by Griff Hosker
“But a wild boar, Tam!”
“When he becomes a warrior, he will have to fight a more dangerous foe, a man. Until he has sunk a spear into flesh then he can never be a warrior. Forgive me being blunt, lord, but when you were young did you find it easy to sink a spear into a man’s flesh?”
He was right and I knew it. “You would watch over him in the hunt?”
“As though he was my own, lord.”
“Then we hunt the boar.”
I sent word to my knights that there would be a hunt on the day before the next market. I knew that many of my lord’s wives liked to visit the market. This would be an opportunity for them to do so and it might put me in my wife’s good favours once more. She missed the company of other ladies.
Sir Edward, Sir William and Sir Fótr all said that they would like to hunt. That was a good number. Sir Ralph of Whorlton declined. He would have had the furthest to travel and his wife was with child again. Tam suggested taking half a dozen archers with us and I agreed. They had sharp eyes and even sharper senses. I had Mordaf and Gruffyd, my two Welsh archers as well as Dick One Arrow and Cedric Warbow who would come as escorts and to lead the horses which would, hopefully, carry back the carcasses of the animals.
Although we often hunted wild boar on foot it was more dangerous. The greatest danger in hunting them from horseback was to the rider’s mount. I would take Skuld. She was the cleverest horse I had and appeared to have senses which were almost supernatural. She was, however, getting old and I would not take her to war again. I enjoyed hunting from the back of a horse but Alfred had never done this and so I spent the afternoon, the day before we hunted, showing him what he needed to do. I took the two boar spears.
“See, Alfred, they are different from a normal spear. This is a bar just behind the head. That prevents the spear from penetrating too deeply. Unless we are very lucky or highly skilled then it will take more than one spear to kill a boar. You will have to lean from your saddle. Tam tells me that you can do this.”
He nodded, “Aye father.”
“But you will not be riding your pony. It is too small. Alan, the horse master, has chosen you a small palfrey which he thinks you can ride. Come let us ride to the common and see how you get on with each other.”
My son nodded and we headed to the stable. The union of a rider and his horse was a special one. The best pairings became one. That was so with Skuld and me, Flame and me. I could ride both with just my knees and the weight of my body. Alan brought out the horse. Star was a good-looking horse. That did not always mean that it would be a good one but it boded well. She nuzzled her head against Alfred and I knew that all would be well. If a horse shied from a new rider then it was to be avoided. A knight did not need a fearful horse. He needed a brave horse which would die for him. My father’s, Storm Bringer, had died for him at the Battle of Arsuf.
I mounted Skuld and watched Alfred as he mounted his horse for the first time. I smiled at Alan, “I think this horse has a new master, Alan.”
“Aye lord. I have been watching Master Alfred with the pony, Goldie, I knew he would be ready for a horse and prepared this one. She is a good one. Star still has a little growing in her. She will last him three or four years.”
My son looked at me. The look meant nothing to Alan but I knew that he was asking me if he would be a squire then.
As we rode through the gates I watched my son as he assessed his new horse. He did not waste time, as many might, waving to others to show them that he had something new. He wanted the best out of Star. The common had some of the animals from those who lived in the town. It was grazing for Stockton. There were, perhaps, a dozen cows, and goats there. There was no pen and no wooden wall. The animals were all tethered and so I led Alfred to the north side of the common. The woods were close to the edge along that side for the land fell away to the river. It would do.
I am not certain if mine was the best way to teach but it was my own and I was used to it. I showed Alfred what he had to do. I used a rogue weedy shrub which had grown just five paces from the wood. “This is the boar. When you ride you need to keep your horse as far away from the boar as possible. They have tusks which can rip out the guts of your horse. Star is smaller than Skuld and in even more danger than most horses. It means you have to lean out to the side when you ride. I will show you.” I had the advantage that Skuld had done this before. As I leaned out she reacted by shifting her weight to the left. I raised my arm and thrust the spear into the bush. “You do not throw! The boar spear does not fly as well as an ordinary spear.”
