Hakon of Rogen's Saga

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1 5 A PLAN should be whole and tight like a cooking pot, and ours seemed to me to resemble a fishing net. Ifs and ifs piled on top of each other make a poor house, but luck always favorsthe young. The day following our meeting I stayed in the cave. By night I grew restless and decided to test my luck by hunting. I took my bow and arrows, and walked in the direction of Eirik's hall. A half moon shone in the light summer sky. I saw no one by the houses, but I dared not go too near. About ten spear-lengths from the main hall, I hid behind a bush. In the pale twilight the houses looked filled with mystery, more as if they were the habitations of elves or trolls than of human beings. The door to the hall opened. A man stepped out and glanced with sleepy eyes up toward the sky. It was Eirik the Fox! Without thinking, I put an arrow on my bow-string, pulled it back, and with my full strength let the arrow fly. It stuck in the door, a little above Eirik's shoulder. He turned in my direction, and I saw the shock and terror in his expression before he fled to safety inside. I sprang up and ran back towards the Mountain of the Sun. 96 All that night and the next day I worried about my foolish deed. Harold had told me to stay in the cave, so that no one would see me. And what about Rark? Would the arrow that missed Eirik be his death? A man that is governed by his temper is a fool: a piece of driftwood that is at the mercy of the currents and cannot steer its own course. When the sun rose for the second time after my foolish attempt to kill Eirik the Fox, I could no longer stand being confined in the cave. To my conscience I used the excuse that I had no more food. I climbed to the top of the mountain. From there I could see the big hall, and as I stood there watching it, I dreamed that it 97 was still my father's house and that he still lived there. Suddenly I saw, far below me, an army of men — probably all of the men on Rogen — walking towards the Mountain of the Sun. I knew that they had come to hunt, and I knew the name of the hare — Hakon Long-ears! I hurried back to the cave and put out the fire; I feared that the smoke might be detected. I waited long, my arm around Trold's neck. At last I heard people calling to each other and I feared that the dog might bark. But Trold seemed to understand his master's danger, and with that sorrow mirrored in his eyes that only animals seem to know, he looked up at me. I climbed over the hearth, with Trold following, and in through the tunnel. The narrow passage held no fear for me any more, and soon I was in the big cave. Squatting by the opening of the tunnel, in the recesses of the cave, I waited — for what I wasn't sure. My legs fell asleep and I stretched them in order to make myself more comfortable. Time passed slowly. Trold kept trying to lick my face, and I — in order to avoid his wet kisses — scratched hisears. I was just about to return to the smaller cave when something moved at the entrance. I felt all the muscles in Trold's body stiffen, and the hair on his neck rose. "Why should he be there? We are wasting our time. I think Eirik dreamed that arrow." The voice of Harold the Bowbender was very loud, and I guessed that he had spoken to warn me. "You can't dream an arrow!" Eirik returned irritably . 98 "Have you so few enemies that no one but that boy should wish you dead?" The shock of hearing my uncle speak mademe tremble. "Olaf, go inside the cave," Eirik commanded. Olaf, who was called Olaf the Toothless for he had lost his front teeth in a fight, replied, "Go yourself, Eirik!" Olaf was quarrelsome; everyone knew that he had no liking for the dark. "Olaf the Brave!" my uncle said sarcastically. "And do...