by Griff Hosker
I took the six boys to the side where we would build the quay. Halsten and Rek were the two who would be staying behind while I took the snekke up the fjord. When we reached the first bay I said, “I am not sure how long we will be away. It could be just one night or longer. You two have one task. Take as many stones as you can from the beach and bring them here. I want the rocks building up so that they can support a walkway.”
“You are not going to drive piles into the sand, Captain?”
“No, Eidel. It is made of rock. We will use netted bags of stones to hold them in place. We will make those when we return. Your job is to lay as many stones as you can. It should be able to accommodate three drekar.”
“We only have one.”
“That may change.”
Once again, we slept on the deck of the drekar. I rigged a piece of canvas up to shelter us from the rain. The rain did not help my mother. I heard her cough as I drifted off to sleep. Arne came to see us off on the snekke. We had spears, slings, cloaks, and furs. I had my yew bow and ten arrows. We wore our sealskin capes and we had a water skin. I had decided that we would forage for food. “Jarl, I will try to explore beyond the fjord. I may be away for two or three nights. It could be longer. We do not know the size of this fjord.”
“Just so long as you come back safe. We know not what sort of animals live on this island,”
“We have seen little evidence of any.” I nodded towards my mother, “Our mother is not well.”
“I know. I will have Freja watch her.”
Before I boarded ‘Jötnar’ I went to speak to my mother. She was helping the other women to grind barley and oats for bread. Within the next day or so the oven would be finished and we would have bread. It had been some time since we had smelled and tasted bread. “Fótr, my little brother, watch over your mother!”
“I will, Erik. One day I shall sail with you. I would be a navigator.”
“Then you have a little time to grow. By Einmánuður you should be big enough to try the snekke.” He looked overjoyed. I could have taken him now for he was of an age with Rek and Dreng, but I did not wish to offend my six ship’s boys. It had been hard enough to leave two behind as it was.
I liked sailing the snekke. It had been the ship I had first steered. It could hold eight and so the five of us were quite comfortable. I allocated two on each side. Eidel and Sven were at the fore. The four of them were to watch for hazards in the water and to look for possible farmstead sites. It was as we passed our former camp that we spied our first animals on the island. There were a pair of foxes rooting around the camp. I wondered what they would eat. I realized that we must have brought rats and mice with us. They lived aboard every ship I had ever seen. Grain and food found its way to the bottom of the ships and they proliferated. When we hauled the ships out of the water and applied pine tar they would leave, but once they were back in the water they would return. I had no doubt that those aboard ‘Sea Bird’ had fled as soon as we had taken away their home, the ballast.
I saw that the mountain which loomed over our bay dominated the land to the west of us. It looked alarmingly close. There was high ground to the east but it was not as high and was not snow covered. There also looked to be flatter ground there but, with all the trees, it was hard to tell. I had some bark and a piece of charcoal. I began to make a crude map as we sailed up the fjord. The wind was not in our favour and I had to tack back and forth. The slow speed meant we had a good view of the land at our disposal.
One piece of information which I discovered was that the rivers were more like becks. We saw many as we passed up the fjord. It looked like many were fed from the snow and glaciers we could see on the mountains. They would not be an obstacle to travel. I also spied, as we tacked west on one leg, that there appeared to be smoke coming from beneath the ground. As there was snow laying on the ground, I found this fascinating. Dreng and Stig had lines trailing behind us and it was they who caught our food. By the time it was noon we had travelled a fair way up and I saw that the fjord had narrowed to less than a mile. I put the steering board over and headed for the unexplored eastern shore. “We will cook the fish and explore the land here. This afternoon we will head further north.”
