The Roots of the Mountains

by William Morris

  CHAPTER XLV. OF FACE-OF-GOD’S ONSLAUGHT.

  NOW the banners of the Wolf flapped and rippled over the heads of theWoodlanders and the Men of the Wolf; and the men shot all they might, nortook heed now to cover themselves against the shafts of the Dusky Men.As for these, for all they were so many, their arrow-shot was no greatmatter, for they were in very evil order, as has been said; and moreover,their rage was so great to come to handy strokes with these foemen, thatsome of them flung away their bows to brandish the axe or the sword.Nevertheless were some among the kindred hurt or slain by their arrows.

  Now stood Face-of-god with the foremost; and from where he stood he couldsee somewhat of the battle of the Dalesmen, and he wotted that it wasthriving; therefore he looked before him and close around him, and notedwhat was toward there. The space betwixt the houses and the break of thebent was crowded with the fury of the Dusky Men tossing their weaponsaloft, crying to each other and at the kindred, and here and thereloosing a bow-string on them; but whatever was their rage they might notcome a many together past a line within ten fathom of the bent’s end; forthree hundred of the best of bowmen were shooting at them so ceaselesslythat no Dusky man was safe of any bare place of his body, and they fellover one another in that penfold of slaughter, and for all their madnessdid but little.

  Yet was the heart of the War-leader troubled; for he wotted that it mightnot last for ever, and there seemed no end to the throng ofmurder-carles; and the time would come when the arrowshot would be spent,and they must needs come to handy strokes, and that with so many.

  Now a voice spake to him as he gazed with knitted brows and careful hearton that turmoil of battle:

  ‘What now hast thou done with the Sun-beam, and where is her brother? Isthe Chief of the Wolf skulking when our work is so heavy? And thoumeseemeth art overlate on the field: the mowing of this meadow is nosluggard’s work.’

  He turned and beheld Bow-may, and gazed on her face for a moment, and sawher eyes how they glittered, and how the pommels of her cheeks wereburning red and her lips dry and grey; but before he answered he lookedall round about to see what was to note; and he touched Bow-may on theshoulder and pointed to down below where a man of the Felons had justcome out of the court of one of the houses: a man taller than most, verygaily arrayed, with gilded scales all over him, so that, with his darkface and blue eyes, he looked like some strange dragon. Bow-may spakenot, but stamped her foot with anger. Yet if her heart were hot, herhand was steady; for she notched a shaft, and just as the Dusky Chiefraised his axe and brandished it aloft, she loosed, and the shaft flewand smote the felon in the armpit and the default of the armour, and hefell to earth. But even as she loosed, Face-of-god cried out in a loudvoice:

  ‘O lads of battle! shoot close and all together. Tarry not, tarry not!for we need a little time ere sword meets sword, and the others of thekindreds are at work!’

  But Bow-may turned round to him and said: ‘Wilt thou not answer me?Where is thy kindness gone?’

  Even as she was speaking she had notched and loosed another shaft,speaking as folk do who turn from busy work at loom or bench.

  Then said Face-of-god: ‘Shoot on, sister Bow-may! The Sun-beam is gonewith her brother, and he is with the Men of the Face.’

  He broke off here, for a man fell beside him hurt in the neck, andFace-of-god took his bow from his hands and shot a shaft, while one ofthe women who had been hurt also tended the newly-wounded man. ThenFace-of-god went on speaking:

  ‘She was unwilling to go, but Folk-might and I constrained her; for weknew that this is the most perilous place of the battle—hah! see thosethree felons, Bow-may! they are aiming hither.’

  And again he loosed and Bow-may also, but a shaft rattled on his helmwithal and another smote a Woodlander beside him, and pierced through thecalf of his leg, as he turned and stooped to take fresh arrows from asheaf that lay there; but the carle took it by the notch and the point,and brake it and drew it out, and then stood up and went on shooting.And Face-of-god spake again:

  ‘Folk-might skulketh not; nor the Men of the Vine, and the Sickle, andthe Face, nor the Shepherd-Folk: soon shall they be making our work easyto us, if we can hold our own till then. They are on the other roadsthat lead into the square. Now suffer me, and shoot on!’

