I. Of Dahla Kolson and the Settlement of Ingvasdaela
There was a man called Dahla Kolson, and he was a great sea-rover and reiver of the coasts, and he came into great wealth by taking it from others at the edge of his sword. But a life spent only viking is a barren life, so he took his wealth and built a house up in the valleys over Dreipnafjord, and filled its halls with a wife and thralls. And a son was born to him, and he was called Huldrik Dahlason. Two daughters there were also, called Sigrid and Astrid, though they play no real part in this tale.
Dahla was a great man in the district, for his father was Kol, called the Wise because of his knowledge of the laws. This lore Kol taught also to Dahla before Kol died, and with it, Dahla Kolson settled many a dispute between his neighbors. No man of Dreipnafjord hated him, but all looked on him as a friend, and Dahla's life was good and filled with many friends and great wealth and strong children.
But that was the time when the wild-haired king made war on all the earls and kings of the north country, and devoured all before him like a ravening wolf in winter. A bodyguard of berserks went before him, and none could stand against the fury of their battle-lust. So with the coming of this king, the great men of the north were subjected to him, and their goods and lands were his. Then, out of the chaos of the petty kingdoms and many tribes, one kingdom was forged, like a great sword from many pieces of iron, and the wild-haired king held the hilts, and the edge was his wrath.
Many a good family fled from the fire and blood when they heard the rumor of his coming. So it was that Dahla Kolson abandoned the good house of Dreipnafjord, when he heard the wild-haired king was come. With many of his neighbors he built sturdy ships, and these they loaded with their goods and their families and cast out from Dreipnafjord for the western ocean. Across the sea was the rumor of a new land in the west, where a man could build his house in peace, and no king could stretch a hand against him.
It was a long sea voyage, and hard on those who were not sea-rovers. Astrid Dahlasdottir died of cold along the way, and several others also. But after many a week at sea, a coast was sighted to the west, and it was the land of rumor. Calling on the gods of sea and earth, Dahla cast the idol of his hearth into the waves, and let it wash to shore. And on that headland Dahlastead was founded, a new house far away from the reach of the wild-haired king of the north. The other families did the same, and so it was that the men of Dreipnafjord became the men of Ingvasdaela, which is what they called the dale wherein they settled. And many hundreds of families came in years after, fleeing the wrath of the wild-haired king, and Dahlastead was one of the oldest settlements on the western island.
So it was that Huldrik Dahlason grew to manhood in the new land. No wisps of beard had yet touched his cheeks when the first sea voyage was made, but he grew tall in the new land, and his beard began to grow. He helped his father raise the stead, to fence a pasture, and to break the horses brought by other ships. His hands grew rough with work.
He went often into the woods of the upland, where he learned to spot good timber for a house or a ship, though there was little enough of that. The trees of the Dwimmerholt were small and spare, but grew together in a great tangle that crowded out the light. He walked its trackless ways and learned to guide himself unerringly through brake or fen. In the shadows of the wood he hunted fox and bird, and he came to know the moss-covered rocks like the faces of the old men of the woods, and the streams were like elves, singing and laughing. The Dwimmerholt was Huldrik's wood, and Ingvasdaela was his land, as it never could be his father's.
When Huldrik was a tall and fair-faced youth, he fell for the eyes of Halgerd Eriksdottir. Hers were doe's eyes, soft and brown, and unusual among the men of the north countries. She was called Halgerd Long-Legs, because of her great height, for she stood taller than any other maiden, and as tall as many a man. But Huldrik cared not if her eyes were at his own height, because that meant he could look into them the easier.
Halgerd was the daughter of Erik Hoskuldson, who had come over after the men of Dreipnafjord, and built his stead in Kambsdaela, not far from Ingvasdaela. He was a priest of the Elf-god, and men came to him that he might offer sacrifice on their behalf, and he was well renowned, and as great a man in his own district as Dahla was in his. And Huldrik went often up to Kambsdaela with gifts of fox skins, and he was always well received at Erikstead, and a great friendship sprang up between the two families.
Huldrik and Halgerd often walked together by the strand of the grey sea, and Huldrik told her stories of the gods learned from his father. One in particular she loved to hear, and that was how once Old One-Eye kept a ford against the coming of the Giant-Killer, and taunted him while refusing the use of the single boat.
'How now, Thor?' One-Eye had crowed from the far side of the ford. 'While you were in the Giants' Home, I wooed the daughters of the sea, and slept with seven of them seven times in halls of gold beneath the waves! Where were you then?'
'How now, Harbard?' came the reply; for One-Eye never used his own name when he walked abroad. 'While you slept with the daughters of the sea, I slew Yamir, greatest of the greatest frost giants. He reared like a mountain, but when I cast my hammer he fell as an avalanche, and from his guts I formed a new valley for the homes of men. Where were you then, Harbard?'
'How now, Thor? While you slew Yamir, boy-child of the giants, I came into the bed of your wife and touched her golden hair, and she sang a song of songs like none she sang for you. Where were you then, when we were couched on heaven?' And One-Eye laughed while Thor fumed impotently on the far side of the ford, and Halgerd laughed to hear it.
Then Huldrik took Halgerd's hands in his, and admired the shape of them. But when he compared the size of their fingers, and he found their length the same as his, Halgerd pulled her hands away, embarrassed. Nor would she listen when he told her how her hands were beautiful.
When Huldrik asked for those hands in marriage, Erik the Priest was glad at the prospect of strong ties between the men of Kambsdaela and Ingvasdaela, nor was Dahla less glad for his son. Huldrik and Dahla went up to Kambsdaela with fox skins and horses for Erikstead, and were as well received as ever. While all were drinking mead in the hall, Dahla announced his son's desire for Erik's daughter, and smiles broke all around, for the match was well regarded. But Halgerd was aloof.
'I have long hoped for this match,' Erik said then. 'In all the dales, none is worthier of Halgerd than your son. But nothing can be done without her word, for she is strong-willed, and I fear that evil will lay over any match not of her choosing.'
Huldrik went down to the shores below Kambsdaela then, and there found Halgerd walking the strand. They walked together by the grey sea beneath a grey sky, and the wind was in Halgerd's hair.
'There comes a time when a man looks to take a wife,' Huldrik said finally, between the sound of wind and wave.
'If a man wants to keep a wife, he had best have the means to do so,' Halgerd replied.
At that, Huldrik fell silent, and neither had anything to say to the other for the rest of the evening. They did not marry. Huldrik and Dahla returned to Ingvasdaela, and their hands were heavy with gifts from Erik, but heavier hung their hearts.