by Griff Hosker
I pointed to the gate. "Rolf Horse Killer, you and the others guard this gate. No one leaves but I say so."
"Aye Jarl!"
"Ulfheonar, let us end this!"
With drawn weapons we headed for the warriors gathered around my nephew. Everyone knew that there would be no prisoners. This was a fight to the death. The shield wall had disintegrated, on both sides, and it was a free for all with warriors fighting each other or in groups of friends. Olaf Leather Neck did go berserk. It was a frightening sight. I yelled, "Out of Olaf's way he does not know friend from enemy!"
He tore into the mailed oathsworn of Jarl Erik. We hurried after our brother. He would not stop until either they were dead or he was. His sword smashed into the mail of two warriors laying their sides open to the bone. He seemed oblivious to wounds. Haaken, Ulf, Finni and I ran to protect his back. I saw that my nephew had surrounded himself by the last of his warriors. It was foolish; it would mean he was the last to die, that was all. Olaf made for him. His sword, blunted now, broke the thigh bone of a warrior. He began to smash the man's skull with the edge of his shield. His berserk rage ended when a war hammer caught him on the side of his helmet and he fell unconscious. Haaken leapt across his body and made himself a human spear as he threw himself at the hammer wielding warrior. He impaled hum with his sword.
Snorri and Beorn threw themselves across Olaf's body and the rest of us carried on Olaf's charge towards my nephew and the eight oathsworn who remained. He should have fought but I think he was terrified. He stood as my red eyed wolf warriors hacked, slashed and chopped in cold anger. Jarl Erik's oathsworn were brave but they were rusty. It had been many years since they had fought. Their arms tired and their reactions were slow. My men were at the peak of their powers and keen to avenge Olaf. It was a one sided fight.
As his oathsworn fell I made for my nephew. He threw down his sword, "Spare me uncle! For the sake of your wife, my father's sister!"
Until he opened his mouth I might have spared him but it was a cowardly comment. His father had tried to kill my wife and my children. He had allowed good men to die for him and now he pleaded for his life. He was not worthy to live.
All else had fallen and there was just the sound of the dying being sent to Valhalla. A circle formed around us. I threw my shield down. "Pick up your sword and fight me. If you do not I will kill you and you will not go to Valhalla."
"I beg you to spare my life. I will tell you who the traitor is in Cyninges-tūn!"
That made it even worse. Haaken shouted, "Let us use Olaf's skinning knife. He will tell us when the skin is peeled from his face!"
It was then that Erik realised his words and offers were futile. He was going to die. He picked up his sword and lunged at me in one movement. I barely managed to deflect his strike and it gave him heart. He tried to punch me with his shield as he drew his sword back. I spun around and his shield hit air. I continued my turn and brought Ragnar's Spirit into the back of Erik Eriksson, Jarl of Balley Chashtal and the last child of a faithless warrior. The blow cut through his mail and his backbone. He died quickly as his spine was severed and he crumpled to his death.
Every warrior cheered but I was too concerned with Olaf for the cheers and approbation of my men. Snorri grinned as he shook his head, "I know not how, Jarl, but he lives. He breathes and shows signs of waking. He must have a harder head than Haaken!"
Haaken smiled. "And if he lives then I am happy."
We were all too tired to celebrate. We spent the rest of the day burning the bodies of our enemies and building a barrow for our own. We slept in Balley Chashtal and ate the few supplies they had. The women, it seems, had been sent away some days earlier.
We discovered this from the one wounded warrior whose life we spared. Bjorn Bloodaxe had been a boy when I had lived on the island and when we discovered him I was sick of the killing. He told us all. "We have known what you were up to for some time. A ship would land secretly and Jarl Erik would discover where you were sailing. He planned to attack your ships each time they returned laden. A week ago he told us to prepare for an attack in the early hours of the morning. He had the Danes prepare to come to our aid. He had the time confirmed just two days ago and sent for the Danes to ambush you. I told him he would not fool Jarl Dragonheart but he would not listen."
"Do you know who the spy is?"
He shook his head, "I was not important enough to be told."
"And the ship he sailed?"
"Only Jarl Erik met the captain. I am sorry Jarl."
"What will you do now Bjorn Bloodaxe? Would you come with us to my home?"