  Therewith he looked round about him, and he saw on the left hand that allwas quiet; and before him was the confused throng of the Dusky Mentrampling their own dead and wounded, and not able as yet to cross thatdeath-line of the arrow so near to them. But on his right hand he sawhow they of the kindreds held them firm on the way. Then for a moment oftime he considered and thought, till him-seemed he could see the wholebattle yet to be foughten; and his face flushed, and he said sharply:‘Bow-may, abide here and shoot, and show the others where to shoot, whilethe arrows hold out; but we will go further for a while, and ye shallfollow when we have made the rent great enough.’

  She turned to him and said: ‘Why art thou not more joyous? thou art likean host without music or banners.’

  ‘Nay,’ said he, ‘heed not me, but my bidding!’

  She said hastily: ‘I think I shall die here; since for all we have shotwe minish them nowise. Now kiss me this once amidst the battle, and sayfarewell.’

  He said: ‘Nay, nay; it shall not go thus. Abide a little while, and thoushalt see all this tangle open, as the sun cleaveth the clouds on theautumn morning. Yet lo thou! since thou wilt have it so.’

  And he bent forward and kissed her face, and now the tears ran over it,and she said smiling somewhat: ‘Now is this more than I looked for,whatso may betide.’

  But while she was yet speaking he cried in a great voice:

  ‘Ye who have spent your shot, or have nigh spent it, to axe and sword,and follow me to clear the ground ’twixt the bent and the halls. Leteach help each, but throng not each other. Shoot wisely, ye bowmen, andkeep our backs clear of the foe. On, on! for the Burg and the Face, forthe Burg and the Face!’

  Therewith he leapt down the steep of the hill, bounding like the hart,with Dale-warden naked in his hand; and they that followed were two scoreand ten; and the arrows of their bowmen rained over their heads on theDusky Men, as they smote down the first of the foemen, and the othersshrieked and shrank from them, or turned on them smiting wildly anddesperately.

  But Face-of-god swept round the great sword and plunged into that sea ofturmoil and noise and evil sights and savours, and even therewith heheard clearly a voice that said: ‘Goldring, I am hurt; take my bow awhile!’ and knew it for Bow-may’s; but it came to his ears like the songof a bird without meaning; for it was as if his life were changed atonce; and in a minute or two he had cut thrice with the edge and thrusttwice with the point, eager, but clear-eyed and deft; and he saw as in apicture the foe before him, and the grey roofs of Silver-stead, andthrough the gap in them the tops of the blue ridges far aloof. And nowhad three fallen before him, and they feared him, and turned on him, andsmote so many together that their strokes crossed each other, and onewarded him from the other; and he laughed aloud and shielded himself, anddrave the point of Dale-warden amidst the tangle of weapons through theopen mouth of a captain of the Felons, and slashed a cheek with aback-stroke, and swept round the edge to his right hand and smote off ablue-eyed snub-nosed head; and therewith a pole-axe smote him on the leftside of his helm, so that he tottered; but he swung himself round, andstood stark and upright, and gave a short hack with the edge, keepingDale-warden well in hand, and a gold-clad felon, a champion of them, andtheir tallest on the ground, fell aback, his throat gaping more than themouth of him.

  Then Face-of-god shouted and waved Dale-warden aloft to the Banner of theWolf that floated behind and above him, and he cried out: ‘As I havepromised so have I done!’ And he looked about, and beheld how valiantlyhis fellows had been doing; for before him now was a space of earth withno man standing on his feet thereon, like the swathe of the mowers ofJune; and beyond that was the crowd of the Dusky Men wavering like the
tall grass abiding the scythe.

