The Golden Slave (29 page)

“Much have you seen,” said Beli. The war-chiefs of the Rukh-Ansa clashed their ale horns under his words.

“I have seen less with two eyes than my King has with one,” said Tjorr humbly. “He has learned the arts of many nations. He would teach his own people whatever of it they can use.”

“Where are your folk?” asked Beli of the stranger.

“North,” said Eodan. “They were the Cimbri once. Now they are any who dwell where heather blooms and beech forests blow.”

“We will go north, my king and I, to rule in his land,” said Tjorr. “There are not many dwelling in it. No few of the Rukh-Ansa could follow us, find new homes in the North and become great.”

“Some of the younger ones might,” agreed Beli.

“Might?” cried Tjorr. “Why, if I know my clans, they will be at spearheads over the right to come!”

“Not all,” said Beli. “Not even most. For if you fare north you will become something else than what you are.”

“That is true,” said Eodan. “Yet what is it to live, than to become something else?”

“Forgive me,” said Beli, “but there are men who would not follow a one-eyed king.”

“Let them stay home, then,” snorted Tjorr. “I’ll pasture my horses on the edge of the world if he leads me there.”

“Yes,” nodded Beli. “Yes. There are such kings. But how did it happen you lost your eye, Lord?”

Eodan smiled. It was a wry smile, not ungentle, but wholly without youth. He had known too much ever to be young again. He said, “I gave it for wisdom.”

 
EPILOGUE

It was told from olden days, and written in the books of Snorri Sturlason, that the Asa or Ansa folk came from the land of Tanais to the North. They soon became overlords; from the high hall they raised at Upsala their power spread, until even the German tribes drew chieftains and learning from them. For they were good masters, who brought their new people not only wealth but knowledge. They gave to the North crafts of both peace and war, such as the building of longships and the breeding of fine horses, the writing of runes and the mustering of armies, foreign trade and foreign travel, much leechcraft and many wise laws. By all this the folk were strengthened and helped, so that they lifted themselves from rude forest dwellers to mighty nations who finally overthrew the Roman power and peopled Europe afresh, in the time of the Wanderings. Above all did they shape the country called England, and there they kept much of the old freedom-shielding law that the Asa men first brought.

Every king in the North reckoned descent from the Asa lords, who themselves came to be worshiped as gods after they died. The first Asa king was called Odin, and he was the chief of the gods.

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