The Long Ships (12 page)

Orm’s knowledge of Arabic increased by leaps and bounds now that he had Khalid as his companion, for the latter talked incessantly and had many interesting things to tell of. After some days he inquired where Orm’s country was and how he had come to be in the ship. Then Orm told him the story of Krok’s expedition, and how he had joined it, and of all that had ensued. When he had recounted his adventures, as well as he could, he concluded: “As you see, much of what happened was the result of our meeting with the Jew Solomon. I think it possible that he was a man of luck, for he was freed from his slavery, and as long as he remained with us our fortunes prospered. He said that he was an important man in a town called Toledo, where he was a silversmith, as well as being the leading poet.”

Khalid said that he had certainly heard of him, for his skill as a silversmith was renowned; nor was he a bad poet, as poets went in Toledo.

“Not so long ago,” he said, “I heard one of his poems sung by a wandering minstrel from the north, in which he described how he had fallen into the hands of an Asturian margrave, who used him ill, and how he had escaped and had led fierce pirates against the fortress, storming it and killing the margrave and sticking his head on a pole for the crows to peck at, after which he had returned home to his own country with the margrave’s gold. It was a competent work, in a simple style, though lacking the delicacy of expression that we of Málaga aim at.”

“He does not belittle his achievements,” said Orm. “If he is prepared to go to so much trouble to revenge himself on an enemy, he ought to be willing to do something to help the friends who rendered him such service. It was we who liberated him from his slavery, stormed the fortress, and executed his revenge; and if he is in reality an important man in his country, he is perhaps in a position to render us who sit here a service comparable to that which we performed for him. Nor do I see how else we shall ever regain our freedom, if he does not help us.”

Khalid said that Solomon was famous for his wealth, and that the Caliph regarded him highly, though he did not follow the true religion. Orm now began to hope, but he said nothing to his countrymen of what Khalid had told him. The outcome of their conversation was that Khalid undertook to send a message, together with Orm’s greetings, to Solomon in Toledo, as soon as he was released himself.

But the days passed and still no order arrived for Khalid’s liberation. The delay made him more unruly than ever, and he inveighed furiously again the indifference shown by his kinsmen. He began to compose a long poem on the pernicious influence of wine, hoping that he might be able to get this copied out when they were in port and forwarded to the Caliph, so that his real feelings on the subject might become known. But when it came to the point where he had to sing the praises of water and lemon-juice and to acclaim their superiority to wine, his verses began to halt somewhat. However, although he continued to shriek imprecations at the ship’s crew whenever his dark fits settled on him, he was still never touched with the whip, and Orm took this to be a hopeful sign that he would not remain with them for much longer.

One morning, when they were in one of the eastern harbors, the ship having returned with many others from a hard chase after African pirates, four men walked aboard, and when Khalid saw them, he became faint with joy and paid no heed to Orm’s questions regarding their identity. One of the men was an official with a big turban and a cloak reaching to his feet. He handed a letter to the captain of the ship, who touched it with his forehead and read it reverently. Another member of the four seemed to be some kinsman of Khalid’s, for, as soon as the latter had been released from his ankle-chain, they threw themselves into each other’s arms, weeping and exchanging kisses and chattering like madmen. The other two men were servants, bearing clothes and baskets. They dressed Khalid in a fine robe and offered him food. Orm shouted to him to remember his promise, but Khalid was already rebuking his kinsman for having forgotten to bring a barber with him, and did not hear. Then Khalid went ashore with his suite, the captain and crew bidding him obsequious farewells, which he acknowledged with condescension, as though barely aware of their presence, and disappeared arm in arm with his kinsman.

Orm was sorry to see him depart, for Khalid had been an entertaining companion, and he feared that in his new-found freedom he would be above remembering to fulfill his promise. Another man was chained beside Orm in Khalid’s place, a shopkeeper who had been found guilty of using false weights. He tired quickly and was little use at the oar, and had to be whipped frequently, at which he moaned and mumbled little pieties to himself. Orm gained small pleasure from his company, and this was the period of his life in the galley that he found most tedious. He set all his hopes on Khalid and Solomon, but as more and more time passed, these began to fade.

