A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic

T >> Thomas Wentworth Higginson >> Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic






XVI

HARALD THE VIKING


Erik the Red, the most famous of all Vikings, had three sons, and once
when they were children the king came to visit Erik and passed through the
playground where the boys were playing. Leif and Biorn, the two oldest,
were building little houses and barns and were making believe that they
were full of cattle and sheep, while Harald, who was only four years old,
was sailing chips of wood in a pool. The king asked Harald what they were,
and he said, "Ships of war." King Olaf laughed and said, "The time may
come when you will command ships, my little friend." Then he asked Biorn
what he would like best to have. "Corn-land," he said; "ten farms." "That
would yield much corn," the king replied. Then he asked Leif the same
question, and he answered, "Cows." "How many?" "So many that when they
went to the lake to be watered, they would stand close round the edge, so
that not another could pass." "That would be a large housekeeping," said
the king, and he asked the same question of Harald. "What would you like
best to have?" "Servants and followers," said the child, stoutly. "How
many would you like?" "Enough," said the child, "to eat up all the cows
and crops of my brothers at a single meal." Then the king laughed, and
said to the mother of the children, "You are bringing up a king."

As the boys grew, Leif and Harald were ever fond of roaming, while Biorn
wished to live on the farm at peace. Their sister Freydis went with the
older boys and urged them on. She was not gentle and amiable, but full of
energy and courage: she was also quarrelsome and vindictive. People said
of her that even if her brothers were all killed, yet the race of Erik the
Red would not end while she lived; that "she practised more of shooting
and the handling of sword and shield than of sewing or embroidering, and
that as she was able, she did evil oftener than good; and that when she
was hindered she ran into the woods and slew men to get their property."
She was always urging her brothers to deeds of daring and adventure. One
day they had been hawking, and when they let slip the falcons, Harald's
falcon killed two blackcocks in one flight and three in another. The dogs
ran and brought the birds, and he said proudly to the others, "It will be
long before most of you have any such success," and they all agreed to
this. He rode home in high spirits and showed his birds to his sister
Freydis. "Did any king," he asked, "ever make so great a capture in so
short a time?" "It is, indeed," she said, "a good morning's hunting to
have got five blackcocks, but it was still better when in one morning a
king of Norway took five kings and subdued all their kingdoms." Then
Harald went away very humble and besought his father to let him go and
serve on the Varangian Guard of King Otho at Constantinople, that he might
learn to be a warrior.

So Harald was brought from his Norwegian home by his father Erik the Red,
in his galley called the _Sea-serpent_, and sailed with him through
the Mediterranean Sea, and was at last made a member of the Emperor Otho's
Varangian Guard at Constantinople. This guard will be well remembered by
the readers of Scott's novel, "Count Robert of Paris," and was maintained
by successive emperors and drawn largely from the Scandinavian races. Erik
the Red had no hesitation in leaving his son among them, as the young man
was stout and strong, very self-willed, and quite able to defend himself.
The father knew also that the Varangian Guard, though hated by the people,
held to one another like a band of brothers; and that any one brought up
among them would be sure of plenty of fighting and plenty of gold,--the
two things most prized by early Norsemen. For ordinary life, Harald's
chief duties would be to lounge about the palace, keeping guard, wearing
helmet and buckler and bearskin, with purple underclothes and golden
clasped hose; and bearing as armor a mighty battle-axe and a small
scimitar. Such was the life led by Harald, till one day he had a message
from his father, through a new recruit, calling him home to join an
expedition to the western seas. "I hear, my son," the message said, "that
your good emperor, whom may the gods preserve, is sorely ill and may die
any day. When he is dead, be prompt in getting your share of the plunder
of the palace and come back to me."

The emperor died, and the order was fulfilled. It was the custom of the
Varangians to reward themselves in this way for their faithful services of
protection; and the result is that, to this day, Greek and Arabic gold
crosses and chains are to be found in the houses of Norwegian peasants and
may be seen in the museums of Christiania and Copenhagen. No one was
esteemed the less for this love of spoil, if he was only generous in
giving. The Norsemen spoke contemptuously of gold as "the serpent's bed,"
and called a generous man "a hater of the serpent's bed," because such a
man parts with gold as with a thing he hates.

