Orm replied: “We men of the north do not worship our gods except in time of necessity, for we think it foolish to weary them with babbling. In this land we have worshipped no god since the time when we sacrificed to the sea-god to bless our homeward voyage with luck; and that proved to be of little use to us, for not long afterwards your ships appeared and we whom you see here became your captives. Perchance it may be that our gods wield but little power in this land; therefore, lord, I for my part shall willingly obey your command and worship your God while I am your servant. If it be your pleasure, I shall ask my comrades what is their feeling in this matter.”
Almansur nodded his assent, and Orm said to his men: “He says that we must worship his God. He has only one God, who is called Allah, and who dislikes all other gods. My own belief is that his God is powerful in this country, and that our gods are weak so far away from our homeland and theirs. We shall receive better treatment if we follow the custom of the people in this matter, and I think it would be foolish of us to go against Almansur’s wishes.”
The men agreed that they had little choice, and that it would be madness to anger so mighty a lord as Almansur; at length, therefore, Orm turned to Almansur and informed him that they were all willing to worship Allah and to promise to invoke no other god.
Almansur then summoned two priests into his presence, together with a magistrate, before whom Orm and his men were made to repeat the holy creed of the servants of Mohammed, as pronounced to Orm by Almansur: namely, that there is no God save Allah, and that Mohammed is His Prophet. All the men save Orm found difficulty in enunciating the words, though they were carefully spelled out to them.
When this ceremony was completed, Almansur appeared to be well pleased, and told the priests that he felt that he had thereby done a good service to Allah, with which they agreed. Then, putting his hand into the copper box that stood on his table, he took from it a handful of gold coins and gave fifteen pieces to each of the men, but thirty to Orm. They thanked him, and were conducted by the commander back to their own quarters.
Toke said: “Now we have bidden farewell to our gods. This may be a right thing to do in a foreign land, where other gods reign; but if I ever reach home again, I shall bother more about them than about this Allah. Still, I dare say he is the best god in these parts, and he has already provided us with gold. If he can manage to provide a few women too, he will rise even higher in my estimation.”
A short while afterwards Almansur declared war against the Christians and set out northwards with his Imperial bodyguard and a mighty army. He plundered for three months in Navarre and Aragon, during which time Orm and his men won both gold and women, so that they declared themselves well satisfied to serve such a master. Each subsequent spring and autumn they found themselves in the field under Almansur’s banners, resting in Córdoba during the worst of the summer heat and during those months of the year which the people of the south call winter. They did their best to accustom themselves to the habits of the country, and found little cause for complaint in their employment, for Almansur often rewarded them with rich gifts, to secure their loyalty, and everything that they won by storm or plunder they were permitted to keep for themselves, apart from one fifth, which they had to yield to him.
Sometimes, however, they found it somewhat irksome to be followers of Allah and servants of the Prophet. Whenever on their expeditions they found wine or pork in the Christians' houses, they were forbidden to enjoy either commodity, though they longed for both. This decree, which appeared to them more extraordinary than any they had previously heard of, they seldom dared to disobey, for Almansur punished any disobedience very strictly. In addition to this, they found themselves having to pray to Allah and abase themselves before the Prophet far too often for their taste; for every morning and evening when Almansur was in the field, the whole of his army would fall to its knees, facing the direction in which the City of the Prophet was said to lie, and every man had to bow several times, pressing his forehead against the earth. This seemed to them a debasing and ridiculous thing for a man to have to do, but they agreed that there was nothing for it but to conform to this custom as best they could and do as the rest of the army did.
They excelled in battle and won a great name for themselves in the bodyguard. They held themselves to be the best men in it, and when the time came for the dividing up of booty, no man challenged their right to whatever they chose. There were eight of them, all told: Orm and Toke, Halle and ögmund, Tume, who had rowed with Toke, Gunne, who had rowed with Krok, Rapp, who was one-eyed, and Ulf, who was the oldest of them. Once, long before, he had had one of the corners of his mouth split at a Christmas feast, ever since when he had been known as Grinulf, because his mouth sat awry and was broader than other men’s. Their luck was so good that only one of them lost his life during all the four years that they were in Almansur’s service.
They traveled far and wide, for the more Almansur’s beard became flecked with gray, the more vehemently he harried the Christians, spending less and less time peacefully at home in his palace at Córdoba. They were with him when he marched far northwards to Pamplona, in the Kingdom of Navarre, where twice they attempted vainly to storm the city; but the third time, they took it and gave it to the sword. Here Tume, who had shared Toke’s oar in the galley, was killed by a stone from a catapult. They sailed in Almansur’s own ship to Majorca, when the governor of that island had shown himself refractory, and stood guard while his head was struck off, together with those of thirty of his kinsmen. They fought in dust and heat a grim conflict at Henares, where the Count of Castile’s men pressed them hard but were at length encircled and annihilated. There, on the evening following the battle, the dead Christians were piled together and built into a great mound of corpses, from the summit of which one of Almansur’s priests called the servants of the Prophet to prayer. Then they marched on a huge expedition to the Kingdom of León, where they harried King Sancho the Fat so sorely that in the end his own men found him dispensable (for he was so fat that he could no longer sit on a horse) and deposed him and came with tribute to Almansur.
