The Wake (9 page)

the feld is grene it is high sumor the long grass runs ofer to a bright ea and from across the water rises roccs great and deorc and high they rises high and on them is a great stan torr and in this torr a wifman yonge and with cilde. deop in the frenc lands in this torr this wifman she is to bring forth a grendel a cweller of cyngs a fyr deoful but now she cnawan naht but that she has been had by the greatest man in the land though she is not his wif and now is bound to him

and in this torr this blaec torr risan abuf the grene felds now this wifman dreams. from her guttas where this deoful is brewan she sees growan a great treow and this treow it cums up high abuf the felds abuf efen this great torr abuf all the lands of the frenc and it does not stop there it grows higher. and the sceado of this treow she sees spreadan and mofan out and out until all of this ducdom is deorc and then across the sea the sceado mofs and the treow still growan and the sceado cums upon an other strand and still it spreads until all this other land is in sceado also and when she wacans this yonge afeart girl all is deorc as the deorc stan what cepes her in

hard it was to get odelyn to go efen baec to our hus that daeg after the gleoman cum hard to stop her wepan and cryan and wantan to go to the south to sanlac to dig on the hyll of blud for the bodigs of her sons what was cwelled there she saes cwelled for the cyng lic what dunstan had always wanted. i telt her none cnawan if this was triewe none cnawan naht her boys colde still cum baec they colde be hurt only or they colde be in lundun or sum other far place but no she cnawan she saed she cnawan they was gan she was their mothor she cnawan and her heorte now was broc she saed and naht to lif for

well i was right when i saed none cnawan for none did but still i thought she was right that our sons was gan under the hors of ingengas or cut down by sweords or shot with straels on sum cold dun and for what for men feohtan ofer the right to tac our land and our rights and mac us gif geld to them and fall on our cneows if efer they cum by for fear of the line and the treow o our mastorful ealdors how we gifs thancs for our cyngs

well i got her to the hus and sleep she did in the end though it was late before she wolde and when she did it was a broc sleep. i cnawan i wolde not sleep not for the tidans alone but for what i was again hearan for what was bean spoc to me seemed louder now efen than that first night sum wices ago and now i cnawan why he had cum. sum thing is cuman i had saed and sum thing now had cum. i seen the fugol i cnawan what the haeric star cum to sae now i was hearan sum great thing from lands other men can not see and i colde see now why i was ceosan

that night i did not sleep for i did not try to. i did not go to our bed i went down the path across the fenn and i went as night was on all the land and deop in the eald holt of what my grandfather spac them years bacc the holt of hafoc and craw. this holt it was the same as efer it was efen though all other things was cuman down on us and the craws then was still for night was long begun. i has gan to this holt many times since i was a cilde and satt always on one eald ac treow what cum down and is now foda for all in the holt. when i was a cilde when i satt in this holt as night cum i was afeart of eorcas and aelfs and scuccas but not now for now i was grown now there was naht to fear but him

for among the sounds of the night wud there was sum thing cuman cuman for me alone sum thing what had been locan for me ofer all this world

name me

and i cnawan who

name me

and i cnawan i is ceosan

buccmaster of holland

for he is tellan me now and he is not near lic he was

thu is ceosan

he is here right here right here in the holt with the craws

name me

and with me and with the fox in the blaec by the cwelled ac

buccmaster

where there is no light and no men and naht but what the land macs

name me

and i saes i name thu

weland smith i name thu

why has thu cum

why does they not lysten why does they not see

it is all that i is this why can they not see

i wolde teorn to the crist if they wolde see efen to the crist any thing i wolde do

all the lytel things cwelled the treows they tacs our names our names they tacs our tales our songs. i was grown from this ground the ground they has tacan my ground from me all that i is they tacs all

if my grandfather was here now he wolde cnaw me for what i is for i is weac in all things a small man i is all is dyan here all is gan and tacan through my weacness i is small and weac and naht i has nefer been naht

well they is naht also the fuccan frenc the fuccan ingengas may be i is weac and lic a wifman but all that i done i done for my land and my folc and all that they done they done for gold for seolfor. deofuls they is scuccas fuccan cunts all angland is gan in their fyr all that anglisc folc macd in a thousand years all gan in frenc fyr and all men in thrall and deop in sceomu

after harald cyng was cwelled the bastard he called for angland to mac him its cyng but angland wolde not. a witan of high anglisc men was called of all who had lyfed through the wars of the year of fugol and star and not many men there was but they cum together in lundun and they saed they wolde feoht the bastard though there was few men with efen axes left in all the cyngdom. this witan they called as cyng edgar aetheling whose grandfather was eald cyng eadmund when my father was a cilde. edgar was an anglisc cyng of anglisc blud but he was no mor than cilde and the witan what called him was macd of eald men too eald to feoht and the bastard he wolde not stop

the bastard he cum north from the place where he had cwelled harald cyng and all the way he cum in blud his men they fucced all anglisc wifmen they cum to and cwelled them when done and all hams and tuns they beorned in ingenga fyr. the bastard cum up to lundun fuccan and cwellan and beornan and the witan it seen what was cuman and it stepped baec and the last of angland that daeg was gan and we had a new cyng who spac not efen our tunge and ate not our foda and cursed us as hunds and curses us still

in the abbodrice of eald eadweard who was cyng before harald the great abbodrice in lundun what they sae is all macd lic sum ingenga hus for lundun is no longer an anglisc tun in this abbodrice on the daeg of the mass of the crist in the year of fugol and star this bastard was gifen the corona of angland. i has met men who was there that daeg or men who saes they was for all lics to sae succ things and they saes what befell then was to mac the bastard sore lic a hors with a thorn in its foot what is ciccan all things it sees.

