Sintram & his companions

Preface

THE question may have arisen from time to time as to whether a poet has drawn his imaginative creations from earlier works, or whether they have sprung from some other source of inspiration. The point is by no means without interest, as it seems to me, and I think that when an author is able to speak clearly about it, he is wise, he is even in a certain sense bound to share this knowledge with his readers. Hence the following account.

A few years ago I found a fine copperplate engraving by Albrecht Dürer among my birthday gifts. A knight in armour, with an old, worn face, riding a great horse and followed by his dog, is passing through a dreadful valley, where the clefts of rock and the tree roots distort themselves into hideous forms. The ground is thickly carpeted with poisonous toadstools, and evil serpents crawl in and out among them. Close beside the knight, on a small, lean horse, rides Death; behind, a demonlike shape claws after him vi SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS with its long arm. Horse and dog look strange and unnatural, as though transformed by the ghastly surroundings, but the knight rides calmly onwards, carrying on his lance-point a transfixed salamander. In the far distance a fortress can be seen, its fair hospitable ramparts looking downwards into the valley, whose contrasting desolation seems to sink all the more deeply into the soul.* My friend, Eduard Hitsig, the giver of this picture, sent a letter with it asking me to write a romance for him in interpretation of these enigmatical figures. I was unable to do this at the time, and for long afterwards, but I carried the remembrance of the picture about with me continually, in peace and war, until now it has disentangled itself and taken the shape, not of a romance, but of a little novel, if my kind readers will allow its right to the name. FOUQUfi.

Written on December 5, 1814.

*D. E. Schoeber in DÜrer*s Leben, etc. (Leipzig and Schleiz, 1769, p. 87) says of this unique work: "Dürer must have taken the idea from some special event, or else he meant it to express figuratively a soldier's career." A. Bartsch in Le peintre Graveur (Vol. 7, p. 107, Vienne, 1808) suggests that the knight in the engraving is Franz von Sickingen. When Bartsch wrote, the original oil-painting was for sale at Jacoby's Art Gallery in Berlin.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Knight, Death and the Devil, from an engraving by Albrecht Dürer, 1513 Frontispiece

Facing Page

A boy rushed into the hall 1

Sintram soon found himself alone with his

strange companion 20

**Our Forefathers were right after all about

the Valkyries" 33

Gabriela's very self was seen softly approaching 48 Many a noble steed reared up, wounded to

death 62

Suddenly old Rolf stood before him 75

Then the Dwarf threw Sintram's lock of hair

high up towards the clouds 84

With cloven skull the shepherd tumbled into

the abyss 87

"Look in, my young Knight," he said, very

gravely 98

**Oh, yes, certainly; that will hold all right!" Ill The Dwarf, shuddering and scolding, leapt

away into a dark ravine 122

**Wait a moment," he said, ** while I sing this

child a slumber-song" 135

How this same Weigand had fallen asleep like

a tired child 139

"This is Freya's boar, and we will swear vows

thereby" 141 viii SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS

**Do your worst, Father ; in your godless war

I will take no part" 160

'*Flee, ordie!" 166

Once more he began his impious praises of

Gabriela's beauty 178

The aged Knight's last hour drew on apace 185

In silence he knelt before his mother 187

**This is the Squire, Engeltram of Mont-

faucon" 192

I

A BOY RUSHED INTO THE HALL

SINTRAM

AND HIS COMPANIONS

Chapter The First

IN the lofty citadel of Drontheim sat an assembly of the knights of Norway, holding council together upon the good of the State. The council was over, but they still sat on, round the giant table of stone, in the midst of the vaulted echoing hall, feasting and making merry late into the night. The rising storm dashed a wild cloud of snow against the shaken windows. The doors quivered in their oaken frames, and the heavy locks rattled violently. The castle clock, after a slow ominous jarring of its many wheels, struck the hour; one.

