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Koll, used to open mussels and give them to him—Olav’s mouth watered when he recalled the fine taste of sea-water and the rich yellow morsel that he sopped up from the open blue shell.
We never see strange folk, we who must ever bide at home-it makes the time seem long.”
It was by prudent marriages that the kin had always extended its power, and that a man might make his way in the world without support in his marriage they could not believe.
And his new-born desire to possess her became one with his new-born ambition—to be his own master. When he took her in his arms, it was as though he held a pledge of his maturity. When they came to Hestviken, they would sleep together and rule together, indoors and out, and there would be none to give orders but they two. Then they would come into their full rights.
They had been playing on a flowery slope and had not had the wit to see that it ended in a precipice. They had tumbled over before they knew of it. Well, well, there they lay, ’twas no use whining over it now, he tried to console himself.
He must retrieve what had gone amiss. He had now learned that his good resolutions were vain—there was no turning back from the erring road into which he and Ingunn had strayed.
Driven, now, by guilt.
it seemed she was quite destroyed with grief when she could not hide herself in his embrace. And after a while Olav gave up all thoughts of holding back; he let himself be drawn deeper and deeper into love’s rapture—she was so sweet withal. But his disquietude and qualms of conscience were a constant torment. When she fell asleep, clasped tightly to his breast, he suffered pain; it pained him too that she was so innocent in her love, she seemed utterly without fear or remorse. When he stole from her at early dawn, he was weary and dejected.
It dawned on Olav the while that he who has once left the straight path of honour soon finds himself in broken ground, where he may be forced to many a crooked leap. But he could see no other way.
Take Ingunn by the hand and boldly lead her to the bed and high seat left by Steinfinn and Ingebjörg. Then let them talk about that, all these folk about the place who giggled and muttered behind his back—though as yet they had not dared to come out with it before him. But then his courage sank when he thought of carrying it out. It was their sneers, their nasty little words. They were so apt at that, the people hereabout—with an innocent look, making it hard for a man to return an answer and defend himself, they dropped a few sly words with a sting in them. Many a time the malice in their
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After supper the Bishop had him summoned from his seat far down the table; he had to come forward and stand before the Bishop’s chair. Lord Torfinn raised the tankard to his lips and handed it to Olav: it felt icy cold in his hand, and the wine had a pale greenish look in the bright silver vessel. It was sharp and sour and pricked the boy’s palate, but he liked the taste for all that, ’twas fresh, a drink for men, and afterwards it warmed his whole body with a rare, festal glow.
“ ’Twas badly written, for the pen was lame.” 5 “Who knows not how to write his pen will blame.”
He was on the strain—but it was a good thing nevertheless that the decision was now at hand. He longed to escape from uncertainty. It had been like walking in the dark on a road where at any moment he might stumble and plunge both feet into the mire.
He thought of what Asbjörn All-fat had told him one day of the art of reckoning—how the nature of God was revealed in figures, through the law and order that reigned in them. Arithmetica, he thought it had such a fine sound; and all that the priest had expounded about the harmony of figures—how they swelled and cleft one another according to mystic and immovable laws; it was like being given an insight into one of the heavenly kingdoms; on golden chains of numbers the whole of creation was suspended, and angels and spirits ascended and descended along the links. And his heart was exalted in
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These churchmen, they sent letters and messengers north, south, east, and west; in less than six weeks they managed to get word from folk whom it would have been impossible for Olav to reach—they might as well have lived in Iceland or in Rome.
Olav felt a kind of remorse or shame when he remembered all the things of which Arnvid had been a half-willing, half-reluctant witness—though Olav himself could not understand how he had been able to compel a man who was so much older than he, a rich and powerful landowner, when one came to think of it. But it was as though he had used force upon his friend in one way or another, both in that matter of the ring—and afterwards when Arnvid held his peace about what he knew of Olav’s nightly visits to his young kinswoman. This last would be judged harshly not only by the Toressons but by all
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Arnvid longed to submit himself, to obey and to serve—but at the same time he had a sort of fellow-feeling with the men who demanded that the other law should hold: the law for men with fleshly hearts, hot blood, and vengeful minds. It was as though at some time Arnvid had been badly crushed between the two laws.