When the youth came to his father, he found Erik the Red directing the
building of one of the great Norse galleys, nearly eighty feet long and
seventeen wide and only six feet deep. The boat had twenty ribs, and the
frame was fastened together by withes made of roots, while the oaken
planks were held by iron rivets. The oars were twenty feet long, and were
put through oar holes, and the rudder, shaped like a large oar, was not at
the end, but was attached to a projecting beam on the starboard
(originally steer-board) side. The ship was to be called a Dragon, and was
to be painted so as to look like one, having a gilded dragon's head at the
bow and a gilded tail on the stern; while the moving oars would look like
legs, and the row of red and white shields, hung along the side of the
boat, would resemble the scales of a dragon, and the great square sails,
red and blue, would look like wings. This was the vessel which young
Harald was to command.

He had already made trips in just such vessels with his father; had
learned to attack the enemy with arrow and spear; also with stones thrown
down from above, and with grappling-irons to clutch opposing boats. He had
learned to swim, from early childhood, even in the icy northern waters,
and he had been trained in swimming to hide his head beneath his floating
shield, so that it could not be seen. He had learned also to carry tinder
in a walnut shell, enclosed in wax, so that no matter how long he had been
in the water he could strike a light on reaching shore. He had also
learned from his father acts of escape as well as attack. Thus he had once
sailed on a return trip from Denmark after plundering a town; the ships
had been lying at anchor all night in a fog, and at sunlight in the
morning lights seemed burning on the sea. But Erik the Red said, "It is a
fleet of Danish ships, and the sun strikes on the gilded dragon crests;
furl the sail and take to the oars." They rowed their best, yet the Danish
ships were overtaking them, when Erik the Red ordered his men to throw
wood overboard and cover it with Danish plunder. This made some delay, as
the Danes stopped to pick it up, and in the same way Erik the Red dropped
his provisions, and finally his prisoners; and in the delay thus caused he
got away with his own men.

But now Harald was not to go to Denmark, but to the new western world,
the Wonderstrands which Leif had sought and had left without sufficient
exploration. First, however, he was to call at Greenland, which his father
had first discovered. It was the custom of the Viking explorers, when they
reached a new country, to throw overboard their "seat posts," or
_setstokka_,--the curved part of their doorways,--and then to land
where they floated ashore. But Erik the Red had lent his to a friend and
could not get them back, so that he sailed in search of them, and came to
a new land which he called Greenland, because, as he said, people would be
attracted thither if it had a good name. Then he established a colony
there, and then Leif the Lucky, as he was called, sailed still farther,
and came to the Wonderstrand, or Magic Shores. These he called Vinland or
Wine-land, and now a rich man named Karlsefne was to send a colony thither
from Greenland, and the young Harald was to go with it and take command of
it.

Now as Harald was to be presented to the rich Karlsefne, he thought he
must be gorgeously arrayed. So he wore a helmet on his head, a red shield
richly inlaid with gold and iron, and a sharp sword with an ivory handle
wound with golden thread. He had also a short spear, and wore over his
coat a red silk short cloak on which was embroidered, both before and
behind, a yellow lion. We may well believe that the sixty men and five
women who composed the expedition were ready to look on him with
admiration, especially as one of the women was his own sister, Freydis,
now left to his peculiar care, since Erik the Red had died. The sturdy old
hero had died still a heathen, and it was only just after his death that
Christianity was introduced into Greenland, and those numerous churches
were built there whose ruins yet remain, even in regions from which all
population has gone.

So the party of colonists sailed for Vinland, and Freydis, with the four
older women, came in Harald's boat, and Freydis took easily the lead among
them for strength, though not always, it must be admitted, for amiability.

