The Roots of the Mountains Page 26

  CHAPTER XXV. OF THE GATE-THING AT BURGSTEAD.

  BUT now must he hasten, for the Gate-thing was to be holden two hoursbefore noon; so he betook him speedily to the Hall, and took his shieldand did on a goodly helm and girt his sword to his side, for men mustneeds go to all folk-motes with their weapons and clad in war-gear. Thushe went forth to the Gate with many others, and there already were manyfolk assembled in the space aforesaid betwixt the Gate of the Burg andthe sheer rocks on the face of which were the steps that led up to theancient Tower on the height. The Alderman was sitting on the great stoneby the Gate-side which was his appointed place, and beside him on thestone bench were the six Wardens of the Burg; but of the six Wardens ofthe Dale there were but three, for the others had not yet heard tell ofthe battle or had got the summons to the Thing, since they had been abouttheir business down the Dale.

  Face-of-god took his place silently amongst the neighbours, but men madeway for him, so that he must needs stand in front, facing his father andthe Wardens; and there went up a murmur of expectation round about him,both because the word had gone about that he had a tale of new tidings totell, and also because men deemed him their best and handiest man, thoughhe was yet so young.

  Now the Alderman looked around and beheld a great throng gatheredtogether, and he looked on the shadow of the Gate which the southeringsun was casting on the hard white ground of the Thing-stead, and he sawthat it had just taken in the standing-stone which was in the midst ofthe place. On the face of the said stone was carven the image of afighting man with shield on arm and axe in hand; for it had been setthere in old time in memory of the man who had bidden the Folk build theGate and its wall, and had showed them how to fashion it: for he was adeft house-smith as well as a great warrior; and his name was Iron-hand.So when the Alderman saw that this stone was wholly within the shadow ofthe Gate he knew that it was the due time for the hallowing-in of theThing. So he bade one of the wardens who sat beside him and had a greatslug-horn slung about him, to rise and set the horn to his mouth.

  So that man arose and blew three great blasts that went bellowing aboutthe towers and down the street, and beat back again from the face of thesheer rocks and up them and over into the wild-wood; and the sound of itwent on the light west-wind along the lips of the Dale toward themountain wastes. And many a goodman, when he heard the voice of the hornin the bright spring morning, left spade or axe or plough-stilts, or thefoddering of the ewes and their younglings, and turned back home to fetchhis sword and helm and hasten to the Thing, though he knew not why it wassummoned: and women wending over the meadows, who had not yet heard ofthe battle in the wood, hearkened and stood still on the green grass oramidst the ripples of the ford, and the threat of coming trouble smoteheavy on their hearts, for they knew that great tidings must be towardsif a Thing must needs be summoned so close to the Great Folk-mote.

  But now the Alderman stood up and spake amidst the silence that followedthe last echoes of the horn:

  ‘Now is hallowed in this Gate-thing of the Burgstead Men and the Men ofthe Dale, wherein they shall take counsel concerning matters latebefallen, that press hard upon them. Let no man break the peace of theHoly Thing, lest he become a man accursed in holy places from the plainup to the mountain, and from the mountain down to the plain; a man not tobe cherished of any man of good will, not be holpen with victuals oredge-tool or draught-beast; a man to be sheltered under no roof-tree, andwarmed at no hearth of man: so help us the Warrior and the God of theEarth, and Him of the Face, and all the Fathers!’

  When he had spoken men clashed their weapons in token of assent; and hesat down again, and there was silence for a space. But presently camethrusting forward a goodman of the Dale, who seemed as if he had comehurriedly to the Thing; for his face was running down with sweat, hiswide-rimmed iron cap sat awry over his brow, and he was girt with a rustysword without a scabbard, and the girdle was ill-braced up about hisloins. So he said:

  ‘I am Red-coat of Waterless of the Lower Dale. Early this morning as Iwas going afield I met on the way a man akin to me, Fox of Upton to wit,and he told me that men were being summoned to a Gate-thing. So I turnedback home, and caught up any weapon that came handy, and here I am,Alderman, asking thee of the tidings which hath driven thee to call thisThing so hard on the Great Folk-mote, for I know them nothing so.’

  Then stood up Iron-face the Alderman and said: ‘This is well asked, andsoon shall ye be as wise as I am on this matter. Know ye, O men ofBurgstead and the Dale, that we had not called this Gate-thing so hard onthe Great Folk-mote had not great need been to look into troublousmatters. Long have ye dwelt in peace, and it is years on years now sinceany foeman hath fallen on the Dale: but, as ye will bear in mind, lastautumn were there ransackings in the Dale and amidst of the Shepherdsafter the manner of deeds of war; and it troubleth us that none can saywho wrought these ill deeds. Next, but a little while agone, wasWood-grey, a valiant goodman of the Woodlanders, slain close to his owndoor by evil men. These men we took at first for mere gangrel felons andoutcasts from their own folk: though there were some who spoke againstthat from the beginning.

