The House of the Wolfings
the morning, and we were afoot (for we had no horses with us) before the
moon grew white. We took the road in good order, albeit our folk-banners
we had left behind in the burg; so each kindred raised aloft a shield of
its token to be for a banner. So we went forth, and some swift footmen,
with Fox, who hath seen the Roman war-garth, had been sent on before to
spy out the ways of the foemen.
"Two hours after sunrise cometh one of these, and telleth how he hath
seen the Romans, and how that they are but a short mile hence breaking
their fast, not looking for any onslaught; 'but,' saith he, 'they are on
a high ridge whence they can see wide about, and be in no danger of
ambush, because the place is bare for the most part, nor is there any
cover except here and there down in the dales a few hazels and blackthorn
bushes, and the rushes of the becks in the marshy bottoms, wherein a
snipe may hide, or a hare, but scarce a man; and note that there is no
way up to that ridge but by a spur thereof as bare as my hand; so ye will
be well seen as ye wend up thereto.'
"So spake he in my hearing. But Thiodolf bade him lead on to that spur,
and old Heriulf, who was standing nigh, laughed merrily and said: 'Yea,
lead on, and speedily, lest the day wane and nothing done save the
hunting of snipes.'
"So on we went, and coming to the hither side of that spur beheld those
others and Fox with them; and he held in his hand an arrow of the aliens,
and his face was all astir with half-hidden laughter, and he breathed
hard, and pointed to the ridge, and somewhat low down on it we saw a
steel cap and three spear-heads showing white from out a little hollow in
its side, but the men hidden by the hollow: so we knew that Fox had been
chased, and that the Romans were warned and wary.
"No delay made the War-duke, but led us up that spur, which was somewhat
steep; and as we rose higher we saw a band of men on the ridge, a little
way down it, not a many; archers and slingers mostly, who abode us till
we were within shot, and then sent a few shots at us, and so fled. But
two men were hurt with the sling-plummets, and one, and he not
grievously, with an arrow, and not one slain.
"Thus we came up on to the ridge, so that there was nothing between us
and the bare heavens; thence we looked south-east and saw the Romans
wisely posted on the ridge not far from where it fell down steeply to the
north; but on the south, that is to say on their left hands, and all
along the ridge past where we were stayed, the ground sloped gently to
the south-west for a good way, before it fell, somewhat steeply, into
another long dale. Looking north we saw the outer edge of Mirkwood but a
little way from us, and we were glad thereof; because ere we left our
sleeping-place that morn Thiodolf had sent to Otter another messenger
bidding him send yet more men on to us in case we should be hard-pressed
in the battle; for he had had a late rumour that the Romans were many.
And now when he had looked on the Roman array and noted how wise it was,
he sent three swift-foot ones to take stand on a high knoll which we had
passed on the way, that they might take heed where our folk came out from
the wood and give signal to them by the horn, and lead them to where the
battle should be.
"So we stood awhile and breathed us, and handled our weapons some half a
furlong from the alien host. They had no earth rampart around them, for
that ridge is waterless, and they could not abide there long, but they
had pitched sharp pales in front of them and they stood in very good
order, as if abiding an onslaught, and moved not when they saw us; for
that band of shooters had joined themselves to them already. Taken one
with another we deemed them to be more than we were; but their hauberked
footmen with the heavy cast-spears not so many as we by a good deal.
"Now we were of mind to fall on them ere they should fall on us; so all
such of us as had shot-weapons spread out from our company and went forth
a little; and of the others Heriulf stood foremost along with the leaders
of the Beamings and the Elkings; but as yet Thiodolf held aback and led
the midmost company, as his wont was, and the more part of the Wolfings
were with him.
"Thus we ordered ourselves, and awaited a little while yet what the
aliens should do; and presently a war-horn blew amongst them, and from
each flank of their mailed footmen came forth a many bowmen and slingers
and a band of horsemen; and drew within bowshot, the shooters in open
array yet wisely, and so fell to on us, and the horsemen hung aback a
little as yet.
"Their arrow-shot was of little avail, their bowmen fell fast before
ours; but deadly was their sling-shot, and hurt and slew many and some
even in our main battle; for they slung round leaden balls and not
stones, and they aimed true and shot quick; and the men withal were so
light and lithe, never still, but crouching and creeping and bounding
here and there, that they were no easier to hit than coneys amidst of the
fern, unless they were very nigh.
"Howbeit when this storm had endured a while, and we moved but little,
and not an inch aback, and gave them shot for shot, then was another horn
winded from amongst the aliens; and thereat the bowmen cast down their
bows, and the slingers wound their slings about their heads, and they all
came on with swords and short spears and feathered darts, running and
leaping lustily, making for our flanks, and the horsemen set spurs to
their horses and fell on in the very front of our folk like good and
valiant men-at-arms.
"That saw Heriulf and his men, and they set up the war-whoop, and ran
forth to meet them, axe and sword aloft, terribly yet maybe somewhat
unwarily. The archers and slingers never came within sword-stroke of
them, but fell away before them on all sides; but the slingers fled not
far, but began again with their shot, and slew a many. Then was a horn
winded, as if to call back the horsemen, who, if they heard, heeded not,
but rode hard on our kindred like valiant warriors who feared not death.
