CHAPTER XXXI. OF THE WEAPON-SHOW OF THE MEN OF BURGDALE AND THEIRNEIGHBOURS.
NOW on the day appointed for the Weapon-show came the Folk flock-meal tothe great and wide meadow that was cleft by Wildlake as it ran to jointhe Weltering Water. Early in the morning, even before sunrise, had thewains full of women and children begun to come thither. Also there camelittle horses and asses from the Shepherd country with one or two orthree damsels or children sitting on each, and by wain-side or by beaststrode the men of the house, merry and fair in their war-gear. TheWoodlanders, moreover, man and woman, elder and swain and young damsel,streamed out of the wood from Carlstead, eager to make the day beginbefore the sunrise, and end before his setting.
Then all men fell to pitching of tents and tilting over of wains; for theApril sun was hot in the Dale, and when he arose the meads were gay withmore than the spring flowers; for the tents and the tilts were stainedand broidered with many colours, and there was none who had not furbishedup his war-gear so that all shone and glittered. And many wore gaysurcoats over their armour, and the women were clad in all their bravery,and the Houses mostly of a suit; for one bore blue and anothercorn-colour, and another green, and another brazil, and so forth, and allgleaming and glowing with broidery of gold and bright hues. But thewomen of the Shepherds were all clad in white, embroidered with greenboughs and red blossoms, and the Woodland women wore dark red kirtles.Moreover, the women had set garlands of flowers on their heads and thehelms of the men, and for the most part they were slim of body and talland light-limbed, and as dainty to look upon as the willow-boughs thatwaved on the brook-side.
Thither had the goodmen who were guesting the Runaways brought theirguests, even now much bettered by their new soft days; and much the poorfolk marvelled at all this joyance, and they scarce knew where they were;but to some it brought back to their minds days of joyance before thethralldom and all that they had lost, so that their hearts were heavy awhile, till they saw the warriors of the kindreds streaming into the meadand bethought them why they carried steel.
Now by then the sun was fully up there was a great throng on the Portway,and this was the folk of the Burg on their way to the Weapon-mead. Themen-at-arms were in the midst of the throng, and at the head of them wasthe War-leader, with the banner of the Face before him, wherein was donethe image of the God with the ray-ringed head. But at the rearward ofthe warriors went the Alderman and the Burg-wardens, before whom wasborne the banner of the Burg pictured with the Gate and its Towers; butin the midst betwixt those two was the banner of the Steer, a white beaston a green field.
So when the Dale-wardens who were down in the meadow heard the music andbeheld who were coming, they bade the companies of the Dale and theShepherds and the Woodlanders who were down there to pitch their bannersin a half circle about the ingle of the meadow which was made by thestreams of Wildlake and the Weltering Water, and gather to them to beordered there under their leaders of scores and half-hundreds andhundreds; and even so they did. But the banners of the Dale without theBurg were the Bridge, and the Bull, and the Vine, and the Sickle. Andthe Shepherds had three banners, to wit Greenbury, and the Fleece, andthe Thorn.
As for the Woodlanders, they said that they were abiding their greatbanner, but it should come in good time; ‘and meantime,’ said they, ‘hereare the war-tokens that we shall fight under; for they are good enoughbanners for us poor men, the remnant of the valiant of time past.’Therewith they showed two great spears, and athwart the one was tied anarrow, its point dipped in blood, its feathers singed with fire; and theysaid, ‘This is the banner of the War-shaft.’
On the other spear there was nought; but the head thereof was great andlong, and they had so burnished the steel that the sun smote out a ray oflight from it, so that it might be seen from afar. And they said: ‘Thisis the Banner of the Spear! Down yonder where the ravens are gatheringye shall see a banner flying over us. There shall fall many a mother’sson.’
Smiled the Dale-wardens, and said that these were good banners to fightunder; and those that stood nearby shouted for the valiancy of theWoodland Carles.
Now the Dale-wardens went to the entrance from the Portway to the meadow,and there met the Men of the Burg, and two of them went one on eitherside of the War-leader to show him to his seat, and the others abode tillthe Alderman and Burg-wardens came up, and then joined themselves tothem, and the horns blew up both in the meadow and on the road, and thenew-comers went their ways to their appointed places amidst the shouts ofthe Dalesmen; and the women and children and old men from the Burgfollowed after, till all the mead was covered with bright raiment andglittering gear, save within the ring of men at the further end.
So came the War-leader to his seat of green turf raised in the ingleaforesaid; and he stood beside it till the Alderman and Wardens had takentheir places on a seat behind him raised higher than his; below him onthe step of his seat sat the Scrivener with his pen and ink-horn andscroll of parchment, and men had brought him a smooth shield whereon towrite.
