Guthredd Sleeve-Heart's Tale Pt. 01

Of the words spoken in verse by the shrewish woman in this part of the story; these words hold a mystery at the heart of this story, there meaning is revealed by the end.

Any criticism is very welcome as I am relatively new to writing, this being the second story I've written.

I hope you enjoy.

Thanks,

Blithering Hayseed

*****

Guthredd Sleeve-heart's tale (or The Circle of Three Hearts): Part 1

There was a man called Antler, the son of Eyvind and of Hallbera. Antler was honest and meek, hard working and loyal to his friends.

He settled a farmstead with stone and turf on the middle islet of the Sound and yielded many successful crops. Antler ploughed the home-field for crops and tended livestock on the heath. One autumn Antler was working the haystacks and would often see the daughter of the farmer next door hanging out the washing by the log outhouse.

The neighbouring farmer was called Sigurd and his daughter was called Thorarna and as Antler tended to the sheep or worked the home field in the morning dew he would say to himself;

"She is the most beautiful of women and a great lady."

It soon became Antler's favourite past time to rest his peepers on the sight of Thorarna hanging out the washing surrounded by the barren scrubland and singing linnets.

Antler thought he had seen nothing more beautiful than Thorarna's graceful silhouette against the red autumn sky as she tied her long hair back.

He would rise early from his bed-closet, don his work tunic and boots and be in the home field each morning where his peepers could best rest upon the beautiful Thorarna.

Each morning Antler was amazed to discover a new aspect of Thorarna's beauty: One day; the curve of her ear, another; the wisps of delicate hairs at the nape of her neck, again another day; the way she seemed to smile upon all things.

Mingled amidst Antler's view of Thorarna's beauty were moments of stolen intimacy: The white flesh of the side of a breast, exposed for a spell from out the side of her grey woollen tunic where it flapped open at the sides, tied only at the middle with twine. Or glimpse of naked thigh when the wind took the hem of Thorarna's tunic.

Sitting by the hearth each evening Antler would treasure his horde of memories of Thorarna and it was a great joy to Antler to ponder the softness of her breast suddenly exposed to a chill autumn wind or the secret of her left nipple made visible to the whole brackish moor-land for just a moment.

He wandered if the thrush, the pheasant or perhaps the vole were as enchanted by Thorarna's beauty as he.

By Winter's Eve Antler had caught the eagers for Thorarna and dearly set his heart upon her.

At the Winter's Eve feast, amid much drinking, Antler asked his host for his daughter in marriage. Sigrid saw that Antler was hardworking and loyal and agreed the bride-price and dowry.

Antler paid the bride-price with a hundred of silver and two milking cows.

The dowry was set at twenty four ells of homespun.

The wedding of Antler and Thorarna was held the following spring and people said that never had there been a more beautiful bride married on the middle islet of the Sound.

At the leaving of the feast there was a great giving of gifts but Thorarna prised amongst all the gifts the golden arm band from her father, Sigrid.

Antler and Thorarna lived happily at the farm, working the home field for crops and putting the livestock to graze on the heath. It was said that Antler took good care of his household and Thorarna of the housekeeping, and although they had little they were content.

