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Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln

<h2>CHAPTER VI. THE BEGINNING OF GRIMSBY TOWN.</h2> Easily we went ashore when the tide fell, across the spits of sand that ran between the mud banks, and we climbed the low sandhill range that hid the land from us, and saw the place where we should bide. And it might have been worse; for all the level country between us and the hills was fat, green meadow and marsh, on which were many cattle and sheep feeding. Here and there were groves of great trees, hemmed in with the quickset fences that are as good as stockades for defence round the farmsteads of the English folk, and on other patches of rising ground were the huts of thralls or herdsmen, and across the wide meadows glittered and flashed streams and meres, above which the wildfowl that the storm had driven inland wheeled in clouds. All the lower hills seemed to be wooded thickly, and the alder copses that would shelter boar and deer and maybe wolves stretched in some places thence across the marsh. Pleasant and homely seemed all this after long looking at the restless sea. Then said my father, "Now am I no longer Grim the merchant, and that pride of mine is at an end. But here is a place where Grim the fisher may do well enough, if I am any judge of shore and sea. Here have we haven for the boats, and yonder swim the fish, and inland are the towns that need them. Nor have we seen a sign of a fisher so far as we have come." Now we had been seen as soon as we stood on the sandhills; and before long the herdsman and thralls began to gather to us, keeping aloof somewhat at first, as if fearing my father's arms. But when we spoke with them we could learn nothing, for they were Welsh marshmen who knew but little of the tongue of their English masters. Serfs they were now in these old fastnesses of theirs to the English folk of the Lindiswaras, who had won their land and called it after their own name, Lindsey. But before long there rode from one of the farmsteads an Englishman of some rank, who had been sent for, as it would seem, and he came with half a dozen armed housecarls behind him to see what was going on. Him we could understand well enough, for there is not so much difference between our tongue and that of the English; and when he learned our plight he was very kindly. His name was Witlaf Stalling, and he was the great man of these parts, being lord over many a mile of the marsh and upland, and dwelling at his own place, Stallingborough, some five miles to the north and inland hence. Now it had been in this man's power to seize us and all we had as his own, seeing that we were cast on his shore; but he treated us as guests rather, bidding us shelter in one of his near farmsteads as long as we would, and telling my father to come and speak with him when we had saved what we could from the wreck. He bade the thralls help at that also, so that we had fallen in with a friend, and our troubles were less for his kindness. We saved what cargo we had left during the next few days, while we dwelt at the farm. Then at the height of the spring tides the ship broke up, for a second gale came before the sea that the last had raised was gone. And then I went with my father to speak with Witlaf the thane at Stallingborough, that we might ask his leave to make our home on the little haven, and there become fishers once more. That he granted readily, asking many questions about our troubles, for he wondered that one who had owned so good a ship seemed so content to become a mere fisher in a strange land, without thought of making his way home. But all that my father told him was that he had had to fly from the new king of our land, and that he had been a fisher before, so that there was no hardship in the change. "Friend Grim," said Witlaf when he had heard this, "you are a brave man, as it seems to me, and well may you prosper here, as once before. I will not stand in your way. Now, if you will hold it from me on condition of service in any time of war, to be rendered by yourself and your sons and any men you may hire, I will grant you what land you will along the coast, so that none may question you in anything. Not that the land is worth aught to any but a fisher who needs a place for boats and nets; but if you prosper, others will come to the place, and you shall be master." One could hardly have sought so much as that, and heartily did we thank the kindly thane, gladly taking the fore shore as he wished. But he said that he thought the gain was on his side, seeing what men he had won. "Now we must call the place by a name, for it has none," he said, laughing. "Grim's Stead, maybe?" "Call the place a town at once," answered my father, laughing also. "Grimsby has a good sound to a homeless man." So Grimsby the place has been from that day forward, and, as I suppose, will be now to the end of time. But for a while there was only the one house that we built of the timbers and planks of our ship by the side of the haven -- a good house enough for a fisher and his family, but not what one would look for from the name. By the time that was built Havelok was himself again, though he had been near to his death. Soon he waxed strong and rosy in the sea winds, and out-went Withelm both in stature and strength. But it seemed that of all that had happened he remembered naught, either of the storm, or of his mother's death, or of the time of Hodulf. My mother thought that the sickness had taken away his memory, and that it might come back in time. But from the day we came to the house on the shore he was content to call Grim and Leva father and mother, and ourselves were his brothers, even