“I think,” said Lavrans, “that if Erlend is to come to this meeting, then he is of such high position and birth, being the kinsman of the king and his mother, that he must step forward to join the ranks of the foremost men. But I don’t know, Sir Erling, whether you feel you can trust that his judgment in these matters won’t lead him to the opposing side. If Ivar Ogmundss?n attempts to make a countermove . . . Erlend is also strongly tied to the men who will follow Sir Ivar.”
“I think it unlikely that Sir Ivar will do anything,” said Erling Vidkunss?n. “And Munan . . .” He gave a slight smile. “He’s wise enough to stay away. He knows that otherwise it might become clear to everyone how much or how little influence Munan Baards?n wields.” They both laughed. “The truth is . . . Yes, no doubt you know better than I, Lavrans Lagmanss?n,9 you who have your ancestors and kinsmen over there, that the Swedish nobles are reluctant to consider our knighthood equal to their own. For that reason it’s important that we exclude no man who is among the richest and most highborn. We cannot afford to let a man like Erlend win permission to stay at home, jesting with his wife and tending to his estates—in whatever manner he tends to them,” he said when he saw Lavrans’s expression.
A smile flickered across Lavrans’s face.
“But if you think it unwise to pressure Erlend in order to make him join us, then I will not do so.”
“I think, dear sir,” said Lavrans, “that Erlend would do more good here in the villages. As you said yourself—we can expect that this war levy will be met with opposition in the districts south of Namdalseid, where the people feel they have nothing to fear from the Russians. It’s possible that Erlend might be the man who could change people’s minds about these matters in some way.”
“He has such a cursed loose tongue,” Sir Erling exclaimed.
Lavrans replied with a small smile. “Perhaps that’s the language that will appeal more to people than . . . the speech of more in sightful men.” Again they looked at each other and laughed. “However that may be, he could do more harm if he went to the meeting and spoke too loudly.”
“Well, if you cannot restrain him, then . . .”
“No, I can do so only until he meets up with the kind of birds he’s used to flying around with; my son-in-law and I are too unlike each other.”
Erlend came over to them. “Have you benefited so much from the mass that you need no breakfast?”
“I haven’t heard mention of breakfast—I’m as hungry as a wolf, and thirsty.” Lavrans stroked a dirty-white horse that he had been examining. “Whoever the man is who tends to your horses, son-in-law, I would drive him off my estate before I sat down to eat, if he was my servant.”
“I don’t dare, because of Kristin,” said Erlend. “He has gotten one of her maids with child.”
“And do you deem it such a great achievement here in these parts,” said Lavrans, raising his eyebrows, “that you now find him irreplaceable?”
“No, but you see,” said Erlend, laughing, “Kristin and the priest want them to be married—and they want me to place the man in such a position that he’ll be able to support the two of them. The girl refuses and her guardian refuses, and Tore himself is reluctant. But I’m not allowed to drive him off; she’s afraid that then he would flee the village. But Ulf Haldorss?n is his overseer, when he’s home.”
Erling Vidkunss?n walked over toward Smid Gudleikss?n. Lavrans said to his son-in-law, “It seems to me that Kristin is looking a little pale these days.”
“I know. Can’t you talk to her, Father-in-law?” Erlend said eagerly. “That boy is sucking the marrow out of her. I think she wants to keep him at her breast until the third fast, like some kind of pauper’s wife.”
“Yes, she is certainly fond of her son,” said Lavrans with a slight smile.
“I know.” Erlend shook his head. “They can sit there for three hours—Kristin and Sira Eiliv—talking about a rash he has here or there; and for every tooth he gets, they seem to think a great miracle has occurred. I’ve never heard otherwise but that all children get teeth. And it would be more wondrous if our Naakkve should have none.”
CHAPTER 2
ONE EVENING A year later, toward the end of the Christmas holidays, Kristin Lavransdatter and Orm Erlendss?n arrived quite unexpectedly to visit Master Gunnulf at his residence in Nidaros.