The Bishop of Borglum and His Warriors Page #2

								

Borglum it was warm and cheerful in the heated rooms, while cold
winter raged without, when a piece of news was brought to the
bishop.  "Jens Glob, of Thyland, has come back, and his mother with
him."  Jens Glob laid a complaint against the bishop, and summoned
him before the temporal and the spiritual court.

"That will avail him little," said the bishop.  "Best leave off thy
efforts, knight Jens."


Again it is the time of falling leaves and stranded ships.  Icy
winter comes again, and the "white bees" are swarming, and sting the
traveller's face till they melt.

"Keen weather to-day!" say the people, as they step in.

Jens Glob stands so deeply wrapped in thought, that he singes
the skirt of his wide garment.

"Thou Borglum bishop," he exclaims, "I shall subdue thee after
all!  Under the shield of the Pope, the law cannot reach thee; but Jens
Glob shall reach thee!"

Then he writes a letter to his brother-in-law, Olaf Hase, in
Sallingland, and prays that knight to meet him on Christmas eve, at
mass, in the church at Widberg.  The bishop himself is to read the
mass, and consequently will journey from Borglum to Thyland; and
this is known to Jens Glob.

Moorland and meadow are covered with ice and snow.  The marsh
will bear horse and rider, the bishop with his priests and armed
men.  They ride the shortest way, through the waving reeds, where the
wind moans sadly.

Blow thy brazen trumpet, thou trumpeter clad in fox-skin!  it
sounds merrily in the clear air.  So they ride on over heath and
moorland--over what is the garden of Fata Morgana in the hot summer,
though now icy, like all the country--towards the church of Widberg.

The wind is blowing his trumpet too--blowing it harder and harder.
He blows up a storm--a terrible storm--that increases more and more.
Towards the church they ride, as fast as they may through the storm.
The church stands firm, but the storm careers on over field and
moorland, over land and sea.

Borglum's bishop reaches the church; but Olaf Hase will scarce
do so, however hard he may ride.  He journeys with his warriors on
the farther side of the bay, in order that he may help Jens Glob,
now that the bishop is to be summoned before the judgment seat of
the Highest.

The church is the judgment hall; the altar is the council table.
The lights burn clear in the heavy brass candelabra.  The storm reads
out the accusation and the sentence, roaming in the air over moor
and heath, and over the rolling waters.  No ferry-boat can sail over
the bay in such weather as this.

Olaf Hase makes halt at Ottesworde.  There he dismisses his
warriors, presents them with their horses and harness, and gives
them leave to ride home and greet his wife.  He intends to risk his
life alone in the roaring waters; but they are to bear witness for him
that it is not his fault if Jens Glob stands without reinforcement
in the church at Widberg.  The faithful warriors will not leave him,
but follow him out into the deep waters.  Ten of them are carried away;
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