Author: H. Rider Haggard
Category: Adventure
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For three days I lay like one dead; indeed, all save my mother heldFreydisa wrong and thought that I was dead. But on the fourth day Iopened my eyes and took food, and after that fell into a naturalsleep. On the morning of the sixth day I sat up and spoke many wild andwandering words, so that they believed I should only live as a madman.
"His mind is gone," said my mother, and wept.
"Nay," answered Freydisa, "he does but return from a land where theyspeak another tongue. Thorvald, bring hither the bear-skin."
It was brought and hung on a frame of poles at the end of the niche inwhich I slept, that, as was usual among northern people, opened out ofthe hall. I stared at it for a long while. Then my memory came back andI asked:
"Did the great beast kill Steinar?"
"No," answered my mother, who sat by me. "Steinar was sore hurt, butescaped and now is well again."
"Let me see him with my own eyes," I said.
So he was brought, and I looked on him. "I am glad you live, mybrother," I said, "for know in this long sleep of mine I have dreamedthat you were dead"; and I stretched out my wasted arms towards him, forI loved Steinar better than any other man.
He came and kissed me on the brow, saying:
"Aye, thanks to you, Olaf, I live to be your brother and your thralltill the end."
"My brother always, not my thrall," I muttered, for I was growing tired.Then I went to sleep again.
Three days later, when my strength began to return, I sent for Steinarand said:
"Brother, Iduna the Fair, whom you have never seen, my betrothed, mustwonder how it fares with me, for the tale of this hurt of mine will havereached Lesso. Now, as there are reasons why Ragnar cannot go, and asI would send no mean man, I pray you to do me a favour. It is that youwill take a boat and sail to Lesso, carrying with you as a present fromme to Athalbrand's daughter the skin of that white bear, which I trustwill serve her and me as a bed-covering in winter for many a year tocome. Tell her, thanks be to the gods and to the skill of Freydisa, mynurse, I live who all thought must die, and that I trust to be strongand well for our marriage at the Spring feast which draws on. Say alsothat through all my sickness I have dreamed of none but her, as I trustthat sometimes she may have dreamed of me."
"Aye, I'll go," answered Steinar, "fast as horses' legs and sails cancarry me," adding with his pleasant laugh: "Long have I desired to seethis Iduna of yours, and to learn whether she is as beautiful as yousay; also what it is in her that Ragnar hates."
"Be careful that you do not find her too beautiful," broke in Freydisa,who, as ever, was at my side.
"How can I if she is for Olaf?" answered Steinar, smiling, as he leftthe place to make ready for his journey to Lesso.
"What did you mean by those words, Freydisa?" I asked when he was gone.
"Little or much," she replied, shrugging her shoulders. "Iduna islovely, is she not, and Steinar is handsome, is he not, and of an agewhen man seeks woman, and what is brotherhood when man seeks woman andwoman beguiles man?"
"Peace to your riddles, Freydisa. You forget that Iduna is my betrothedand that Steinar was fostered with me. Why, I'd trust them for a week atsea alone."
"Doubtless, Olaf, being young and foolish, as you are; also that is yournature. Now here is the broth. Drink it, and I, whom some call a wisewoman and others a witch, say that to-morrow you may rise from this bedand sit in the sun, if there is any."
"Freydisa," I said when I had swallowed the broth, "why do folk call youa witch?"
"I think because I am a little less of a fool than other women, Olaf.Also because it has not pleased me to marry, as it is held natural thatall women should do if they have the chance."
"Why are you wiser, and why have you not married, Freydisa?"
"I am wiser because I have questioned things more than most, and tothose who question answers come at last. And I am not married becauseanother woman took the only man I wanted before I met him. That was mybad luck. Still, it taught me a great lesson, namely, how to wait andmeanwhile to acquire understanding."
"What understanding have you acquired, Freydisa? For instance, does ittell you that our gods of wood and stone are true gods which rule theworld? Or are they but wood and stone, as sometimes I have thought?"
"Then think no more, Olaf, for such thoughts are dangerous. If Leif,your uncle, Odin's high priest, heard them, what might he not say or do?Remember that whether the gods live or no, certainly the priest lives,and on the gods, and if the gods went, where would the priest be? Also,as regards these gods--well, whatever they may or may not be, at leastthey are the voices that in our day speak to us from that land whence wecame and whither we go. The world has known millions of days, and eachday has its god--or its voice--and all the voices speak truth to thosewho can hear them. Meanwhile, you are a fool to have sent Steinarbearing your gift to Iduna. Or perhaps you are very wise. I cannot sayas yet. When I learn I will tell you."
Then again she shrugged her shoulders and left me wondering what shemeant by her dark sayings. I can see her going now, a wooden bowl in herhand, and in it a horn spoon of which the handle was cracked longways,and thus in my mind ends all the scene of my sickness after the slayingof the white bear.