Frey and His Wife (Illustrated)

It's hard to tell why men could not get along with Ogmund Ravensson; but so it was, and something must be said about it. He was of thrall-origin, it is true, for Raven, his father, who became very rich and lived in the North, in Skaga Firth, had been a thrall. Glum, of Thwartwater, who was better known as Battle-Glum, had owned him, and had given him his freedom. More than that, he had taken in fostership his son Ogmund, and brought him up with his own son, Wigfus, and made much of him, putting him in a fair way to gain money and renown on his own account. When Wigfus went out to Norway and[Pg 10] took service with Earl Haakon things stood better than ever for Ogmund; for Glum was ageing and had no other young man so much in favour about him. A thrall for your father was not thought well of; but it had not so far stood in Ogmund's way with Glum, and there must have been more against him than that. Indeed, the tale says that his mother was related by blood to Battle-Glum, and that would be more than enough to cover the taint on his father.

He grew up to be a fine, broad-shouldered, portly, upstanding man, with a black beard; he had a large, flexible nose, strong eyebrows, white hands. His eyes were somewhat small and near together; grey eyes, and a cast in one of them. But what of that? Plenty men have it, and no harm done. Finally, he was a great talker, full of his reasons for or against a thing. Other men don't like that, I fancy. They don't follow the reasoning;[Pg 11] and the better it is the less they want it. Here are some of the causes of Ogmund's lack of friends.

But Battle-Glum, who, as I say, was getting old, was averse from change. He watched him from under bushy white brows, he watched him with quick eye-blinks, and shut his lips the firmer, men used to think, for fear he might let fly a volley at the man he had bred up from a child. When the time came, and Ogmund desired to see the world, Glum furnished a ship for him and found everything. So it was that Ogmund became a shipman and began to get on. He made money, and spent money. He had a fine person, and knew it very well. He was fond of adorning it. He liked furs, and gold-work; he wore a chain round his neck, and a good ring on his forefinger. He had as yet no wife in Iceland, but his fancy ran upon a young woman of good family, of Glum's kindred and, since that was so,[Pg 12] of the kindred of Earl Haakon, of Norway. In the meantime, he had a bondwoman in Norway, and a steading in very good land not far from the firth. She was a pretty and good girl who did her duty by him and his household there, and by her children also who were dependent upon Ogmund and what Ogmund's whim might be. Her name was Gerda; but she has little to do with the tale, which begins here with a voyage made by Ogmund some three years before the coming of King Olaf Trygvasson into Norway.

For this voyage Ogmund bought a new ship from some men in the North, and embarked a great store of merchantable goods which he had from his father Raven, as well as what his own money could furnish him forth. All this he told his foster-father Glum; and then he said, "I hope that you will take it well in me, Glum, that I ask nothing of you for this venture."

[Pg 13]

To that Glum, blinking hard, replied that there were things which any man might ask of another without reproach.

"But," said Ogmund, "I would venture what I have of my own, so that what I win may be my own without cavil."

"That's very fair," said Glum; "and what is it you expect to get out of the voyage?"

Ogmund laughed a little, and spoke lightly. "Why," he said, "I expect to get rather more than I give for everything. That is the trader's way, the chapman's way. If he has a piece of goods that breeds no profit, overboard with it. It has not earned its stowage."

Now Glum had his lips shut like a trap, and blinked fearfully. "Ah," he said, "and fame, and great report, and the lifted hands of men—what of those?"

"They are good," said Ogmund. "Of them, too, you may trust me to render account."

[Pg 14]

"Such accounts," said Glum, "are not to be made in money."

"Well," said Ogmund. And that was all he did say.

Then Glum looked at him with earnest eyes; and this time he did not blink at all. "Many a man goes abroad," he said, "who is of no greater promise than you are, so far as can be seen. Now I have it close at heart that in the voyage you make you should rather get honour than store of money. But you may have both, I believe, if you go rightly to work."

"To be sure I can," said Ogmund; and soon after this—rather late in midsummer it was—he set out from Thwartwater.

They started in fair weather, with a westerly wind which blew steady and strong. It held them all through the voyage,