There was no beach for some way north of where I intended to land. The snekke had a shallow draught and I was not concerned for it was just a shelf of rock rather than ragged teeth. We dragged the snekke onto the beach. I saw evidence that seals had used it for basking. There were fewer trees here and all I saw were lichens, heathers, and grasses. We had brought some kindling. “Get a fire going Dreng. Eidel and Stig, come with me. Bring your slings and a spear each.” I picked up my bow and strung it. I had finished it some time ago and tested it. I was able to draw it three-quarters of the way back. I needed to practise more for it was a powerful weapon. I had just six metal heads. Four were barbed for hunting but two I had made of a head without barbs. That was to penetrate mail. Two of the arrows I had brought had stone arrowheads. Made of flint they could cut but they were an arrow of last resort. My two mail arrows were on the drekar. We had not come to the island for war.
We would forage for food wherever we could. I saw above us the gulls which hunted herring. They made good eating. Although a little oily and tasting fishy their flesh made a change from our normal diet. My father had told me that although some sailors did not eat them as they thought they were the spirits of dead sailors who had not gone to Valhalla, he believed that if we ate the birds then those dead sailors had a second chance to go to sit with Odin. Arne had been sceptical but to me it made sense.
The surface over which we passed was hard. Kneeling, I took Raedwulf’s dagger and slid it into the earth. The rock was less than two fingers’ depth beneath the surface. This was not farmland. As we headed east, I saw trees. The soil there would be deeper. The trees were either spindly or stunted. The land might only be fit for grazing. I began to fear that this land to which we had fled was good for little save fishing and a few animals. I could see why, until recently, few had ventured here. Of course, we could have found the worst place on the island to colonize. The wood stretched for some distance. We did not explore further but I noted it was a suitable site for a farmstead. The smell of Dreng’s fire drew us back to the shore.
It was as we neared the water, on our way back, that we saw the solitary seal. It was basking on the rocks. “Prepare your spears. I will try an arrow or two.” I nocked one of my hunting arrows. My two boys flanked me with spears held before them. The seal had jaws which could take an arm. The seal heard us when we stepped onto the rocks. It did not seem bothered. When we had been on Føroyar the seals there had learned to respect us but this one was oblivious to the danger. I pulled back my string when I was thirty paces from it and released. I was aiming at its head but I hit, instead, its body. It struck nothing vital and he lurched towards us. “Stand firm!” I nocked a second but, in the time it took to do so, the seal had closed to within six paces of us. I released and my arrow went into its open mouth. “Strike hard!” I dropped the bow and drew my dagger. My two boys did as I had bid. It was Eidel’s spear which struck the killing blow. He drove it through the eye and into the skull. The beast fell dead. I knelt, “You fought hard. Go to your Valhalla. You were a warrior.”
We rammed two spears through it and we manhandled it back to the camp. The fish was cooking. We laid the carcass down and went to eat the juicy fish. “When we have eaten, we will gut it and get rid of that which we do not need. When we camp tonight, I will show you how to butcher.”
After I had eaten and I had got rid of the guts into the sea I added to the map I was making. We put the dead seal in the centre of the snekke and headed north. It soon became obvious that the place we had eaten was halfway along the fjord for I saw the land rising at the end. The land on the east looked to be more fertile. There were larger trees growing there and I was more hopeful that it could be farmed. The light was fading quickly for the fjord had a north to south alignment. I di
scovered that when I spied the head of the fjord and the river which emptied into it. This river was slightly wider than the others had been. Tiny becks and brooks emptied off the main branch to make an estuary eight hundred paces wide. We camped close to the northeastern side of it. We had fresh, incredibly icy water to drink. As Eidel and Stig lit the fire I showed the others how to butcher the seal.
“We were lucky when we killed it. There are no holes in the main part of the seal. We will cut carefully so that we can use as much of it as we can.” I showed them how to cut the fat from the animal. We had brought one large pot and we put the bones in it with water on the fire. I had made a flat piece of metal with a funnel cut into it. We put the lumps of fat onto that. We put it on the fire too. I had had the foresight to bring a small barrel. We placed it beneath the funnel and, as the fat was rendered, the precious oil dripped into it. The crispy pieces which remained were eaten by the hungry boys and their captain. I also cooked the heart and the liver. They were delicious. Finally, we drank the broth from the seal bones. It was satisfying and cleansed the bones so that we could use them.