He nodded but I saw the nervousness in his eyes. He would want to impress me.
“You try.”
He did better than I had expected and managed to lean out but the spear missed the bush by a whole pace. Alfred was disappointed.
I nodded, “Good.”
“Good? But I missed!”
“Had you struck the bush the first time then it would have been remarkable and more than a little lucky. This way you will practise until you get it right. It will take the rest of the afternoon. Remember Alfred, this is a skill you can take to the battlefield.” He looked at me. “When you chase men on foot you have to lean from the saddle. You do not throw your spear for then it is lost. You have to learn to thrust. This is training for war as well as the hunt.”
Once he realised that he became focussed. Later, as we headed back, walking and leading our horses for Star was tired, Alfred was smiling. He had hit the bush on the last five passes. “You are ready but I will still have Tam riding behind you as well as two archers.”
“I am not a baby!”
“No but you are a novice and none of us would risk your mother’s wrath if aught happened to you. This is as close as I can take you to training for war. It is not a game. You are not sparring with Brian. Here the boar will try to kill you and your horse if he can.” I saw my son look at his new horse. Already he was fond of it. “Horses die in war, Alfred and in the hunt. For a knight it is a fact of life. Remember that.”
The hunt would change my son but that couple of hours on the common saw the change from the child to the man.
My knights and their families arrived in the early morning on the day of the hunt. Some had left home before dawn. We were already dressed for the hunt. We wore long leather boots and leather jerkins which covered our bodies and our knees. Our arms had fore arm protectors. We would be riding through bushes and shrubs which would tear cloth to pieces. We also wore gauntlets. Boar hunting was a dangerous pastime. If Alfred had had his way we would have been hunting by dawn. The squires of my knights led the horses they would use for the hunt. While my wife greeted the ladies and their children we gathered in the stables. Sir Edward knew them as well as any. His father, Edgar had been one of my grandfather’s scouts and Edward had been brought up here. He ruffled Alfred’s hair, much to my son’s annoyance.
“So young Master Alfred, today you ride on your first hunt! You will enjoy this.”
“Did you enjoy your first hunt, Uncle?” My children all called Edward uncle for he was as close to an uncle as they were likely to have. He was now a grey beard.
He grinned, “My first hunt I was younger than you and on foot. Nor did I have a boar spear. I had a dagger for I was with my father and uncle, my namesake, Edward. As I recall I was a year or two younger than you.” Alfred flashed me an irritated look. “We were beating. It was in the woods south of the river by Thornaby. Aye. It was a day much as this one.”
Sir William said, “Then we are in the hands of an expert. I confess, Sir Edward that I have rarely hunted the wild boar and I have never killed one.”
“Nor me.” Fótr had not been born in England. He came from Sweden. I was not even certain they had boars there.
“Then you will have to watch Sir Edward and me. We hunt them because they are hurting our people. Normally we might spare most of the herd but not today. Kill as many as you can and, hopefully, the others will move away from men.” I smi
led, “And if we are successful then we eat well! There is nothing finer than wild boar!”
Tam led us towards the Oxbridge. We passed the farm there. Ralph of the Oxbridge waved as we passed. “You hunt the wild boar, my lord?”
I nodded, “We do and we blood young Alfred.”
“Then you do us a favour, lord. They have been eating my crops. The clay here makes it hard enough to grow them as it is.”
“God willing, we will end the threat.”
The land dropped through scrubby bushes to the green beck. We would follow it to the place where it was joined by the muddy beck. I suspect the old people who had lived here when the Romans came had different names but my folk had named them thus and they stuck. We had to climb a little for the stream had made a deep cut. It was there that we tied the horses that would, hopefully, carry home our dead boar.