The sound had scarcely died away when, uttering a terrified shriek, a boy rushed into the hall, white as death, with streaming hair and eyes fast closed. He took shelter behind the carven seat of the great knight Biörn, and, stretching out wild hands in supplication to the splendid company, cried in a piercing voice:

2 SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS •*My father! My father! Noble knights! Death and that other one are following hard upon me! "

An awful silence had fallen cold upon the assembly, broken only by the reiterated cries of the terror-stricken child. Then an old follower of Biörn's,one of his great retinue, Rolf the Good by name, came to the weeping child, lifted him in his arms and prayed aloud in a voice that was half a song :

Help, Father mine, This child of Thine.

I trust, and cannot trust.

And immediately the boy, as though in a dream, loosened his hold upon his father, and suffered Rolf to carry him, as if he had been a feather, out of the hall, still weeping and murmuring as he went.

The knights and lords gazed on each other in amazement.

Then the mighty Biörn broke the silence with wild words, laughing grimly the while: ••Vex not yourselves about this strange matter. The boy is my only son. From his fifth year onwards has he been thus, and now he is twelve. It made me uneasy at first but now I am accustomed to it, for once every year it comes upon him, and always at this

SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS 3 season. Your pardon for so many words about my poor silly Sintram, and let us betake ourselves to wiser themes." But still the silence continued. Single voices, in low uncertain tones, tried to renew their interrupted speech of a while since, but there was no response. A couple of the youngest and lightest of heart began a catch, but the storm took part with such a strange singing and sighing and moaning that this, too, soon broke ojQT and ceased.

And now there was neither sound nor movement in the great hall. The torchlight flickered drearily among the shadows of the vaulted roof. This heroic feast might have been a pale assembly of lifeless images attired in giant suits of mail.

At last one rose among them, the chaplain of the castle, sole priest in this circle of knights. He spoke, addressing Biörn: **Dear lord and master, does it not seem that God Himself has directed our hearts and eyes, as by a miracle, upon you and upon your son? See, we can think of nothing else, so had you not best tell us plainly all you know of the boy's strange doings? It may be that the solemn tale, for such it surely is, will be profitable for us in the midst of this wild mirth."

la

4 SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS Biörn looked at the speaker with no pleased countenance.

**Sir chaplain," he said, **it may be that your part in the tale will prove to be more than either you or I care about. Let us not spoil our merry northern meeting with sad words."

But the chaplain, with a gesture at once mild and firm, moved a step nearer to the knight and said:

•*My lord, the choice was yours, to speak or to be silent. But now that you have spoken, and have so strangely hinted at my share in your son's misfortune, I imperatively demand that you reveal the whole matter, word for word, even as it happened. This, for my honour's sake, you cannot refuse." Biörn bent his proud head in grave concession and spoke:

** Seven years ago I and my followers were keeping the Christmas festival together. Now there are certain old and honourable customs which we inherit from our mighty forefathers. And this is one: that the great golden image of a boar be set in the midst of the table, whereby men might swear many a jovial and propitious oath. Sir chaplain here, who used often to be my guest at that time, was no great friend to these relics from the old hero world. He and his kind were not in such very high favour in those old days." The chaplain interposed: *^My noble forefathers," he said, **reckoned with God rather than with the world, and with God their favour was good enough. That was how they came to convert your ancestors, and if I can help you in like manner, your scorn shall not trouble my heart." The knight's brow darkened, but there was a certain fear in his wrath as he continued his speech.

**Yes, yes," he said, ** uncertain promises and threats about an unseen world, that they may get what they can out of us in this. Ah! in those days I was rich indeed. Sometimes it comes over me that all this happened many hundreds of years ago, and that I am left alone upon the earth, so terrible is the change in all things about me; but then I remember that the greater part of this goodly company were wont to seek me in the days of my happiness, and knew Verena, my fair and heavenly wife — "

He broke off, covering his face with his hands, and it seemed that he wept. The storm had ceased. The soft moonlight pierced the window-panes, touching Biörn's wild features with its calm caress.

