stump to which to makefast, and so one of the men followed me, and we went to the boat, setthe altar stones carefully ashore, then fetched the spare anchor, andmoored her with that in a place where the water seemed deep to the bank.
It was a bad place. For when the tide fell, which it did very fast, wefound that we had put her on a ledge. Presently therefore, and while wewere trying to bail out the water that was in her, the ship took theground aft, and we could not move her before the worst happened. Swiftlythe tide left her, and her long keel bent and twisted, and her planksgaped with the strain of her own weight, all the greater for the wateryet in her that flowed to the hanging bows. The good ship might sail nomore. Her back was broken.
That was the only time that I have ever seen my father weep. But as thestout timbers cracked and groaned under the strain it seemed to him asif the ship that he loved was calling piteously to him for help that hecould not give, and it was too much for him. The gale that was yetraging overhead and the sea that was still terrible in the wide watersof the river had been things that had not moved him, for that the shipshould break up in a last struggle with them was, as it were, a fittingend for her. But that by his fault here in the hardly-won haven sheshould meet her end was not to be borne, and he turned away from us andwept.
Then came my mother and set her hand on his shoulder and spoke softly tohim with wise words.
"Husband, but a little while ago it would have been wonderful if therewere one of us left alive, or one plank of the ship on another. And nowwe are all safe and unhurt, and the loss of the ship is the least ofills that might have been."
"Nay, wife," he said; "you cannot understand."
"Then it is woe for the--for the one who is with us. But how had itbeen if you had seen Hodulf and his men round our house, and all thechildren slain that one might not escape, while on the roof crowed thered cock, and naught was left to us? We have lost less than if we hadstayed for that, and we have gained what we sought, even safety. See, tothe shore have come the ancient holy things of our house, and that notby your guidance. Surely here shall be the place for us that is best."
"Ay, wife; you are right in all these things, but it is not for them."
Then she laughed a little, forcing herself to do so, as it seemed.
"Why, then, it is for the ship that I was ever jealous of, for she tookyou away from me. Now I think that I should be glad that she can do sono more. But I am not, for well I know what the trouble must be, and Iwould have you think no more of it. The good ship has saved us all, andso her work is done, and well done. Never, if she sailed many a long seamile with you, would anything be worth telling of her besides this. Andthe burden of common things would surely be all unmeet for her afterwhat she has borne hither."
"It is well said, Leva, my wife," my father answered.
From that time he was cheerful, and told us how it was certain that wehad been brought here for good, seeing that the Norns[7] must have led thestones to the haven, so that this must be the place that we sought.
CHAPTER VI. THE BEGINNING OF GRIMSBY TOWN.
Easily we went ashore when the tide fell, across the spits of sand thatran between the mud banks, and we climbed the low sandhill range thathid the land from us, and saw the place where we should bide. And itmight have been worse; for all the level country between us and thehills was fat, green meadow and marsh, on which were many cattle andsheep feeding. Here and there were groves of great trees, hemmed in withthe quickset fences that are as good as stockades for defence round thefarmsteads of the English folk, and on other patches of rising groundwere the huts of thralls or herdsmen, and across the wide meadowsglittered and flashed streams and meres, above which the wildfowl thatthe storm had driven inland wheeled in clouds. All the lower hillsseemed to be wooded thickly, and the alder copses that would shelterboar and deer and maybe wolves stretched in some places thence acrossthe marsh. Pleasant and homely seemed all this after long looking at therestless sea.
Then said my father, "Now am I no longer Grim the merchant, and thatpride of mine is at an end. But here is a place where Grim the fishermay do well enough, if I am any judge of shore and sea. Here have wehaven for the boats, and yonder swim the fish, and inland are the townsthat need them. Nor have we seen a sign of a fisher so far as we have come."
