CHAPTER VII--THEY GATHER TO THE FOLK-MOTE
When it was the morning, all the host of the Markmen was astir on eitherside of the water, and when they had broken their fast, they got speedilyinto array, and were presently on the road again; and the host was nowstrung out longer yet, for the space between water and wood once morediminished till at last it was no wider than ten men might go abreast,and looking ahead it was as if the wild-wood swallowed up both river androad.
But the fighting-men hastened on merrily with their hearts raised high,since they knew that they would soon be falling in with more of theirpeople, and the coming fight was growing a clearer picture to their eyes;so from side to side of the river they shouted out the cries of theirHouses, or friend called to friend across the eddies of Mirkwood-water,and there was game and glee enough.
So they fared till the wood gave way before them, and lo, the beginningof another plain, somewhat like the Mid-mark. There also the waterwidened out before them, and there were eyots in it with stony shorescrowned with willow or with alder, and aspens rising from the midst ofthem.
But as for the plain, it was thus much different from Mid-mark, that thewood which begirt it rose on the south into low hills, and away beyondthem were other hills blue in the distance, for the most bare of wood,and not right high, the pastures of the wild-bull and the bison, whereasnow dwelt a folk somewhat scattered and feeble; hunters and herdsmen,with little tillage about their abodes, a folk akin to the Markmen andallied to them. They had come into those parts later than the Markmen,as the old tales told; which said moreover that in days gone by a folkdwelt among those hills who were alien from the Goths, and great foes tothe Markmen; and how that on a time they came down from their hills witha great host, together with new-comers of their own blood, and made theirway through the wild-wood, and fell upon the Upper-mark; and how thatthere befel a fearful battle that endured for three days; and the firstday the Aliens worsted the Markmen, who were but a few, since they werethey of the Upper-mark only. So the Aliens burned their houses and slewtheir old men, and drave off many of their women and children; and theremnant of the men of the Upper-mark with all that they had, which wasnow but little, took refuge in an island of Mirkwood-water, where theyfenced themselves as well as they could for that night; for they expectedthe succour of their kindred of the Mid-mark and the Nether-mark, untowhom they had sped the war-arrow when they first had tidings of the onsetof the Aliens.
So at the sun-rising they sacrificed to the Gods twenty chieftains of theAliens whom they had taken, and therewithal a maiden of their ownkindred, the daughter of their war-duke, that she might lead that mightycompany to the House of the Gods; and thereto was she nothing loth, butwent right willingly.
There then they awaited the onset. But the men of Mid-mark came up inthe morning, when the battle was but just joined, and fell on so fiercelythat the aliens gave back, and then they of the Upper-mark stormed out oftheir eyot, and fell on over the ford, and fought till the water ran redwith their blood, and the blood of the foemen. So the Aliens gave backbefore the onset of the Markmen all over the meads; but when they came tothe hillocks and the tofts of the half-burned habitations, and the woodwas on their flank, they made a stand again, and once more the battlewaxed hot, for they were very many, and had many bowmen: there fell theWar-duke of the Markmen, whose daughter had been offered up for victory,and his name was Agni, so that the tofts where he fell have since beencalled Agni's Tofts. So that day they fought all over the plain, and agreat many died, both of the Aliens and the Markmen, and though theselast were victorious, yet when the sun went down there still were theAliens abiding in the Upper-mark, fenced by their wain-burg, beaten, andmuch diminished in number, but still a host of men: while of the Markmenmany had fallen, and many more were hurt, because the Aliens were goodbowmen.
But on the morrow again, as the old tale told, came up the men of theNether-mark fresh and unwounded; and so the battle began again on thesouthern limit of the Upper-mark where the Aliens had made their wain-burg. But not long did it endure; for the Markmen fell on so fiercely,that they stormed over the wain-burg, and slew all before them, and therewas a very great slaughter of the Aliens; so great, tells the old tale,that never again durst they meet the Markmen in war.
Thus went forth the host of the Markmen, faring along both sides of thewater into the Upper-mark; and on the west side, where went the Wolfings,the ground now rose by a long slope into a low hill, and when they cameunto the brow thereof, they beheld before them the whole plain of theUpper-mark, and the dwellings of the kindred therein all girdled about bythe wild-wood; and beyond, the blue hills of the herdsmen, and beyondthem still, a long way aloof, lying like a white cloud on the verge ofthe heavens, the snowy tops of the great mountains. And as they lookeddown on to the plain they saw it embroidered, as it were, round about thehabitations which lay within ken by crowds of many people, and thebanners of the kindreds and the arms of men; and many a place they sawnamed after the ancient battle and that great slaughter of the Aliens.
On their left hand lay the river, and as it now fairly entered with theminto the Upper-mark, it spread out into wide rippling shallows beset withyet more sandy eyots, amongst which was one much greater, rising amidmostinto a low hill, grassy and bare of tree or bush; and this was the islandwhereon the Markmen stood on the first day of the Great Battle, and itwas now called the Island of the Gods.
