34 Adventure
“Them guns of ours was fair to be the
death of us. You mind we didn’t begin to
fight with no success till they was silenced.
Well, the Germans was ’eld back the same
way. They ’ad guns and waited for to fire
them, instead of chargin’ us mounted, an’
wipin’ us up proper. An’ any gait, the guns
as did the firin’ at the last of it was ’owitzers
an’ not ’orse batteries. I seen ’em cornin’
up when we rode out.”
“Yes,” said the Yank, “but the fact re¬
mains that we licked them.”
“The reason for which,” said the ser¬
geant, “was as we only ’ad six guns to
’amper us, and they ’ad twelve.”
There seemed to be no answer to make
THE
m by Arthur Gilchrist
T IS a matter of history that be¬
tween 700 and 1100 a.d. the vik¬
ings conquered half of England,
much of Ireland and Scotland,
Normandy, Sicily, Russia and Finland, be¬
sides making periodic raids on the German
coast, besieging Paris thrice, settling Ice¬
land and discovering America. Only the
military genius of the Normans—their own
descendants—and the growth of the German
Empire stopped them at last.
What were they like, these vikings,
princes of high adventure? They were big
men, blond, with ring-mail, round shields
and helmets—not winged—for defense, and
spear, broadsword, ax and bow for offense.
Their gods were Odin, patron of the brave
who die fighting; Frey and Freyja, who
gave good harvests and wealth; Tyr, the
one-armed war-god; Thor, slayer of giants
and friend of the peasant; and a host of
others. These were worshipped in groves,
at streams, in temples of wood. The gods
demanded only one virtue of men—
courage.
A man must boast to be respected—but
he must make his words good, though he
died for it; otherwise all men scorned him.
The viking held friendship and good fame
the best things in life. One of their poems
says:
“I was young once, and went about alone;
to this and the Yank made none. They
rode down the slope and when they were
almost into the town the sergeant turned
once more to the Yank.
“Well, I suppose you feels ’appy now as
you’ve ’ad a chance to try out that sword
as you was luggin’ about like a woman ’er
first bom. How does it feel to kill a man
with it?”
J THE Yank looked at the sergeant
with the expression of him who finds
a letter five days unmailed in the
pocket of his coat.
“Now doesn’t that beat-,” said the
Yank. “I never paid any attention.”
VIKINGS
Brodeur
when I found a friend, I thought myself
rich, for the delight of a man is a man.”
“Wealth dies, kinsmen die, a man must
die himself; but good fame never dies, if a
man can get it.”
Their kings maintained a strong force of
professional champions, who must be faith¬
ful to death. To live after one’s king was
slain was eternal disgrace. The king must
be generous to his men. Each king had
one or more poets, or scalds, who not only
ensured his glory by singing his deeds, but
fought for him as well. Among these
scalds were some of the fiercest warriors of
Norse legend. One, Egill Skallagrimsson,
was never outsung nor outfought; when
ambushed and seized by a king whom he
had mocked, Egill won his pardon by
singing.
The berserk—a man subject to attacks
of frenzy that made him indifferent to
death—was a by-word for reckless ferocity;
but it was expected that any man would
fight to the death. The religion of the
viking promised immortality only to the
man who died fighting. For this reason
they stubbornly resisted Christianity, with
its emphasis on peace. But their courage
was not mere fanatic fury; it sprang from
their inherited love of adventure, ingrained
by their “battle for existence with a stern
climate, a barren soil, and stormy seas.”