The Wake (16 page)

but this cilde he colde see what i in my weacness colde not at all times he colde see the greatness in me what had been seen also by weland and the gods and what had been seen by my grandfather. he colde see what i had been ceosan to do what i had cum for he colde see the freodom in me for this was the freodom of all of angland here in my heorte and this frenc ingenga scucca he had been gifen a fuccan taste of this and he wolde not be the last for i was cuman with my sweord now with my werod i was cuman yes lic the eald cyngs to tac baec my ground

tac baec thy ground

i sceal

thu is worthy only be triewe

to this land

to its folc

to the eald hus

the sunne gan down the sunne rises

we will rise

well tofe he gaf me sum strength at this time but also strength was gifen me by thoughts of my grandfather and what he had telt me in his last daegs. i thought of what he saed about goan to the holt and lifan without specan and about the wihts what spoc to him and i seen that to be in the holt lic us to be grene men as this cilde was callan us well this was not a thing to mac a man feel small. for these was the wuds of angland the wuds of our folc of our land and my grandfather had saed to me he had saed thu moste spec to the land cilde for i no longer can

it was triewe i had lost my hus and my wifman and my oxgangs and my swine and my seat on the wapentac and all but when our folcs first cum to angland they had none of these things. it seemed to me then that i had been a soft man that i had been macd soft by the great things i had done and had been and now the gods had toc me to the eald holt and left me there with naht and was saen to me now buccmaster of holland now thu sceal lif lic a triewe man now thu sceal lif lic the eald folc now thu sceal lif lic us

i was thincan of this as i was walcan through the brunnesweald with tofe and grimcell that mergen a mergen when the heofon was graeg and no wind was cuman and the wud was still with lytel sound i was thincan of this and i felt strong again. i cnawan i was ceoson and this cilde tofe this lytel denisc cilde becum anglisc he colde see in me a great strength and the gods and great weland i seen now they had sent me to the holt to spec to the land to lysten to be a man in the wilde places lic all anglisc folc sceolde always be and now i seen the greatness of what i colde do. i had seen what these ingengas was doan to our folcs all ofer i had cum down from my place in the ham to my place in the grene holt and my werod now i was gathran and a war it wolde be a war agan the deofuls what was cwellan our folc and tacan our land

thu swam in the mere

i went to the treows

thu was there

with my hands i gripped them

they cum to thu

they cum

now they is here

i sees them i feels them

tac thy sweord buccmaster

we is risan

micel walcan wolde we do from that daeg micel walcan in the great holt the brunnesweald but though we walced for wices months years though this holt becum ham to me for so long still we did not see efen a small part of it so great was this deop eald wud. so great was it that many things dwelt there what was not cnawan to man but only in tales and in dreams. wihts for sure the boar the wulf the fox efen the bera it was saed by sum made this holt their ham. col beorners and out laws was in here as they was in all wuds but deop deoper efen than this was the eald wihts what was in angland before men

here i is meanan the aelfs and the dweorgs and ents who is of the holt who is the treows them selfs. my grandfather he telt me he had seen an aelf at dusc one daeg he seen it flittan betweon stoccs of treows thynne it was and grene and its eages was great and blaec and had no loc of man in them. well he was blithe to lif after that for oft it is saed that to see an aelf is to die for they sceots their aelf straels at thu and aelfscot is a slow death

but when we left langetof we was not thincan of aelfs we was thincan of mete for we was still needan to eat and we had no salt and in triewth we did not cnaw what to do. grimcell and i our wifmen wolde mac all our mete and foda and though we as men cwelled the wihts on our land they as wifmen wolde mac them in to foda and for tofe it was his mothors sistor wolde do so for this was wifmans worc. i cnawan that salt cept mete and that smocan cept it also but i had not done these things for i was worcan in the felds and in the barn