Throughout all these campaigns Orm and his men never ceased to marvel at Almansur’s sagacity and power and at the great luck that always attended his enterprises; but most of all they marveled at the extent of his fear of Allah, and the variety of measures that he was forever devising to placate his God. All the dirt that gathered on his shoes and clothing when he was in the field was carefully scraped off each evening by his servants and placed in a silken bag; and at the conclusion of every campaign this bagful of dirt was brought back to Córdoba. He had ordained that all this dirt that he had collected in his wars against the Christians was to be buried with him when he died, because the Prophet had said: “Blessed are those who have trodden dusty ways to fight against the unbelievers.”
Despite all this dirt, however, Almansur’s dread of Allah no whit decreased, and finally he decided to undertake a mightier enterprise than any that he had yet attempted: namely, to destroy the holy city of the Christians in Asturia, in which the apostle James, the great miracle-worker, lay buried. In the autumn of the twelfth year of the reign of the Caliph Hisham, which was the fourth year that Orm and his men spent in Almansur’s service, he assembled an army larger than any that had ever before been seen in Spain, and marched northwestwards, proceeding through the Empty Land, which was the old dividing barrier between the Andalusians and the Asturian Christians.
They reached the Christian settlements on the far side of the Empty Land, which no Andalusian had penetrated in mortal memory, and each day saw them engaged in hard fighting, for the Christians defended themselves cunningly among the mountains and ravines. Then one evening, when the army had pitched camp and Almansur was resting in his great tent after evening prayer, the Christians launched a surprise attack. At first they threatened to overwhelm the Mohammedans, for a troop of them broke into the camp and created a panic, the air becoming wild with war-cries and shrieks
for help. Hearing these, Almansur hastened forth from his tent, wearing his helmet and carrying his sword, but without his armor, to see what was afoot. Now, that evening Orm and two of his men, Halle and Rapp the One-Eyed, were standing guard at the entrance to the tent. As Almansur emerged, several of the enemy’s horsemen appeared, galloping toward the tent at full speed. When they saw Almansur, they recognized him by his green helmet-veil (for he was the only man in the army who wore that color) and, yelling triumphantly, cast their spears at him. It was a dark night, and Almansur was old and could not have evaded them; but Orm, who was standing nearest to him, flung himself suddenly at his back, bowling him over on to his face and taking two of the spears on his shield and a third in his shoulder. A fourth grazed Almansur’s side as he lay on the ground, and drew blood. Halle and Rapp rushed forward to meet the enemy, casting their spears at them and bringing one man from his horse; then others swarmed to their assistance from all directions, and the Christians were killed or put to flight.
Orm pulled the spear out of his shoulder and assisted Almansur to his feet, wondering dubiously how his master would feel about being knocked face downwards on to the ground. Almansur, however, was hugely pleased with his wound. It was the first that he had ever received, and he reckoned it as a piece of great good luck that he had been allowed to spill his blood for Allah’s sake, without sustaining any serious injury in the process. He ordered three of his cavalry commanders to be summoned before him, and rebuked them publicly before his assembled officers for not having kept better watch over the camp. They prostrated themselves at his feet and confessed their negligence; whereupon Almansur, as was his wont when he was in a good humor, allowed them time to say their prayers and bind up their beards before being led to execution.
To Halle and Rapp he gave a fistful of gold each. Then, while all the officers of the army were still drawn up before him, he bade Orm step forward. Almansur stared at him and said: “Red-bearded man, you have laid your hand upon your master, which it is forbidden for any soldier to do. What answer have you to make to this charge?”
Orm replied: “The air was alive with spears, and there was naught else to be done. But it is my belief, lord, that your honor is so great that what has happened cannot harm it. Besides which, you fell with your face toward your enemies, so that no man can say that you shrank from them.”
Almansur sat fingering his beard silently. Then he nodded and said: “It is a good answer. And you saved my life; and I have work yet to accomplish.”
He ordered a neck-chain to be brought from his coffers; it was of gold, and heavy. He said: “I see that a spear found your shoulder. Perchance it may prove painful. Here is balm for the pain.”
So saying, he hung the chain around Orm’s neck, which was an exceedingly rare honor for him to grant. After this incident Orm and his men stood even higher in Almansur’s favor than before. Toke examined the chain and expressed his delight that Orm had won so rich a gift.
“Without doubt,” he said, “this Almansur is the best master that a man could wish to serve. All the same, I think it was lucky for you, and for the rest of us, that you did not push him on to his back.”
