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Updated: June 5, 2025
He weighed it and turned it round, he laughed and felt of it. "Dear me! what is it?" asked he, for it was as light as a toy. "It is a fiddle." This was the way that Thrond Alfson got his first violin.
So the great trader lumbered off southward, and I and the atheling sat with Thrond and Thorleif, and told and heard all the story of the raid on Weymouth until the stars came out. And I was well content; for no Saxon can ask aught better than to serve his lord, whether in wealth or distress.
I told him, and he looked kindly enough at me, and smiled in his grim way. "You were right in saying that a Saxon's word was good, Thrond," he said. "I am sorry we can in no way send you back now. Your cousin did his best to win his folk to peace and fought well when he could not. Nay, he is not hurt, so far as I know."
The mother brought forward food for him; he sat down to the table, but did not say "in the name of Jesus," as the boy had been accustomed to hear. When he had finished eating, he got up from the table, and said, "Now I feel very comfortable; let me rest a little while." And he was allowed to rest on Thrond's bed. For Thrond a bed was made on the floor.
But one of the men said, "He can have that," and he pointed at Thrond. "Use it as well as he who is now lying here," added the other stranger, pointing at the large box. Then they both laughed and went on. Thrond looked at the little box which thus came into his possession. "What is there in it?" asked he. "Carry it in and find out," said the mother.
The ship forged slowly and uneasily over the waves with the heavy trader after her, and on our decks the men were silent, waiting for word from Thorleif of what was to be done. We could hear him, now and then, laughing with the crew of the other ship as if all went easily. "Lad," said old Thrond, suddenly turning to me, "you had best forget all this.
"We will not harm your cousin, thane, and you may be easy in your mind." "Nay," said Thrond, "I think that Dorchester would pay ransom for the thane willingly. Best let the lad go." "This is more a question of ransoming the town and countryside, foster father," answered Thorleif. "The thane shall go."
The secret was well kept for a time, but whispers got abroad, and Thrond, the priest, at length told the story to Erland of Huseby, whom he knew to be on the right side. Erland heard the news with joy, but feared peril for the little prince, thus born in the land of his enemies.
"Unless," he added with a hard chuckle, "they have never so much as heard of a viking. Are there pirates in this sea, lad?" "They say that the seamen from the southern lands are, betimes. I have heard of ships taken by swarthy men thence. The Cornish tin merchants tell the tales of them." "Tin?" said Thrond. "Now I would that we had heard thereof before. I reckon we passed some booty westward.
"Who is the queen yon Saxon speaks of?" asked Thrond. I told him; and as we had heard much of her of late, I also told him how men said that she had been found on the shore by the king himself. Whereon Thrond's grave face grew yet more grave, and he said: "Lad, is that a true tale?" "My father had it from the thane who was with the king when they found her alone in her boat."
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