The Roots of the Mountains Read online

  CHAPTER II. OF FACE-OF-GOD AND HIS KINDRED.

  TELLS the tale, that on an evening of late autumn when the weather wasfair, calm, and sunny, there came a man out of the wood hard by theMote-stead aforesaid, who sat him down at the roots of the Speech-mound,casting down before him a roe-buck which he had just slain in the wood.He was a young man of three and twenty summers; he was so clad that hehad on him a sheep-brown kirtle and leggings of like stuff bound aboutwith white leather thongs; he bore a short-sword in his girdle and alittle axe withal; the sword with fair wrought gilded hilts and adew-shoe of like fashion to its sheath. He had his quiver at his backand bare in his hand his bow unstrung. He was tall and strong, very fairof fashion both of limbs and face, white-skinned, but for the sun’stanning, and ruddy-cheeked: his beard was little and fine, his hairyellow and curling, cut somewhat close, but for its length so plenteous,and so thick, that none could fail to note it. He had no hat nor hoodupon his head, nought but a fillet of golden beads.

  As he sat down he glanced at the dale below him with a well-pleased look,and then cast his eyes down to the grass at his feet, as though to hold alittle longer all unchanged the image of the fair place he had just seen.The sun was low in the heavens, and his slant beams fell yellow all upthe dale, gilding the chestnut groves grown dusk and grey with autumn,and the black masses of the elm-boughs, and gleaming back here and therefrom the pools of the Weltering Water. Down in the midmost meadows thelong-horned dun kine were moving slowly as they fed along the edges ofthe stream, and a dog was bounding about with exceeding swiftness hereand there among them. At a sharply curved bight of the river the mancould see a little vermilion flame flickering about, and above it a thinblue veil of smoke hanging in the air, and clinging to the boughs of thewillows anear; about it were a dozen menfolk clear to see, some sitting,some standing, some walking to and fro, but all in company together: fourof were brown-clad and short-skirted like himself, and from above thehand of one came a flash of light as the sun smote upon the steel of hisspear. The others were long-skirted and clad gayer, and amongst themwere red and blue and green and white garments, and they were clear to beseen for women. Just as the young man looked up again, those of them whowere sitting down rose up, and those that were strolling drew nigh, andthey joined hands together, and fell to dancing on the grass, and the dogand another one with him came up to the dancers and raced about andbetwixt them; and so clear to see were they all and so little, being faraway, that they looked like dainty well-wrought puppets.

  The young man sat smiling at it for a little, and then rose up andshouldered his venison, and went down into Wildlake’s Way, and presentlywas fairly in the Dale and striding along the Portway beside the northerncliffs, whose greyness was gilded yet by the last rays of the sun, thoughin a minute or two it would go under the western rim. He went fast andcheerily, murmuring to himself snatches of old songs; none overtook himon the road, but he overtook divers folk going alone or in company towardBurgstead; swains and old men, mothers and maidens coming from the fieldand the acre, or going from house to house; and one or two he met but notmany. All these greeted him kindly, and he them again; but he stayed notto speak with any, but went as one in haste.

  It was dusk by then he passed under the gate of Burgstead; he wentstraight thence to the door of the House of the Face, and entered as onewho is at home, and need go no further, nor abide a bidding.

  The hall he came into straight out of the open air was long and somewhatnarrow and not right high; it was well-nigh dark now within, but since heknew where to look, he could see by the flicker that leapt up now andthen from the smouldering brands of the hearth amidmost the hall underthe luffer, that there were but three men therein, and belike they wereeven they whom he looked to find there, and for their part they lookedfor his coming, and knew his step.

  He set down his venison on the floor, and cried out in a cheery voice:‘Ho, Kettel! Are all men gone without doors to sleep so near thewinter-tide, that the Hall is as dark as a cave? Hither to me! Or artthou also sleeping?’

  A voice came from the further side of the hearth: ‘Yea, lord, asleep Iam, and have been, and dreaming; and in my dream I dealt with theflesh-pots and the cake-board, and thou shalt see my dream come truepresently to thy gain.’

  Quoth another voice: ‘Kettel hath had out that share of his dream alreadybelike, if the saw sayeth sooth about cooks. All ye have been away, sobelike he hath done as Rafe’s dog when Rafe ran away from the slainbuck.’

  He laughed therewith, and Kettel with him, and a third voice joined thelaughter. The young man also laughed and said: ‘Here I bring the venisonwhich my kinsman desired; but as ye see I have brought it over-late: buttake it, Kettel. When cometh my father from the stithy?’

  Quoth Kettel: ‘My lord hath been hard at it shaping the Yule-tide sword,and doth not lightly leave such work, as ye wot, but he will be herepresently, for he has sent to bid us dight for supper straightway.’

  Said the young man: ‘Where are there lords in the dale, Kettel, or hastthou made some thyself, that thou must be always throwing them in myteeth?’

  ‘Son of the Alderman,’ said Kettel, ‘ye call me Kettel, which is no nameof mine, so why should I not call thee lord, which is no dignity ofthine, since it goes well over my tongue from old use and wont? But herecomes my mate of the kettle, and the women and lads. Sit down by thehearth away from their hurry, and I will fetch thee the hand-water.’