The boats of the expedition having left Greenland soon after the year
1000, coasted the shore as far as they could, rarely venturing into open
sea. At last, amidst fog and chilly weather, they made land at a point
where a river ran through a lake into the sea, and they could not enter
from the sea except at high tide. It was once believed that this was
Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, but this is no longer believed. Here
they landed and called the place Hóp, from the Icelandic word _hópa_,
meaning an inlet from the ocean. Here they found grape-vines growing and
fields of wild wheat; there were fish in the lake and wild animals in the
woods. Here they landed the cattle and the provisions which they had
brought with them; and here they built their huts. They went in the
spring, and during that summer the natives came in boats of skin to trade
with them--men described as black, and ill favored, with large eyes and
broad cheeks and with coarse hair on their heads. These, it is thought,
may have been the Esquimaux. The first time they came, these visitors held
up a white shield as a sign of peace, and were so frightened by the
bellowing of the bull that they ran away. Then returning, they brought
furs to sell and wished to buy weapons, but Harald tried another plan: he
bade the women bring out milk, butter, and cheese from their dairies, and
when the Skraelings saw that, they wished for nothing else, and, the
legend says, "the Skraelings carried away their wares in their stomachs,
but the Norsemen had the skins they had purchased." This happened yet
again, but at the second visit one of the Skraelings was accidentally
killed or injured.

The next time the Skraelings came they were armed with slings, and raised
upon a pole a great blue ball and attacked the Norsemen so furiously that
they were running away when Erik's sister, Freydis, came out before them
with bare arms, and took up a sword, saying, "Why do you run, strong men
as you are, from these miserable dwarfs whom I thought you would knock
down like cattle? Give me weapons, and I will fight better than any of
you." Then the rest took courage and began to fight, and the Skraelings
were driven back. Once more the strangers came, and one of them took up an
axe, a thing which he had not before seen, and struck at one of his
companions, killing him. Then the leader took the axe and threw it into
the water, after which the Skraelings retreated, and were not seen again.

The winter was a mild one, and while it lasted, the Norsemen worked
busily at felling wood and house-building. They had also many amusements,
in most of which Harald excelled. They used to swim in all weathers. One
of their feats was to catch seals and sit on them while swimming; another
was to pull one another down and remain as long as possible under water.
Harald could swim for a mile or more with his armor on, or with a
companion on his shoulder. In-doors they used to play the tug of war,
dragging each other by a walrus hide across the fire. Harald was good at
this, and was also the best archer, sometimes aiming at something placed
on a boy's head, the boy having a cloth tied around his head, and held by
two men, that he might not move at all on hearing the whistling of the
arrow. In this way Harald could even shoot an arrow under a nut placed on
the head, so that the nut would roll down and the head not be hurt. He
could plant a spear in the ground and then shoot an arrow upward so
skilfully that it would turn in the air and fall with the point in the end
of the spear-shaft. He could also shoot a blunt arrow through the thickest
ox-hide from a cross-bow. He could change weapons from one hand to the
other during a fencing match, or fence with either hand, or throw two
spears at the same time, or catch a spear in motion. He could run so fast
that no horse could overtake him, and play the rough games with bat and
ball, using a ball of the hardest wood. He could race on snowshoes, or
wrestle when bound by a belt to his antagonist. Then when he and his
companions wished a rest, they amused themselves with harp-playing or
riddles or chess. The Norsemen even played chess on board their vessels,
and there are still to be seen, on some of these, the little holes that
were formerly used for the sharp ends of the chessmen, so that they should
not be displaced.

They could not find that any European had ever visited this place; but
some of the Skraelings told them of a place farther south, which they
called "the Land of the Whiteman," or "Great Ireland." They said that in
that place there were white men who clothed themselves in long white
garments, carried before them poles to which white cloths were hung, and
called with a loud voice. These, it was thought by the Norsemen, must be
Christian processions, in which banners were borne and hymns were chanted.
It has been thought from this that some expedition from Ireland--that of
St. Brandan, for instance--may have left a settlement there, long before,
but this has never been confirmed. The Skraelings and the Northmen were
good friends for a time; until at last one of Erik's own warriors killed a
Skraeling by accident, and then all harmony was at an end.

They saw no hope of making a lasting settlement there, and, moreover,
Freydis who was very grasping, tried to deceive the other settlers and get
more than her share of everything, so that Harald himself lost patience
with her and threatened her. It happened that one of the men of the party,
Olaf, was Harald's foster-brother. They had once had a fight, and after
the battle had agreed that they would be friends for life and always share
the same danger. For this vow they were to walk under the turf; that is, a
strip of turf was cut and held above their heads, and they stood beneath
and let their blood flow upon the ground whence the turf had been cut.
After this they were to own everything by halves and either must avenge
the other's death. This was their brotherhood; but Freydis did not like
it; so she threatened Olaf, and tried to induce men to kill him, for she
did not wish to bring upon herself the revenge that must come if she slew
him.