so here is what we done we walcced from langetof for one daeg deop in to the brunnesweald to the west and we cum to a place what seemed to be far from any ham or tun and we found a lea in the wud what had been cut for col
and where the stoccs of treows was small and thynne and many was cut. here was macd a hus of stoccs and leafs for now it was thrimilci and things was grene again and we macd a fyr. we macd this fyr wid and deop and we macd it with berc treows what was growan there for i cnawan that the berc is used by wifmen for smocan mete and smocan mete was what we thought we wolde now do. we macd this fyr under a great treow and on this treow we tied sum line the same line what we had used to cwell the ingenga

tofe had brought his three swine to the lea and tied them also with line to another treow. we toc the ealdest of these swine and untied him and i got my scramasax and i telt tofe and grimcell to grip this swine hard. this they did and i gan to him then and i cut his throta lic i had cut the ingenga and the ingengas had cut the eald man. only the throta of a swine is thiccer than the throta of a man and this scramasax it was not sharp for i had no stan and my cut it did not go deop enough. this swine then it called and called long and loud and it teorned and pulled and it gan away from tofe and grimcell and it ran in to the treows with blud cuman from its throta and we three men runnan after it cursan. swine is not dumb and the other two had seen this and was now teran at their ropes and callan also from fear

well i was glad we had gan deop in to the holt but still i was afeart at the sound for it colde not be cnawan where ingengas was or where was anglisc men who might hiere and tell it to them for gold or fafor. these swine was callan and callan lic yonge cildren and we was runnan through the wud after this swine what had gan away and it was hard to see though it colde be hierde before us. we ran for sum time and grimcell who was a big man he was slowan and fallan baec but the swine slowed now also for his throta was cut and he was wearyan. we cum to this swine by a big ac treow and he was gruntan and callan but his call was smaller now and he gan ahead of us but slow lic he cnawan it was ofer

i sceolde not haf done it i cnaw now but then i was tired and dreaned and this swine had ired me and my scramasax was blunt lic a maedens cnif so i toc my sweord what was always at my side and i gan to this swine and this sweord i throste into his heorte under his scanc and the swine he fell dead then without no mor sound. i toc out the sweord what was wet with the blud of this swine and i clened it on the leafs of treows lic it was a good thing to be doan but in my own heorte i cnawan deoper and deoper as i stood there that i done sum thing wrong for this was welands sweord my grandfathers sweord it was a great thing for great men and great deeds it was not for cwellan wihts for mete

it toc us sum time to tac this swine baec to where we had macd the hus and the fyr all three of us draggan it and it toc us time also to cut it and tac the bits we wolde cepe and tie them to the treow ofer the fyr. then we lighted the fyr and we coccd what mete we wolde eat then and the next mergen and the rest of the mete we smoccd for the night ofer the grene wud on the fyr. we ate swine mete that night and dranc good water from a small ea in the holt and we spac well but all the time i loccd ofer to where i had put my sweord and it seemed this sweord loccd baec at me and was ired

in the mergen i was waecend by the sound of wind in the treows and a great wind it was. blowan from a great height blowan with the strength of thunor this wind it mofd the great treows baec and forth and the sound was grim to hiere. i cnawan this was a sign of sum great thing that had been done or was cuman but i cnawan not what. i cum out of our hus of stoccs and leafs and i seen that the mete we had tied ofer the fyr had cum down in the wind and was all ofer the ground. i seen also that micel of it was gan tacan by wihts and i cursed the wud then as i toc up the mete that was left and clened it of aesc and mudd. it smelt smoccd and this seemed good and i hung it again from the line in the treow to cepe it clere of the fox and the wyrm

always in the mergen i waecend before tofe before grimcell and oft i waecend not cnawan where i was or who. i cum up from sleep thincan i wolde be in my hus in my bed by my odelyn with the stenc of last nights fyr in the hus and with the sunne cuman through the slits and with the sound of the fenn and my scepe and my sons and my geburs worcan or eatan. but i cum up instead to a small hus of stoccs and wet leafs in a deorc holt what i did not cnaw with a man and a cilde who was not of my cynn and all that i cnawan beorned away. hard it was and bitter and i wolde lie locan up at the heofon through treows and stoccs of treows and i wolde thinc that a great wrong had been done to me