as he will hold us even now. Yet my father would never take him with us to the fishing, as was right, seeing who he was and what might lie before him. Nor did he ever ask to go, as we had asked since we were able to climb into the boat as she lay on the shore; and we who knew not who he was, and almost forgot how he came to us, ceased to wonder at this after a while; and it seemed right that he should be the home-stayer, as if there must needs be one in every household. Nevertheless he was always the foremost in all our sports, loving the weapon play best of all, so that it was no softness that kept him from the sea. I hold that the old saw that says, "What is bred in the bone cometh out in the flesh," is true, and never truer than in the ways of Havelok. For it is not to be thought that because my father went back perforce to the fisher's calling he forgot that the son of Gunnar Kirkeban should be brought up always in such wise that when the time came he should be ready to go to the slayer of his father, sword in hand, and knowing how to use it. Therefore both Havelok and we were trained always in the craft of the warrior. Witlaf the thane was right when he said that men would draw to the place if we prospered, and it was not so long before the name that had been a jest at first was so no longer. Truly we had hard times at first, for our one ship's boat was all unfitted for the fishing; but the Humber teemed with fish, and there were stake nets to be set that need no boat. None seemed to care for taking the fish but ourselves, for the English folk had no knowledge of the riches to be won from the sea, and the eels of the river were the best that they ever saw. So they were very ready to buy, and soon the name of Grim the fisher was known far and wide in Lindsey, for my father made great baskets of the willows of the marsh, and carried his burden of fish through the land, alone at first, until we were able to help him, while Arngeir and we minded the nets. Only two of our men stayed here with us, being fishers and old comrades of my father. The rest he bade find their way home to Denmark to their wives and children, from the Northumbrian coast, or else take service with the king, Ethelwald, who ruled in East Anglia, beyond the Wash, who, being a Dane by descent from the Jutes who took part with Angles and Saxons in winning this new land, was glad to have Danish men for his housecarls. Some went to him, and were well received there, as we knew long afterwards. The man who had been washed overboard and hauled back at risk of his neck was one of these. His name was Mord, and he would have stayed with us; but my father thought it hard that he should not have some better chance than we could give him here, for it was not easy to live at first. Somewhat of the same kind he said to Arngeir, for he had heard of this king when he had been in the king's new haven in the Wash some time ago. But Arngeir would by no means leave the uncle who had been as a father to him. Now when we marked out the land that Witlaf gave us, there was a good omen. My father set the four blue altar stones at each corner of the land as the boundaries, saying that thus they would hallow all the place, rather than make an altar again of them here where there was no grove to shelter them, or, indeed, any other spot that was not open, where a holy place might be. And when we measured the distances between them a second time they were greater than at first, which betokens the best of luck to him whose house is to be there. I suppose that they will bide in these places now while Grimsby is a town, for, as every one knows, it is unlucky to move a boundary stone. Soon my father found a man who had some skill in the shipwright's craft, and brought him to our place from Saltfleet. Then we built as good a boat as one could wish, and, not long after that, another. But my father was careful that none of the Lindsey folk whom he had known should think that this fisher was the Grim whom they had once traded with, lest word should go to Hodulf in any way. Now we soon hired men to help us, and the fishing throve apace. We carried the fish even to the great city of Lincoln, where Alsi the Lindsey king had his court, though it was thirty miles away. For we had men in the villages on the road who took the great baskets on from one to another, and always Grim and one of us were there on the market day, and men said that never had the town and court seen such fish as Grim's before. Soon, therefore, he was rich, for a fisher; and that was heard of by other fishers from far off, and they drew to Grimsby, so that the town spread, and Witlaf the good thane said that it was a lucky day which drove us to his shore, for he waxed rich with dues that they were willing to pay. We built boats and let them out to these men, so that one might truly say that all the fishery was Grim's. Then a trading ship put in, hearing of the new haven, and that was a great day for us. But her coming made my father anxious, since Hodulf was likely to seek for news of Grim the merchant from any who had been to England; and hearing at last of him, he would perhaps be down on us, Vikingwise, with fire and sword. But after that traders came and went, and we heard naught of him except we asked for news; for he left us in peace, if he knew that his enemy lived yet. Men said that he was not much loved in Denmark. So the town grew, and well did we prosper, so that there is naught to be said of any more trouble, which is what my story seems to be made up of so far. Yet we had come well through all at last; and that, I suppose, is what makes the tale of any man worth hearing. Twelve years went all well thus, and in