  ‘But thirdly are new tidings again: for three days ago, while some of thefolk were hunting peaceably in the Wild-wood and thinking no evil, theywere fallen upon of set purpose by a host of men-at-arms, and noughtwould serve but mere battle for dear life, so that many of our neighbourswere hurt, and three slain outright; and now mark this, that those whothere fell upon our folk were clad and armed even as the two felons thatslew Wood-grey, and moreover were like them in aspect of body. Now standforth Hall-face my son, and answer to my questions in a loud voice, sothat all may hear thee.’

  So Hall-face stood forth, clad in gleaming war-gear, with an axe over hisshoulder, and seemed a doughty warrior. And Iron-face said to him:

  ‘Tell me, son, those whom ye met in the wood, and of whom ye brought hometwo captives, how much like were they to the murder-carles atWood-grey’s?’

  Said Hall-face: ‘As like as peas out of the same cod, and to our eyes allthose whom we saw in the wood might have been sons of one father and onemother, so much alike were they.’

  ‘Yea,’ said the Alderman; ‘now tell me how many by thy deeming fell uponyou in the wood?’

  Said Hall-face: ‘We deemed that if they were any less than threescore,they were little less.’

  ‘Great was the odds,’ said the Alderman. ‘Or how many were ye?’

  ‘One score and seven,’ said Hall-face.

  Said the Alderman: ‘And yet ye escaped with life all save those three?’

  Hall-face said: ‘I deem that scarce one should have come back alive, hadit not been that as we fought came a noise like the howling of wolves,and thereat the foemen turned and fled, and there followed on the fleerstall men clad in sheep-brown raiment, who smote them down as they fled.’

  ‘Here then is the story, neighbours,’ said the Alderman, ‘and ye may seethereby that if those slayers of Wood-grey were outcast, their band is agreat one; but it seemeth rather that they were men of a folk whose craftit is to rob with the armed hand, and to slay the robbed; and that theyare now gathering on our borders for war. Yet, moreover, they havefoemen in the woods who should be fellows-in-arms of us. How sayestthou, Stone-face? Thou art old, and hast seen many wars in the Dale, andknowest the Wild-wood to its innermost.

  ‘Alderman,’ said Stone-face, ‘and ye neighbours of the Dale, maybe thesefoes whom ye have met are not of the race of man, but are trolls andwood-wights. Now if they be trolls it is ill, for then is the worldgrowing worser, and the wood shall be right perilous for those who needsmust fare therein. Yet if they be men it is a worse matter; for thetrolls would not come out of the waste into the sunlight of the Dale.But these foes, if they be men, are lusting after our fair Dale to eat itup, and it is most like that they are gathering a huge host to fall uponus at home. Such things I have heard of when I was young, and the aspectof the evil men who overran the kindreds of old time, accordin
g to alltales and lays that I have heard, is even such as the aspect of thosewhom we have seen of late. As to those wolves who saved the neighboursand chased their foemen, there is one here who belike knoweth more of allthis than we do, and that, O Alderman, is thy son whom I have fostered,Face-of-god to wit. Bid him answer to thy questioning, and tell us whathe hath seen and heard of late; then shall we verily know the whole storyas far as it can be known.’

  Then men pressed round, and were eager to hear what Face-of-god would besaying. But or ever the Alderman could begin to question him, the throngwas cloven by new-comers, and these were the men who had been sent tobring home the corpses of the Dusky Men: so they had cast loaded hooksinto the Weltering Water, and had dragged up him whom Face-of-god hadshoved into the eddy, and who had sunk like a stone just where he fell,and now they were bringing him on a bier along with him who had beenslain a-land. They were set down in the place before the Alderman, andmen who had not seen them before looked eagerly on them that they mightbehold the aspect of their foemen; and nought lovely were they to lookon; for the drowned man was already bleached and swollen with the water,and the other, his face was all wryed and twisted with that spear-thrustin the mouth.

  Then the Alderman said: ‘I would question my son Face-of-god. Let himstand forth!’

  And therewith he smiled merrily in his son’s face, for he was standingright in front of him; and he said:

  ‘Ask of me, Alderman, and I will answer.’

