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Updated: June 26, 2025
Now Alsi the king went from the feast with a new and cruel thought in his mind under the smiling face that he wore, and long he sat in his own chamber, chin on hand and eyes far off, thinking; and at last he called Berthun. "What is the name of this big knave of yours?" he asked, when the steward stood before him. "He calls himself Curan, lord." "Calls himself.
And then he added, with a smile, "I think that I can order matters there so that things will be more fair, and that you will have less trouble with that unmannerly scramble." "If you can do that, you are even as your name calls you. Take them and welcome, Curan, and then come here and do what work you will," Berthun said in haste. "Tasks you must set me, or I shall grow idle.
Two silver pennies the thane gave him, and said, "This seems to be a friend of yours, and it was good to hear you try to help him without acrimony. Not that he needed any hints from any one, however. Who is he?" "Men call him Curan, that being the name he gives himself; but he came as a stranger to the place, and none know from whence, unless Berthun the cook may do so.
But so good-naturedly was this done, that even those whom he lifted from his path and dropped on one side laughed when they saw who had cleared a way for himself, and stood gaping to see what came next. "Ho why, yes Curan that was the name certainly. I have been looking for you, as we said," stammered the steward. "Here am I, therefore," answered Havelok, "and where is the load?"
Now Griffin curses Ragnar, and the Welsh tongue is good for that business. "Who is the man, then?" he says, when he has done. "The biggest and best-looking countryman of yours that I have ever set eyes on," answers Alsi, looking askance at Griffin's angry face. "There is a sort of consolation for you." "His name," fairly shouts Griffin. "Curan, the kitchen knave," says Alsi, chuckling.
Moreover, she had heard of Curan by this time, though she had not seen him before. So she said no more, and went on proudly enough, with her mighty attendant after her; but all the while it was in her mind that there was some jest, or maybe wager, between the two. Now Withelm stopped at the gate; but I was not there, for I had been sent to the palace, where guards were to be at each door.
Then Alsi put his lips to a silver whistle that he carried, and blew a call that brought Eglaf hurriedly to him from the outer door. "The guards may go," said the king; "but see that the porter Curan leaves not the palace until I myself send him forth tomorrow." The captain saluted and went his way.
"Well you know that I would be cut to pieces for the king tomorrow if need were, and so I earn free speech of him I guard. If I may not say what I think of him to a man who knows as much of him as I, who may?" "I have no doubt that the king would clothe Curan if I asked him," said Berthun stiffly, but noways loth to take his seat again. "But it is as much as your place is worth to do it.
Well, it is likely that he knows his own name best. Is he Welsh, therefore?" "So I think, lord." "You might have been certain by this time, surely. I like Welshmen about the place, and I was giving you credit for finding me a good one. Whence comes he?" Now it was on Berthun's tongue to say that he thought that Curan came from the marshland, yet clinging to his own thoughts of what he was.
But no king's son could he be, so that there must be yet such another mighty man to be found. And then in her heart she knew that there could not be two such men, both alike in all points to him of the vision. And she knew also, though maybe she would not own it, that if this Curan had been but a thane of little estate, she could have had naught to say against the matter.
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