Author: H. Rider Haggard
Category: Adventure
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Afterwards, with much labour, I and the men who were left ropedtogether our vessels, and to them those that we had captured, and whena favouring wind arose, sailed back for Fladstrand. Here a multitudeawaited us, for a fishing-boat had brought tidings of the great seabattle. Of the hundred and fifty men who had sailed in my father,Thorvald's, ships sixty were dead and many others wounded, some ofthem to death. Athalbrand's people had fared even worse, since those ofThorvald had slain their wounded, only one of his vessels having escapedback to Lesso, there to tell the people of that island and Iduna allthat had happened. Now it was a land of widows and orphans, so that noman need go wooing there for long, and of Aar and the country round thesame song was sung. Indeed, for generations the folk of those partsmust have told of the battle of Lesso, when the chiefs, Thorvald andAthalbrand, slew each other upon the seas at night because of a quarrelabout a woman who was known as Iduna the Fair.
On the sands of Fladstrand my mother, the lady Thora, waited with theothers, for she had moved thither before the sailing of the ships. Whenmine, the first of them, was beached, I leapt from it, and running toher, knelt down and kissed her hand.
"I see you, my son Olaf," she said, "but where are your father andbrother?"
"Yonder, mother," I answered, pointing to the ships, and could say nomore.
"Then why do they tarry, my son?"
"Alas! mother, because they sleep and will never wake again."
Now Thora wailed aloud and fell down senseless. Three days later shedied, for her heart, which was weak, could not bear this woe. Once onlydid she speak before she died, and then it was to bless me and pray thatwe might meet again, and to curse Iduna. Folk noted that of Steinar shesaid nothing, either good or ill, although she knew that he lived andwas a prisoner.
Thus it came about that I, Olaf, was left alone in the world andinherited the lordship of Aar and its subject lands. No one remainedsave my dark-browed uncle, Leif, the priest of Odin, Freydisa, the wisewoman, my nurse, and Steinar, my captive foster-brother, who had beenthe cause of all this war.
The dying words of Ragnar had been noised abroad. The priest of Odin hadlaid them before the oracle of the gods, and this oracle declared thatthey must be fulfilled without change.
So all the folk of that land met together at my bidding--yes, eventhe women and the children. First we laid the dead in the largestof Athalbrand's ships, his people and Athalbrand himself being setundermost. Then on them we set the dead of Thorvald, Thorvald, myfather, and his son Ragnar, my brother, bound to the mast upon theirfeet. This done, with great labour we dragged the ship on to highground, and above it built a mighty mound of earth. For twenty dayswe toiled at the task, till at last it was finished and the dead werehidden beneath it for ever. Then we separated to our homes and mourned awhile.
But Steinar was carried to the temple of Odin at Aar, and there kept inthe prison of the temple.