—It is an easy matter, Olav, to be a good Christian so long as God asks no more of you than to hear sweet singing in church, and to yield Him obedience while He caresses you with the hand of a father. But a man’s faith is put to the test on the day God’s will is not his. But now I will tell you what Bishop Torfinn said to me one day—it was of you and your suit we were speaking. ‘God grant,’ he said, ‘that he may learn to understand in time that whoso is minded to do as he himself wills will soon enough see the day when he will find he has done that which he had never willed.’ “
But I know you are fond of her—” “I am.” Arnvid burst out laughing. He struggled against it, but could not stop; he trembled with suppressed giggling till the tears ran down his cheeks. At last he sat doubled up and laughed till he shook, with his arms on his knees and his head buried in them. Olav stood by, profoundly uncomfortable.
Odd
“Oh no,” said Arnvid. He looked up at the moon with a strangely frolicsome smile. “ ’Tis only in trifles that she takes on like that. When serious matters are at stake, she is as good as gold.”
Helge of Tveit and his sons came forward and offered on Olav’s behalf to make amends for the slaying
As his spokesmen at Björgvin, Kolbein chose the knight Gaut Torvardsson and his son Haakon. Sir Gaut was a kinsman of Baron Andres Plytt; Lord Andres sat in the council that was to govern Norway while the King was under age, and he was one of the leaders of those nobles who were now determined to join issue with the prelates over the rights and liberties of the Church.
He owned a small farm there which he held on udal tenure,
But the parish priest wished to remain good friends with the rich lady of Berg—and perhaps he had no idea how little this affair of the marriage of two children meant outside the parishes where the families of the young people were known. From the way he talked, it might be thought Bishop Torfinn had been outlawed mainly because he had held his hand over the Steinfinnssons’ worst enemy.
without his consent. So Ingunn replied
Great clouds drifted across the sky, throwing shadows that turned the forests dark blue—the patches of green meadow and white cornfield showed up so strongly between. And the fiord was grey with smooth dark currents farther out, which reflected scraps of the autumnal land. Now and again the sun came out, and its sharp, golden light baked them—but the next moment a cloud came by and the warmth was gone—and the ground was bleak.
The soil was almost bare here in the grove, brown and bleak, but the sun on the rocks was warm—fair-weather clouds drifted high up in the silky blue sky. But the bay, of which she could see a glimpse between the naked white birch-trunks, was still covered with rotten, thawing ice, and on the far shore the snow still glared white among the woods, right down to the beach. Here on the sunny side there was a trickling and gurgling of water everywhere, but the thaw had not yet given its full roar to the voice of spring.
They would have to let Teit go—they could have no profit of him, and if they would seek him out and punish him, the shame would only be made worse—when it was heard that she had let herself be seduced by such a man.
Was that when they lay abed and "just talked?"
life—quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, locutione, opere, et omissione, mea culpa
“because I have sinned most grievously, in thought, word, deed, and omission, through mine own fault.”
The snow settled with a crisp little sound in the shrinking drifts,
“It were far better—it were far better—you did it
This is as much his fault as hers. She is vulnerable because of him a nd alone all these years.
God requite Kolbein as he deserves, for that he set himself against Olav’s taking you long ago, and cozened that silly gull Ivar to be on his side! If they had only let Olav have you then, nine years ago!”
More responsibility sharing
“God, my Lord,” prayed Olav in his heart, “give me discretion to say what I have to say and no more and no less.”
And he had spared her all talk of that which weighed upon him, for he thought it would be a shame to shift any of his burden onto her feeble shoulders. Uneasy conscience, anxiety for the future—what should she understand of such things, with her childlike nature? The very insatiability with which she demanded his caresses, set herself to provoke them if he became absent for a moment or chanced to speak of any but their own concerns—this he took to be a kind of childishness. She had little more understanding than a child or an animal, poor thing—nay, he had often thought her like a gentle,
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He would think of her—how she was suffering now; of the hatred and loathing that had filled him when he heard of her ruin; of all the hopes that had been destroyed.
The makings of a tragedy: will she be dead beforevhe conveys his apology and forgiveness?
Ingunn’s kinsmen, Ivar, her brothers, and Haakon, when they heard of the whole matter, said that Olav had injured them all so deeply, by first taking the bride to himself, then summoning her guardians before the Bishop’s court, and finally by killing Einar when he called him to account—that it was no more than justice if he held his peace, cloaked Ingunn’s shame, and did what he could to put a good end to a bad business.
ashamed.”
Shame the lever of sin x guilt
The boundless pain and distress in her poor eyes—it was that which drew his soul naked up into the light. Away went all that he had thought and determined—he knew right well that they were great and important things that now dropped from his mind, but he had not the power to hold them fast. He was left with the last, the inmost cruel certainty—that she was flesh of his flesh and life of his life, and this could never be otherwise, were she never so shamefully maltreated and broken.