This was the reason why the whole enterprise failed, and why Olaf
persuaded Harald, for the sake of peace, to return to Greenland in the
spring and take a load of valuable timber to sell there, including one
stick of what was called massur-wood, which was as valuable as mahogany,
and may have been at some time borne by ocean currents to the beach. It is
hardly possible that, as some have thought, the colonists established a
regular trade in this wood for no such wood grows on the northern Atlantic
shores. However this may be, the party soon returned, after one winter in
Vinland the Good; and on the way back Harald did one thing which made him
especially dear to his men.

A favorite feat of the Norsemen was to toss three swords in the air and
catch each by the handle as it came down. This was called the
_handsax_ game. The young men used also to try the feat of running
along the oar-blades of the rowers as they were in motion, passing around
the bow of the vessel with a spring and coming round to the stern over the
oars on the other side. Few could accomplish this, but no one but Harald
could do it and play the _handsax_ game as he ran; and when he did
it, they all said that he was the most skilful man at _idrottie_ ever
seen. That was their word for an athletic feat. But presently came a time
when not only his courage but his fairness and justice were to be tried.

It happened in this way. There was nothing of which the Norsemen were
more afraid than of the _teredo_, or shipworm, which gnaws the wood
of ships. It was observed in Greenland and Iceland that pieces of wood
often floated on shore which were filled with holes made by this animal,
and they thought that in certain places the seas were full of this worm,
so that a ship would be bored and sunk in a little while. It is said that
on this return voyage Harald's vessel entered a worm-sea and presently
began to sink. They had, however, provided a smaller boat smeared with
sea-oil, which the worms would not attack. They went into the boat, but
found that it would not hold more than half of them all. Then Harald said,
"We will divide by lots, without regard to the rank; each taking his
chance with the rest." This they thought, the Norse legend says, "a
high-minded offer." They drew lots, and Harald was among those assigned to
the safer boat. He stepped in, and when he was there a man called from the
other boat and said, "Dost thou intend, Harald, to separate from me here?"
Harald answered, "So it turns out," and the man said, "Very different was
thy promise to my father when we came from Greenland, for the promise was
that we should share the same fate."

Then Harald said, "It shall not be thus. Go into the boat, and I will go
back into the ship, since thou art so anxious to live." Then Harald went
back to the ship, while the man took his place in the boat, and after that
Harald was never heard of more.



XVII

THE SEARCH FOR NORUMBEGA


Sir Humphrey Gilbert, colonel of the British forces in the Netherlands,
was poring over the manuscript narrative of David Ingram, mariner. Ingram
had in 1568-69 taken the widest range of travel that had ever been taken
in the new continent, of which it was still held doubtful by many whether
it was or was not a part of Asia. "Surely," Gilbert said to his
half-brother, Walter Raleigh, a youth of twenty-three, "this knave hath
seen strange things. He hath been set ashore by John Hawkins in the Gulf
of Mexico and there left behind. He hath travelled northward with two of
his companions along Indian trails; he hath even reached Norumbega; he
hath seen that famous city with its houses of crystal and silver."

"Pine logs and hemlock bark, belike," said Raleigh, scornfully.

"Nay," said Gilbert, "he hath carefully written it down. He saw kings
decorated with rubies six inches long; and they were borne on chairs of
silver and crystal, adorned with precious stones. He saw pearls as common
as pebbles, and the natives were laden down by their ornaments of gold and
silver. The city of Bega was three-quarters of a mile long and had many
streets wider than those of London. Some houses had massive pillars of
crystal and silver."

"What assurance can he give?" asked Raleigh.

"He offers on his life to prove it."

"A small offer, mayhap. There be many of these lying mariners whose lives
are as worthless as the stories they relate. But what said he of the
natives?"

"Kindly disposed," was the reply, "so far as he went, but those dwelling
farther north, where he did not go, were said to be cannibals with teeth
like those of dogs, whereby you may know them."

"Travellers' tales," said Raleigh. "_Omne ignotum pro mirifico_."

"He returned," said Gilbert, disregarding the interruption, "in the
_Gargarine_, a French vessel commanded by Captain Champagne."

"Methinks something of the flavor represented by the good captain's name
hath got into your Englishman's brain. Good ale never gives such
fantasies. Doth he perchance speak of elephants?"