Thereby was the ford, which was firm and good and changed little fromyear to year, so that all Markmen knew it well and it was calledBattleford: thereover now crossed all the eastern companies, footmen andhorsemen, freemen and thralls, wains and banners, with shouting andlaughter, and the noise of horns and the lowing of neat, till all thatplain's end was flooded with the host of the Markmen.
But when the eastern-abiders had crossed, they made no stay, but wentduly ordered about their banners, winding on toward the first of theabodes on the western side of the water; because it was but a little waysouthwest of this that the Thing-stead of the Upper-mark lay; and thewhole Folk was summoned thither when war threatened from the South, justas it was called to the Thing-stead of the Nether-mark, when the threatof war came from the North. But the western companies stayed on the browof that low hill till all the eastern men were over the river, and ontheir way to the Thing-stead, and then they moved on.
So came the Wolfings and their fellows up to the dwellings of thenorthernmost kindred, who were called the Daylings, and bore on theirbanner the image of the rising sun. Thereabout was the Mark somewhatmore hilly and broken than in the Mid-mark, so that the Great Roof of theDaylings, which was a very big house, stood on a hillock whose sides hadbeen cleft down sheer on all sides save one (which was left as a bridge)by the labour of men, and it was a very defensible place.
Thereon were now gathered round about the Roof all the stay-at-homes ofthe kindred, who greeted with joyous cries the men-at-arms as theypassed. Albeit one very old man, who sat in a chair near to the edge ofthe sheer hill looking on the war array, when he saw the Wolfing bannerdraw near, stood up to gaze on it, and then shook his head sadly, andsank back again into his chair, and covered his face with his hands: andwhen the folk saw that, a silence bred of the coldness of fear fell onthem, for that elder was deemed a foreseeing man.
But as those three fellows, of whose talk of yesterday the tale has told,drew near and beheld what the old carle did (for they were ridingtogether this day also) the Beaming man laid his hand on Wolfkettle'srein and said:
"Lo you, neighbour, if thy Vala hath seen nought, yet hath this old manseen somewhat, and that somewhat even as the little lad saw it. Many amother's son shall fall before the Welshmen."
But Wolfkettle shook his rein free, and his face reddened as of one whois angry, yet he kept silence, while the Elking said:
"Let be, Toti! for he that lives shall tell the tale to the foreseers,and shall make them wiser than they are to-day."
Then laughed Toti, as one who would not be thought to be to
o heedful ofthe morrow. But Wolfkettle brake out into speech and rhyme, and said:
"O warriors, the Wolfing kindred shall live or it shall die; And alive it shall be as the oak-tree when the summer storm goes by; But dead it shall be as its bole, that they hew for the corner-post Of some fair and mighty folk-hall, and the roof of a war-fain host."
So therewith they rode their ways past the abode of the Daylings.
Straight to the wood went all the host, and so into it by a wide waycleft through the thicket, and in some thirty minutes they came therebyinto a great wood-lawn cleared amidst of it by the work of men's hands.There already was much of the host gathered, sitting or standing in agreat ring round about a space bare of men, where amidmost rose a greatmound raised by men's hands and wrought into steps to be thesitting-places of the chosen elders and chief men of the kindred; andatop the mound was flat and smooth save for a turf bench or seat thatwent athwart it whereon ten men might sit.
All the wains save the banner-wains had been left behind at the Daylingabode, nor was any beast there save the holy beasts who drew the banner-wains and twenty white horses, that stood wreathed about with flowerswithin the ring of warriors, and these were for the burnt offering to begiven to the Gods for a happy day of battle. Even the war-horses of thehost they must leave in the wood without the wood-lawn, and all men wereafoot who were there.
For this was the Thing-stead of the Upper-mark, and the holiest place ofthe Markmen, and no beast, either neat, sheep, or horse might pasturethere, but was straightway slain and burned if he wandered there; normight any man eat therein save at the holy feasts when offerings weremade to the Gods.
So the Wolfings took their place there in the ring of men with theElkings on their right hand and the Beamings on their left. And in themidst of the Wolfing array stood Thiodolf clad in the dwarf-wroughthauberk: but his head was bare; for he had sworn over the Cup of Renownthat he would fight unhelmed throughout all that trouble, and would bearno shield in any battle thereof however fierce the onset might be.
Short, and curling close to his head was his black hair, a littlegrizzled, so that it looked like rings of hard dark iron: his foreheadwas high and smooth, his lips full and red, his eyes steady andwide-open, and all his face joyous with the thought of the fame of hisdeeds, and the coming battle with a foeman whom the Markmen knew not yet.
He was tall and wide-shouldered, but so exceeding well fashioned of allhis limbs and body that he looked no huge man. He was a man well belovedof women, and children would mostly run to him gladly and play with him.A most fell warrior was he, whose deeds no man of the Mark could equal,but blithe of speech even when he was sorrowful of mood, a man that knewnot bitterness of heart: and for all his exceeding might and valiancy, hewas proud and high to no man; so that the very thralls loved him.
He was not abounding in words in the field; nor did he use much thecustom of those days in reviling and defying with words the foe that wasto be smitten with swords.