On the left side of Face-of-god stood the men of the Face all glitteringin their arms, and amongst them were Wolf-stone and his two fellows, butDallach was not yet whole of his hurts. On his right were the folk ofthe House of the Steer: the leader of that House was an old white-beardedman, grandfather of the Bride, for her father was dead; and who but theBride herself stood beside him in her glorious war-gear, looking as ifshe were new come from the City of the Gods, thought most men; but thosewho beheld her closely deemed that she looked heavy-eyed and haggard, asif she were aweary. Nevertheless, wheresoever she passed, and whosoeverlooked on her (and all men looked on her), there arose a murmur of praiseand love; and the women, and especially the young ones, said how fair herdeed was, and how meet she was for it; and some of them were for doing onwar-gear and faring to battle with the carles; and of these some weresober and solemn, as was well seen afterwards, and some spake lightly:some also fell to boasting of how they could run and climb and swim andshoot in the bow, and fell to baring of their arms to show how strongthey were: and indeed they were no weaklings, though their arms werefair.
There then stood the ring of men, each company under its banner; andbeyond them stood the women and children and men unmeet for battle; andbeyond them again the tilted wains and the tents.
Now Face-of-god sat him down on the turf-seat with his bright helm on hishead and his naked sword across his knees, while the horns blew uploudly, and when they had done, the elder of the Dale-wardens cried outfor silence. Then again arose Face-of-god and said:
‘Men of the Dale, and ye friends of the Shepherds, and ye, O valiantWoodlanders; we are not assembled here to take counsel, for in threedays’ time shall the Great Folk-mote be holden, whereat shall be counselenough. But since I have been appointed your Chief and War-leader, tillsuch time as the Folk-mote shall either yeasay or naysay my leadership, Ihave sent for you that we may look each other in the face and number ourhost and behold our weapons, and see if we be meet for battle and for thedealing with a great host of foemen. For now no longer can it be saidthat we are going to war, but rather that war is on our borders, and weare blended with it; as many have learned to their cost; for some havebeen slain and some sorely hurt. Therefore I bid you now, all ye thatare weaponed, wend past us that the tale of you may be taken. But firstlet every hundred-leader and half-hundred-leader and score-leader makesure that he hath his tale aright, and give his word to the captain ofhis banner that he in turn may give it out to the Scrivener with his nameand the House and Company that he leadeth.’
So he spake and sat him adown; and the horns blew again in token that thecompanies should go past; and the first that came was Hall-ward of theHouse of the Steer, and the first of those that went after him was theBride, going as if she were his son.
So he cried out his name, and the name of his House, and said, ‘Anhundred and a half,’ and passed forth, his men following him in mostgoodly array. Each man was girt with a good sword and bore a lo
ng heavyspear over his shoulder, save a score who bare bows; and no man lacked ahelm, a shield, and a coat of fence.
Then came a goodly man of thirty winters, and stayed before the Scrivenerand cried out:
‘Write down the House of the Bridge of the Upper Dale at one hundred, andWar-well their leader.’
And he strode on, and his men followed clad and weaponed like those ofthe Steer, save that some had axes hanging to their girdles instead ofswords; and most bore casting-spears instead of the long spears, and halfa score were bowmen.
Then came Fox of Upton leading the men of the Bull of Middale, an hundredand a half lacking two; very great and tall were his men, and they alsobore long spears, and one score and two were bowmen.
Then Fork-beard of Lea, a man well on in years, led on the men of theVine, an hundred and a half and five men thereto; two score of them barebow in hand and were girt with sword; the rest bore their swords naked intheir right hands, and their shields (which were but small bucklers)hanging at their backs, and in the left hand each bore twocasting-spears. With these went two doughty women-at-arms among thebowmen, tall and well-knit, already growing brown with the spring sun,for their work lay among the stocks of the vines on the southward-lookingbents.
Next came a tall young man, yellow-haired, with a thin red beard, andgave himself out for Red-beard of the Knolls; he bore his father’s name,as the custom of their house was, but the old man, who had long been headman of the House of the Sickle, was late dead in his bed, and the youngman had not seen twenty winters. He bade the Scrivener write the tale ofthe Men of the Sickle at an hundred and a half, and his folk fared pastthe War-leader joyously, being one half of them bowmen; and fell shootersthey were; the other half were girt with swords, and bore withal longashen staves armed with great blades curved inwards, which weapon theycalled heft-sax.
All these bands, as the name and the tale of them was declared weregreeted with loud shouts from their fellows and the bystanders; but nowarose a greater shout still, as Stone-face, clad in goodly glitteringarray, came forth and said:
‘I am Stone-face of the House of the Face, and I bring with me twohundreds of men with their best war-gear and weapons: write it down,Scrivener!’
And he strode on like a young man after those who had gone past, andafter him came the tall Hall-face and his men, a gallant sight to see:two score bowmen girt with swords, and the others with naked swordswaving aloft, and each bearing two casting-spears in his left hand.