The fjord was cold, even though it was summer and we wrapped ourselves in our furs. There was little kindling left. On the morrow, we would have to search for dead wood and cut small branches for our next fire. As we lay there Rek asked, “Do we sail back tomorrow, Captain?”
“No, we need to explore the river. Our people need farms. This is not as fertile a place as the one we left.”
We rose early and I left Dreng and Rek to render down the rest of the fat and cut kindling. I took the other two to head up the valley. It was disappointing. The land to the west of the river and along its eastern bank was rocky and we could not even walk on it. There were trees and shrubs for two miles on the eastern side but then the ground became too rocky and steep. For most of the way, we were in shadow. This would not be good farmland. There was just the one site we had found and that had been where we had killed the seal. On my map I had it marked as Seal Point.”
We were able to leave early the next day. We had cooked all of the seal fat and had a small barrel half filled with the oil we had rendered. The meat we had yet to cook but we would do that at the new settlement. I had spent part of the evening taking the heads and feathers from the arrows I had used to hit the seal. The shafts had been broken but the heads were reusable. We had to reuse as much as we could.
It took most of the day to sail back down the fjord for I sailed close to the eastern shore to explore the potential of farmsteads. I wondered if we had found the wrong place to land. One thing was certain before winter came upon us, I would have to explore the rest of the island in case there were other sites which were better.
As we neared the drekar I saw that, what looked like the whole clan, had gathered around the hall. Leaving the boys to tie us up I hurried towards the crowd. I heard raised voices. I pushed my way through. I was the brother of the jarl. It was as I neared the centre that I heard Arne, “And I have lost a mother too, Leif Yellow Hair.”
Lost a mother? I burst through between Asbjorn and Butar Beer Belly. Butar’s hand was raised until he saw it was me. He shouted, “It is Erik!”
All faces turned to me. I saw a body lying on the ground and covered in a cloak. Arne’s face told me that what I had heard was true. “Our mother died. It was this morning. She just did not wake.”
“Then why are people angry! They should be sad. We should mourn the wife of our jarl!”
Leif Yellow Hair jabbed a finger towards Arne. “And we have lost too. Your thrall, Edmund, has cracked the skull of my son, Wiglaf!”
I was totally confused. Gytha and Snorri swept into the centre of the mob. She was a vǫlva and none stood in her way. Her eyes glared and she looked, for all the world, like a dragon. “Why is the clan turning on itself over a thrall!”
Leif could not hold back his words, “Because my son is fighting for his life and the thrall belongs to the jarl!”
“You have not been in the clan long enough yet Leif Yellow Hair and you are a fool. Your son lives. I have just come from him. Your wife has more sense than you do! He has opened his eyes!”
The man was belligerent and would not back down, “Yet the thrall who did this has escaped justice. What does the jarl intend to do about it?”
I saw my brother clench and unclench his fists. He was trying to control himself but I knew that all he wanted to do was to hit the man whose family had joined us less than two months before we left our river.
“What I will do when you behave like a man and not a hysterical girl is to go, with my brother, and hunt down Edmund. First, we will bury our mother and then we will leave.”
Leif laughed, “And he will have escaped justice!” His eyes narrowed, “I do not think that you are fit to be jarl.”
Behind me, I heard Butar Beer Belly, “Draw your weapon, Yellow Hair, and I will give you the closest haircut you have ever had!”
Arne showed then that he truly deserved to be jarl, “Enough! I will bury my mother, find the slave and when I return then I will settle this matter.” He turned to Snorri. “Until I return, I trust you to watch over our people and Fótr.”
“Fear not, Jarl, all will be well until you return.”
Chapter 3
As Arne and I prepared to leave I asked, “Our mother is buried, now tell me what happened?”