He shook his head. "I have a family here now. They went to Hrams-a for safety. I will return there. I was happy there when I grew up. I will farm."
As he limped off I said, "May the Allfather be with you."
I was glad that I had saved at least one. As we prepared to leave Hrolf came to me, "Jarl Dragonheart I would beg to leave your service."
"You were never bound to me but I will miss you." I waved a hand around my men, "We will all miss you."
"And I will miss you but you have taught me that destiny is important. Eystein Thorfinnson has offered me a bench on his drekar and he intends to go a-Viking. He would be like Jarl Dragonheart."
"Then I wish you well. The sword I gave you shall be a reminder that you will always be welcome in my home." I clasped his arm, "May the Allfather be with you."
My men all took their leave of him and I saw that he was so filled with emotion that he could barely speak. He had been in our lives but a short time and yet he had made a great impression. The Weird Sisters had other plans for him. We headed across the island to Erik and our ship. We were going home. We had wrought our vengeance and our enemies were punished.
Epilogue
As we headed across the seas to Úlfarrston we used just the wind. There were many empty benches. Only twenty warriors returned from Man. There was no hurry and we would get home when the wind allowed. I sat at the stern with my Ulfheonar. Haaken shook his head, "I shall miss Hrolf, Jarl. He was courageous and he never complained."
"Our threads are still bound. There will come a time when we cross paths again. I feel it. Perhaps when we get home Aiden can explain it."
Haaken pointed to Olaf who lay sleeping, bathed in bandages. "He will need to examine Olaf. How he is not dead I do not know."
"Aye and we have a more difficult problem of our own."
"What is that Jarl?"
We must discover the viper in our nest. We must seek out the traitor and find the enemy who spies." I shook my head. "Putting a plate in a head will be child's play compared with uncovering this."
I could see that they had not thought through Bjorn Bloodaxe's words. "Perhaps he was wrong Jarl."
"No Ulf. Many things which have gone awry are now explained. Somewhere in our land there is an enemy. We have to unmask the Viking Traitor. I will not sleep easy until we have done so.
The End
Glossary
Afon Hafron- River Severn in Welsh
Alpín mac Echdach – the father of Kenneth MacAlpin, reputedly the first king of the Scots
Alt Clut- Dumbarton Castle on the Clyde
Balley Chashtal -Castleton (Isle of Man)
Bardanes Tourkos- Rebel Byzantine General
Bebbanburgh- Bamburgh Castle, Northumbria Also know as Din Guardi in the ancient tongue
Beck- a stream
Blót – a blood sacrifice made by a jarl
Blue Sea- The Mediterranean
Bondi- Viking farmers who fight
Bourde- Bordeaux
Bjarnarøy –Great Bernera (Bear island)
Byrnie- a mail or leather shirt reaching down to the knees
Caerlleon- Welsh for Chester
Caestir - Chester (old English)
Casnewydd –Newport, Wales
Cephas- Greek for Simon Peter (St. Peter)
Chape- the tip of a scabbard
Charlemagne- Holy Roman Empe
ror at the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th centuries
Celchyth- Chelsea
Cherestanc- Garstang (Lancashire)
Corn Walum or Om Walum- Cornwall
Cymri- Welsh
Cymru- Wales
Cyninges-tūn – Coniston. It means the estate of the king (Cumbria)
Dùn Èideann –Edinburgh (Gaelic)
Din Guardi- Bamburgh castle
Drekar- a Dragon ship (a Viking warship)
Duboglassio –Douglas, Isle of Man
Dyrøy –Jura (Inner Hebrides)
Dyflin- Old Norse for Dublin
Ein-mánuðr- middle of March to the middle of April
Eoforwic- Saxon for York
Faro Bregancio- Corunna (Spain)
Ferneberga -Farnborough (Hampshire)
Fey- having second sight
Firkin- a barrel containing eight gallons (usually beer)
Fret-a sea mist
Frankia- France and part of Germany
Fyrd-the Saxon levy
Garth- Dragon Heart
Gaill- Irish for foreigners
Galdramenn- wizard
Glaesum –amber
Gleawecastre- Gloucester
Gói- the end of February to the middle of March
Grenewic- Greenwich
Hamwic -Southampton
Haughs- small hills in Norse (As in Tarn Hows)
Heels- when a ship leans to one side under the pressure of the wind
Hel - Queen of Niflheim, the Norse underworld.