Then came a man of middle age, broad-shouldered, yellow-haired,blue-eyed, of wide and ruddy countenance, and after him a goodly company;and again great was the shout that went up to the heavens; for he said:
‘Scrivener, write down that Hound-under-Greenbury, from amongst thedwellers in the hills where the sheep feed, leadeth the men who go underthe banner of Greenbury, to the tale of an hundred and four score.’
Therewith he passed on, and his men followed, stout, stark, andmerry-faced, girt with swords, and bearing over their shoulderslong-staved axes, and spears not so long as those which the Dalesmenbore; and they had but a half score of arrow-shot with them.
Next came a young man, blue-eyed also, with hair the colour of flax onthe distaff, broad-faced and short-nosed, low of stature, but verystrong-built, who cried out in a loud, cheerful voice:
‘I am Strongitharm of the Shepherds, and these valiant men are of theFleece and the Thorn blended together, for so they would have it; andtheir tale is one hundred and two score and ten.’
Then the men of those kindreds went past merry and shouting, and theywere clad and weaponed like to them of Greenbury, but had with them ascore of bowmen. And all these Shepherd-folk wore over their hauberkswhite woollen surcoats broidered with green and red.
Now again uprose the cry, and there stood before the War-leader a verytall man of fifty winters, dark-faced and grey-eyed, and he spake slowlyand somewhat softly, and said:
‘War-leader, this is Red-wolf of the Woodlanders leading the men who gounder the sign of the War-shaft, to the number of an hundred and two.’
Then he passed on, and his men after him, tall, lean, and silent amidstthe shouting. All these men bare bows, for they were keen hunters; eachhad at his girdle a little axe and a wood-knife, and some had long swordswithal. They wore, everyone of the carles, short green surcoats overtheir coats of fence; but amongst them were three women who bore likeweapons to the men, but were clad in red kirtles under their hauberks,which were of good ring-mail gleaming over them from throat to knee.
Last came another tall man, but young, of twenty-five winters, and spake:
‘Scrivener, I am Bears-bane of the Woodlanders, and these that come afterme wend under the sign of the Spear, and they are of the tale of onehundred and seven.’
And he passed by at once, and his men followed him, clad and weaponed nootherwise than they of the War-shaft, and with them were two women.
Now went all those companies back to their banners, and stood there; andthere arose among the bystanders much talk concerning the Weapon-show,and who were the best arrayed of the Houses. And of the old men, somespake of past weapon-shows which they had seen in their youth, and theyset them beside this one, and praised and blamed. So it went on a littlewhile till the horns blew again, and once more there was silence. Thenarose Face-of-god and said:
‘Men of Burgdale, and ye Shepherd-folk, and ye of the Woodland, now shallye wot how many weaponed men we may bring together for this war.Scrivener, arise and give forth the tale of the companies, as they havebeen told unto you.’
Then the Scrivener stood up on the turf-bench beside Face-of-god, andspake in a loud voice, reading from his scroll:
‘Of the Men of Burgdale there have passed by me nine hundreds and six; ofthe Shepherds three hundreds and eight and ten; and of the Woodlanderstwo hundreds and nine; so that all told our men are fourteen hundreds andthirty and three.’
Now in those days men reckoned by long hundreds, so that the whole taleof the host was one thousand, five hundred, and four score and one,telling the tale in short hundreds.
When the tale had been given forth and heard, men shouted again, and theyrejoiced that they were so many. For it exceeded the reckoning which theAlderman had given out at the Gate-thing. But Face-of-god said:
‘Neighbours, we have held our Weapon-show; but now hold you ready, eachman, for the Hosting toward very battle; for belike within seven daysshall the leaders of hundreds and twenties summon you to be ready in armsto take whatso fortune may befall. Now is sundered the Weapon-show. Beye as merry to-day as your hearts bid you to be.’
Therewith he came down from his seat with the Alderman and the Wardens,and they mingled with the good folk of the Dale and the Shepherds and theWoodlanders, and merry was their converse there. It yet lacked an hourof noon; so presently they fell to and feasted in the green meadow,drinking from wain to wain and from tent to tent; and thereafter theyplayed and sported in the meads, shooting at the butts and wrestling, andtrying other masteries. Then they fell to dancing one and all, and so atlast to supper on the green grass in great merriment. Nor might you haveknown from the demeanour of any that any threat of evil overhung theDale. Nay, so glad were they, and so friendly, that you might ratherhave deemed that this was the land whereof tales tell, wherein people dienot, but live for ever, without growing any older than when they firstcome thither, unless they be born into the land itself, and then theygrow into fair manhood, and so abide. In sooth, both the land and thefolk were fair enough to be that land and the folk thereof.
But a little after sunset they sundered, and some fared home; but many ofthem abode in the tents and tilted wains, because the morrow was thefirst day of the Spring Market: and already were some of the Westlandchapmen come; yea, two of them were with the bystanders in the meadow;and more were looked for ere the night was far spent.
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