6 SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS Then, suddenly, he sprang up, making all the armour clash, and called aloud in a voice of thunder:

**Am I becoming a monk, as she became a nun? No, my cunning sir priest, your webs are too fine for flies of my build." **Iknownaughtofwebs, "answered the priest. ** Openly and honourably for six years have I set before you the choice between hell and heaven; as for the step which the holy Verena took, to that you gave your consent. But I know not what this has to do with your son's trouble, and I await your telling." **And long you may wait," laughed Biörn grimly, ** sooner shall — " ** Blaspheme not," the chaplain sternly interposed, and his eyes flashed. **Hola!" shouted Biörn, wild with horror, **Hola! Death and his fellows are loose." And in a frenzy of fear he fled from the hall and down the steps into the courtyard. There the harsh blast of his horn could be heard blowing up his followers, and presently the ring of many feet died away over the icy pavement.

One by one, in great and silent fear, the guests departed, until none but the chaplain was left, sitting at the great stone table in solitary prayer.

Chapter The Second

A LITTLE later Rolf came back, and, entering the hall with soft slow steps, stood amazed to find it so empty and deserted. He had been far away, quieting the child in a remote part of the castle, and had heard nothing of his master's wild outbreak. The chaplain told him, gently, of what had happened, and then said : **But my good Rolf, there is one thing I should like you to tell me: what strange words were those wherewith you pacified Sintram's sickness a while ago? They had a sweet and holy sound, and yet I hardly understand them :

*I trust, and cannot trust.' " ** Reverend father," answered Rolf, **from a child I can remember that of all the fair Gospel stories none took so powerful a hold upon me as that one concerning the boy who was possessed, whom the disciples were not able to heal, and for whom at last our transfigured Saviour came down Himself from the mountain to rend the bonds wherewith the terrified child was chained fast to the

8 SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS power of the Evil One. I always felt as if I had known that child and had nursed him and played with him in his hours of ease. And as I grew older, the father's distress over his son's sickness lay heavy on my heart. Surely all this was a prophecy concerning Sintram, our poor young lord, whom I love even as if he were my own child, and at times the words of the weeping father in the Gospel rise from my heart to my lips: *Lord, I beheve. Help thou mine unbelief.' Something like this I may have sung and prayed to-night in my great anguish. Ah, dear and reverend father, sometimes my mind is sore darkened within me when I consider how heavily a father's grim word may cling to his luckless child. But God be praised, my faith and hope are still strong." **Rolf, my good old friend," said the priest, "I only half understand all that you say about poor Sintram, for I know not when nor how this evil came upon him. I would fain hear how it happened, unless you be bound to silence by oath or solemn vow." **With all my heart, "answered Rolf. * *I have long desired to tell you, only you seemed to be estranged from us of late. But now I dare not longer leave my young master sleeping alone, and early to-morrow we depart with my lord. Will you come with me, dear sir, to Sintram's bedside?"

Whereupon the chaplain rose, and taking Rolfs little lamp in his hand, walked beside him through the long vaulted passages. Far away, in a little room, they found the sleeping child. Upon his face, always so pale, the lamplight threw a strange and dazzling lustre. The chaplain stood a long time watching him, lost in thought. At last he said : **I remember that even from his birth his features were somewhat hard and sharply cut. But now, for a child, his looks are terrible. Yet, seeing him as he sleeps, one cannot but love him, try as one may." **True, true, dear and reverend father," answered Rolf, and it was plain how his whole soul responded to the least word spoken in praise of his beloved young master. He placed the light so that it should not dazzle the sleeper, arranged a comfortable chair for the priest, and seating himself opposite, began his story. **It was that very Christmas feast of which my lord was telling you, and between him and his followers talk had arisen about the German merchants and of how they could best curb the ever-growing pride of the seaport towns. Then Biörn, my master, stretched lo SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS out his hand to that evil image of the golden boar, and vowed that he would slay without mercy whatever German trader fate should suffer to fall into his power. * *The fairVerena turned pale and would have interposed, but it was too late. The bloody word was spoken. And at that very moment, as though hell's monarch would fain bind fast his vassals by more than one bond, there came a warder into the hall, with the tidings that two citizens from a German trading town, an old man and his son, had been cast ashore here, and were now waiting without to claim the protection of the lord of the castle.