  But a minute, and they fell to casting at Face-of-god and his fellowsspears and knives and shields and whatsoever would fly; and a spear smotehim on the breast, but entered not; and a bossed shield fell over hisface withal, and a plummet of sling-lead smote his helm, and he fell toearth; but leapt up again straightway, and heard as he arose a greatshout close to him, and a shrill cry, and lo! at his left side Bow-may,her sword in her hand, and the hand red with blood from a shaft-graze onher wrist, and a white cloth stained with blood about her neck; and onhis right side Wood-wise bearing the banner and crying the Wolf-whoop;for the whole company was come down from the slope and stood around him.

  Then for a little while was there such a stilling of the tumult about himthere, that he heard great and glad cries from the Road of the South of‘The Burg and the Steer! The Dale and the Bridge! The Dale and theBull!’ And thereafter a terrible great shrieking cry, and a huge voicethat cried: ‘Death, death, death to the Dusky Men!’ And thereafter againfierce cries and great tumult of the battle.

  Then Face-of-god shook Dale-warden in the air, and strode forwardfiercely, but not speedily, and the whole company went foot for footalong with him; and as he went, would he or would he not, song came intohis mouth, a song of the meadows of the Dale, even such as this:

  The wheat is done blooming and rust’s on the sickle, And green are the meadows grown after the scythe. Come, hands for the dance! For the toil hath been mickle, And ’twixt haysel and harvest ’tis time to be blithe.

  And what shall the tale be now dancing is over, And kind on the meadow sits maiden by man, And the old man bethinks him of days of the lover, And the warrior remembers the field that he wan?

  Shall we tell of the dear days wherein we are dwelling, The best days of our Mother, the cherishing Dale, When all round about us the summer is telling, To ears that may hearken, the heart of the tale?

  Shall we sing of these hands and these lips that caress us, And the limbs that sun-dappled lie light here beside, When still in the morning they rise but to bless us, And oft in the midnight our footsteps abide?

  O nay, but to tell of the fathers were better, And of how we were fashioned from out of the earth; Of how the once lowly spurned strong at the fetter; Of the days of the deeds and beginning of mirth.

  And then when the feast-tide is done in the morning, Shall we whet the grey sickle that bideth the wheat, Till wan grow the edges, and gleam forth a warning Of the field and the fallow where edges shall meet.

  And when cometh the harvest, and hook upon shoulder We enter the red wheat from out of the road, We shall sing, as we wend, of the bold and the bolder, And the Burg of their building, the beauteous abode.

  As smiteth the sickle amid the sun’s burning We shall sing how the sun saw the token unfurled, When forth fared the Folk, with no thought of returning, In the days when the Banner went wide in the world.

  Many saw that he was singing, but heard not the words of his mouth, forgreat was the noise and clamour. But he heard Bow-may, how she laughedby his side, and cried out:

  ‘Gold-mane, dear-heart, now art thou merry indeed; and glad am I, thoughthey told me that I am hurt.—Ah! now beware, beware!’

  For indeed the Dusky Men, seeing the wall of steel rolling down on them,and cooped up by the houses, so that they scarce knew how to flee, turnedin the face of death, the foremost of them, and rushed furiously on thearray of the Woodlanders, and all those behind pressed on them like thebig wave of the ebbing sea when the gust of the wind driveth it landward.

  The Woodlanders met them, shouting out: ‘The Greenwood and the Wolf, theGreenwood and the Wolf!’ But not a few of them fell there, though theygave not back a foot; for so fierce now were the Dusky Men, that hewingand thrusting at them availed nought, unless they were slain outright orstunned; and even if they fell they rolled themselves up against theirtall foe-men, heeding not death or wounds if they might but slay orwound. There then fell War-grove and ten others of the Woodlanders, andfour men of the Wolf, but none before he had slain his foeman; and aseach man fell or was hurt grievously, another took his place.

