The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Waif Woman, by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Title: The Waif Woman

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Release Date: November 10, 2006 [eBook #19750]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAIF WOMAN***

Transcribed from the 1916 Chatto & Windus edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

THE WAIF WOMAN

BY
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
1916

_First Edition_, _October_, 1916.
_Second Edition_, _October_, 1916.

This unpublished story, preserved among Mrs. Stevenson's papers, is
mentioned by Mr. Balfour in his life of Stevenson. Writing of the fables
which Stevenson began before he had left England and "attacked again, and
from time to time added to their number" in 1893, Mr. Balfour says: "The
reference to Odin [Fable XVII] perhaps is due to his reading of the
Sagas, which led him to attempt a tale in the same style, called 'The
Waif Woman.'"

THE WAIF WOMAN
A CUE--FROM A SAGA

This is a tale of Iceland, the isle of stories, and of a thing that
befell in the year of the coming there of Christianity.

In the spring of that year a ship sailed from the South Isles to traffic,
and fell becalmed inside Snowfellness. The winds had speeded her; she
was the first comer of the year; and the fishers drew alongside to hear
the news of the south, and eager folk put out in boats to see the
merchandise and make prices. From the doors of the hall on Frodis Water,
the house folk saw the ship becalmed and the boats about her, coming and
going; and the merchants from the ship could see the smoke go up and the
men and women trooping to their meals in the hall.

The goodman of that house was called Finnward Keelfarer, and his wife Aud
the Light-Minded; and they had a son Eyolf, a likely boy, and a daughter
Asdis, a slip of a maid. Finnward was well-to-do in his affairs, he kept
open house and had good friends. But Aud his wife was not so much
considered: her mind was set on trifles, on bright clothing, and the
admiration of men, and the envy of women; and it was thought she was not
always so circumspect i