Odo's Hanging by Peter Benson

Author:Peter Benson [Benson, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bayeux Tapestry, Bishop Odo, William 1st, William the Conqueror, Winchester, Battle of Hastings, Norman, Norman conquest, 1066
Publisher: Alma Books
Published: 2012-08-07T04:00:00+00:00

December was cold, snow lay on the path to Rainald, the brook was frozen at its banks, icicles hung from the trees. The silence in the forest was deep enough to slow my time to the hollow.

I was afraid, but I did not have to be. Rainald had made his shelter as warm as any lodging. A carpet of ferns and mosses had been added to the wooden frame that covered the place where he slept, and he had woven hurdles of sticks to keep out draughts. The bank retained warmth, and the prevailing wind blew snow away from the place, so he was dry, and as we sat around a fire, and I dried my feet, I felt content and I think he felt so too. We ate bread, and I offered him some cider I had carried. He smelt it, thought about it, smelt it again and then said, ‘No.’

I put the bottle to my lips.

‘But you have some.’

It was sour.

‘I never see anyone indulging in their own pleasures, their own faiths. Faith; is that pleasure? Faith, is it within or without?’

I took the bottle from my lips.

‘Pleasure needs no proof, faith needs no proof, you need no proof.’ He looked at me.

Do you want butter on your burns?

He looked away. ‘Forgive me,’ he said.

I put the bottle on the ground.

‘How is Turold?’

I smiled at him.

‘Good. Please, never think that because I am here I have forgotten you or him, or the work you are doing. I pray for you every hour. I hope you understand that I do not have your courage. I could not live another moment in the hanging’s shadow, or its spell.’

It casts no spell. You were homesick, you were struck by the first doubt of your life, you needed to go away and think. This happens to everyone. You are not so special, Rainald.

‘Would you do my burns?’ he said.

I nodded.

A clot of snow dropped off a tree and landed in the hollow. ‘I wash in snow,’ he said.

I picked up the bottle and had another drink.

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