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Now I knew he was from afar, because what chief would work on any land but his
own, and for hire at that? Yet he had the easy manner of the high-born, and
had clearly eaten well throughout his life. I overlooked that he had made me
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no gifts;
after all, he was shipwrecked.
Maybe you can get passage back to your United States, said Helgi. We could
hire a ship. I m fain to see that realm.
No, said Gerald bleakly. There is no such place. Not yet.
So you still hold to that idea you came from tomorrow? grunted Sigurd.
Crazy notion. Pass the pork.
I do, said Gerald. Calm had come upon him. And I can prove it.
I don t see how you speak our tongue, if you hail from so far away, I said.
I would not call a man a liar to his face, unless we were swapping friendly
brags, but
They speak otherwise in my land and time, he said, but it happens that in
Iceland the tongue changed little since the old days, and because my work had
me often talking with the folk, I learned it when I came here.
If you are a Christian, I said, you must bear with us while we sacrifice
tonight.
I ve naught against that, he said. I fear I never was a very good
Christian. I d like to watch. How is it done?
I told him how I would smite the horse with a hammer before the god, and cut
its throat, and sprinkle the blood about with willow twigs; thereafter we
would butcher the carcass and feast. He said hastily:
Here s my chance to prove what I am. I have a weapon that will kill the horse
with, with a flash of lightning.
What is it? I wondered. We crowded around while he took the metal club out
of its sheath and showed it to us. I had my doubts; it looked well enough for
hitting a man, I reckoned, but had no edge, though a wondrously skillful smith
had forged it. Well, we can try, I said. You have seen how on Iceland we are
less concerned to follow the rites exactly than they are in the older
countries.
Gerald showed us what else he had in his pockets. There were some
coins of remarkable roundness and sharpness, though neither gold nor true
silver; a tiny key; a stick with lead in it for writing; a flat purse holding
many bits of marked paper. When he told us gravely that some of this paper
was money, Thorgunna herself had to laugh. Best was a knife whose blade folded
into the handle. When he saw me admiring that, he gave it to me, which was
well done for a shipwrecked man.
I said I would give him clothes and a good ax, as well as lodging for as long
as needful.
No, I don t have the knife now. You shall hear why. It s a pity, for that was
a good knife, though rather small.
What were you ere the war arrow went out in your land? asked Helgi. A
merchant?
No, said Gerald. I was an...
endjinur...
that is, I was learning how to be one. A man who builds things, bridges and
roads and tools... more than just an artisan. So I think my knowledge could be
of great value here. I saw a fever in his eyes.
Yes, give me time and I ll be a king.
We have no king on Iceland, I grunted. Our forefathers came hither to get
away from kings. Now we meet at the
Things to try suits and pass new laws, but each man must get his own redress
as best he can.
But suppose the one in the wrong won t yield? he asked.
Then there can be a fine feud, said Helgi, and went on to relate
some of the killings in past years. Gerald looked unhappy and fingered
his gun.
That is what he called his fire-spitting club. He tried to rally himself with
a joke about now, at last, being free to call it a gun instead of something
else. That disquieted me, smacked of witchcraft, so to change the talk I
told Helgi to stop his chattering of manslaughter as if it were sport. With
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law shall the land be built.
Your clothing is rich, said Thorgunna softly. Your folk must own broad
acres at home.
No, he said, our... our king gives each man in the host clothes like these.
As for my family, we owned no farm, we rented our home in a building where
many other families also dwelt.
I am not purse-proud, but it seemed to me he had not been honest, a landless
man sharing my high seat like a chief.
Thorgunna covered my huffiness by saying, You will gain a farm later.
After sunset we went out to the shrine. The carles had built a fire before it,
and as I opened the door the wooden Odin appeared to leap forth. My house has
long invoked him above the others. Gerald muttered to my daughter that
it was a clumsy bit of carving, and since my father had made it I was still
more angry with him. Some folks have no understanding of the fine arts.
Nevertheless, I let him help me lead the horse forth to the altar stone. I
took the blood bowl in my hands and said he
could now slay the beast if he would. He drew his gun, put the end behind the
horse s ear, and squeezed. We heard a crack, and the beast jerked and dropped
with a hole blown through its skull, wasting the brains. A clumsy
weapon. I caught a whiff, sharp and bitter like that around a volcano. We
all jumped, one of the women screamed, and Gerald looked happy. I
gathered my wits and finished the rest of the sacrifice as was right. Gerald
did not like having blood sprinkled over him, but then he was a Christian. Nor
would he take more than a little of the soup and flesh.
Afterward Helgi questioned him about the gun, and he said it could kill a man
at bowshot distance but had no witchcraft in it, only use of some tricks we
did not know. Having heard of the Greek fire, I believed him. A gun could be
useful in a fight, as indeed I was to learn, but it did not seem very
practical iron costing what it does, and months of forging needed for each
one.
I fretted more about the man himself.
And the next morning I found him telling Thorgunna a great deal of foolishness
about his home buildings as tall as mountains, and wagons that flew, or went
without horses. He said there were eight or nine thousand thousands of folk in
his town, a burgh called New Jorvik or the like. I enjoy a good brag as well
as the next man, but this was too much, and I
told him gruffly to come along and help me get in some strayed cattle.
After a day scrambling around the hills I saw that Gerald could hardly tell a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]