**A great horror fell upon the knight. But he believed himself bound by his rash vow and by the accursed heathen symbol. The command was given to arm ourselves with sharppointed steel lances, and to assemble in the castle court. There, at his sign, we were to dispatch the unfortunate suppliants. **It was the first and I hope the last time in my life that I said *No' to my master's command, and I said it loudly and without flinching. The good God, knowing whom He would have in His Heaven and whom not, armed me with constancy and strength. * * And I think my lord guessed and respected

SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS n

the reason of his old servant's disobedience. He spoke, half wrathful and half in scorn : ** *Goup into my wife's chamber. Her women are distracted with fear, and she may need help. Go up, Rolf the Good, and make one woman the more!'

**I thought: * Scoff and scorn as you like.' And I went as he said without a word. **Now as I was going upstairs there met me two strange figures, and terrible as strange. They were not known to me, nor could I guess how they had found entrance into the castle. The one was of a great stature, deadly pale, and unimaginably thin. The other was a little man of hideous form and feature. Now as I controlled my fear and looked earnestly at them, it certainly seemed to me—"

His speech was interrupted by a slight sound of moaning and shuddering from the bed. Rolf and the chaplain hastened thither, and they saw how a deadly fear had fallen upon the sleeper's face, and how he strove hard to open his eyes and could not. The priest made the sign of the cross over him, and the strange fit subsided by degrees. He slept again, peacefully, and the two went quietly back to their seats. ** You see," said Rolf, **it does not do to

12 SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS image this terror too closely. Enough that they went down into the castle court, I up into my lady's rooms. The fragile Verena was half fainting from fear, and I hastened to her relief, using what knowledge I have (by the good God's gift) in the healing efficacy contained in air and herb and stone. But she had hardly recovered, when she commanded me, with that calm and holy fortitude you know so well, to go down with her into the court. She would turn aside the horror of the night, or perish with it. We had to pass by Sintram's bedside. Dear God, how the hot tears fell from my eyes to see his peaceful breathing, and how he smiled as he slept." The old man covered his eyes with his hands and wept bitterly. Mastering himself, he continued:

* * We were close to the windows of the lower staircase, when we distinctly heard the voice of the elder merchant, and looking out I saw his fine face, illumined by the torchlight, and beside him his bright-haired son. *I call God the Lord to witness,' he cried aloud, *that I meant no harm to this house. Surely this is heathendom into which we are fallen, and not the castle of a Christian knight. If so, then strike. And thou, beloved son, face death with constancy and courage. In

SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS 13 Heaven we shall know why it was so ordained.'

** Then I thought I saw those two dread shapes in the midst ofthe crowd of Biörn's followers. He who was so pale had a great sickle-shaped sword in his hand. The smaller carried a curiously knotched spear. **But Verena threw open the window, and called aloud, her flute-like voice piercing the wild night.

** 'Beloved lord and husband, for the sake of your only son have mercy upon these good men. Save them from death and withstand the assaults of the Evil One.' **What Biörn answered in his frenzy let me not repeat. He pledged his child's soul in ghastly wager, calling upon Death and the Devil if he failed from his vow. Hush! the the boy stirs again. Let me make an end of the dark tale quickly.