  The young man sat down, and Kettel took up the venison and went his waystoward the door at the lower end of the hall; but ere he reached it itopened, and a noisy crowd entered of men, women, boys, and dogs, somebearing great wax candles, some bowls and cups and dishes and trenchers,and some the boards for the meal.

  The young man sat quiet smiling and winking his eyes at the sudden floodof light let into the dark place; he took in without looking at this orthe other thing the aspect of his Fathers’ House, so long familiar tohim; yet to-night he had a pleasure in it above his wont, and in all thestir of the household; for the thought of the wood wherein he hadwandered all day yet hung heavy upon him. Came one of the girls and castfresh brands on the smouldering fire and stirred it into a blaze, and thewax candles were set up on the daïs, so that between them and themew-quickened fire every corner of the hall was bright. As aforesaid itwas long and narrow, over-arched with stone and not right high, thewindows high up under the springing of the roof-arch and all on the sidetoward the street; over against them were the arches of the shut-beds ofthe housemates. The walls were bare that evening, but folk were wont tohang up hallings of woven pictures thereon when feasts and high-days weretoward; and all along the walls were the tenter-hooks for that purpose,and divers weapons and tools were hanging from them here and there.About the daïs behind the thwart-table were now stuck for adornment leavyboughs of oak now just beginning to turn with the first frosts. High upon the gable wall above the tenter-hooks for the hangings were carvenfair imagery and knots and twining stems; for there in the hewn atone wasset forth that same image with the rayed head that was on the outsidewall, and he was smiting the dragon and slaying him; but here inside thehouse all this was stained in fair and lively colours, and the sun-likerays round the head of the image were of beaten gold. At the lower endof the hall were two doors going into the butteries, and kitchen, andother out-bowers; and above these doors was a loft upborne by stonepillars, which loft was the sleeping chamber of the goodman of the house;but the outward door was halfway between the said loft and the hearth ofthe hall.

  So the young man took the shoes from his feet and then sat watching thewomen and lads arraying the boards, till Kettel came again to him with anold woman bearing the ewer and basin, who washed his feet and poured thewater over his hands, and gave him the towel with fair-broidered ends todry them withal.

  Scarce had he made an end of this ere through the outer door came inthree men and a young woman with them; the foremost of these was a manyounger by some two years than the first-comer, bu
t so like him that nonemight misdoubt that he was his brother; the next was an old man with along white beard, but hale and upright; and lastly came a man ofmiddle-age, who led the young woman by the hand. He was taller than thefirst of the young men, though the other who entered with him outwent himin height; a stark carle he was, broad across the shoulders, thin in theflank, long-armed and big-handed; very noble and well-fashioned ofcountenance, with a straight nose and grey eyes underneath a broad brow:his hair grown somewhat scanty was done about with a fillet of goldenbeads like the young men his sons. For indeed this was their father, andthe master of the House.

  His name was Iron-face, for he was the deftest of weapon-smiths, and hewas the Alderman of the Dalesmen, and well-beloved of them; his kindredwas deemed the noblest of the Dale, and long had they dwelt in the Houseof the Face. But of his sons the youngest, the new-comer, was namedHall-face, and his brother the elder Face-of-god; which name was of olduse amongst the kindred, and many great men and stout warriors had borneit aforetime: and this young man, in great love had he been gotten, andin much hope had he been reared, and therefore had he been named afterthe best of the kindred. But his mother, who was hight the Jewel, andhad been a very fair woman, was dead now, and Iron-face lacked a wife.

  Face-of-god was well-beloved of his kindred and of all the Folk of theDale, and he had gotten a to-name, and was called Gold-mane because ofthe abundance and fairness of his hair.

  As for the young woman that was led in by Iron-face, she was thebetrothed of Face-of-god, and her name was the Bride. She looked withsuch eyes of love on him when she saw him in the hall, as though she hadnever seen him before but once, nor loved him but since yesterday; thoughin truth they had grown up together and had seen each other most days ofthe year for many years. She was of the kindred with whom the chiefs andgreat men of the Face mostly wedded, which was indeed far away kindred ofthem. She was a fair woman and strong: not easily daunted amidst perilsshe was hardy and handy and light-foot: she could swim as well as any,and could shoot well in the bow, and wield sword and spear: yet was shekind and compassionate, and of great courtesy, and the very dogs and kinetrusted in her and loved her. Her hair was dark red of hue, long andfine and plenteous, her eyes great and brown, her brow broad and veryfair, her lips fine and red: her cheek not ruddy, yet nowise sallow, butclear and bright: tall she was and of excellent fashion, but well-knitand well-measured rather than slender and wavering as the willow-bough.Her voice was sweet and soft, her words few, but exceeding dear to thelistener. In short, she was a woman born to be the ransom of her Folk.

  Now as to the names which the menfolk of the Face bore, and they anancient kindred, a kindred of chieftains, it has been said that in timespast their image of the God of the Earth had over his treen face a maskof beaten gold fashioned to the shape of the image; and that when theAlderman of the Folk died, he to wit who served the God and bore on hisarm the gold-ring between the people and the altar, this visor or face ofGod was laid over the face of him who had been in a manner his priest,and therewith he was borne to mound; and the new Alderman and priest hadit in charge to fashion a new visor for the God; and whereas for longthis great kindred had been chieftains of the people, they had been, andwere all so named, that the word Face was ever a part of their names.