Now we had been seen as soon as we stood on the sandhills; and beforelong the herdsman and thralls began to gather to us, keeping aloofsomewhat at first, as if fearing my father's arms. But when we spokewith them we could learn nothing, for they were Welsh marshmen who knewbut little of the tongue of their English masters. Serfs they were nowin these old fastnesses of theirs to the English folk of theLindiswaras, who had won their land and called it after their own name,Lindsey.
But before long there rode from one of the farmsteads an Englishman ofsome rank, who had been sent for, as it would seem, and he came withhalf a dozen armed housecarls behind him to see what was going on. Himwe could understand well enough, for there is not so much differencebetween our tongue and that of the English; and when he learned ourplight he was very kindly. His name was Witlaf Stalling, and he was thegreat man of these parts, being lord over many a mile of the marsh andupland, and dwelling at his own place, Stallingborough, some five milesto the north and inland hence.
Now it had been in this man's power to seize us and all we had as hisown, seeing that we were cast on his shore; but he treated us as guestsrather, bidding us shelter in one of his near farmsteads as long as wewould, and telling my father to come and speak with him when we hadsaved what we could from the wreck. He bade the thralls help at thatalso, so that we had fallen in with a friend, and our troubles were lessfor his kindness.
We saved what cargo we had left during the next few days, while we dweltat the farm. Then at the height of the spring tides the ship broke up,for a second gale came before the sea that the last had raised was gone.And then I went with my father to speak with Witlaf the thane atStallingborough, that we might ask his leave to make our home on thelittle haven, and there become fishers once more.
That he granted readily, asking many questions about our troubles, forhe wondered that one who had owned so good a ship seemed so content tobecome a mere fisher in a strange land, without thought of making hisway home. But all that my father told him was that he had had to flyfrom the new king of our land, and that he had been a fisher before, sothat there was no hardship in the change.
"Friend Grim," said Witlaf when he had heard this, "you are a brave man,as it seems to me, and well may you prosper here, as once before. I willnot stand in your way. Now, if you will hold it from me on condition ofservice in any time of war, to be rendered by yourself and your sons andany men you may hire, I will grant you what land you will along thecoast, so that none may question you in anything. Not that the land isworth aught to any but a fisher who needs a place for boats and nets;but if you prosper, others will come to the place, and you shall be master."
One could hardly have sought so much as that, and heartily did we thankthe kindly thane, gladly taking the fore shore as he wished. But he saidthat he thought the gain was on his side, seeing what men he had won.
"Now we must call the place by a name, for it has none," he said,laughing. "Grim's Stead, maybe?"
"Call the place a town at once," answered my father, laughing also."Grimsby has a good sound to a homeless man."
So Grimsby the place has been from that day forward, and, as I suppose,will be now to the end of time. But for a while there was only the onehouse that we built of the timbers and planks of our ship by the side ofthe haven--a good house enough for a fisher and his family, but notwhat one would look for from the name.
By the time that was built Havelok was himself again, though he had beennear to his death. Soon he waxed strong and rosy in the sea winds, andout-went Withelm both in stature and strength. But it seemed that of allthat had happened he remembered naught, either of the storm, or of hismother's death, or of the time of Hodulf. My mother thought that thesickness had take
n away his memory, and that it might come back in time.But from the day we came to the house on the shore he was content tocall Grim and Leva father and mother, and ourselves were his brothers,even as he will hold us even now. Yet my father would never take himwith us to the fishing, as was right, seeing who he was and what mightlie before him. Nor did he ever ask to go, as we had asked since we wereable to climb into the boat as she lay on the shore; and we who knew notwho he was, and almost forgot how he came to us, ceased to wonder atthis after a while; and it seemed right that he should be thehome-stayer, as if there must needs be one in every household.
Nevertheless he was always the foremost in all our sports, loving theweapon play best of all, so that it was no softness that kept him fromthe sea. I hold that the old saw that says, "What is bred in the bonecometh out in the flesh," is true, and never truer than in the ways ofHavelok.