For the turn of three full seasons Antler and Thorarna shared the sunrises and the sunsets, the dew upon the heath and the nest eggs in the spring and throughout those three years Antler saw these things were but made to frame Thorarna's beauty.

~~~~~~~~~

At the same time that Antler and Thorarna dwelt happily together amongst the heath-land of the middle islet of the Sound, King Onund imposed royal ownership on all land and sent his fee-takers to collect the new taxes.

Of the mainland did the fee-takers amass great fee in the name of King Onund but of the islets of the Sound no visit had been made.

When the fee-takers had loaded the King's boats with the collected wares they looked past where their boats were laid up in the harbour and seeing the islets across the Sound said to one another;

"We must put to sea across the Sound for are not the islets supplicants of the king too."

The fee-takers put to sea and have to in a haven on the shore of the middle islet of the Sound.

Thorarna was collecting crabs amongst the rock pools of the shoreline as the boats of the fee-takers laid up in the haven. Crouching in the cleft of a rock, Thorarna watched the fee-takers step onto the sandy banks of the islet.

Now of the fee-takers was there one of hideous aspect, of chitty face and one swollen eye; the other ruined and patched. Of sagging lower lip and licentious movement; his name was Fox.

Gathering on the white sand with the fee-takers were the King's soldiers, bulky and broad shouldered with glittering helms and axes tucked in their belts. They carried spears and coffers, one to two men, along the shore and up the winding path of the cliffs.

Thorarna sought the underground passage from the cleft by the sea up to the hatch in the farmsteads kitchen.

When Antler saw his wife back so soon and using the hidden route he asked her what was amiss.

"There are men arrived at the haven in great boats and carrying spears and coffers up the winding path of the cliffs."

"It would be better had they never landed. This will be only the beginning of the ill-fortune that will befall our kinsmen because of it."

It was known that many things Antler said would be, did come to pass and Thorarna told Antler that she hoped this time he might be wrong.

"I do not think so, my love for it is the dream-woman that tells me of ill things and prophesies ill that I have seen these past two nights. Of the one that is kind to me and gives good advice I have not seen a trace.

I dreamt these past two nights of two chicks in a nest disturbed by a weirding egg. The egg hatched a thing most foul, with one eye, and that one eye swollen and greedy, and this thing most foul pecked and squawked until the two chicks spent their days cowering in the shadows and the foul creature grew fat upon the food that the chicks dared not eat. Stringy and bloody with wounds did the chicks become, and bald from relentless pecking, until the chicks did not wish to live and so died."

"Someone has to voice the will of fate." Thorarna said, and they waited at their table in silence for the men to arrive.

~~~~~~~~~

Antler and Thorarna gave the men good welcome, offering milk and bowls of curds and apologising for having no wine to offer.

"It is not wine we come for." Fox said.

His courtly apparel, brightly coloured and gilded with gold, ill fit the sagging lower lip that made to smile, but flopped all fat and wormy.

Quaffing curds and milk at the farmstead table, Fox told of the King's rede regarding royal ownership of the land and of the fee Antler and Thorarna must proffer to keep their happy farmstead.

Now the cut of Thorarna's woollen tunic was born of meagre necessity, a rectangle strip of wool with a hole for her head, leaving the sides of her body exposed, and tied with twine about her middle.

"Many things in a pauper's hovel are not to be found in a king's palace, but poverty seems to have its own attractions." Fox said; his one peeper upon Thorarna's naked flesh.

Fox and the King's men left Antler and Thorarna, their coffers filled with homespun cloth.

As Fox descended the winding cliff path he thought of Thorarna and the side of her breast exposed, and his abnormally large phallus dribbled and twitched under his silk brocaded pants.

~~~~~~~~~

The fee-taker's boats put to sea and, having made good passage, have to in the harbour before King Onund's stronghold.

The boats were unloaded and the coffers containing the king's fee secured within the royal stores behind lock and key.

And although the King was well pleased with the fee taken and rewarded Fox with a hundred of silver, Fox paced his quarters in unrest, his phallus bulging and twitching at thoughts of Thorarna.

He would lie abed at night rabidly clutching his obscene phallus, his mind awash with lustful visions. Even after he shot his streams of seed, hot and sliming against stone wall or floor, visions of Thorarna plagued Fox so that he said to himself;

"Surely the King takes fee in bad coinage; for what is all the homespun and silver next to the rutting of Thorarna?"

And Fox did bid the house-curl Steiner come meet him in the secret chamber that lay behind the tapestry wall-hanging of Midas in his garden.

It was with a heart full of dread that Steiner slipped behind that tapestry and braved his way down the sunken stone stairwell, his torch aflame and shaking in his hand, until turning the last corner he espied Fox hunched and grunting and jerking his monstrous phallus.

"It is well that we too awake whilst good men slumber; for what we two hatch tonight good men would revile." Said fox and his wormy lip seemed alive and wriggling in the flickering light of Steiner's torch.

It was not long before Fox spilt his seed into a glass conical.

"Look away house-curl, for needs be I must remove the patch and know then that whosoever looks upon my evil eye is accursed."

Steiner turned his back with much relief and the evil eye was freed long enough for Fox to scrape a finger-end of puss and add it to the conical.

Steiner's relief was short lived, for although spared the sight of the evil eye, was Steiner's left eye pried open and the mix from the conical poured therein.

And the stench and texture of that mix made Steiner wretch a sudden, but of the meaning of the dark enchantment was he not made aware.

"Now shall you go to the farmstead on the middle islet of the Sound and say to Antler;

'Fox sends you this house-curl to tend your livestock and crops that you may more easily meet the Kings fee.'

But take this rede and be ruled: See to it that the crops are ruined and the livestock lost so that when next I call a fee-taking Thorarna may be forced to sell saucier coinage than homespun or silver."

It was with left eye burning and stinking that Steiner leapt up the sunken stone stairwell, until turning the last corner he swept aside the wall-hanging of Midas in his garden and made fast to rinse that eye.

