Chapter XXV · THE END OF IT
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THEY say that Cormac set sail in the Raven before noon of the day when he said good-bye to Stangerd. And they say that when he was in the open sea, clearing Grimsey, which is the most northerly of the islands, he saw a sea-beast of grey colour in the sea upon the port bow. He had a spear in his hand, and, as the beast swirled up alongside the ship, he threw the spear and pierced her side. She rolled over, and he saw her dead blue eyes and broad, expressionless face. He said to his brother Thorgils, “That was the face of Thorveig the spae-wife, who set a curse upon me. If she is dead now? What had I best do?”
Thorgils said, “There’s no going back now.”
“There’s no going back at all, in my belief,” Cormac said.
It is true that just about then Thorveig the spae-wife did die; but Cormac did not go back, and I believe he never saw Stangerd again, though he never forgot her, and died at last with her name in his mouth. He served the Kings of Norway for many years; became a great Viking; was known in Ireland and Scotland. They say, indeed, that he made a settlement for himself at Scarborough in England; but I don’t know how that may be. So far as I am concerned, I have done with him.
As is the case with all good tales, there are more sides than one to Cormac’s. Was he cursed by the spae-wife, or by his own nature? Did he well by Stangerd, or ill? Was the poet right who said that when one of his kind loves a woman, the woman will be sorry for it?
The same poet, who is not Cormac, closes his version of the story upon a note which can be variously interpreted.
He says:
So much for Cormac. And what she gain’d Of her wild lover, or how suffer’d To have her well of sweetness drain’d By one or other as he offered— She was a woman and, men think, Rewarded; for they crav’d, she proffer’d; They thirsted and she gave them drink. They dipt their cups for what she coffer’d, And if they needed, should she shrink Lest she might come to want? Their thriving Was hers, we say—without a wink, Because we mean it. She got by giving. For giving man life is her living. At least, that’s man’s serene persuasion. He calls it her re-generation.
Now that’s all very well; but—I should like to have Stanvor Slimlegs’ opinion more than anyone’s.