For it is not to be thought that because my father went back perforce tothe fisher's calling he forgot that the son of Gunnar Kirkeban should bebrought up always in such wise that when the time came he should beready to go to the slayer of his father, sword in hand, and knowing howto use it. Therefore both Havelok and we were trained always in thecraft of the warrior.
Witlaf the thane was right when he said that men would draw to the placeif we prospered, and it was not so long before the name that had been ajest at first was so no longer. Truly we had hard times at first, forour one ship's boat was all unfitted for the fishing; but the Humberteemed with fish, and there were stake nets to be set that need no boat.None seemed to care for taking the fish but ourselves, for the Englishfolk had no knowledge of the riches to be won from the sea, and the eelsof the river were the best that they ever saw. So they were very readyto buy, and soon the name of Grim the fisher was known far and wide inLindsey, for my father made great baskets of the willows of the marsh,and carried his burden of fish through the land, alone at first, untilwe were able to help him, while Arngeir and we minded the nets.
Only two of our men stayed here with us, being fishers and old comradesof my father. The rest he bade find their way home to Denmark to theirwives and children, from the Northumbrian coast, or else take servicewith the king, Ethelwald, who ruled in East Anglia, beyond the Wash,who, being a Dane by descent from the Jutes who took part with Anglesand Saxons in winning this new land, was glad to have Danish men for hishousecarls. Some went to him, and were well received there, as we knewlong afterwards.
The man who had been washed overboard and hauled back at risk of hisneck was one of these. His name was Mord, and he would have stayed withus; but my father thought it hard that he should not have some betterchance than we could give him here, for it was not easy to live atfirst. Somewhat of the same kind he said to Arngeir, for he had heard ofthis king when he had been in the king's new haven in the Wash some timeago. But Arngeir would by no means leave the uncle who had been as afather to him.
Now when we marked out the land that Witlaf gave us, there was a goodomen. My father set the four blue altar stones at each corner of theland as the boundaries, saying that thus they would hallow all theplace, rather than make an altar again of them here where there was nogrove to shelter them, or, indeed, any other spot that was not open,where a holy place might be. And when we measured the distances betweenthem a second time they were greater than at first, which betokens thebest of luck to him whose house is to be there. I suppose that they willbide in these places now while Grimsby is a town, for, as every oneknows, it is unlucky to move a boundary stone.
Soon my father found a man who had some skill in the shipwright's craft,and brought him to our place from Saltfleet. Then we built as good aboat as one could wish, and, not long after that, another. But my fatherwas careful that none of the Lindsey folk whom he had known should thinkthat this fisher was the Grim whom they had once traded with, lest wordshould go to Hodulf in any way.
Now we soon hired men to help us, and the fishing throve apace. Wecarried the fish even to the great city of Lincoln, where Alsi theLindsey king had his court, though it was thirty miles away. For we hadmen in the villages on the road who took the great baskets on from oneto another, and always Grim and one of us were there on the market day,and men said that never had the town and court seen such fish as Grim'sbefore. Soon, therefore, he was rich, for a fisher; and that was heardof by other fishers from far off, and they drew to Grimsby, so that thetown spread, and Witlaf the good thane said that it was a lucky daywhich drove us to his shore, for he waxed rich with dues that they werewilling to pay. We built boats and let them out to these men, so thatone might truly say that all the fishery was Grim's.
Then a trading ship put in, hearing of the new haven, and that was agreat day for us. But her coming made my father anxious, since Hodulfwas likely to seek for news of Grim the merchant from any who had beento England; and hearing at last of him, he would perhaps be down on us,Vikingwise, with fire and sword. But after that traders came and went,and we heard naught of him except we asked for news; for he left us inpeace, if he knew that his enemy lived yet. Men said that he was notmuch loved in Denmark.