Here Wic- Harwich
Hetaereiarch – Byzantine general
Hí- Iona (Gaelic)
Hjáp - Shap- Cumbria (Norse for stone circle)
Hoggs or Hogging- when the pressure of the wind causes the stern or the bow to droop
Hrams-a – Ramsey, Isle of Man
Hywel ap Rhodri Molwynog- King of Gwynedd 814-825
Icaunis- British river god
Itouna- River Eden Cumbria
Jarl- Norse earl or lord
Joro-goddess of the earth
kjerringa - Old Woman- the solid block in which the mast rested
Knarr- a merchant ship or a coastal vessel
Kyrtle-woven top
Leathes Water- Thirlmere
Ljoðhús- Lewis
Legacaestir- Anglo Saxon for Chester
Lochlannach – Irish for Northerners (Vikings)
Lothuwistoft- Lowestoft
Louis the Pious- King of the Franks and son of Charlemagne
Lundenwic - London
Maeresea- River Mersey
Mammceaster- Manchester
Manau/Mann – The Isle of Man(n) (Saxon)
Marcia Hispanic- Spanish Marches (the land around Barcelona)
Mast fish- two large racks on a ship for the mast
Melita- Malta
Midden- a place where they dumped human waste
Miklagård - Constantinople
Nikephoros- Emperor of Byzantium 802-811
Njoror- God of the sea
Nithing- A man without honour (Saxon)
Odin - The "All Father" God of war, also associated with wisdom, poetry, and magic (The Portesmūða -Portsmouth
Ruler of the gods).
Olissipo- Lisbon
Orkneyjar-Orkney
Penrhudd – Penrith Cumbria
Pillars of Hercules- Straits of Gibraltar
Ran- Goddess of the sea
Roof rock- slate
Rinaz –The Rhine
Sabrina- Latin and Celtic for the River Severn. Also the name of a female Celtic deity
Saami- the people who live in what is now Northern Norway/Sweden
St. Cybi- Holyhead
Syllingar Insula- Scilly Isles
Scree- loose rocks in a glacial valley
Seax – short sword
Sheerstrake- the uppermost strake in the hull
Sheet- a rope fastened to the lower corner of a sail
Shroud- a rope from the masthead to the hull amidships
Skeggox – an axe with a shorter beard on one side of the blade
South Folk- Suffolk
Stad- Norse settlement
Stays- ropes running from the mast-head to the bow
Strake- the wood on the side of a drekar
Suthriganaworc - Southwark (London)
Syllingar- Scilly Isles
Tarn- small lake (Norse)
Temese- River Thames (also called the Tamese)
The Norns- The three sisters who weave webs of intrigue for men
Thing-Norse for a parliament or a debate (Tynwald)
Thor’s day- Thursday
Threttanessa- a drekar with 13 oars on each side.
Thrall- slave
Tinea- Tyne
Trenail- a round wooden peg used to secure strakes
Tynwald- the Parliament on the Isle of Man
Úlfarrberg- Helvellyn
Úlfarrland- Cumbria
Úlfarr- Wolf Warrior
Úlfarrston- Ulverston
Ullr-Norse God of Hunting
Ulfheonar-an elite Norse warrior who wore a wolf skin over his armour
Vectis- The Isle of Wight
Volva- a witch or healing woman in Norse culture
Waeclinga Straet- Watling Street (A5) Windlesore-Windsor
Waite- a Viking word for farm
Werham -Wareham (Dorset)
Wintan-ceastre -Winchester
Withy- the mechanism connecting the steering board to the ship
Woden’s day- Wednesday
Wulfhere-Old English for Wolf Army
Wyddfa-Snowdon
Wyrd- Fate
Yard- a timber from which the sail is suspended
Ynys Môn-Anglesey
Maps
Anglo Saxon London
Northumbria circa 800 AD
Charlemagne's Empire- courtesy of Wikipedia
Southern England circa 820 AD Courtesy of Wikipedia
Historical note
The Viking raids began, according to records left by the monks, in the 790s when Lindisfarne was pillaged. However there were many small settlements along the east coast and most were undefended. I have chosen a fictitious village on the Tees as the home of Garth who is enslaved and then, when he gains his freedom, becomes Dragon Heart. As buildings were all made of wood then any evidence of their existence would have rotted long ago, save for a few post holes. The Norse began to raid well before 790. There was a rise in the populations of Norway and Denmark and Britain was not well prepared for defence against such random attacks.