  ‘Kinsman,’ said Iron-face, ‘look at these two dead men, and tell me, ifthou hast seen any such besides those two murder-carles who were slain atCarlstead; or if thou knowest aught of their folk?’

  Said Face-of-god: ‘Yesterday I saw six others like to these both in arrayand of body, and three of them I slew, for we were in battle with themearly in the morning.’

  There was a murmur of joy at this word, since all men took these felonsfor deadly foemen; but Iron-face said: ‘What meanest thou by “we”?’

  ‘I and the men who had guested me overnight,’ said Face-of-god, ‘and theyslew the other three; or rather a woman of them slew the felons.’

  ‘Valiant she was; all good go with her hand!’ said the Alderman. ‘Butwhat be these people, and where do they dwell?’

  Said Face-of-god: ‘As to what they are, they are of the kindred of theGods and the Fathers, valiant men, and guest-cherishing: rich have theybeen, and now are poor: and their poverty cometh of these same felons,who mastered them by numbers not to be withstood. As to where theydwell: when I say the name of their dwelling-place men mock at me, as ifI named some valley in the moon: yet came I to Burgdale thence in one dayacross the mountain-necks led by sure guides, and I tell thee that thename of their abode is Shadowy Vale.’

  ‘Yea,’ said Iron-face, ‘knoweth any man here of Shadowy Vale, or where itis?’

  None answered for a while; but there was an old man who was sitting onthe shafts of a wain on the outskirts of the throng, and when he heardthis word he asked his neighbour what the Alderman was saying, and hetold him. Then said that elder:

  ‘Give me place; for I have a word to say hereon.’ Therewith he arose,and made his way to the front of the ring of men, and said: ‘Alderman,thou knowest me?’

  ‘Yea,’ said Iron-face, ‘thou art called the Fiddle, because of thy sweetspeech and thy minstrelsy; whereof I mind me well in the time when I wasyoung and thou no longer young.’

  ‘So it is,’ said the Fiddle. ‘Now hearken! When I was very young Iheard of a vale lying far away across the mountain-necks; a vale wherethe sun shone never in winter and scantily in summer; for my swornfoster-brother, Fight-fain, a bold man and a great hunter, had happenedupon it; and on a day in full midsummer he brought me thither; and evennow I see the Vale before me as in a picture; a marvellous place, wellgrassed, treeless, narrow, betwixt great cliff-walls of black stone, witha green river running through it towards a yawning gap and a huge force.Amidst that Vale was a doom-ring of black stones, and nigh thereto afeast-hall well builded of the like stones, over whose door was carventhe image of a wolf with red gaping jaws, and within it (for we enteredinto it) were stone benches on the daïs. Thence we came away, andthither again we went in late autumn, and so dusk and cold it was at thatseason, that we knew not what to call it save the valley of deep shade.But its real name we never knew; for there was no man there to give us aname or tell us any tale thereof; but all was waste there; the wimbrellaughed across its water, the raven croaked from its crags, the eaglescreamed over it, and the voices of its waters never ceased; and thus weleft it. So the seasons passed, and we went thither no more: forFight-fain died, and without him wandering over the waste was irksome tome; so never have I seen that valley again, or heard men tell thereof.

  ‘Now, neighbours, have I told you of a valley which seemeth to be ShadowyVale; and this is true and no made-up story.’

  The Alderman nodded kindly to him, and then said to Face-of-god:‘Kinsman, is this word according with what thou knowest of Shadowy Vale?’

  ‘Yea, on all points,’ said Face-of-god; ‘he hath put before me a pictureof the valley. And whereas he saith, that in his youth it was waste,this also goeth with my knowledge thereof. For once was it peopled, andthen was waste, and now again is it peopled.’

  ‘Tell us then more of the folk thereof,’ said the Alderman; ‘are theymany?’

  ‘Nay,’ said Face-of-god, ‘they are not. How might they be many, dwellingin that narrow Vale amid the wastes? But they are valiant, both men andwomen, and strong and well-liking. Once they dwelt in a fair dale calledSilver-dale, the name whereof will be to you as a name in a lay; andthere were they wealthy and happy. Then fell upon them this murderousFolk, whom they call the Dusky Men; and they fought and were overcome,and many of them were slain, and many enthralled, and the remnant of themescaped through the passes of the mountains and came back to dwell inShadowy Vale, where their forefathers had dwelt long and long ago; andthis overthrow befell them ten years agone. But now their old foemenhave broken out from Silver-dale and have taken to scouring the woodseeking prey; so they fall upon these Dusky Men as occasion serves, andslay them without pity, as if they were adders or evil dragons; andindeed they be worse. And these valiant men know for certain that theirfoemen are now of mind to fall upon this Dale and destroy it, as theyhave done with others nigher to them. And they will slay our men, andlie with our women against their will, and enthrall our children, andtorment all those that lie under their hands till life shall be worsethan death to them. Therefore, O Alderman and Wardens, and ye neighboursall, it behoveth you to take counsel what we shall do, and thatspeedily.’

