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"Fare as it shall be meted to you by the Asir, King Alsi," he said, "for at least Loki loves craft." Then he turned to me, and asked hurriedly where we should go if we must leave thus. "To Grimsby," I said. "That is home." Alsi spoke to the princess now, and maybe it was as well that he did not offer so much as his hand. Wise was he in his way.
For the moment I thought that she saw some vision of the Asir beyond my ken, and then knew that it was indeed to myself that she spoke. For I stood at the door of the house of the dead, with Thor's weapon the hammer in my hand, and she wandered in her mind with the weakness that comes after a swoon. "Hush, lady, hush," said Bertric in a wonderfully gentle voice.
Nor is it the way of a thane to fall on a house at night in outlaw fashion. Ina the king will have somewhat to say of this." "If there is one left to tell him, that is," came back the reply. "There will not be shortly, unless I have your word that tomorrow you come to me at Wisborough and make such atonement to the Asir as you may, quitting your new craze."
And so with all homely words and simple he taught us, and we were fain to listen. Odin and the Asir seemed far off at that time and in that place, and I half blamed myself for harkening. "What of our Asir?" I said at last. "Heroes of the old days," he said. "Heroes whom their sons have worshipped; because a man must needs worship the greatest whom he knows." "And what has become of them?"
And as I came I asked once more what he was doing in this place. "The jarl has surely forgotten the sacrifice to the Asir before the warriors went to fight, and they will be angry," he answered very calmly. "It is right that one should remember, and I feared for father, and therefore "
For we of the old faith hold that what a man buries in life, or takes with him to the grave in death, is his to enjoy in the hall of Odin when he comes thither. It was the ancient way, and a wonderful one the way of the Asir with the dead Baldur. Yet I had ever been told that the custom was long past, and that such a sea and fire burial was unheard of now.
"Well I knew Gunnar, our king, and tonight I thought he had come back to us from Valhalla, goodlier yet and mightier than ever, as one who has feasted with the Asir might well be. For if this boy of ours is not Gunnar's son, then he is Gunnar himself."
"Ever as Wulfric and I escaped from the vengeance of Ingvar towards Hedeby I wondered that one should be strong enough to defy the Asir and their godar for the sake of the new faith. So I sat in the church of Ansgar among the other heathen and heard somewhat. And again in London of late, where Guthrum will have no man harmed for his religion, I have listened and learnt more.
"It is meant that you know not what you worship under those honoured names. There are those among you who know that the Asir were your forefathers. Did you ever hear that Alfred, the wise and most Christian king of England, was ashamed of that ancestry of his?" "I myself cannot be ashamed thereof. I am from the line of Odin," I said.
"It is true, then, that you have left the Asir to follow the way of the thralls, led aside by that Welshman you have with you?" "It is true enough that I am a Christian," said my father steadily. "As for leaving the Asir, that is not to be said of one whose line goes back to Woden, his forefather. But I cannot worship him any longer. Forefather of mine he may be, but not a god."
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