The damp boggy woodland which lay just four hundred paces ahead was perfect for wild boar. Had they stayed there then we might have only taken a couple but we now had more farms close by. Tom the Pig provided the town with ham in the winter. If these boars continued to prosper then my folk would have less to eat. Before we rode off we looked to Tam. He seemed to sniff the air. Shaking his head, he said, “The wind is behind us. They will smell us. We will have to take a detour.”
We headed along the greenway to the lonesome house. A family had lived here in the time of my great grandfather. A Scottish raid had taken the wife and the children. When their father returned from fighting for the Warlord he hanged himself. Men said that it was haunted and none would live there. Once we had passed the house, I smiled as I saw some of the squires clutch their crosses. Then we headed up the ridge which led through the woods. It brought us out at Tom the Pig’s farm.
He came out to speak with us, “Thank you for doing this Sir William. These boars are a menace and they are damnably dangerous.”
“It is Sir Thomas who leads this hunt. I am sorry that you have lost some of your pigs.”
He nodded, “The buggers get the scent of the boar and off they go! Still, my lord, not as bad as a Scottish raid. You can’t eat Scotsmen!”
We headed off across the small field he tilled for his vegetables. I could see that the boar had eaten everything. We were now silent and rode in a long line with Tam at the fore. Once he scented the boars he would signal and drop back behind me to protect Alfred. I too was as nervous as some of the others for I had not hunted boar for some time. The boars liked to forage around the roots of the oak trees which grew so well in the wood. They grew best close to the green beck. Tam held up his arm. The beasts were close. I could not hear them but a sudden gust of wind brought their stink to me. One reason why hunting was such good training for battle was that men had to look for signals and to act as one while fighting for themselves. As Tam moved backwards I raised my boar spear.
Edward and I were in the centre of the line with William and Fótr at our sides. Our squires were behind as were the Tomas brothers. Our squires carried a supply of spare spears. We were entering a tangle of bushes and small trees. Once the herd heard our noise then they would flee and we would have to react quickly. The secret was to get as close to them as we could. Skuld was a marvellous horse. She picked her way delicately through the undergrowth. Her ears moved constantly and she sniffed the air. It was like riding a good hunting dog. We did not use dogs. They barked and could get too excited. Most dogs were too brave for their own good and I had seen too many good dogs eviscerated by a boar’s tusks!
I spied a sow. She was a fat one. I raised my spear and Skuld stepped a little closer. I was almost within striking distance when Fótr’s horse stepped on an old branch and it cracked. It was then I spied the old tusker who ruled this herd. He was less than ten paces from me and his beady little eyes swivelled in my direction. I saw the scars on his back. They were the marks of spears as well as tusks. This one was a survivor. He chose me as his target.
He turned and came at me so quickly that I barely had time to react. It was Skuld who saved me. She reared and spun as he came for her. I stood in the stirrups and found myself above the beast. He was fast for an old one and, even as his head turned to rip the guts from my horse I had thrust down to a point at the base of his neck where his spine met his skull. Sometimes you aim for such a place and miss by the width of a little finger. In that case the beast is just hurt. I was lucky. I found the exact spot I was aiming for. My spear drove down and the life went from the ancient boar.
As I was turning to reach for the spear proffered by Petr, the sow I had spotted ran at me. It was Alfred and Tam who saved me. She would not have killed me but a gored leg would have weakened me as a warrior. Alfred’s spear struck first and he rammed it in her side. She squealed and turned on him. As she did so she exposed the back of her neck to Tam. He struck. Not as clean a blow as mine it nonetheless slowed her. Dick One Arrow and Cedric Warbow sent two arrows in to her at point blank range and she died.
The woods were filled with the sound of fleeing, squealing boars and horses and riders crashing through the thin branches of small trees and bushes. Petr handed me a second spear and I whirled Skuld to follow the others down the valley. This was easier for they were on the run. If they turned they would face two or three spears. Mordaf and Gruffyd were using short hunting bows and they were using them from the back of their horses. Their arrows would not kill. They would wound and slow. I heard the splash of water as some boars crossed the beck and began to clamber up the slope on the opposite side. That suited me for the wood went, with just one break for the road, to the woods at Elton. They could go there with my blessing.
