-big for him to meddle with.
True it is also that now dark night was coming on, and the land wasunknown to the Romans, who moreover trusted not wholly to the dastards ofthe Goths who were their guides an
d scouts: furthermore the wood was athand, and they knew not what it held; and with all this and above it all,it is to be said that over them also had fallen a dread of some doomanear; for those habitations amidst of the wild-woods were terrible tothem as they were dear to the Goths; and the Gods of their foemen seemedto be lying in wait to fall upon them, even if they should slay every manof the kindreds.
So now having driven back the Goths to that height over the ford, whichindeed was no stronghold, no mountain, scarce a hill even, nought but agentle swelling of the earth, they forebore them; and raising up thewhoop of victory drew slowly aback, picking up their own dead andwounded, and slaying the wounded Markmen. They had with them also somefew captives, but not many; for the fighting had been to the deathbetween man and man on the Wolfing Meadow.