  There was again a murmur, as of men nothing daunted, but intent on takingsome way through the coming trouble. But no man said aught till theAlderman spake:

  ‘When didst thou first happen upon this Earl-folk, son?’

  ‘Late last autumn,’ said Face-of-god.

  Said Iron-face: ‘Then mightest thou have told us of this tale before.’

  ‘Yea,’ said his son, ‘but I knew it not, or but little of it, till twodays agone. In the autumn I wandered in the woodland, and on the fell Ihappened on a few of this folk dwelling in a booth by the pine-wood; andthey were kind and guest-fain with me, and gave me meat and drink andlodging, and bade me come to Shadowy Vale in the spring, when I shouldknow more of them. And that was I fain of; for they are wise and goodlymen. But I deemed no more of those that I saw there save as men who hadbeen outlawed by their own folk for deeds that were unlawful belike, butnot shameful, and were biding their time of return, and were living asthey might meanwhile. But of the whole Folk and their foemen knew I nomore than ye did, till two days agone, when I met them again in ShadowyVale. Also I think before long ye shall see their chieftain inBurgstead, for he hath a word for us. Lastly, my mind it is that thosebrown-clad men who helped Hall-face and his company in the wood werenought but men of this Earl-kin seeking their foemen; for indeed theytold me that they had come upon a battle i
n the woodland wherein they hadslain their foemen. Now have I told you all that ye need to knowconcerning these matters.’

  Again was there silence as Iron-face sat pondering a question for hisson; then a goodman of the Upper Dale, Gritgarth to wit, spake and said:

  ‘Gold-mane mine, tell us how many is this folk; I mean theirfighting-men?’

  ‘Well asked, neighbour,’ said Iron-face.

  Said Face-of-god: ‘Their fighting-men of full age may be five score; butbesides that there shall be some two or three score of women that willfight, whoever says them nay; and many of these are little worse in thefield than men; or no worse, for they shoot well in the bow. Moreover,there will be a full score of swains not yet twenty winters old whom yemay not hinder to fight if anything is a-doing.’

  ‘This is no great host,’ said the Alderman; ‘yet if they deem there islittle to lose by fighting, and nought to gain by sitting still, they maygo far in winning their desire; and that more especially if they may drawinto their quarrel some other valiant Folk more in number than they be.I marvel not, though, they were kind to thee, son Gold-mane, if they knewwho thou wert.’

  ‘They knew it,’ said Face-of-god.

  ‘Neighbours,’ said the Alderman, ‘have ye any rede hereon, and aught tosay to back your rede?’

  Then spake the Fiddle: ‘As ye know and may see, I am now very old, and,as the word goes, unmeet for battle: yet might I get me to the field,either on mine own legs or on the legs of some four-foot beast, I wouldstrike, if it were but one stroke, on these pests of the earth. And,Alderman, meseemeth we shall do amiss if we bid not the Earl-folk ofShadowy Vale to be our fellows in arms in this adventure. For look you,how few soever they be, they will be sure to know the ways of our foemen,and the mountain passes, and the surest and nighest roads across thenecks and the mires of the waste; and though they be not a host, yetshall they be worth a host to us?’

  When men heard his words they shouted for joy of them; for hatred of theDusky Men who should so mar their happy life in the Dale was growing upin them, and the more that hatred waxed, the more waxed their love ofthose valiant ones.

  Now Red-coat of Waterless spake again: he was a big man, both tall andbroad, ruddy-faced and red-haired, some forty winters old. He said:

  ‘Life hath been well with us of the Lower Dale, and we deem that we havemuch to lose in losing it. Yet ill would the bargain be to buy life withthralldom: we have been over-merry hitherto for that. Therefore I say,to battle! And as to these men, these well-wishers of Face-of-god, ifthey also are minded for battle with our foes, we were fools indeed if wedid not join them to our company, were they but one score instead ofsix.’

  Men shouted again, and they said that Red-coat had spoken well. Then oneafter other the goodmen of the Dale came and gave their word forfellowship in arms with the Men of Shadowy Vale, if there were such asFace-of-god had said, which they doubted not; and amongst them that spakewere Fox of Nethertown, and Warwell, and Gritgarth, and Bearswain, andWarcliff, and Hart of Highcliff, and Worm of Willowholm, and Bullsbane,and Highneb of the Marsh: all these were stout men-at-arms and men ofgood counsel.

