The Viking's Skull

by John R. Carling

A bowl of warm water was soon procured, Godfrey diluting it with a powder brought by him from his surgery.

"A chemical preparation of my own," he explained, "warranted to take out stains without injuring the cloth."

Under Beatrice's manipulation the relic gradually disclosed itself as a piece of brownish-coloured linen, divided by a vertical line of black thread into two sections of unequal length. Each section consisted of a picture woven in woollen threads on the linen background, and each was fragmentary in character, the beginning of the one and the end of the other being torn away.

The left section represented a battle-field: spears were hurtling in air: two warriors were lying prostrate, and a third, a yellow-haired hero, his bare arms flung aloft, was in the act of falling backwards, his breast pierced by an arrow. These figures, drawn to a scale of about half the human size, were in a good state of preservation. The colours of the garments had scarcely faded: the golden filaments composing the shields still retained their brightness: and the swords, woven from silver threads, glinted in the rising sunlight, as Beatrice moved the fabric to and fro. To this section was attached the subscription:—"Hic Ormum Aureum Occidunt."

"What do these words mean?" Beatrice asked.

"'Here they kill Orm the Golden,'" Idris replied.

"Orm the Golden," Godfrey repeated. "You are right, then, Idris, in your theory as to that tumulus being the tomb of the warrior spoken of on the runic ring. I confess that till this moment I have had my doubts on the point, but this piece of tapestry is decisive."

In the other section of the cloth the same warrior, still pierced by the arrow, was represented as lying prone upon the earth: two figures, those of a woman and of a boy, were bending over him. That it was night-time was shown by the torches they carried. The woman had evidently come to bear off the body of the dead chief. The words, "Hilda Invenit"—were clearly discernible; the rest of the inscription was wanting.

"'Hilda finds'—Orm, I suppose the next word would be, if we had the inscription in full," said Idris. "Hilda—the lady of the runic ring, you will remember. This other figure is perhaps intended for her son Magnus: if so, it is clear that he was a lad at the time of his father's death, which may account for his mother's act in hiding the treasure in Ormfell. There it was to remain till her son should be of age to defend his heritage. The roll of tapestry suspended round the tomb was evidently, when entire, a complete record in needlework of the life of Orm the Viking. It must have formed an interesting relic of Norse times. A pity we haven't the whole of it."

"And so this is Hilda the Alruna!" mused Beatrice, contemplating the figure on the tapestry. "How curiously we are linked with the past! To think that the expedition in which you nearly lost your lives is the result of a sentence engraved on a Norse altar-ring a thousand years ago by the lady portrayed on this piece of needlework! She had dark hair, if this be her 'counterfeit presentment.' And to think, too, that we possess the very skull of the yellow-haired Viking pictured here! It sounds too romantic to be true. Where are you going to put your grisly trophy, Mr. Breakspear?"