Short Fiction Selma Lagerlöf (best book club books of all time .txt) 📖

in great haste. The Norwegian King will not think of such things; he is too taken up with joy at the thought of possessing the highborn daughter of the Svea-King.’

“Then Ingegerd understood that she could hope for no mercy. And she went up to her sister, put her arm round her neck, and conducted her to the hall. Here she placed her in her own seat of honour, whilst she herself sat down on a low stool at her feet. And she said to Astrid that from henceforth she must sit there, in order to accustom herself to the place she should take as Queen. For Ingegerd did not wish that King Olaf should have any occasion to be ashamed of his Queen.

“Then the Princess sent her maidens to the wardrobes and the pantries to fetch the dowry she had chosen for herself. And she gave everything to her sister, so that Astrid should not come to Norway’s King as a poor bondwoman. She had also settled which of the serfs and maidens should accompany Astrid, and at last she made her a present of her own splendid galley.

“ ‘Thou shalt certainly have my galley,’ she said. ‘Thou knowest there are many good men at the oars. For it is my will that thou shalt come well dowered to Norway’s King, so that he may feel honoured with his Queen.’

“And afterwards the Princess had sat a long time with her sister, and spoken with her about King Olaf. But she had spoken of him as one speaks of the Saints of God, and not of kings, and Astrid had not understood many of her words. But this much she did understand⁠—that the King’s daughter wished to give Astrid all the good thoughts that dwelt in her own heart, in order that King Olaf might not be so disappointed as her father wished. And then Astrid, who was not so bad as people thought her, forgot how often she had suffered for her sister’s sake, and she wished that she had been able to say, ‘I will not go!’ She had also spoken to her sister about this wish, and they had cried together, and for the first time felt like sisters.

“But it was not Astrid’s nature to allow herself to be weighed down by sorrow and scruples. By the time she was out at sea she had forgotten all her sorrow and fear. She travelled as a Princess, and was waited upon as a Princess. For the first time since her mother’s death she was happy.”

When the King’s beautiful daughter had told Hjalte all this she was silent for a moment, and looked at him. Hjalte had sat immovable whilst she was speaking, but the King’s daughter grew pale when she saw the pain his face betrayed.

“Tell me what thou thinkest, Hjalte,” she exclaimed. “Now, we are soon at Kungahälla. How shall I fare there? Will the King slay me? Will he brand me with red-hot irons, and send me back again? Tell me the truth, Hjalte.”

But Hjalte did not answer. He sat and talked to himself without knowing it. Astrid heard him murmur that at Kungahälla no one knew Ingegerd, and that he himself had but little inclination to turn back.

But now Hjalte’s moody face fell upon Astrid, and he began to question her. She had wished, had she not, that she could have said “No” to this journey. When she came to Kungahälla, the choice lay before her. What did she, then, mean to do! Would she tell King Olaf who she was?

This question caused Astrid not a little embarrassment. She was silent for a long while, but then she began to beg Hjalte to go with her to Kungahälla and tell the King the truth. She told Hjalte that her maidens and the men on board her ship had been bound to silence.

“And what I shall do myself I do not know,” she said. “How can I know that? I have heard all thou hast told Ingegerd about Olaf Haraldsson.”

When Astrid said this she saw that Hjalte was again lost in thought. She heard him mutter to himself that he did not think she would confess how things were.

“But I must all the same tell her what awaits her,” he said.

Then Hjalte rose, and spoke to her with the utmost gravity.

“Let me tell thee yet another story, Astrid, about King Olaf, which I have not told thee before:

“It was at the time when King Olaf was a poor sea-king, when he only possessed a few good ships and some faithful warriors, but none of his forefathers’ land. It was at the time when he fought with honour on distant seas, chastised vikings and protected merchants, and aided Christian princes with his sword.

“The King had a dream that one night an angel of God descended to his ship, set all the sails, and steered for the north. And it seemed to the King that they had not sailed for a longer time than it takes the dawn to extinguish a star before they came to a steep and rocky shore, cut up by narrow fjords and bordered with milk-white breakers. But when they reached the shore the angel stretched out his hand, and spoke in his silvery voice. It rang through the wind, which whistled in the sails, and through the waves surging round the keel.

“ ‘Thou, King Olaf,’ were the angel’s words, ‘shalt possess this land for all time.’

“And when the angel had said this the dream was over.”

Hjalte now tried to explain to Astrid that like as the dawn tempers the transition from dark night to sunny day, so God had not willed that King Olaf should at once understand that the dream foretold him of superhuman honour. The King had not understood that it was the will of God that he from a heavenly throne should reign forever and ever over Norway’s land, that kings should reign and kings should pass away, but holy King Olaf should