There were those who had seen him in the field for the first time whodeemed him slack at the work: for he would not always press on with theforemost, but would hold him a little aback, and while the battle wasyoung he forbore to smite, and would do nothing but help a kinsman whowas hard pressed, or succour the wounded. So that if men were dealingwith no very hard matter, and their hearts were high and overweening, hewould come home at whiles with unbloodied blade. But no man blamed himsave those who knew him not: for his intent was that the younger menshould win themselves fame, and so raise their courage, and become high-hearted and stout.
But when the stour was hard, and the battle was broken, and the hearts ofmen began to fail them, and doubt fell upon the Markmen, then was heanother man to see: wise, but swift and dangerous, rushing on as if shotout by some mighty engine: heedful of all, on either side and in front;running hither and thither as the fight failed and the fire of battlefaltered; his sword so swift and deadly that it was as if he wielded thevery lightening of the heavens: for with the sword it was ever his wontto fight.
But it must be said that when the foemen turned their backs, and thechase began, then Thiodolf would nowise withhold his might as in theearly battle, but ever led the chase, and smote on the right hand and onthe left, sparing none, and crying out to the men of the kindred not toweary in their work, but to fulfil all the hours of their day.
For thuswise would he say and this was a word of his:
"Let us rest to-morrow, fellows, since to-day we have fought amain! Let not these men we have smitten come aback on our hands again, And say 'Ye Wolfing warriors, ye have done your work but ill, Fall to now and do it again, like the craftsman who learneth his skill.'"
Such then was Thiodolf, and ever was he the chosen leader of the Wolfingsand often the War-duke of the whole Folk.
By his side stood the other chosen leader, whose name was Heriulf; a manwell stricken in years, but very mighty and valiant; wise in war and wellrenowned; of few words save in battle, and therein a singer of songs, alaugher, a joyous man, a merry companion. He was a much bigger man thanThiodolf; and indeed so huge was his stature, that he seemed to be of thekindred of the Mountain Giants; and his bodily might went with hisstature, so that no one man might deal with him body to body. His facewas big; his cheek-bones high; his nose like an eagle's neb, his mouthwide, his chin square and big; his eyes light-grey and fierce undershaggy eyebrows: his hair white and long.
Such were his raiment and weapons, that he wore a coat of fence of darkiron scales sewn on to horse-hide, and a dark iron helm fashioned abovehis brow into the similitude of the Wolf's head with gaping jaws; andthis he had wrought for himself with his own hands, for he was a goodsmith. A round buckler he bore and a huge twibill, which no man of thekindred could well wield save himself; and it was done both blade andshaft with knots and runes in gold; and he loved that twibill well, andcalled it the Wolf's Sister.
There then stood Heriulf, looking no less than one of the forefathers ofthe kindred come back again to the battle of the Wolfings.
He was well-beloved for his wondrous might, and he was no hard man,though so fell a warrior, and though of few words, as aforesaid, was ablithe companion to old and young. In numberless battles had he fought,and men deemed it a wonder that Odin had not taken to him a man so muchafter his own heart; and they said it was neighbourly done of the Fatherof the Slain to forbear his company so long, and showed how well he lovedthe Wolfing House.
For a good while yet came other bands of Markmen into the Thing-stead;but at last there was an end of their coming. Then the ring of menopened, and ten warriors of the Daylings made their way through it, andone of them, the oldest, bore in his hand the War-horn of the Daylings;for this kindred had charge of the Thing-stead, and of all appertainingto it. So while his nine fellows stood round about the Speech-Hill, theold warrior clomb up to the topmost of it, and blew a blast on the horn.Thereon they who were sitting rose up, and they who were talking each toeach held their peace, and the whole ring drew nigher to the hill, sothat there was a clear space behind them 'twixt them and the wood, and aspace before them between them and the hill, wherein were those ninewarriors, and the horses for the burnt-offering, and the altar of theGods; and now were all well within ear-shot of a man speaking amidst thesilence in a clear voice.
But there were gathered of the Markmen to that place some four thousandmen, all chosen warriors and doughty men; and of the thralls and aliensdwelling with them they were leading two thousand. But not all of thefreemen of the Upper-mark could be at the Thing; for needs must there besome guard to the passes of the wood toward the south and the hills ofthe herdsmen, whereas it was no wise impassable to a wisely led host: sofive hundred men, what of freemen, what of thralls, abode there to guardthe wild-wood; and these looked to have some helping from the hill-men.
Now came an ancient warrior into the space between the men and the wild-wood holding in his hand a kindled torch; and first he faced due south bythe sun, then, turning
, he slowly paced the whole circle going from eastto west, and so on till he had reached the place he started from: then hedashed the torch to the ground and quenched the fire, and so went hisways to his own company again.
Then the old Dayling warrior on the mound-top drew his sword, and wavedit flashing in the sun toward the four quarters of the heavens; andthereafter blew again a blast on the War-horn. Then fell utter silenceon the whole assembly, and the wood was still around them, save here andthere the stamping of a war-horse or the sound of his tugging at thewoodland grass; for there was little resort of birds to the depths of thethicket, and the summer morning was windless.