  Now a felon leapt up and caught Gold-ring by the neck and drew him down,while another strove to smite his head off; but the stout carle drave awood-knife into the side of the first felon, and drew it out speedily andsmote the other, the smiter, in the face with the same knife, andtherewith they all three rolled together on the earth amongst the feet ofmen. Even so did another felon by Bow-may, and dragged her down to theground, and smote her with a long knife as she tumbled down; and this wasa feat of theirs, for they were long-armed like apes.

  But as to this felon, Dale-warden’s edge split his skull, and Face-of-godgathered his might together and bestrode Bow-may, till he had hewed aspace round about him with great two-handed strokes; and yet the bladebrake not. Then he caught up Bow-may from the earth, and the felon’sknife had not pierced her hauberk, but she was astonied, and might notstand upon her feet; and Face-of-god turned aside a little with her, andhalf bore her, half thrust her through the throng to the rearward of hisfolk, and left her there with two carlines of the Wolf who followed thehost for leechcraft’s sake, and then turned back shouting: ‘For the Face,for the Face!’ and there followed him back to the battle, a band of thosewho were fresh as yet, and their blades unbloodied, the young men of theWoodlands.

  The wearier fighters made way for them as they came on shouting, andFace-of-god was ahead of them all, and leapt at the foemen as a manunwearied and striking his first stroke, so wondrous hale he was; andthey drave a wedge amidst of the Dusky Men, and then turned about andstood back to back hewing at all that drifted on them. But asFace-of-god cleared a space about him, lo! almost within reach of hissword-point up rose a grim shape from the earth, tall, grey-haired, andbloody-faced, who uttered the Wolf-whoop from amidst the terror of hisvisage, and turned and swung round his head an axe of the Dusky Men, andfell to smiting them with their own weapon. The Dusky Men shrieked inanswer to his whoop, and all shrunk from him and Face-of-god; but a cryof joy went up from the kindred, for they knew Gold-ring, whom theydeemed had been slain. So they all pressed on together, smiting down thefoe before them, and the Dusky Men, some turned their backs and dravethose behind them, till they too turned and were strained through thepassages and courts of the houses, and some were overthrown and troddendown as they strove to hold face to the Woodlanders, and some were hewndown where they stood; but the whole throng of those that were on theirfeet drifted toward the Market-place, the Woodlanders following them everwith point and edge, till betwixt the bent and the houses no foeman stoodup against them.

  Then they stood together, and raised the whoop of victory, and blew theirhorns long and loud in token of their joy, and the Woodland men lifted uptheir voices and sang:

  Now far, far aloof Standeth lintel and roof, The dwelling of days Of the Woodland ways: Now nought wendeth there Save the wolf and the bear, And the fox of the waste Faring soft without haste. No carle the axe whetteth on oak-laden hill; No shaft the hart letteth to wend at his will; None heedeth the thunder-clap over the glade, And the wind-storm thereunder makes no man afraid. Is it thus then that endeth man’s days on Mid-earth, For no man there wendeth in sorrow or mirth?

  Nay, look down on the road From the ancient abode! Betwixt acre and field Shineth helm, shineth shield. And high over the heath Fares the bane in his sheath; For the wise men and bold Go their ways o’er the wold. Now the Warrior hath given them heart and fair day, Unbidden, undriven, they fare to the fray. By the rock and the river the banners they bear, And their battle-staves quiver ’neath halbert and spear; On the hill’s brow they gather, and hang o’er the Dale As the clouds of the Father hang, laden with bale.

  Down shineth the sun On the war-deed half
done; All the fore-doomed to die, In the pale dust they lie. There they leapt, there they fell, And their tale shall we tell; But we, e’en in the gate Of the war-garth we wait, Till the drift of war-weather shall whistle us on, And we tread all together the way to be won, To the dear land, the dwelling for whose sake we came To do deeds for the telling of song-becrowned fame. Settle helm on the head then! Heave sword for the Dale! Nor be mocked of the dead men for deedless and pale.