My raiders represent the Norse warriors who wanted the plunder of the soft Saxon kingdom. There is a myth that the Vikings raided in large numbers but this is not so. It was only in the tenth and eleventh centuries that the numbers grew. They also did not have allegiances to kings. The Norse settlements were often isolated family groups. The term Viking was not used in what we now term the Viking Age beyond the lands of Norway and Denmark. Warriors went a-Viking which meant that they sailed for adventure or pirating. Their lives were hard. Slavery was commonplace. The Norse for slave is thrall and I have used both terms.
The ship, ‘The Heart of the Dragon’ is based on the Gokstad ship which was found in 1880 in Norway. It is 23.24 metres long and 5.25 metres wide at its widest point. It was made entirely of oak except for the pine decking. There are 16 strakes on each side and from the base to the gunwale is 2.02 metres giving it a high freeboard. The keel is cut from a piece of oak 17.6 metres long. There are 19 ribs. The pine mast was 13 metres high. The ship could carry 70 men although there were just sixteen oars on each side. This meant that half the crew could rest while the other half rowed. Sea battles could be brutal.
The Vikings raided far and wide. They raided and subsequently conquered much of Western France and made serious inroads into Spain. They even travelled up the Rhone River as well as raiding North Africa. The sailors and warriors we call Vikings were very adaptable and could, indeed, carry their long ships ove
r hills to travel from one river to the next. The Viking ships are quite remarkable. Replicas of the smaller ones have managed speeds of 8-10 knots. The sea going ferries, which ply the Bay of Biscay, travel at 14-16 knots. The journey the ‘Heart of the Dragon’ makes from Santander to the Isles of Scilly in a day and a half would have been possible with the oars and a favourable wind and, of course, the cooperation of the Goddess of the sea, Ran! The journey from the Rhine to Istanbul is 1188 nautical miles. If the ‘Heart of the Dragon’ had had favourable winds and travelled nonstop she might have made the journey in 6 days! Sailing during the day only and with some adverse winds means that 18 or 20 days would be more realistic.
Seguin I Lupo was Duke of Vasconia and he briefly rebelled against the Holy Roman Emperor. This was around the time my novel was set. After a few years he was deposed, killed and the Dukedom absorbed back into the Empire. The wine trade at his capital, Bourde (Bordeaux) had been established by the Romans and would continue to draw trade to this region. The Asturias Kingdom was expanding west at this time too and gradually absorbed Galicia.
Nikephoros was Emperor from 802-811. Bardanes Tourkos did revolt although he did not attempt a coup in the palace as I used in my book. He was later defeated, blinded, and sent to a monastery. Nikephoros did well until he went to war with Krum, the Khan of Bulgaria. He died in battle and Krum made a drinking vessel from his skull!
I have recently used the British Museum book and research about the Vikings. Apparently, rather like punks and Goths, the men did wear eye makeup. It would make them appear more frightening. There is also evidence that they filed their teeth. The leaders of warriors built up a large retinue by paying them and giving them gifts such as the wolf pendant. This was seen as a sort of bond between leader and warrior. It also marked them out in battle as oathsworn. There was no national identity. They operated in small bands of free booters loyal to their leader. The idea of sword killing was to render a weapon unusable by anyone else. On a simplistic level this could just be a bend but I have seen examples which are tightly curled like a spring. Viking kings were rare it was not until the end of the ninth century that national identity began to emerge.
The length of the swords in this period was not the same as in the later medieval period. By the year 850 they were only 76 cm long and in the eighth century they were shorter still. The first sword Dragon Heart used, Ragnar’s, was a new design, and was 75 cm long. This would only have been slightly longer than a Roman gladius. At this time the sword, not the axe was the main weapon. The best swords came from Frankia, and were probably German in origin. A sword was considered a special weapon and a good one would be handed from father to son. A warrior with a famous blade would be sought out on the battlefield. There was little mail around at the time and warriors learned to be agile to avoid being struck. A skeggox was an axe with a shorter edge on one side. The use of an aventail (a chain mail extension of a helmet) began at about this time. The highly decorated scabbard also began at this time.