well now that all this is gan there is yonge folc in this land who is forgettan already how things was. there is yonge folcs in angland now who nefer cnawan a time before there was frenc ofer them nefer cnawan a time when our cyngs and our thegns spac with us in our own tunge nefer cnawan what it is to lif in a land where all the ground is not tacan by one man and this man an ingenga. thinc on this thinc on it for yonge folc born today in angland they does not cnaw what freodom is. all their lifs they has been under ingenga folcs who tells them where to worc and when and whose laws is ingenga laws the laws of thiefs and the cwellers of their cynn but for these yonge folc all of this seems to be only the way things is and has always been

well in the brunnesweald in those times i did not cnaw how fast folcs colde forget what they was i did not cnaw how time worcs did not cnaw that when a great storm cums lic it had cum upon angland then all the feohtan and the ire in the great world cannot put things baec to how they was and sceolde be. ah i did not cnaw how small man is how weac i did not see that a broc thing can not be unbroc only through wantan. but i did see what many folcs now does not see and what yonge cildren of angland now with their frenc haer and frenc names did not efer efen cnaw

i seen that the names of the folcs of angland was part of anglisc ground lic the treow and rocc the fenn and hyll and i seen that when these names was tacan from the place where they had growan and cast down on other ground and when their place was tacan by names what has not growan from that ground is not of it and can not spece its tunge then a great wrong had been done. then sum thing deop and eald had been made wrong and though folcs wolde forget cwic the eald gods and the eald places the eald trees and the eald hylls these things wolde not forget what had been broc and how things used to be and sceolde be and one daeg though not in our lifs one daeg all will be made right again

well i will not tell thu how many mergens there was lic this in these wices nor how much walcan we done in the brunnesweald and in the land around it. we three men and our swine we gan through these lands cnawan them and cepen loc out for frenc and for anglisc also. we saw few folcs for we cept to the deop holt and in the deop holt far from any ham and far from any frenc we macd our selfs a place to be what was stronger than the small hus of stics and leafs what we had been slepan in before

ofer sum wices we macd this place together for it seemed now that we wolde be together for sum time and though i was not blithe at this i colde not see no other place to go. also it seemed to me that i was leadan these men and that they neded leadan for though there was sum strength in them they did not cnaw how to use it well for them selfs and their folc. so together we macd a strong hall in the deop wud a hall that colde tac many folcs for others may cum we saed and i had in mynd to see that they did. we macd this hall of strong wud and thaeccd the roof and by the hall we macd another small hus of wud and thaecc for cepan things and we had a place for a fyr in the lea of this wud and logs for sittan on by it and when we had done after sum time this was a good place to be and though still rough it was dry and strong and a place to cum baec to from where efer we gan

well i cnawan now that i stayed too long but then i did not cnaw what to do. we had cwelled a great frenc man and this was good but no war had begun and no others had cum to us and in the brunnesweald few other folcs we saw though tofe and grimcell had talcced of these grene men this anglisc fyrd gathran agan the frenc. well i did not see this we saw few folcs for sum time and now that we had a hus i wolde go eacc daeg in to the wud alone and i wolde spec to the wihts and i wolde spec to weland

this of course was what my grandfather had done and it was what he telt me to do loc ofer the land cilde he had saed but the land it wolde not lysten. no wihts cum to me and when i cum to sum hara or boar or fugol it ran from me i colde not be the land the land wolde not lysten. naht gan right at this time for weland wolde not lysten neither and though i wolde spec with him and asc him what will i do now where sceolde i go he saed naht to me and i cnawan why

and so efry daeg i wolde walc the holt and tofe and grimcell they wolde go huntan and we wolde coc together and in the nights around the fyr we wolde sitt and we wolde spec of what had been and also of what was to cum. ah we wolde spec micel of this grimcell he wolde spec of when the frenc was gan drifen out and his hus built again in our ham and him in it and of findan a new wifman and lifan again on his ground. tofe wolde spec of great feohts and of an anglisc fyrd risan from fenn and holt to cum down on the ingenga in blud and of succ deorcness and blud wolde he spec that it colde be thought he was an eald feohtan man and not a yonge cilde who colde not efen grip a scramasax without pissan himself