IX
Ingolf kept deeply secreted in his heart the image of a young girl. Her name was Hallveig, and hers was the only woman’s look which had ever stirred his soul. Her grey eyes lived so vividly in his memory, he could see them before him when he wished. The thought of them made his usually quiet heart quiver. Her name was Hallveig, and her image was painfully and distinctly impressed on his mind.
He had seen her for the first time in the preceding winter when, on one of his trading journeys, he had spent the night at the house of her father, Frode. And that first time had hitherto been the only one.
He had made the acquaintance of her father, Frode, and her brother, Lopt, before, at various sacrificial feasts. Lopt and himself had much in common. Lopt was a quiet and rather reserved man. His whole appearance bore the stamp of the well-to-do yeoman farmer’s firmness and self-possession. Lopt and Ingolf had always felt attracted by each other. They were both strong, high-born men without deceit or flaw in their minds. A mutual consciousness of their inner affinity had from the beginning brought them near each other.
Thus Ingolf came to the house one winter evening and saw Lopt’s sister. Her name was Hallveig, and she was only eighteen. She was very serious. Ingolf never saw her smile like other young women. Already her inner seriousness roused great disquiet in his mind. Hallveig did not go about lavishing her smiles. Her look was watchful and critical. She looked at people, and had a scale to weigh them by. One became clear about one’s value under her look. And her look did not flinch nor change like that of other women when one encountered it. It met one like a man’s. It was in some degree a boy’s look, thought Ingolf. He sat there that evening and could take neither his eyes nor his thoughts from Hallveig. Lopt and Frode often had to repeat their questions to him. The whole of Ingolf’s listening faculty was turned inward and not outward. He sat by her side and forgot both them and himself. All that he knew was that now and then he cast a furtive glance at Hallveig. And yet he sat the whole time and looked at her. It was the first time that Ingolf had been in love, and it was of benefit to him. The next day was fixed for his departure, but he did not go. He was travelling with important objects, and it would be very extraordinary if he delayed his journey without special reason. But he remained all the same, and forgot to give himself or others a reason for it. He simply remained because it was impossible for him to go that day.
He had a long talk with Hallveig, sitting by her side in the morning. A little after (so it seemed) he was surprised to find it already evening. How the day had gone was a puzzle to him. He was lost.
Ingolf did not find it at all surprising that he found such a good opportunity to talk with Hallveig undisturbed. He had neither time to notice nor to reflect upon the fact that Lopt and Frode had left them alone the whole day. He had no idea that any one could look at him and observe from his behaviour what impression Hallveig had made upon him.
The whole of that day, which he afterwards did not know what had become of, he sat and talked with Hallveig. Not once did she smile at him. But there was in her look a charm which surpassed every smile. There was a warmth in her look and a secret confidence which put him at his ease. Her nearness filled him with a peculiar quivering consciousness of security. He felt that there was already a deep intimacy between him and this woman whom he did not know and yet knew.
The next day Ingolf went on his journey. When he gave Hallveig his hand at parting their eyes met. The look of both was firm and serious. Suddenly Hallveig smiled. Her eyes became bright with a beaming smile. All at once Ingolf perceived that there was something he had forgotten or neglected—something which could not be omitted. He stood there with her hand in his, uneasy and irresolute, quite otherwise than he was accustomed.
But he now already held her hand at departure and must go. Confused and dissatisfied with himself, and yet at the same time filled with a tremulous happiness, he went away. Ingolf did not forget Hallveig’s solitary smile. He reflected much whether she had ever given any other man her smile, in the same way as she had to him. He did not believe it. But if she had, the man must die.
How Ingolf passed the year, before he returned to Hallveig, he did not know. It was quite unconsciously that he gave the memory of her time to grow and blossom in his soul. All that he knew about it was that every time he had resolved with himself that now he would go to Frode’s house and visit her, his mind was filled with anxiety and unrest. He found no solid reason for waiting. His longing urged him almost irresistibly to make the journey. He was also quite certain that he ran a risk by postponing it. All the same he waited.
At a feast at Gaulum the previous autumn he had met Lopt. During the three days of the feast they had been inseparable. Quite involuntarily they had kept together. Once, when the talk had turned on Lopt’s and Frode’s affairs, Lopt said, smiling: “We cannot get my sister, Hallveig, married. She rejects all suitors.” As Lopt spoke, Ingolf’s heart began to beat violently and joyfully. The day seemed to expand around him and become beautiful. The colours of the heavens and earth crowded at once upon his sight. The air itself became fresh and reviving. He found no answer to make to Lopt’s remark, and therefore pretended not to have heard him. Soon afterwards he began to talk of something else. But he did not succeed in deceiving Lopt, who, when alone, smiled to himself. Soon after Ingolf’s meeting with Lopt, Leif returned from his Viking expedition. Ingolf had enough to do, and was for a time cut off from all possibility of travelling.
But when the agreement with Haasten was settled, and the journey to Iceland to look for a residence determined on, it became at once as impossible for Ingolf to postpone the decisive interview with Hallveig as it had been for him before to resolve on a visit. Ingolf, according to his custom, first spoke with his father on the subject. Orn was highly pleased, and declared himself in every way satisfied with his choice. “Frode,” he said, “is rich and well-born. It is time that you settled in life. Leif and you can celebrate your marriage in the autumn. You should not put off the journey for a day. You can go, my son.”
Ingolf went to Leif and asked for his companionship on a journey without disclosing further the object or the direction of it. Leif needed no pressing. He was always ready for a journey, he did not care where. If Ingolf did not reveal to him his object and the place whither he was bound, it was because he had good reasons for concealing it.
The brothers left home with a select but not very numerous retinue. Leif received a strong impression that this mysterious journey was of great importance. Could it possibly be a wooing expedition? Leif studied Ingolf closely, and came to the conclusion that it was. It amused him to guess whom Ingolf had pitched upon. He could not make out. In that respect he knew nothing of Ingolf. Had Ingolf really fallen in love dumbly and silently? Leif could not picture Ingolf to himself as an enamoured suitor. In secret he was immensely amused at his brother’s seriousness and taciturnity. But he showed great caution in his behaviour towards him. He observed that a great deal was at stake for Ingolf. He surmised that his quiet demeanour was not so genuine as it usually was.
When one evening they reached Frode’s house, Leif did not guess that they had already arrived at their journey’s end. But as soon as he saw Hallveig, he knew; and he was immediately filled with a warm and brotherly affection for her.
When Hallveig heard that Ingolf had come, she at once knew the reason. She put on her finest dress, and displayed her most valuable ornaments. Any one might think what they would; for her it was a festal day.
In this attire she went to meet Ingolf. Quietly and seriously she returned his greeting. Her whole manner told Ingolf that he was expected.
One evening she led Ingolf to her room. The next day Ingolf spoke with Lopt and Frode, and asked Hallveig in marriage. Frode gave him his daughter gladly. Lopt said that there was no one he would prefer as a brother-in-law. They quickly settled all the conditions. The sworn brothers’ loss of their property was not mentioned at the time. Hallveig was summoned and questioned. Willingly and with deep earnestness she gave her mind to the matter. When, later on, she was alone with Ingolf, she wept and kissed him fervently. Ingolf was a constant surprise to her. Afterwards she smiled at him through her tears. There was a peculiar power and a complete abandonment in all her caresses. Ingolf felt beyond the shadow of a doubt that she was completely his, and for the whole of life. And her demeanour showed just as certainly that she was happy.
Frode and Lopt celebrated the betrothal by a great feast. Ingolf and Leif remained a whole week in the house. When they left, the wedding was fixed for about three weeks later. In accordance with Ingolf’s wish it was to take place in Orn’s house, since his father felt too old to travel.
Ingolf and Hallveig were agreed on having the shortest possible interval before their marriage. They did not wish to wait a day longer than necessary, now that they at last had each other. They found it almost impossible to separate, though it was only for three weeks. They could not comprehend how they had hitherto been able to live without each other. Ingolf felt now that the two years which had passed since he saw Hallveig for the first time were as though lost for him. Yes, his whole youth seemed as though lost for him since he had not met Hallveig before.
Never had Ingolf before reflected how short life really was. He had not measured it with love’s measuring-rod.