The Wanderers Necklace | Page 5

her neck and arms were massive gold rings that tinkled as she walked.
She had a round face, coloured like a wild rose, and innocent blue eyes
that took in everything, although she always seemed to look in front of
her and see nothing. Her lips were very red and appeared to smile.

Altogether I thought her the loveliest creature that ever I had looked on,
and she walked like a deer and held her head proudly.
Still, she did not please Ragnar, who whispered to me that she was sly
and would bring mischief on all that had to do with her. I, who at the
time was about twenty-one years of age, wondered if he had gone mad
to talk thus of this beautiful creature. Then I remembered that just
before we had left home I had caught Ragnar kissing the daughter of
one of our thralls behind the shed in which the calves were kept. She
was a brown girl, very well made, as her rough robe, fastened beneath
her breast with a strap, showed plainly, and she had big dark eyes with
a sleepy look in them. Also, I never saw anyone kiss quite so hard as
she did; Ragnar himself was outpassed. I think that is why even the
great lady, Iduna the Fair, did not please him. All the while he was
thinking of the brown-eyed girl in the russet robe. Still, it is true that,
brown-eyed girl or no, he read Iduna aright.
Moreover, if Ragnar did not like Iduna, from the first Iduna hated
Ragnar. So it came about that, although both my father, Thorvald, and
Iduna's father, Athalbrand, stormed and threatened, these two declared
that they would have nothing to do with each other, and the project of
their marriage came to an end.
On the night before we were to leave Lesso, whence Ragnar had
already gone, Athalbrand saw me staring at Iduna. This, indeed, was
not wonderful, as I could not take my eyes from her lovely face, and
when she looked at me and smiled with those red lips of hers I became
like a silly bird that is bewitched by a snake. At first I thought that he
was going to be angry, but suddenly some idea seemed to strike him so
that he called my father, Thorvald, outside the house. Afterwards I was
sent for, and found the two of them seated on a three-cornered, flat
stone, talking in the moonlight, for it was summer-time, when
everything looks blue at night and the sun and the moon ride in the sky
together. Near by stood my mother, listening.
"Olaf," said my father, "would you like to marry Iduna the Fair?"
"Like to marry Iduna?" I gasped. "Aye, more than to be High King of

Denmark, for she is no woman, but a goddess."
At this saying my mother laughed, and Athalbrand, who knew Iduna
when she did not seem a goddess, called me a fool. Then they talked,
while I stood trembling with hope and fear.
"He's but a second son," said Athalbrand.
"I have told you there is land enough for both of them, also the gold
that came with his mother will be his, and that's no small sum,"
answered Thorvald.
"He's no warrior, but a skald," objected Athalbrand again; "a silly
half-man who makes songs and plays upon the harp."
"Songs are sometimes stronger than swords," replied my father, "and,
after all, it is wisdom that rules. One brain can govern many men; also,
harps make merry music at a feast. Moreover, Olaf is brave enough.
How can he be otherwise coming of the stock he does?"
"He is thin and weedy," objected Athalbrand, a saying that made my
mother angry.
"Nay, lord Athalbrand," she said; "he is tall and straight as a dart, and
will yet be the handsomest man in these parts."
"Every duck thinks it has hatched out a swan," grumbled Athalbrand,
while with my eyes I implored my mother to be silent.
Then he thought for awhile, pulling at his long forked beard, and said at
last:
"My heart tells me no good of such a marriage. Iduna, who is the only
one left to me, could marry a man of more wealth and power than this
rune-making stripling is ever likely to be. Yet just now I know none
such whom I would wish to hold my place when I am gone. Moreover,
it is spread far and wide throughout the land that my daughter is to be
wed to Thorvald's son, and it matters little to which son. At least, I will

not have it said that she has been given the go-by. Therefore, let this
Olaf take her, if she will have him. Only," he added with a growl,