the bastard duc geeyome was gifan the anglisc corona by the biscop of the crist who tacs his orders from his cyng not from his heofon and all men there then gaf up a great roar of wilcum hunds that they was and their brothors still rottan on sanlac hyll. but around the abbodrice the bastard had put his cnihts with sweord and hors to cepe him safe from anglisc ire and when the cnihts hierde this cry they belyfd it was a risan agan the bastard for they did not spec our tunge and did not cnaw our ways. and so they put fyr to all the hus around the abbodrice and they cwelled anglisc men who was locan on and all in the abbodrice fled but for the bastard who was alone with his corona and his ire and his fear. they saes the bastard has no fear but no man has no fear and on this daeg he cnawan what he had done to cum to angland lic he did and if he thought he wolde haf us easy lic he had our wifmen then he cnawan now he was wrong

well these deorc dreams was still cuman to me then dreams of blud of my wifman spered through the guttas by deorc ingengas of my sons torn by hunds of my hus beornan my lif beornan. efry night slepan the dreams cum as the fyr cum nearer to us i colde feel them cuman it was lic splotts on the nebb of a yonge man cwelled by sum deorcness in his high time of lif. and all the time he was cuman for now i had named him he was always with me not specan all of the time at least in the beginnan but always with me now i had been ceosan

my grandfather first telt me of the great smith weland what wolde he haf saed to see me ceosan for greatness by this deorc ealdor of all anglisc folc

but lysten to what the bastard done lysten now for though i will sae it still it is hard to belyf. since our thegn was dead in sum dicc his eages tacan by raefns his sawol by ingengas we was to haf new men ofer us and blaec they was to be. as the year begun ecceard he was called away sum place we was not telt of to hiere the new laws from them who had not the guttas to cum them selfs and tell anglisc folc what was to becum of them. he was gan sum three daegs then he cum baec to us hangan his heafod for what he moste sae but still he saed it. we was all bid to cum to the ham to hiere this snyflan scucca bendan to the will of others lic the dog hidan under the stool when the staef is raised

so in ire was i from what i hierde that my heafod was full of things i wolde do and sae it is hard for me efen now to tell what this weosul was saen that daeg

our new cyng he begins and he saes this lic it is triewe lic there was no fugol no star lic half our men was not gan and nefer cum baec. only our new cyng lic it is another daeg lic all daegs. our new cyng he saes he has telt me that as wulmaer thegn was cwelled feohtan under the flag of harald godwineson who was thief of the corona of angland his lands will be gifen to geeyome cyng and with them all lands in his thegnage and this means also the lands of all in this ham

then he stops and there is no sound at all only the breath of the mist all ofer the fenn. for it was a winter daeg in hrethmonth and on many daegs in this month the colde breath of erce wolde cum up out of the fenn and swallo us and it wolde be hard to see efen from hus to barn so thicc was it. well this was one of these daegs and though we was cum round near in the cold and though there was sum twentig or thirtig of us lystnan to this scucca specan these ingenga words hardly colde we all see our own selfs

still there was no sound none saed naht lic after efry thing that had already cum there was naht mor colde bring us pain and this seemed to fryht ecceard mor than if we had gan at him for he mofs about and swallos and his eages mofs lic he is sum cildes poppet

geeyome cyng of angland he gan on and his words now is hard to hiere as he finds them hard to sae geeyome cyng has gifen word that all men what can gif sceal haf the right to buy from him what lands they once held from wulmaer thegn who was with harald the thief at sanlac and whose land is thus gifen to thy rightful cyng

ecceard i calls here through the cold breath of the land what fuccan scit is this

ecceard he does not loc up he is specan low and slow

and he saes geeyome cyng will be raisan the geld for all men to two scillings for eacc carucate so as to mac good the worc what harald thief of coronas had not done to cepe this land safe from ingengas

now i was not the only one roaran out for loc what this cunt has saed. he tells us that we moste gif mor geld to an ingenga cyng to cepe ourselfs safe from ingengas. ecceard he still locs down he does not mete our eages he does not dare

thu is cwellan us all calls sum gebur for a few men is cum baec from the fyrd those men who colde cum baec and maybe those who colde not done better for to cum baec to broc land and now this it is lic bean cwelled many times in one lif

geld will be tacan in the eald ways saes ecceard through me as thy gerefa and for land in the same way and there will be hearm to thu if geld is not gifen and this is what thy cyng has to sae to his new folc

and this is all the cyng needed to sae for war had cum to angland with him and it did not end at sanlac or in lundun and it wolde not end now

then what sceal be done

sum thing sceal be done

and what sceal it be

it sceal be a war

and who sceal lead this war

sum great man

what man is this

the man will cum

and what sceal his name be

i does not cnaw

does thu cnaw any thing

i cnawan we moste feoht

then feoht

let me tell thu of him now for when the bastard cum upon us so did he. it was my grandfather telt me first about eald weland the smith and the same tale i hierde later many times by fyrs and from gleomen and scopmen all ofer angland and efen in other places for weland he is in our blud and our land. eald he is ealdor efen than the lost gods under the mere eald he is lic the fenn and the seas. for he cum ofer the seas in a time before time and with him he brought what macd this land ours

gold seolfor blud

in weland smith is what angland is what our folc is

gold seolfor fyr on the water

all the wundor in this land macd by him from the ore of erce

they broc my scancs they broc the land