So the town grew, and well did we prosper, so that there is naught to besaid of any more trouble, which is what my story seems to be made up ofso far. Yet we had come well through all at last; and that, I suppose,is what makes the tale of any man worth hearing.
Twelve years went all well thus, and in those years Havelok came tomanhood, though not yet to his full strength. What that would be in afew more summers none could tell, for he was already almost a giant inbuild and power, so that he could lift and carry at once the four greatfish baskets, which we bore one at a time when full of fish, easily, andit was he who could get a stranded boat afloat when we could hardly moveher between us, though all three of us were strong as we grew up.
Very handsome was Havelok also, and, like many very strong men, veryquiet. And all loved him, from the children who played along the water'sedge to the oldest dame in the town; for he had a good word for all, andthere was not one in the place whom he had not helped at one time oranother. More than one there was who owed him life--either his own, orthat of a child saved from the water.
Most of all Havelok loved my father; and once, when he was abouteighteen, he took it into his head that he was burdensome to him byreason of his great growth. So nothing would satisfy him but that hemust go with us to the fishing, though it was against Grim's willsomewhat. But he could make no hand at it, seeing that he could pull anytwo of us round if he took an oar, and being as likely as not to breakthat moreover. Nor could he bear the quiet of the long waiting at thedrift nets, when hour after hour of the night goes by in silence beforethe herring shoal comes in a river of blue and silver and the buoys sinkwith its weight; rather would he be at the weapon play with the sons ofWitlaf, our friend, who loved him.
But though the fishing was not for him, after a while he would not beidle, saying, when my father tried to persuade him to trouble not at allabout our work, that it was no shame for a man to work, but, rather,that he should not do so. So one day he went to the old Welsh basketmaker who served us, and bade him make a great basket after his ownpattern, the like of which the old man had never so much as thought of.
"Indeed, master," he said, when it was done, "you will never be able tocarry so great a load of fish as that will hold."
"Let us see," quoth Havelok, laughing; and with that he put him gentlyinto it, and lifted him into the air, and on to his mighty shoulder,carrying him easily, and setting him down in safety.
The basket maker was cross at first, but none was able to be angry withHavelok long, and he too began to smile.
"It is 'curan' that you are, master," he said; "not even Arthur himselfcould have done that."
"Many times have I heard your folk call me that. I would learn what itmeans," said Havelok.
But the old man could hardly find the English word for the name, whichmeans "a wonder," and nothing more. Nevertheless the marsh folk werewont to call their friend "Hablok Curan" in t
heir talk, for a wonder hewas to all who knew him.
So he came home with his great basket, and said, "Here sit I by thefire, eating more than my share, and helping to win it not at all. Nowwill I make amends, for I will go the fisher's rounds through themarshlands with my basket, and I think that I shall do well."
Now my father tried to prevent him doing this, because, as I know now,it was not work for a king's son. But Havelok would not be denied.
"Fat and idle am I, and my muscles need hardening," he said. "Let me go,father, for I was restless at home."
So from that time he went out into the marshland far and wide, and thepeople grew to know and love him well. Always he came back with his fishsold, and gave money and full account to my father, and mostly theaccount would end thus:
"Four fish also there were more, but the burden was heavy, and so I evengave them to a certain old dame."
And my mother would say, "It is likely that the burden was lighter forher blessing."
And, truly, if the love of poor folk did help, Havelok's burden weighednaught, great though it was.
Yet we thought little of the blessings of the Welsh folk of the marsh inthose days, for they blessed not in the names of the Asir, being sons ofthe British Christians of long ago, and many, as I think, Christiansyet. Witlaf and all the English folk were Odin's men, as we were, havinga temple at the place called Thor's Way, among the hills. But we hadnaught to do with the faith of the thralls, which was not our business.Only Withelm was curious in the matter, and was wont to ask them thereofat times, though at first they feared to tell him anything, seeing howthe Saxons and English had treated the Christian folk at their firstcoming. But that was forgotten now, by the English at least, and
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