"He doth," said Sir Humphrey, hesitatingly. "Perchance he saw them not,
but heard of them only."

"What says he of them?" asked Raleigh.

"He says that he saw in that country both elephants and ounces; and he
says that their trumpets are made of elephants' teeth."

"But the houses," said Raleigh; "tell me of the houses."

"In every house," said Gilbert, reading from the manuscript, "they have
scoops, buckets, and divers vessels, all of massive silver with which they
throw out water and otherwise employ them. The women wear great plates of
gold covering their bodies, and chains of great pearls in the manner of
curvettes; and the men wear manilions or bracelets on each arm and each
leg, some of gold and some of silver."

"Whence come they, these gauds?"

"There are great rivers where one may find pieces of gold as big as the
fist; and there are great rocks of crystal, sufficient to load many ships."

This was all which was said on that day, but never was explorer more
eager than Gilbert. He wrote a "Discourse of a Discoverie for a New
Passage to Cathaia and the East Indies"--published without his knowledge
by George Gascoigne. In 1578 he had from Queen Elizabeth a patent of
exploration, allowing him to take possession of any uncolonized lands in
North America, paying for these a fifth of all gold and silver found. The
next year he sailed with Raleigh for Newfoundland, but one vessel was lost
and the others returned to England. In 1583, he sailed again, taking with
him the narrative of Ingram, which he reprinted. He also took with him a
learned Hungarian from Buda, named Parmenius, who went for the express
purpose of singing the praise of Norumbega in Latin verse, but was drowned
in Sir Humphrey's great flag-ship, the _Delight_. This wreck took
place near Sable Island, and as most of the supplies for the expedition
went down in the flag-ship, the men in the remaining vessels grew so
impatient as to compel a return. There were two vessels, the _Golden
Hind_ of forty tons, and the _Squirrel_ of ten tons, this last
being a mere boat then called a frigate, a small vessel propelled by both
sails and oars, quite unlike the war-ship afterwards called by that name.
On both these vessels the men were so distressed that they gathered on the
bulwarks, pointing to their empty mouths and their ragged clothing. The
officers of the _Golden Hind_ were unwilling to return, but consented
on Sir Humphrey's promise that they should come back in the spring; they
sailed for England on the 31st of August. All wished him to return in the
_Golden Hind_ as a much larger and safer vessel; the _Squirrel_,
besides its smallness, being encumbered on the deck with guns, ammunition,
and nettings, making it unseaworthy. But when he was begged to remove into
the larger vessel, he said, "I will not forsake my little company going
homeward with whom I have passed so many storms and perils." One reason
for this was, the narrator of the voyage says, because of "hard reports
given of him that he was afraid of the sea, albeit this was rather
rashness than advised resolution, to prefer the wind of a vain report to
the weight of his own life."

On the very day of sailing they caught their first glimpse of some large
species of seal or walrus, which is thus described by the old narrator of
the expedition:--

"So vpon Saturday in the afternoone the 31 of August, we changed our
course, and returned backe for England, at which very instant, euen in
winding about, there passed along betweene vs and towards the land which
we now forsooke a very lion to our seeming, in shape, hair and colour, not
swimming after the maner of a beast by moouing of his feete, but rather
sliding vpon the water with his whole body (excepting the legs) in sight,
neither yet in diuing vnder, and againe rising aboue the water, as the
maner is, of Whales, Dolphins, Tunise, Porposes, and all other fish: but
confidently shewing himselfe aboue water without hiding: Notwithstanding,
we presented our selues in open view and gesture to amase him, as all
creatures will be commonly at a sudden gaze and sight of men. Thus he
passed along turning his head to and fro, yawning and gaping wide, with
ougly demonstration of long teeth, and glaring eies, and to bidde vs a
farewell (comming right against the Hinde) he sent forth a horrible voyce,
roaring or bellowing as doeth a lion, which spectacle wee all beheld so
farre as we were able to discerne the same, as men prone to wonder at
euery strange thing, as this doubtlesse was, to see a lion in the Ocean
sea, or fish in shape of a lion. What opinion others had thereof, and
chiefly the Generall himselfe, I forbeare to deliuer: But he tooke it for
Bonum Omen [a good omen], reioycing that he was to warre against such an
enemie, if it were the deuill."

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