We stopped at the edge of the stream and hunted the few that remained. I turned to see that all of my men had survived as had their horses. Fótr’s horse had a long wound along her flank. It would need stitching. I was not certain if he was more upset about his horse or the fact that he had alerted the boars to our presence. None of us mentioned it. Tam estimated that at least two young boars had escaped along with five sows and five young ones. They would join the Elton herd. We had killed the old boar, three sows, three young pigs, two boars and a sow and seven suckling pigs. While my archers went for the horses Tam and I lifted one of the young pigs on to the back of his horse and we took it to Tom the Pig. He had not expected the gift. A wild pig was a treat.
“Thank you, lord! I will say a prayer for you and your family on Sunday!”
“Thank you, Tom.”
By the time we had reached our men they had gutted the boars and sows and they were already on the horses. We walked our animals back for we had to use two of the archers’ horses too. Tam carried the offal in a sack he had brought for just such a purpose. When we passed Ralph of Oxbridge Tam gave him a heart and the liver and kidneys from two of the animals. I gave him a suckling pig. We had more than enough.
Fótr went with Tam once we reached our castle. He needed his horse healing. I sent one of the sows for my men at arms and a young sow and two suckling pigs for my archers. They had earned it. Geoffrey had servants ready to take away the other carcasses. Nothing would be wasted. The skins would be taken and cured. The meat would be butchered. The best cuts would be cooked for the feast. The cook would make other cuts into a stew while the rest would be preserved. The hooves would be rendered down. They made a good glue and the bones would be made available to those in the town. They would enrich stews and soups. Our butchers always left plenty of meat on them.
As Alfred and I walked to my hall he said, “I see what you meant, father. When that sow turned on you I did not have time to think. My spear did not penetrate as far as it should. If that had been a man then I would have been dead.”
“I thank you and Tam. As the old warriors would say, ‘I owe you a life’.”
He smiled and shook his head, “You gave me life, father, you owe me nothing.”
I nodded, “You managed to kill the suckling pigs easier.”
“I made certain that I struck hard and true. They died quickl
y.”
My wife, Lady Margaret appeared in the door. She had Isabelle in her arms. My youngest daughter was now at the age when she recognised and reacted to me. She giggled. My wife pulled her away from me. “Do not touch her. I can smell the blood on you from here. Bathe first.” She glanced down at Alfred. It might have appeared a casual look but I knew she was checking to see if he was whole.
“Our son is fine and he acquitted himself well today.”
“Good. Had he not then you would have been as well to spend the night in the woods.” She was a protective mother!
After we had cleaned ourselves we dressed and went to my hall where Geoffrey had some chilled wine for us. It had been a warm day and now, as the afternoon sun began to slip into the west it was the perfect drink. The other squires and knights were there.
“How is you horse, Fótr?”
“Tam says that she will heal but she will need to stay here for a month or two.”
“I have room in my stable. You have other horses?”
“Thanks to the Scots I have many.”
I was lucky in the men I led. All were like family to me. Apart from Aunt Ruth I had no other. We got on well. I had eaten in some halls, like those in Sweden and the Holy Land where you could not enjoy the food for you were too busy wondering who was plotting against you. We just got on. It helped that Aunt Ruth presided over the diner like a matriarch. All deferred to her. She was the arbiter of disputes. Edward, in particular, regarded her as a surrogate mother. It was she who had sent him to me in Sweden and she had given him her manor of Wulfestun. For his part he fretted and fussed over her. He was attentive to her every wish. When the meat she was cutting looked tough it was Edward summoned a servant to have it replaced with some of the fillet. I found myself wishing that this could never end.
It was Sir William who brought me back to earth. “Sir Thomas, I had visitors last week. They were priests on their way to Durham.”
“They called at Hartburn and not Stockton?”
