Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 11, 2025
Next we had a messenger from Odda, who was at Exeter, asking for sure word of what had befallen; and the one hope we had yet was gone, for he too knew nothing. Very sad and silent was Osmund the jarl, though he and Thora were most kindly received as honoured guests by the Lady Alswythe and the household of the thane.
Then, as Odda recovered, the great axe flashed suddenly, and fell harmless as its mark sprang back from its sweep; while like light the spear point went forward over the fallen axe, that recovered too slowly to turn it, and rang true on the round shield that met it. I had not thought much of spear play until now, for we think little of the weapon.
Then I too saw that Godred, as he called himself, was, as the scald had guessed rightly, the king, and I was a little angry that he had tricked me thus. But he was laughing at Kolgrim as he came, and my anger passed at once. King or thane, here was a pleasant greeting enough. He held out his hand to Odda first and then to me.
There were several other tents joined to this great one, so that into them the king might retire; and there was a wide space, round which walked spearmen as sentries, between it and any other tent. Some Devon thanes met us, and our men dismounted at the same time as we. Then Odda led us four to the door of the pavilion, and we were ushered in with much ceremony.
So it came to pass that I met one of the two most wonderful men in England, and I was to see the other on the morrow. Yet I had no thought that I should care to stay in the land, for it seemed certain from what Odda told me that peace would be made, and peace was not my business nor that of my men.
Now Odda made much of what I had done though it was little enough saying that I and my men deserved well of Alfred, and that he hoped that we should stay with him for this winter, which would perhaps see the end of the war. "Why," said I, "things would have been much the same if I had not been here." "That they would not," he answered.
The Bergen steamer continues its way up the Sörfjord to Odda, which is reached late at night; but we, who are bound for Eidfjord, change into a small branch steamer, and are soon rounding a mighty headland, and, if there is any wind, getting a tossing for a few minutes, the fjord just here being wide and open.
Then Odda would not be behindhand, and he pulled off his own armlet. "If Kolgrim is to be remembered, Thord will never be forgotten. Give this to him in sheer gratitude for swearing at me in such wise that he overcame the sore sickness that comes of the swaying of the deck that will not cease." "Give it him yourself, ealdorman," I said. "You know him over well to send it by another.
That roused one who lay before me, and white and shaking, up rose Odda from among the slain. I went to him, and got my arm round him; and again the men cheered, and little by little the colour came back to his face. "I thought you slain outright," I said; "are you much hurt?" "I cannot tell," he said. "I believe I am sound in limb, but my wind is gone.
"Much good are these scratches to me," said I to Odda. "Can you read them?" "I can read nought but what is written in a man's face," he said. So I gave the scroll to Harek, who sat next me, thinking that maybe the scald could read it. He pored over it for a while. "It is of no use, king," he said. "It is in my mind that I know which is the right way up of the writing, but I am not sure."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking