VIII
Now there is this to be told of Ingolf, that when he had found a practicable harbour, and unloaded his ship and drawn it on land, he set his men immediately to work at building winter dwellings for men and animals.
He himself rode about on horseback, followed by a young serf, Vifel, who had grown up in his father’s house, and whom he valued greatly. He examined the district, and took long rides along the shore to look for the pillars of his high-seat. He made use of his opportunities, and was satisfied. The district suited him in many ways. From his point he commanded a wide view eastward and westward along the coast—the most extensive view he remembered to have seen.
Some distance inland, exactly opposite the point, divided from it by luxuriant pasture-land, there rose a steep, high mountain. On both sides of it the circle of mountains retired, on the south-west side in a wide curve. Behind this mountain rose the glacier, a gigantic pile of ice glittering white in the distance, which sent wrinkled feelers down all the ravines as if to taste the lowland. Remarkably enough, no cold emanated from this huge mass of ice; on the contrary, it seemed to warm the air, perhaps by attracting all the bad weather and cold to its far summit, which was only seldom visible. On both sides of the point there stretched barren sand along the coast intersected by countless glacier streams. These sands in some places spread themselves inland till they met the edge of the glacier. But the wide-stretching pasture-land along the mountains, which this barren sand surrounded, was of a peculiarly rich fertility. There was abundance of coppice-wood, which in places grew close up to the glacier and presented a singular appearance. The cattle throve well here. The air was full of warm moisture, and was suitable for grass and cattle and men. Ingolf had to admit that the summer was better and the soil more luxuriant here than in the Svanefjords. At the same time, he wished his pillars would drift ashore in the Svanefjords. And in this Hallveig was one with him.
Secretly he derived not a little hope from the circumstance that the pillars had apparently taken an eastward direction when he saw them drift away from the ship. Who could say?—perhaps it was to the Svanefjords! He did not dare to wish anything in that way; it was for Odin to decide it. And it would be presumptuous of him to wish to instruct or to influence the One-eyed with the ravens. But many things pass through one’s thoughts which one cannot control. Odin must know that and would excuse it.
Ingolf endured the suspense for two months. Then he prepared for a long expedition with his serf, Vifel. Hallveig did not like this journey. Both Ingolf and his men had told her so much about the impassable glacier streams. Ingolf, however, quieted her by promising to show all possible caution. But he wished to go and look for himself in the Svanefjords.
Ingolf and his serf rode over the sand-dunes. On each sand-hill sat a gull. Full of an injured sense of proprietorship, the birds sat there and followed silently with an inscrutable look these strange animals who brought disturbance into the landscape. These sands were intersected by a countless number of powerful glacier streams. But fortunately the glacier proved passable in that part, so that Ingolf and his companion succeeded in circumventing the rivers in that way.
On the evening of the second day they were again stopped by a glacier stream as broad as a fjord, and with a treacherous bottom of fine sand. It traversed the district Ingolf and Leif had penetrated on their expedition southward from the Svanefjords the previous summer. Ingolf tried to circumvent it in the same way as he had the other river. But here the glacier was so full of deep crevasses along and across its course, that after many vain attempts he had to give it up. There was nothing for it but to turn round and put off the examination of the coast till the winter had bridged with ice the impassable rivers.
The remainder of the summer passed in winter preparations of all kinds. There were plenty of things to take in hand and look after.
Ingolf kept an eye on his sister, Helga, and showed her great friendliness in his words and behaviour. He could not exactly ascertain the real state of her feelings. She was quiet as ever, and all smiles and good-humour. She played with the boy, helped Hallveig, and there was apparently nothing in the least the matter with her spirits. But Ingolf had now and then, early in the morning, before any one else was up, surprised her standing staring with a long look towards the distant mountains that showed bluish in the south-west. In that direction lay Hjor-Leif’s point, although so far away that it could not be discerned. It cut Ingolf to the heart to see his sister stand gazing so—her face was so unusually pale in the mornings, and her blue eyes darker than at other times, as though shadowed by a twilight below them.
He had been many times on the point of telling her about the last words he had exchanged with Leif. For he knew that she was not aware of Hjor-Leif’s real reason for letting her remain behind with himself and Hallveig, and had no idea what she thought about it. But on further reflection he gave up the thought of telling her every time. Perhaps by doing so he would only cause her unnecessary anxiety and sorrow. She would certainly hardly be so quiet as now, if she were seriously anxious for Hjor-Leif. Best not to interfere with her thoughts. For his own part, Ingolf was not for an instant afraid of anything happening to Hjor-Leif, though he agreed with him that it was best not to expose Helga to the results of any conspiracy among the serfs, which he might well have reason to fear. But Ingolf knew Hjor-Leif. Even if his brother had been alone with the ten seditious serfs he would not have felt anxious for him. Hjor-Leif was on the watch, and he had successfully managed worse situations.
The winter began with slight frost and much snow. It was past Yuletide before the rivers were frozen.
As soon as possible, Ingolf equipped Vifel and another of his serfs, named Karle, and sent them eastward along the coast with orders to examine closely every creek and every promontory, and not to return till they had inspected both Svanefjord’s, except in the event of their finding the pillars before.
The serfs experienced wretched weather, with snow-storms and intense frost. They remained away for two weeks, and returned hungry and weary. They had examined the coast-line as far as north of the Svanefjords, but seen nothing of the pillars anywhere. When they had informed Ingolf, he heaved a deep sigh and gave up the Svanefjords.
He allowed the serfs time to rest and recover after their severe experience. Then he ordered them to get ready again. This time he gave them horses and sent them westward along the coast. He enjoined them not to return till they had found Hjor-Leif. If they had not found the pillars before they met him they were to tell Hjor-Leif to come westward with his men and cattle as soon as summer was in the air and a sea-passage was safe.
But spring came this time earlier than it was expected. Already in the night before the serfs started, a warm and strong south-west wind began to melt the snows and melt the ice that covered the rivers. The serfs only succeeded in passing the nearest rivers on ice. By the second day they could neither get forward nor backward by reason of furious rivers which carried huge volumes of muddy water and great blocks of ice. But they had to push on, and did so with the horses’ help, although they often wasted days in finding a ford, and sometimes had to let themselves be dragged through the water, hanging on to the horses’ tails or manes. It was the worst journey that Vifel and Karle had ever been out on, and it was only due to Vifel’s endurance and fidelity that they went forward and escaped with their lives. On the way they met men—Irish monks—who here far inland had built a temple with a brazen voice which shook the air. The monks questioned them, and seemed displeased with what they had to narrate.
They did not show them much friendliness. But Vifel and Karle were eternally thankful for merely escaping with life from these strange men who were in covenant with a god, the sound of whose voice alone cast them terror-struck to the earth.
At last the serfs reached Hjor-Leif’s point. They had been fourteen days on the journey. They found the houses empty and the place forsaken. They went down to the shore and found the ship. The boats, on the other hand, were gone. Not the slightest sign of life was visible anywhere.