At last, however, in Cádiz, their lucky day arrived. An officer came on board with a troop of men, and all the Northmen were released from their ankle-chains, were given clothes and shoes, and were removed to another ship, which proceeded up the great river to Córdoba. They were made to lend a hand rowing against the stream, but were not fettered or whipped and were frequently relieved; moreover, they were allowed to sit together, and so could talk without hindrance for the first time for many a day. They had been galley slaves for two years and the greater part of a third; and Toke, who sang and laughed almost the whole time, said that he did not know what would become of them now, but that one thing he did know, that it was high time that he drank the thirst out of himself. Orm said that it would be better if he could wait until he had someone’s permission to do so, for it would be a bad thing if they had any violence now, which they would be liable to have, if Orm’s memory served him rightly, once Toke began quenching his thirst. Toke agreed that he would do better to wait, though he added that the waiting would be difficult. They all wondered what was going to happen to them, and Orm now repeated to them the details of his conversation with Khalid concerning the Jew. Then they were loud in the Jew’s praise, and in Orm’s also; and, though Orm was the youngest of them, they all now acknowledged him to be their chieftain.

Orm asked the officer what was going to be done with them, and whether he knew of a Jew called Solomon, but all the officer could tell him was that he had been commanded to conduct them to Córdoba; and he had never heard of Solomon.

They arrived at the Caliph’s city and saw it spreading out on both banks of the river, with many houses huddled together and white palaces and palm courts and towers. They marveled greatly as its size and splendor, which surpassed anything they could have imagined, and its wealth seemed to them sufficient to provide rich booty for all the seamen from the whole of the Danish kingdom.

They were led through the city, gazing in wonder on the throngs of people, though they complained that there were too few women among them, and that not much could be seen of those who were abroad, because they were all cloaked and veiled.

“A woman would have her work cut out not to appear beautiful in my eyes,” said Toke, “if only I had a chance to talk to one of them; for it is now three years since we fell among those foreigners, and in all that time we have not been allowed to smell a single woman.”

“If they set us free,” said ögmund, “we ought to be able to do well for women in this country; for their men are of miserable appearance compared with us.”

“Every man in this land is allowed to have four wives,” said Orm, “if he has embraced the Prophet and his teaching. But, once having done so, he can never drink wine again.”

“It is a difficult choice to make,” said Toke, “for their ale is too thin for my palate. But it may be that we have not yet sampled their best brew. And four women is just about what I need.”

They came to a large house, where there were many soldiers, and there they slept the night. The next morning a stranger appeared and led them to another house not far distant, where they were well bathed and barbered, and where cool drinks were offered to them in beautiful tiny cups. Then they were given softer garments, which chafed them less; for their clothes felt rough against their skin, since they had for so long been naked. They looked at each other, laughing at the change that had been wrought in their appearance; then, marveling greatly at all this, they were conducted into a dining-room, where a man came forward, greeting them and bidding them welcome. They recognized him at once as Solomon, though he now wore a very different appearance from when they had last seen him, for he had all the bearing and accouterments of a rich and mighty prince.

He greeted them hospitably, bidding them eat and drink and regard his house as their own; but he had forgotten most of what he had formerly known of the Nordic tongue, so that only Orm was able to converse with him. Solomon said that he had done all that he could on their behalf as soon as he had heard of their plight, because they had once performed a very great service for him, which he was glad to be able to repay. Orm thanked him as eloquently as he could; but, he told Solomon, what they were most eager to know was whether they were now free men or whether they were still slaves.