**The knight commanded his followers to strike, and his eyes blazed so fiercely that even now he is still sometimes called * Biörn of the Flaming Eyes.' Then we saw those two terrible strangers bestirring themselves in the press, but Verena cried in a voice of terror, *Lord, my Saviour, help!' and the two awful figures were gone, and the knight and his followers, as though blinded and be-

14 SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS wildered, turned upon each other, but without hurt. Neither could they touch or harm their victims, but fought wildly, beating the air. These bowed in reverence to Verena, and with a silent prayer, turned to depart. The castle gates, shaken asunder by a whirlwind of snow, fell open, leaving the road into the mountain free. **My lady and I were still standing doubtful upon the stairs, when I thought I saw the two dread figures glide past me softly, stealthily, as a breath, and Verena cried: *In God's name, Rolf, did you see them, the tall pale man and the ugly little fellow, slipping past us up the stair?' I rushed after, and alas, found Sintram even as you have seen him to-night.

**From that day a great change fell upon my young master, and each year at this season the dream-sickness returns. The lady of the castle, reading in this event Heaven's clear warning and retribution, and seeing that my lord, in place of repentance, became day by day ever wilder and more fiery of heart, resolved to retire into a cloister, there to spend her life in solitude and in prayer, prayer for salvation in this world and eternal happiness hereafter for herself and her poor child."

SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS 15 Rolf was silent, and after some thought the chaplain spoke:

**I understand now," he said, **how it is that for the past six years Biörn has preferred to confess his sins in the general without going too closely into their nature. And I understand, too, his acquiescence in Verena's desire for the cloister. Yet I think there must have been a remnant of shame alive in his heart, and perhaps it is there still. At any rate that sweet flower of heaven, his wife, could not dwell longer in the power of this hurricane. Yet now who is left to save and shelter poor Sintram?" **He has his mother's prayers," Rolf answered. **Look, reverend father, when day is breaking, even as now, and the morning 1^^ wind breathes through the sunlit window, I seem to see the sweet eyes of the lady of the castle, and to hear her gentle voice. After God, the holy Verena is our help." ** And we, too, will send up our humble cry to God," the chaplain said, and he knelt with Rolf by Sintram's bedside in silent and fervent prayer. The first light of morning transfigured the boy's pale face, and he began to smile in his dreams.

i6

Chapter The Third

THE room was full of sunshine when Sintram sprang up, as though the light hurt him. He looked at the chaplain with no friendly eye.

* * So there is a priest here in the castle, " he said, **and yet the wicked dream dared to trouble me. A fine priest ! "

**My child," the chaplain answered, very gently, **I have been praying for you with all my heart, and now and always I will pray for you, but only God is all-mighty."

* * You speak very freely to the son of Biörn, " cried Sintram. ** * My child ! ' and * you will pray! ' If it were not that the frightful dream came to me again last night you would make me laugh."

**My young Lord Sintram," said the chaplain, ** I am not surprised that you do not know me again, for indeed you yourself are changed beyond recognition." His eyes grew dim as he said it, but Rolf looked sadly in the boy's face, and said: ** Ah, my dear young master, why do you always pretend to be so much worse than

SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS 17 you really are? And you used to have such a good memory; can you have forgotten our good, kind chaplain, who used to come to the castle so often, and bring you pretty songs and bright images of the holy saints? " ** Yes, I remember," said Sintram, thoughtfully. * * Then my blessed mother was alive." **Our gracious lady still lives, God be praised," said Rolf, smiling. But Sintram shook his head. '*Not for us, not for us poor sick folk," he said. ** But why will you not call her blessed? Surely she knows nothing of my dreams?" ** Yes, she knows," answered the chaplain. **She knows, and calls upon God to help you. But be on your guard with your wild haughty spirit. It might come to pass, alas, it might some day easily come to pass, that she would know of you and your dreams no longer. And this would happen if soul and body were parted, and from that day the holy angels would know you no more for ever."

Sintram fell back upon his couch as though

thunderstruck, and Rolf said, with a troubled

sigh:

* * Reverend father, you should not speak so

sternly to the poor, sick child."