those years Havelok came to manhood, though not yet to his full strength. What that would be in a few more summers none could tell, for he was already almost a giant in build and power, so that he could lift and carry at once the four great fish baskets, which we bore one at a time when full of fish, easily, and it was he who could get a stranded boat afloat when we could hardly move her between us, though all three of us were strong as we grew up. Very handsome was Havelok also, and, like many very strong men, very quiet. And all loved him, from the children who played along the water's edge to the oldest dame in the town; for he had a good word for all, and there was not one in the place whom he had not helped at one time or another. More than one there was who owed him life -- either his own, or that of a child saved from the water. Most of all Havelok loved my father; and once, when he was about eighteen, he took it into his head that he was burdensome to him by reason of his great growth. So nothing would satisfy him but that he must go with us to the fishing, though it was against Grim's will somewhat. But he could make no hand at it, seeing that he could pull any two of us round if he took an oar, and being as likely as not to break that moreover. Nor could he bear the quiet of the long waiting at the drift nets, when hour after hour of the night goes by in silence before the herring shoal comes in a river of blue and silver and the buoys sink with its weight; rather would he be at the weapon play with the sons of Witlaf, our friend, who loved him. But though the fishing was not for him, after a while he would not be idle, saying, when my father tried to persuade him to trouble not at all about our work, that it was no shame for a man to work, but, rather, that he should not do so. So one day he went to the old Welsh basket maker who served us, and bade him make a great basket after his own pattern, the like of which the old man had never so much as thought of. "Indeed, master," he said, when it was done, "you will never be able to carry so great a load of fish as that will hold." "Let us see," quoth Havelok, laughing; and with that he put him gently into it, and lifted him into the air, and on to his mighty shoulder, carrying him easily, and setting him down in safety. The basket maker was cross at first, but none was able to be angry with Havelok long, and he too began to smile. "It is 'curan' that you are, master," he said; "not even Arthur himself could have done that." "Many times have I heard your folk call me that. I would learn what it means," said Havelok. But the old man could hardly find the English word for the name, which means "a wonder," and nothing more. Nevertheless the marsh folk were wont to call their friend "Hablok Curan" in their talk, for a wonder he was to all who knew him. So he came home with his great basket, and said, "Here sit I by the fire, eating more than my share, and helping to win it not at all. Now will I make amends, for I will go the fisher's rounds through the marshlands with my basket, and I think that I shall do well." Now my father tried to prevent him doing this, because, as I know now, it was not work for a king's son. But Havelok would not be denied. "Fat and idle am I, and my muscles need hardening," he said. "Let me go, father, for I was restless at home." So from that time he went out into the marshland far and wide, and the people grew to know and love him well. Always he came back with his fish sold, and gave money and full account to my father, and mostly the account would end thus: "Four fish also there were more, but the burden was heavy, and so I even gave them to a certain old dame." And my mother would say, "It is likely that the burden was lighter for her blessing." And, truly, if the love of poor folk did help, Havelok's burden weighed naught, great though it was. Yet we thought little of the blessings of the Welsh folk of the marsh in those days, for they blessed not in the names of the Asir, being sons of the British Christians of long ago, and many, as I think, Christians yet. Witlaf and all the English folk were Odin's men, as we were, having a temple at the place called Thor's Way, among the hills. But we had naught to do with the faith of the thralls, which was not our business. Only Withelm was curious in the matter, and was wont to ask them thereof at times, though at first they feared to tell him anything, seeing how the Saxons and English had treated the Christian folk at their first coming. But that was forgotten now, by the English at least, and times were quiet for these poor folk. There was a wise man, too, of their faith, who lived in the wild hills not far from the city, and they were wont to go to him for advice if they needed it. They said also that the king of Lindsey had once been a Christian, for he was Welsh by birth on his mother's side, and had been so brought up. It is certain that his sister Orwenna, who married Ethelwald of East Anglia, was one, but I have seen Alsi the king at the feasts of the Asir at Thor's Way when Yuletide was kept, so it is not so certain about him. He had many Welsh nobles about him at the court, kinsmen of his mother mostly, so that it did not seem strange, though there is not much love lost between the English and the folk whom they conquered, as one might suppose. Now, as I have said, none but Withelm thought twice about these things; but in the end the love of the marsh folk was a thing that was needed, and that Withelm had learned somewhat of their faith was the greatest help that could be, as will be seen. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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