Solomon replied that they were still the Caliph’s slaves, and must remain so; in that matter he could not help them; but they were now to serve in the Caliph’s private bodyguard, which was recruited from the pick of the prisoners that the Caliph captured in battle and of the slaves that he purchased from abroad. The Caliphs of Córdoba, he went on, had always possessed such a bodyguard, regarding it as safer than being surrounded by armed subjects of their own, since the latter might more easily be bribed by their kinsmen or their friends to lay violent hands on the Caliph’s person when discontent pricked the land.

But before they joined the bodyguard, Solomon told them, they would first be his guests for a while, in order that they might in some measure recover themselves after their labors; so they stayed at his house for five days, and were treated as heroes are treated at the table of Odin. They partook of many delicate dishes, and drink was brought to them whenever they cared to call for it; musicians played for them, and they made themselves tipsy with wine every evening; no Prophet having forbidden Solomon to taste of that drink. Orm and his fellows, however, kept a watchful eye on Toke the whole time, lest he should drink too much and so weep and become dangerous. Their host offered each of them a young slave-girl to keep them company in bed, and this delighted them most of all. They agreed unanimously that the Jew was a fine man and a chieftain, every bit as good as if he had been of Nordic blood; and Toke said that he had seldom made a more fortunate catch than when he had drawn this noble Semite out of the sea. They slept late in the mornings, in feather beds softer than anything they had previously known; and at table they quarreled merrily about which among them had the prettiest slave-girl, and none of them would allow that his was not the choicest of them all.

On the third evening of their stay there, Solomon bade Orm and Toke accompany him into the city, saying that there was someone else whom they had to thank for their liberation, and who had perhaps done more for them than he had. They went with him along many streets, and Orm asked whether Khalid, the great poet of Málaga, had perhaps come to Córdoba, and whether it was he whom they were on their way to visit; but Solomon replied that they were going to meet a nobler personage than Khalid.

“And only a foreigner,” he added feelingly, “could look upon this Khalid as a great poet, though he noises it abroad that he is one. Sometimes I try to calculate how many truly great poets there can be said to be nowadays in the Caliph’s dominions; and I do not think that that honor can rightly be allowed to more than five of us, among which number Khalid could not possibly find inclusion, though he has a certain facility for playing with rhymes. None the less, you do right, Orm, to regard him as your friend, for without his help I should never have discovered what became of you and your men; so if you should meet him and he should refer to himself as a poet, you need not correct him.”

Orm remarked that he knew enough about men not to argue with poets concerning their respective merits; but Toke broke into their conversation with the complaint that he wanted to know why he had been pressed into this evening ramble when it was impossible for him to understand a word of what was being said and when he had been enjoying himself so much in Solomon’s house. Solomon merely replied that it was necessary that he should accompany them, it having so been ordered.

They arrived at a walled garden with a narrow gate, which was opened to admit them. They entered, walking among beautiful trees and many strange plants and flowers, and came to a place where a great fountain was playing and clear water ran through rich grasses in small coiling streams. From the opposite direction to that from which they had come, a litter was being carried toward them by four slaves, followed by two slave-girls and two black men carrying drawn swords.

Solomon halted, and Orm and Toke did likewise. The litter was lowered to the ground, and the slave-girls ran forward and stood reverently one on either side of it. Then a veiled lady stepped forth. Solomon bowed low at her thrice, with his hands pressed against his forehead, so that Orm and Toke realized that she must be of royal blood; they remained upright, however, for it seemed to them a wrong thing that any man should abase himself before a woman.

The lady inclined her head graciously in Solomon’s direction. Then she turned toward Orm and Toke and murmured something beneath her veil; and her eyes were friendly. Solomon bowed to her again and said: “Warriors from the north, thank Her Highness Subaida, for it is by her power that you stand liberated.”

Orm said to the lady: “If you have helped to free us, we owe you a great debt of thanks. But who you are, and why you have showed us such favor, we do not know.”

“Yet we have met,” she answered, “and perchance you will remember my face.”