Next day the army continued its march; and at length they came to the holy city of the Christians, where the apostle James lay buried, with a great church built over his grave. Here there was heavy fighting, for the Christians, believing that the apostle would come to their aid, fought to the limit of their endurance; but in the end Almansur overcame them, and the city was taken and burned. Hither Christians from all parts of their country had brought their most valuable treasures for safe keeping, for the city had never before been threatened by any enemy; consequently an enormous quantity of booty was captured, together with many prisoners. It was Almansur’s especial wish to raze the great church that stood over the apostle’s grave, but this was of stone and would not burn. Instead, therefore, he set his prisoners, aided by men from his own army, to pull it down. Now, in the tower of this church there hung twelve bells, each one bearing the name of an apostle. They had a most melodious note, and were greatly prized by the Christians, in particular the largest of them all, which was called James.
Almansur commanded that these bells should be taken back to Córdoba by the Christian captives, there to be placed in the great mosque with their mouths facing upwards, so that they might be filled with sweet-scented oil and burn perpetually as great lamps to the glory of Allah and the Prophet. They were enormously heavy, and great litters were built to hold them; sixty prisoners were set to carry each bell in one of these litters, working in shifts. But the James bell was so heavy that no litter could be built to take it, and they knew it would not be possible to convey it by ox-cart across the mountain passes. Almansur, however, was very unwilling to leave it behind, for he regarded it as the finest item of spoil that he had ever won.
Accordingly, he had a platform built for the bell to be placed upon, in order that this platform might be dragged on rollers to a nearby river, whence it and the bell could be removed to Córdoba by ship. When the platform was ready and the rollers had been placed beneath it, iron bars were passed through the hasps of the bell, and a number of men tried to lift it on to the platform; but the southerners lacked either the strength or the enthusiasm for the work; and when longer bars were tried, so that more men might help with the lifting, the bars broke and the bell remained on the ground.
Orm and his men, who had come to watch the work, began to laugh; then Toke said: “Six grown men ought to be able to lift that without much trouble,” and Orm said: “Four should be able to manage it.”
Then he and Toke and ögmund and Rapp the One-Eyed walked up to the bell, ran a short bar through the hasps, and lifted the bell up and on to the platform.
Almansur, who had been riding past on his horse, stopped to watch them do this. He called Orm to him, and said: “Allah has blessed you and your men with great strength, praised be His name! It would seem that you are the men to see that this bell is safely conveyed to the ship, and to guard it on its passage to Córdoba; for I know no other men capable of handling it.”
Orm bowed, and replied that this task did not appear to him to be difficult.
Then Almansur had a body of good slaves chosen from among the prisoners, and ordered them to draw the bell down to the river at a point where it began to be navigable, after which they were to serve as oarsmen on a ship awaiting them there, which had been captured from the Asturians. Two officials from Almansur’s staff were sent with them, to be in charge during the voyage.
Ropes were tied to the platform, and Orm and his men set off with the bell and its slaves, some of the prisoners drawing it, and others placing rollers before it. It was a tedious journey, for the path they had to follow led, for the most part, downhill, so that sometimes the bell slid forwards under its own momentum, and in the early stages some of the slaves who were changing the rollers were crushed. Orm, however, made them fasten a drag-rope to the rear of the platform, so that they might be able to control it where the going was steep. Thereafter, they made better progress, and so eventually came down to the river, where the ship lay at anchor.
It was a merchant ship, smallish, but strongly built, with a good deck, ten pairs of oars, a mast, and a sail. Orm and his men lifted the bell aboard and made it fast with ropes and chocks; then they put the slaves in their places at the oars and moved off down the river. This river ran westwards, north of that river up which Krok’s ships had rowed on their way to the margrave’s fortress; and the Northmen were happy to find themselves once again in charge of a ship.
The Vikings took it in turns to keep an eye on the rowers, whom they found mulish and very clumsy at their work. They were disappointed to find that there were no ankle-chains in the ship, for this meant that someone had to keep watch throughout the night; and in spite of this, a couple of the prisoners, who had felt the whip, managed to escape. Orm’s men agreed that they had never seen such miserable rowing before, and that if it went
on like this, they would never reach Córdoba.
When they came to the mouth of the river, they found there many of Almansur’s great warships, which had been unable, on account of their size, to sail up the river, though most of the soldiers from them had marched inland to join in the general plundering. Orm’s men were glad to see these ships, and he immediately sent both the officials to borrow as many ankle-chains as possible from the various captains, until he had obtained all that he needed. Then the slaves were fettered to their places. Orm also took this opportunity of laying in stores for the voyage, for it was a long way to Córdoba. Having done this, they lay at anchor by the warships in a sheltered bay, to wait for good sailing weather.
In the evening Orm went ashore, together with Toke and Gunne, leaving the rest of his men to guard the ship. They walked down the shore in the direction of some small warehouses, in which traders had established themselves for the purpose of bargaining for the loot that had been won, and to sell necessaries to the ships. They had all but reached the first warehouse when six men from one of the ships entered it, and Gunne suddenly halted in his tracks.
“We have business to transact with those men,” he said. “Did you notice the first two?”
Neither Orm nor Toke had observed their faces.
Gunne said: “They were the men who killed Krok.”
Orm paled, and a tremor ran through his body.
The Long Ships Page 11
