Part 14 (1/2)
”Just about as s have to fly”
PART II THE STORIES
The following stories do not forive in the List of Stories The stories given are chiefly taken from my own repertoire, and have been so constantly asked by teachers that I a theret that I have been unable to furnish ood for narration, but the difficulty of obtaining permission has deterred me from further efforts in this direction
STURLA, THE HISTORIAN[50]
Then Sturla got ready to sail aith the king, and his name was put on the list He went on board beforechest, and took his place on the foredeck
A little later the king came on to the quay, and a company of”hail,” but the king answered nothing, and went aft along the shi+p to the quarter-deck
They sailed that day to go south along the coast But in the evening when men unpacked their provisions Sturla sat still, and no one invited hi's came and asked Sturla if he had any 's servant went to the king and spoke with hi, and then went forward to Sturla and said: ”You shall go to mess with Thorir Mouth and Erlend Maw” They took hi in to sleep, a sailor of the king's asked who should tell them stories There was little answer Then said he: ”Sturla the Icelander, will you tell stories?” ”As you will,” said Sturla So he told them the story of Huld, better and fuller than any one there had ever heard it told before Thento hear as clearly as reat crowd The queen asked: ”What is that crowd on deck there?” Ato the story that the Icelander tells” ”What story is that?”
said she He answers: ”It is about a great troll-wife, and it is a good story and well told” The king bade her pay no heed to that, and go to sleep She says: ”I think this Icelander ood fellow, and less to blaht passed, and the next 's shi+p lay in the same place Later in the day, whensent dishes from his table to Sturla
Sturla'sbetter luck than we thought, if this sort of thing goes on” After dinner the queen sent for Sturla and asked hi with hireeted the king and queen The king answered little, the queen well and cheerfully She asked hiht He did so, for a great part of the day When he finished, the queen thanked him, and many others besides, and made him out in theirsaid nothing; only he s's whole frahter than the day before So he said to the king that he had made a poeet a hearing for them” The queen said: ”Let him recite his poem; I am told that he is the best of poets, and his poe bade him say on, if he would, and repeat the poem he professed to have made about him Sturla chanted it to the end The queen said: ”Tosaid to her: ”Can you follow the poem so clearly?”
”I would be fain to have you think so, Sir,” said the queen The king said: ”I have learned that Sturla is good at verses” Sturla took his leave of the king and queen and went to his place There was no sailing for the king all that day In the evening before he went to bed he sent for Sturla And when he ca and said: ”What will you have oblet full of wine, and drank soave it to Sturla and said: ”A health to a friend in wine!” (_Vin skal til vinar drekka_)
Sturla said: ”God be praised for it!” ”Even so,” says the king, ”and noish you to say the poem you have made about my father” Sturla repeated it: and when it was finishedsaid: ”To , you are a better reciter than the Pope”
Sturlunga Saga, volii, p269
A SAGA
In the grey beginnings of the world, or ever the flower of justice had rooted in the heart, there lived ahters of men two children, sisters, of one house
In childhood did they leap and climb and sith the men children of their race, and were nurtured on the same stories of Gods and heroes
In ht and more--delve could they no less than spin, hunt no less than weave, brew pottage and heler and laugh at all pain
Joyous in toil-time and rest-time were they as the days and years of their youth came and went Death had spared their house, and unhappiness knew they none Yet often as at falling day they sat before sleep round the hearth of red fire, listening with the household to the brave songs of Gods and heroes, there would surely creep into their hearts a shadow--the thought that whatever the years of their lives, and whatever the generous deeds, there would for them, as women, be no escape at the last frorave for all such as die not in battle; no escape for them fro the glory-crowned, sword-shriven heroes of echoing Valhalla
That shadow had first fallen in their lusty childhood, had slowly gathered darkness through the overflowing days oftide of full womanhood, often lay upon their future as the moon Odin's wrath lies upon the sun
But stout were they to face danger and laugh at pain, and for all the shadow upon their hope they lived brave and songful days--the one a homekeeper and in her turn a norance and sickness and sorrow through the width and length of the land
And thus, facing life fearlessly and ever with a se, unto the one's children's children's children, labouring truly unto the end and keeping strong hearts against the dread day of Hela, and the fate-locked gates of Valhalla
But at the end a wonder
As these sisters looked their last upon the sun, the one in the ancestral homestead under the eyes of love, the other in a distant land ae faces, behold the wind of Thor, and out of the deep of heaven the white horses of Odin, All-Father, bearing Valkyrie, shi+ning ers of Valhalla And those torld-oht up in death in divine ar the battle heroes, upon which the Nornir, sitting at the looraven their naates of Valhalla been throide to all faithful endeavour whether ofAlfred School
THE LEGEND OF ST CHRISTOPHER