The Stranger Warrior: The Story of Horn, the Viking Prince by Ian Fraser

Author:Ian Fraser [Fraser, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Manuscript Template
Publisher: Sifipublishing
Published: 2014-06-02T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

The Battle of Windy Gap

At the ford of the River Cusher, where Horn had been seized by the King's sons, the war-host of Ulster was already gathering on the river-bank, but Donal's chariots drove through the ford and up Tullyheron Hill. On the hill top where Horn had camped with Donal and Fergus three nights before, there was a gathering of brightly-coloured cloaks and chequered plaids. Among the gay clothes glowed noble helmets and sword-hilts made of bronze, and some of the bronze was plated with gold or tin or inlaid with brass or silver wire or enamelled in red or green or blue.

In the middle of this bright throng of chiefs the King sat on his chest, and, when Donal knelt and bowed his head before him, the King asked: 'What news?'

'Lord, the Strangers are White Strangers, Norsemen from Dublin, and they are marching up from Newry now.'

'How many?'

'About five hundred, lord, are on the march, but two hundred more are guarding the shipstead.'

'Have they found horses?'

'No, lord! All the horses have been driven into the hills.'

'Where is Fergus?'

'Brother Fergus with five chariots is keeping a watch on the Strangers, lord. He is driving before them but remaining near them, in order to stop them either sitting down to rest or foraging for food among the farms.'

The King pointed at Horn and asked sternly: 'What have you to tell me about this minstrel?'

'We found his boat, lord, with his chest and his food-casks. We have brought his chest for you to see.'

'Did the minstrel try to join the other Strangers?'

'No, lord! We stayed near him, and we held his weapons.'

'Let me see what he has in his chest.'

Horn's arms and chest were unloaded from the chariot and displayed before the King. King Finlay said 'Hmmm!', when he saw the embroidered English mantle, the long-sleeved tunic and the soft, pointed cap, the knee-length stockings and the long strips of yellow cloth for cross-gartering stockings in the English way; he said 'Eh?' in surprise, when he saw the tarred shield and the fine Frankish steel edged sword with Norse letters on its hilt, but, when the shirt of mail and the gilded iron helmet were brought out, he was utterly silent. The King's lips were pressed together in a hard line of distrust and his son Donal asked Horn sharply: 'Where did you get your arms? The clothes we can see came from England, and the shield perhaps came from England, but that sword, that helmet and that iron shirt! Such things are not made in England, and such things belong to a great war-lord and not to a curragh-paddling minstrel.'

Horn looked Donal straight in the eye, and he said proudly: 'I killed a Viking chief on the day that my lord made me a thane, and I took that man's arms. You can see that the helmet is still dented where my spear struck him, for I did not have time to get the dent beaten out, before I crossed the sea.

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