known; and the king would ever have him ride beside him in the
field while the court was yet with us. And that pleased not Beorn,
though he kept his ill will to himself; and maybe I alone noted it,
for I had not spoken of that meeting, of which I have told, even to
my father.

Well, too, did my mother and Eadgyth like the courtly ways of the
jarl, who was ever ready to tell them of the life in his household,
and of the daughter, Osritha, who was its mistress since her mother
died but a few years since, and her two elder sisters had been
married to chiefs of their own land. Sometimes, too, they would ask
him of the dress of the ladies of his land; but at that he would
laugh and shake his head, saying that he only knew that they went
wondrously clad, but that he could tell naught more of the matter.

"Weapons and war gear I may talk of by the hour," he said, "but
women's gear is beyond me. But once my daughter and I wrought
together in a matter that was partly of both, and that was when I
needed a war flag. And so I drew out the great raven I would have
embroidered on it, and they worked it in wondrous colours, and gold
and silver round the form of the great bird, so that it seems to
shift and flap its wings as the light falls on it and the breeze
stirs it, as if there were magic therein."

Now Eadgyth was well skilled in this work, and thereat she must
needs say that she would work me a flag for our ship, if the jarl
would plan one. So it seems to me now that that evening was very
pleasant, for they planned and shaped and began a flag whereon was
drawn by the jarl a white falcon like the one he had given to me,
and that was my thought, and it pleased him, as I think.