Sooth to say, neither were the horses big or good, nor the men fit for
the work, saving for their hardihood; and their spears were short withal
and their bucklers unhandy to wield.
"Now could it be seen how the Goths gave way before them to let them into
the trap, and then closed around again, and the axes and edge weapons
went awork hewing as in a wood; and Heriulf towered over all the press,
and the Wolf's-sister flashed over his head in the summer morning.
"Soon was that storm over, and we saw the Goths tossing up their spears
over the slain, and horses running loose and masterless adown over the
westward-lying slopes, and a few with their riders still clinging to
them. Yet some, sore hurt by seeming, galloping toward the main battle
of the Romans.
"Unwarily then fared the children of Tyr that were with Heriulf; for by
this time they were well nigh within shot of the spears of those mighty
footmen of the Romans: and on their flanks were the slingers, and the
bowmen, who had now gotten their bows again; and our bowmen, though they
shot well and strong, were too few to quell them; and indeed some of them
had cast by their bows to join in Heriulf's storm. Also the lie of the
ground was against us, for it sloped up toward the Roman array at first
very gently, but afterwards steeply enough to breathe a short-winded man.
Also behind them were we of the other kindreds, whom Thiodolf had ordered
into the wedge-array; and we were all ready to move forward, so that had
they abided somewhat, all had been well and better.
"So did they not, but straightway set up the Victory-whoop and ran
forward on the Roman host. And these were so ordered that, as aforesaid,
they had before them sharp piles stuck into the earth and pointed against
us, as we found afterwards to our cost; and within these piles stood the
men some way apart from each other, so as to handle their casting spears,
and in three ranks were they ordered and many spears could be cast at
once, and if any in the front were slain, his fellow behind him took his
place.
"So now the storm of war fell at once upon our folk, and swift and fierce
as was their onslaught yet were a many slain and hurt or ever they came
to the piles aforesaid. Then saw they death before them and heeded it
nought, but tore up the piles and dashed through them, and fell in on
those valiant footmen. Short is the tale to tell: wheresoever a sword or
spear of the Goths was upraised there were three upon him, and saith Toti
of the Beamings, who was hurt and crawled away and yet lives, that on
Heriulf there were six at first and then more; and he took no thought of
shielding himself, but raised up the Wolf's-sister and hewed as the
woodman in the thicket, when night cometh and hunger is on him. There
fell Heriulf the Ancient and many a man of the Beamings and the Elkings
with him, and many a Roman.
"But amidst the slain and the hurt our wedge-array moved forward slowly
now, warily shielded against the plummets and shafts on either side; and
when the Romans saw our unbroken array, and Thiodolf the first with
Throng-plough naked in his hand, they chased not such men of ours unhurt
or little hurt, as drew aback from before them: so these we took amongst
us, and when we had gotten all we might, and held a grim face to the foe,
we drew aback little by little, still facing them till we were out of
shot of their spears, though the shot of the arrows and the
sling-plummets ceased not wholly from us. Thus ended Heriulf's Storm."
Then he rested from his speaking for a while, and none said aught, but
they gazed on him as if he bore with him a picture of the battle, and
many of the women wept silently for Heriulf, and yet more of the younger
ones were wounded to the heart when they thought of the young men of the
Elkings, and the Beamings, since with both those houses they had
affinity; and they lamented the loves that they had lost, and would have
asked concerning their own speech-friends had they durst. But they held
their peace till the tale was told out to an end.
Then Egil spake again:
"No long while had worn by in Heriulf's Storm, and though men's hearts
were nothing daunted, but rather angered by what had befallen, yet would
Thiodolf wear away the time somewhat more, since he hoped for succour
from the Wain-burg and the Wood; and he would not that any of these
Romans should escape us, but would give them all to Tyr, and to be a
following to Heriulf the Old and the Great.
"So there we abided a while moving nought, and Thiodolf stood with Throng-
plough on his shoulder, unhelmed, unbyrnied, as though he trusted to the
kindred for all defence. Nor for their part did the Romans dare to leave
their vantage-ground, when they beheld what grim countenance we made
them.
"Albeit, when we had thrice made as if we would fall on, and yet they
moved not, whereas it trieth a man sorely to stand long before the
foeman, and do nought but endure, and whereas many of our bowmen were
slain or hurt, and the rest too few to make head against the shot-weapons
of the aliens, then at last we began to draw nearer and a little nearer,
not breaking the wedge-array; and at last, just before we were within
shot of the cast-spears of their main battle, loud roared our war-horn:
then indeed we broke the wedge-array, but orderly as we knew how,
spreading out from right and left of the War-duke till we were facing
them in a long line: one minute we abode thus, and then ran forth through
the spear-storm: and even therewith we heard, as it were, the echo of our
own horn, and whoso had time to think betwixt the first of the storm and
the handstrokes of the Romans deemed that now would be coming fresh