~~~~~~~~~

Two weeks after the secret setting of Steiner's eye in the hidden chamber of King Onund's stronghold, Thorarna wandered amongst the scrub of the heath-land of the middle islet in the Sound.

There was a heavy mist and Thorarna's long tunic made a trail through the hoar frost as she searched out a stray sheep.

Resting a moment upon a lone boulder amidst the frosted scrub, it was to Thorarna as though two figures came from out a cliff face. Shining silver through the hoar mist, Thorarna saw a tall man of princely port, and crowned.

Beside the man stood a shrewish woman, and it was the woman who sang this stave:

"Because she heard, but lost,

barnacles guard the heart

I do not hear, but it is mine.

And so I am long searching,

from end to this beginning.

Thorarna harkens not her heart

Although she hears; and it is hers.

And so I am long searching,

And make the endless circle.

Guthredd harkens to her heart

And well she hears; and it is hers.

And so I am long searching

Because she heard, but lost."

And the words were strange sounding to Thorarna and nor could she devise of their meaning but stranger still; her lips sang the stave even as the figures turned and walked back into the cliff face.

That evening Thorarna told Antler of the two figures and told him the words of the woman who spoke the stave.

Antler said; "I fear that what you have seen, my love, was a fetch and that does not bode well."

That same evening came a knock upon the farmstead door and standing in the mist was a man, tall and strong.

"Fox sends you this house-curl to tend your livestock and crops that you may more easily meet the Kings fee. My name is Steiner."

Antler and Thorarna gave Steiner the house-curl a good welcome, offering him to join their supper and said that this gift showed great generosity from Fox and that he must be a man of great honour.

But later, in the secret folds of their bed-closet, Antler told Thorarna;

"Beware, for a gift often looks to its return."

And the farmstead felt to Antler and Thorarna as though the walls had grown ears.

~~~~~~~~~

Time turned and season followed season and each day Antler and Steiner worked the farmstead, tending to the crops in the home-field or shepherding the livestock out on the heath.

And ever did the beautiful Thorarna make a dutiful housekeeper, yet despite all of their hard work were the crops blighted and the livestock lost over cliff or found killed as if by wolf.

One evening at sunset Antler and Thorarna took the cliff-top path to watch the gulls sore and dive amidst their nests upon the ledges of the cliffs.

"We have entered a time when the ill-fortune begun when first the fee-taker entered our farmstead grows worse: For look!"

Antler pointed a sudden at the birds flying about their nests upon the ledges of the cliffs and Thorarna felt the creeping willies for surely was each and every bird flying widdershins about the cliff.

Both Antler and Thorarna took this as portentous signing and returned from their walk along the cliff-top path heavy hearted.

And even as Antler had settled his peepers on the widdershins of the flying birds, was he blind to the killing of another of his herd at that same moment.

For on that night a year back in the strong-hold of King Onund, Steiner had taken rede and been ruled; and seen to it that the crops were ruined and the livestock lost so that when next Fox called a fee-taking Thorarna might be forced to sell saucier coinage than homespun or silver.

Nor was that all the house-curl had undertaken; for peep holes appeared through log and turf walls and rocks moved a slight so that the farmstead might have no door closed to the left eye of Steiner.

And oft times did Thorarna halt amid the washing of her long hair, letting her blonde tresses drip into the bowl and placing one arm across her naked breasts, that she might find reason for feeling watched. But never did Thorarna rest her peepers on where the left eye lurked behind log or rock.

Over the seasons since Steiner first arrived at the farmstead saying 'Fox sends you this house-curl to tend your livestock and crops that you may more easily meet the Kings fee' had Steiner's left eye peeped into every shadow and corner of the farmstead so that no secret could hide.

Of the tender love-making between Antler and Thorarna had the left eye of Steiner peeped, drawn to the tender pale flesh of Thorarna's thighs glowing red in the firelight.

Of Thorarna's secret stroking to imaginings of her husband Antler, had Steiner snuck back from the home-field and peeped upon. Close enough behind wattle and turf that he had knowledge of the small freckle upon her left labia and of how Thorarna's wetness glistened amongst her private hairs as she stroked.

Close enough too to witness every strain and drop of pleasure cross the beautiful face of Thorarna in her moments of climax.

But not just of private matters was the eye interested. It was drawn wherever a lascivious moment may arise; a naked armpit as Thorarna swept back her hair in her sleeveless tunic, the rise of the woollen hem of her tunic above her knees as she bent to pick up a bowl.

And as the seasons had progressed, had the hunger of the eye grown stronger so that Steiner's hands began helping the eye; pulling back calf-hide blankets as Thorarna slept naked in Antler's arms, or seeming by some accident to pull down her tunic that a more private part be exposed.

Now the hunger in the left of eye of Steiner was set there that night in the secret chamber behind the tapestry wall-hanging of King Midas in the stronghold of King Onund. But the hunger belonged neither to the eye nor Steiner, for Fox's setting of the eye made it that Fox beheld, grotesque phallus in hand, all that the left eye did peep upon.

And on each stolen secret of Thorarna's beauty and sensuality did Fox glut so that his hunger drove the eye madly searching in lust, and Fox would pound the stone walls of his chamber in the stronghold of King Onund, for the want of the rutting of Thorarna.