But Sintram raised himself, leaned lovingly

1 8 SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS on the chaplain, and said with streaming eyes:

** Leave him alone, my good, kind-hearted Rolf, for he knows what he is about. Would you do well to chide him if he saw me slipping into an ice chasm and pulled me out sharply and roughly by the hair?" The priest looked upon the boy, deeply moved, and was about to utter some pious reflections, when Sintram suddenly sprang from the bed and asked for his father. On being told that Biörn had departed, he refused to remain another hour in the castle, and when the chaplain and his old servant expressed their anxiety as to the danger of rapid riding to his scarcely recovered health, he waived it aside, saying: •* Believe me, reverend father, and you, dear old Rolf, if it were not for these dreams I should be the stoutest young squire upon God's earth, and even as it is I am not much behind the best. Moreover, I am now rid of the dreams for a year to come."

In obedience to his somewhat imperious sign, Rolf brought the horses without delay. The boy sprang boldly into the saddle, and with an affectionate farewell to the chaplain sped away, swift as an arrow, among the frozen

SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS 19 valleys and snow-covered mountains, Rolf following him closely behind. They had not ridden far when a singular sound arrested Sintram's notice. It came from a neighbouring ravine in the rocks, a dull, muffled sound, as it might be from the clapper of a small mill ; only there came, too, mingled with it, the hollow painful moaning of a human voice. They turned their horses in that direction, and a strange sight met their eyes.

A tall pale man, who seemed to be a pilgrim, strove with all his strength to clamber up out of the deep snow, but always in vain. And as he strove, a great multitude of bones, which he wore loosely fastened to his wide robe, rattled against one another with an unearthly noise; and this was the origin of the mysterious sound.

Rolf crossed himself with a sharp shudder at the sight, but Sintram called boldly: ** Speak, and tell us what you are doing there all alone."

The answer was a ghastly grimace, and the words:

**In death I live." I

** What bones are those upon your dress?" ** Relics, relics, my young lord." ** Are you a pilgrim then? "

** Restless, tireless, over all the earth."

*' I will not leave you to perish here in the snow."

**I have no will to perish."

** Mount up behind me on my horse."

"That will I."

And in an instant, with astonishing strength

and agility, he was out of the snow and seated

behind Sintram, encircling him with his long

arms. The horse, terrified by the shaking of

the bones, broke into a frenzied gallop across

the trackless valleys. Sintram soon found

himself alone with his strange companion,

Rolf spurring and panting far in the rear.

Sliding and all but falling down a steep mountain side, the frightened horse at last slackened a little, changing his headlong pace to a wild, unruly trot. But he still chafed and foamed, nor heeded his master's controlling hand. They were in a steep, narrow ravine, and here Sintram and the stranger spoke together as follows: **Draw your robe more closely round you, you who are so pale, and quiet the bones, that I may quiet my horse." **The bones will not be quieted, my child. It is their way."

**Do not press me so close with your long arms. Your arms are so cold."

SINTRAM SOON FOUND HIMSELF ALONE WITH HIS STRANGE COMPANION

SINTRAM & HIS COMPANIONS 21 **Be content, my child, be content; there is no help for it. And my long cold arms have not yet crushed your heart." **Do not breathe so upon me with your j frozen breath. It draws my strength away." **Be at rest, my child, be at rest. It cannot be otherwise. But as yet I have not breathed your life away."

The singular conversation came to an end, for Sintram found himself suddenly on an open snow-covered plain, sun-illumined, and saw his father's castle not far off. He was still pondering whether he should invite this unchancy pilgrim home with him, when the pilgrim himself relieved him of all doubt. For he swung himself swiftly from the horse, startling it once more into terror, and said, pointing to the castle with his lifted forefinger: **I know old Biörn of the Flaming Eyes well; too well it may be. Greet him from me. He needs not ask my name. He will know me from your description."