But Orm bade him be cheerful and not think so ill of them all. “I am content with Christ,” he said, “and I hope He will remain content with me, even if I marry my daughter to the suitor who pleases me best. Much will have to happen before I abandon Him, for He has always helped me well.”
Toke said that this reminded him that he had news from Värend which would interest them all.
“You doubtless remember the priest Rainald,” he said, “the fellow who, for Christ’s sake, knocked old Styrkar down from the Stone. The old woman to whom he was given as a slave is now dead, and he is a free man and much admired and respected. He is still a priest, but no longer serves Christ. For he wearied of Him while he was the old woman’s slave, and now he curses everything that has to do with Him, and follows the old god Frey instead, and is amassing great wealth by his knowledge of witchcraft. All women obey him, whatever he commands them to do, and hold him to be the best priest there has ever been among the Virds. And I have heard it said that he has gathered a band of followers and has set himself up as a chieftain for vagabonds and outlaws.”
Father Willibald heard this news with horror. Hereafter, he said, he would no longer offer prayers for this man; he had never before heard of a Christian priest giving himself openly to the Devil.
Ylva thought that he had had good qualities, and that it was a pity that things had gone so ill with him. But Orm laughed.
“Let him and the Devil do as they please together,” he said. “We have more important matters to worry about.”
He was now no longer doubtful whether or not to voyage after the gold. Between them they decided that if they managed to buy a good ship down at the coast, they would sail at midsummer.
“Our hardest task will be to find a good crew,” said Orm. “We must have good sailors, who know the ways of ships, but there are few of them to be found here, inland, and it will be dangerous to hire men who are not known to us, with such a cargo as we hope to be bringing home. It might be wise to take but a few men, for then we shall have less money to pay out; but it might be wiser to take many, for we do not know what dangers await us.”
CHAPTER FIVE
HOW THEY SAILED TO THE GOTLAND VI
OLOF SUMMERBIRD rode home to make ready for the voyage and to hire men whom he knew in Halland to serve as crew, while Orm, Toke, and Harald Ormsson rode down to the coast in search of a ship. At the mouth of the river they found one for sale. The man who owned it was growing old and wanted to sell it in order to have a good inheritance to leave his daughters when he died. They examined it carefully and found it in good order. It carried twenty-four pairs of oars; ships of such a size were reckoned to be large, but Orm thought it could without harm have been bigger, and Toke agreed with him.
“For great chieftains will be sailing in it,” he said, “and thirty pairs of oars would not be too many for us.”
“When we come to the portage, which Olof Summerbird has told us of,” said Harald Ormsson, “we may be glad that it is no larger.”
“You are luckier even than I had supposed you to be, Orm,” said Toke, “for I see that wisdom does not reside in you only, but in your children also.”
“It is a bad thing when a man receives instruction from his son,” said Orm, “and it shall not happen in my house, so long as I retain my tongue and my good right arm. But in this instance I admit that the boy is right. This will be heavier work than when we dragged St. James’ bell.”
“We were young men then,” said Toke. “Now we are great chieftains and shall not need to touch the rope ourselves. The young men will strain at the harness, while we walk beside them with our thumbs in our belts, marveling at the paucity of their strength. But it may be that a ship such as this will be too big for them to manage.”
At length, after much bargaining, Orm bought the ship.
Around the mouth of the river, there lay great houses; and from these he bought malt, hogs, and oxen and arranged with the farmers that they should brew, butcher, and smoke his purchases, that the ship might be well provided with food and drink. He was astonished when he discovered how much all this was to cost him in silver; his astonishment became even greater when he sought to hire a number of young men from the houses for a year’s voyage; and he rode dejectedly home with the others, mumbling that this Bulgar gold would surely bring him into poverty and wretchedness.
“One thing I have learned,” said Harald Ormsson, “namely, that a man needs to have much silver before he can go in search of gold.”
“That is well said,” said Toke. “If you continue as you have begun, you will, with experience, become as wise as your mother’s father was. The old ones used to say that from Odin’s bracelet a new bracelet used to issue every Wednesday, so that he came to have many; but that if he had not had the first, he would never have had any. Never set yourself up as a Viking if you have not plenty of silver; nor as a skin-trader, neither. That is my advice to you. Only poets can win wealth with empty hands; but then they must make better songs than other poets, and competition spoils the pleasures of composition.”
On their way home, they rode in to speak with Sone the Sharp-Sighted, for Orm had a request that he wished to make to him.
Sone’s house was large, with many rooms, and was everywhere full of his sons and their children. He himself, by this time, was immeasurably old and very frozen, and spent all his time sitting by the fire and mumbling to himself. Orm greeted him respectfully. After a few moments Sone recognized him, nodded amiably, asked him for news, and began to talk about his health. This was less good than it had been, but nothing to grumble about; and one good thing, he said, was that he still had his understanding left to him, in prime condition, so that it was still, as before, better than other men’s.
A crowd of his sons had come in to greet the visitors and listen to them. They were powerful men, and of all ages. When they heard their father speak of his understanding, they cried that the old man was talking nonsense; there was, they said, nothing left of his understanding, but only his tongue and chatter. Resenting this, Sone brandished his stick and quieted them.
“They are foolish boys,” he said to Orm. “They think that my understanding has been used up by begetting all of them, and that I have none left for myself. But that, as may easily be observed, is not the case; for little of it have they inherited from me. Sometimes it happens that I confuse their names, or forget one altogether, and that angers them, so that they talk ill of me. But the truth is that names are not a thing that it is important to remember.”
“I have come here partly to see you,” said Orm, “and partly to see your sons. I intend to sail forth shortly on a long voyage, to Gardarike, to claim an inheritance. I have already bought a ship. It may be that I shall need good fighting-men on this voyage. Now I have always heard your sons praised as bold men, and it therefore seemed to me that it would be a good thing if I could have some of them with me in my ship. I shall pay them honorably, and if all goes well, there may be silver to be shared out among such of us as survive the voyage.”
Sone became excited at this news. Better tidings he had not heard for many a day, he said, and he would be glad to send a flock of his sons to aid Orm. It was time that they went out into the world and learned wisdom and understanding. Besides which, he said, it would make things less crowded in the house.
“They are too many for me, now that I am old,” he said. “Take half of them with you, and it will be to the advantage of us both. Do not take the eldest ones, nor yet the youngest, but a half score of those between. They have never been in a ship, but will serve for fighting.”