He shook his head, “All is hearsay and gossip. Our mother, it seems, died in the night. It was Edmund who was with her when she died. Fótr awoke and heard Edmund crying. Our brother said that Edmund was saying, ‘My daughter! My daughter!’ When he saw that Fótr was awake he dashed out. As he did so, according to Fótr, he knocked over Wiglaf. The youth stood and began to berate the thrall. Edmund picked up one of the smith’s small hammers and laid him out. By the time Fótr had given the alarm he had gone.”
“But if Fótr heard right then Edmund is…”
“Our grandfather. Aye, I know but it makes sense. Now I think of it I can see similarities. He stayed all these years. He could have run for he had no yoke. It matters not. We have to fetch him back or the clan will be destroyed.”
I looked over to where Leif was speaking with some of the other men, “It is too late for that already, brother. You have a challenger.”
He shook his head, “Leif Yellow Hair is just a loudmouth. He moaned all the time on the voyage. He is the one stirring the others to return to Larswick. It is his way.”
I was not so sure. “Which way did our... Edmund go?”
He turned to me, “It matters not if he was our mother’s father. He was a slave. He kept that news from us. We hunt him and when we find him, we punish him.” I nodded. Arne pointed to the mountain. “He headed up there. I suspect it was because he feared you might see him if he went up the fjord. We will soon find him. He is an old man.”
“An old man with a head start.” I knew that he was many hours ahead of us. We were fitter and younger. We would catch him but it would not be a quick hunt.
Although the days were long, we still left while it was dark. The clan was about to be riven apart and we had to do something. Gytha said she would watch over Fótr. Our young brother had not said much since the funeral. He had lost a father, now a mother and, when we caught him, a grandfather. He was growing but our mother had kept him a child for longer than Arne and I. What he had seen was much to bear. I took my bow and my dagger. We would not need my sword for Arne had his strapped about his waist. We wore our seal skin capes. Arne said that the slave had been seen heading up to the snowline. It would get cold.
We found his trail, even in the dark. He would have been better to have run through the woods but he had chosen to run across the heather and sedge. We could see his footprints. The moon shone down and illuminated them as though it was daylight. “What do you think he means to do, brother?”
Arne was ahead and I saw his head shake, “He is a Christian else I would have believed he ran off to die. It is a sin to kill yourself in the relig
ion of the White Christ. Perhaps he hopes to find other settlers. He could pretend to be a freedman and start a new life.”
I was not sure. I suspected his grief was such that he just ran away to be alone. If he had not hurt Wiglaf we could just have let him live but he had hurt the youth and Edmund was a slave. As the sun came up, we saw that we were approaching the snow line. We both wore seal skin boots. Edmund had simple leather shoes. He would struggle to walk in the snow and the cold would get to him. He had no food with him. The snow was not solid. It was summer. The hard surface crumbled easily. I saw that Edmund’s feet had sunk into the snow. I saw steam rising ahead and, as we moved closer, I saw that Edmund’s trail led us there. We hurried. Arne drew his sword and I nocked an arrow.
When we crested the rise and looked at the footprints, we saw that they led to a blue patch of water from which steam was rising. As we headed down, I found myself clutching my Hammer of Thor. Was this witchcraft? There was snow which had not melted and yet I could see steam. When we saw the footprints heading away, we knew that Edmund had left. We were both intrigued and we descended to the steaming pool. I put my hand towards the water and it was hot, almost boiling! I withdrew my hand quickly. The smell of brimstone told me that this was heated by fire.
“What is this magic?”
I shook my head, “I know not but reading this puzzle I think he came here and bathed his feet to warm them. You could see the imprint of his body. At least we are on the right trail.”
We pushed on. Edmund looked to be moving further up the mountain and I knew not why. The top was wreathed in smoke and perhaps he thought to evade us. His footprints negated the effect of the cloud. We knew where he was heading. My mind always worked more slowly on the land and it took a few hundred paces before the thought hit me. “Arne, did he take weapons?”