  Last of all the Alderman spake and said:

  ‘As to the war, that must we needs meet if all be sooth that we haveheard, and I doubt it not.

  ‘Now therefore let us look to it like wise men while time yet serves. Yeshall know that the muster of the Dalesmen will bring under shield eightlong hundreds of men well-armed, and of the Shepherd-Folk four hundreds,and of the Woodlanders two hundreds; and this is a goodly host if it bewell ordered and wisely led. Now am I your Alderman and your Doomster,and I can heave up a sword as well as another maybe, nor do I think thatI shall blench in the battle; yet I misdoubt me that I am no leader ororderer of men-of-war: therefore ye will do wisely to choose a wiserman-at-arms than I be for your War-leader; and if at the Great Folk-mote,when all the Houses and Kindreds are gathered, men yeasay your choosing,then let him abide; but if they naysay it, let him give place to another.For time presses. Will ye so choose?’

  ‘Yea, yea!’ cried all men.

  ‘Good is that, neighbours,’ said the Alderman. ‘Whom will ye have forWar-leader? Consider well.’

  Short was their rede, for every man opened his mouth and cried out‘Face-of-god!’ Then said the Alderman:

  ‘The man is young and untried; yet though he is so near akin to me, Iwill say that ye will do wisely to take him; for he is both deft of hishands and brisk; and moreover, of this matter he knoweth more than all wetogether. Now therefore I declare him your War-leader till the time ofthe Great Folk-mote.’

  Then all men shouted with great glee and clashed their weapons; but somefew put their heads together and spake apart a little while, and then oneof them, Red-coat of Waterless to wit, came forward and said: ‘Alderman,some of us deem it good that Stone-face, the old man wise in war and inthe ways of the Wood, should be named as a counsellor to the War-leader;and Hall-face, a very brisk and strong young man, to be his right handand sword-bearer.’

  ‘Good is that,’ said Iron-face. ‘Neighbours, will ye have it so?’ Thisalso they yeasaid without delay, and the Alderman declared Stone-face andHall-face the helpers of Face-of-god in this business. Then he said:

  ‘If any hath aught to say concerning what is best to be done at once, itwere good that he said it now before all and not to murmur and grudgehereafter.’

  None spake save the Fiddle, who said: ‘Alderman and War-leader, one thingwould I say: that if these foemen are anywise akin to those overrunnersof the Folks of whom the tales went in my youth (for I also as well asStone-face mind me well of those tales concerning them), it shall notavail us to sit still and await their onset. For then may they not bewithstood, when they have gathered head and burst out and over the folkthat have been happy, even as the waters that overtop a dyke and coverwith their muddy ruin the deep green grass and the flower-buds of spring.Therefore my rede is, as soon as may be to go seek these folk in thewoodland and wheresoever else they may be wandering. What sayest thou,Face-of-god?’

  ‘My rede is as thine,’ said he; ‘and to begin with, I do now call uponten tens of good men to meet me in arms at the beginning of Wildlake’sWay to-morrow morning at daybreak; and I bid my brother Hall-face tosummon such as are most meet thereto. For this I deem good, that wescour the wood daily at present till we hear fresh tidings from them ofShadowy Vale, who are nigher than we to the foemen. Now, neighbours, areye ready to meet me?’

  Then all shouted, ‘Yea, we will go, we will go!’

  Said the Alderman: ‘Now have we made provision for the war in that whichis nearest to our hands. Yet have we to deal with the matter of thefellowship with the Folk whom Face-of-god hath seen. This is a matterfor thee, son, at least till the Great Folk-mote is holden. Tell methen, shall we send a messenger to Shadowy Vale to speak with this folk,or shall we abide the chieftain’s coming?’

  ‘By my rede,’ said Face-of-god, ‘we shall abide his coming: for first,though I might well make my way thither, I doubt if I could give any thebearings, so that he could come there without me; and belike I am neededat home, since I am become War-leader. Moreover, when your messengercometh to Shadowy Vale, he may well chance to find neither the chieftainthere, nor the best of his men; for whiles are they here, and whilesthere, as they wend following after the Dusky Men.’

  ‘It is well, son,’ said the Alderman, ‘let it be as thou sayest: soothlythis matter must needs be brought before the Great Folk-mote. Now will Iask if any other hath any word to say, or any rede to give before thisGate-thing sundereth?’

  But no man came forward, and all men seemed well content and of goodheart; and it was now well past noontide.