~~~~~~~~~

And when the seasons came round the fee-takers returned and again amassed great fee in the name of King Onund on the mainland.

When the fee-takers had loaded the King's boats with the collected wares, Fox looked past where their boats were laid up in the harbour and seeing the islets across the Sound, wet his wormy lower lip;

"There is poor coinage on the middle islet of the Sound. Rest here and take sup that you might feel refreshed and I will row out to take fee on the islets."

And so Fox put out to sea alone and have to in the haven on the shore of the middle islet of the Sound, his phallus madly secreting its lust upon his brocaded silk tunic.

Fox made his way along the shore and up the winding cliff path and so came unawares to the farmstead of Antler and Thorarna.

Antler and Thorarna gave Fox good welcome, offering milk and fresh fish and apologising for having no wine to offer.

"It is not wine I come for." Fox said.

His courtly apparel, brightly coloured and gilded with gold, and his skin shining with good health from kingly banquets made Fox seem godlike next to the withered and destitute Antler and his wife so that they sat shamefaced at their table as Fox quaffed the fresh fish and milk.

"The fee is greater, for the King prepares for war; Three hundred of silver, four livestock and forty eight ells of homespun."

When Antler and Thorarna said they could not pay, much theatrics of pity and false friendship did Fox cavort about the kitchen of the farmstead until he seemed by chance to happen upon a solution, yet hard to swallow, but then he prefaced it with that.

Fox weaved a tale whereby his reputation was ruined without returning with the king's fee, but for a house-curl's tale of the price of Thorarna's rutting Fox might make it seem as right as a pudding to King and all, on this matter of fee from the middle islet of the Sound.

Antler bid Fox spend the night that he and Thorarna might take rede and give answer at breakfast and as Antler and Thorarna walked again at sunset on the cliff path, Fox's nose was a snuffling through their calf-skin blankets for saucy truffles.

"It seems Thorarna, that I am not a man of luck. I cannot pay the King's fee and nor can I pay with thee." Antler said to Thorarna as the sun set red upon the deep sea.

"It seems Antler that we are lucky that I am considered good coinage, for without that we would lose our farmstead on the middle islet of the Sound."

All night Antler and Thorarna took rede together, sometimes talking, sometimes holding each other, wandering on the portent of the widdershins of the birds and trying to divine the fates.

With the sunrise Antler and Thorarna returned to the farmstead and told Fox of their rede: That they would give up the farm and be banished from the middle islet in the Sound; for they would still have each other and the price of their love was too precious.

Fox left a sudden, spilling breakfast and slamming the door and made his way down the winding cliff path to where his boat was laid up. Fox struck out with oars most violent and was without the haven when he espied Thorarna waving from the winding cliff path.