The sun beat down on the deck, oppressively hot, like a hand pressing down on the passengers and crew who moved slowly when they moved at all. And there was not much need to move. With that light breeze it would be an hour at least before they were close enough to the waterfront to think about getting the anchor out or warping the ship alongside the stone quay.
At the after end of the ship, on the raised quarterdeck where the master and the steersman stood, a small knot of passengers had gathered to watch the approach to the city, their destination after a very long journey. They were silent, almost unwilling to speak, as if their voices might make it all vanish, as if any noise might render it all a dream, because after all those months, all the hardship, the suffering, the depredation, it did not seem at all possible that they could at last be there.
Constantinople was spread out along the larboard side of the ship, a great city of towers and grand stone edifices, churches, flags, great houses, surrounded by massive stone walls. Even from that distance they could see the people, so many people. They reckoned in one glance they had laid eyes on more souls than they had seen cumulatively in their lifetimes. And such people! White people and brown and black, in flowing gowns and rich silks, with turbans and veils and helmets and straw hats, some walking, some carried in chairs, some peaking from gilt coaches pushing through the jammed streets.
That much they were able to see from the deck of the ship, and it made them wonder what they would find when they finally set foot ashore, and it made them a bit afraid. In all the things they had seen in the year past, things they could not have imagined, the countries through which they had traveled, the cities of Europe, the lands of the Mediterranean, there was nothing that compared to the sight of the Queen of Cities.
Morrigan reached for the purse that hung from her belt, concealed under the linin cloak draped over her shoulders. She fingered the soft leather, gauging the contents, and, satisfied, she pulled the knot loose and took the purse in her hands. She crossed the deck, feeling the melting pitch in the seams tugging at the bottom of her shoes. She approached the master who stood, bored, by the steersman.
“Sir?” she said. They had no common language, she and this fat, swarthy man. He had told her once from which country he came, but the name was meaningless to her. They had no language in common, but by stumbling through Norse and Latin and some of the Gaulish she had picked up they managed to communicate. They had sailed from Barcelona, which was once more a Christian stronghold after being wrested from the Moors two generations earlier. They had not been far from port before the master managed to communicate that passage might be free in exchange for certain services, and Morrigan in turn communicated that the passage would be paid for in the traditional way.
Now she wished to settle that matter, before they were alongside the quay. The master looked at her, annoyed. “Yes?”
She opened the purse and withdrew three rubies and three emeralds, and held them up for his inspection. They were large and perfect and if he hoped to play coy with her his bulging eyes had already given him away. “They are all I have. For us?” She indicated the two with her.
The master collected himself, pretended to consider this, then said, “Very well.” He held out his leathery palm and Morrigan dropped the jewels in the cupped hand and the fingers wrapped around them.
It was not entirely true that the six jewels were all she had, but she had no qualms about misleading the likes of the ship’s master, who was likely no sort of Christian. She had other jewels, and she had silver and gold. It had been enough to get them that far, and still a fortune remained.
The jewels had been prized from the rim of the Crown of the Three Kingdoms, the silver filigree as well, the massive gold crown itself cut and weighed and melted down. The crown for whom so many had died, for which Morrigan had committed so many sins against God, and now its gold and silver were cast into small ingots and its jewels scooped into a leather purse and only she and Finnian and Ruarc mac Brain knew it, because they alone had been there when it was done in the blacksmith’s shop at Tara.
They had traveled to the town of Cill Mhantáin, which the Northmen called Wykynlo, and there had found a ship, a beamy knarr, bound for the Gaulish countries. Finnian had negotiated the passage and they had sailed aboard her, Morrigan and Patrick and Donnel. They had reached Paris, a city of great churches which, like Ireland, had fallen victim to Viking depredations again and again. But, also like the Irish, the Gauls were not adverse to some honest trade with the Northmen, and so the knarr reached the quays of the Seine unmolested, and Morrigan and her two companions began the long overland journey to Barcelona.
It had cost money, but they had money, and they found charity with Christians along the way, who were pleased to hear of their mission and happy to aide them on their journey. Through bitter cold, withering heat, over mountain passes and across interminable plains the pilgrims had traveled; they had seen sights they could not have imagined, met people of every possible stripe. They had feared for their lives and they had thanked their God for their deliverance and they had never wavered in their determination.
And now, at last, from the deck of that stubby ship, the great city of Constantinople was spread out before them. Down below, secreted in a hidden place in her trunk, Morrigan still held a small fortune in ingots from the crown and gold and silver that had been donated by those along the way, money for her travels which thanks to her frugality and the kindness of others she had not spent. She had volumes of manuscripts, copied out and illuminated by the monks of Ireland, the great learning of Western civilization, preserved, and now sent back to the countries from which it had come.
Somewhere out there, in that city, amid the grand edifices to the Christian God, there was a small monastery, a gathering of Columban monks, charged with disseminating the work of the Irish monasteries and the great troves of literature that had been preserved by them in their far-flung land. And here was Morrigan, who, by Finnian’s orders, would arrive like an angel from heaven with the treasure needed to keep that monastery, those monks and their mission alive. Morrigan nic Conaing, ready to start life anew, her pale skin turned brown, her sins washed away, her life resurrected as if bleached white and clean by the sun of the ancient world.
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The story of Thorgrim Night Wolf, Harald, et al continues in
The Lord of Vík-ló:
Book III of The Norsemen Saga.
Available now.
Glossary
Asgard - the dwelling place of the Norse gods and goddesses, essentially the Norse heaven.
berserker - a Viking warrior able to work himself up into a frenzy of blood lust before a battle. The berserkers, near psychopathic killers in battle, were the fiercest of the Viking soldiers. The word berserker comes from the Norse for “bear shirt” and is the origin of the modern English “berserk”.
boss - the round, iron centerpiece of a wooden shield. The boss formed an iron cup protruding from the front of the shield, providing a hollow in the back across which ran the hand grip.
brace - line used for hauling a yard side to side on a horizontal plane. Used to adjust the angle of the sail to the wind.
brat – a rectangular cloth worn in various configurations as an outer garment over a leine.
bride-price - money paid by the family of the groom to the family of the bride.
byrdingr - A smaller ocean-going cargo vessel used by the Norsemen for trade and transportation. Generally about 40 feet in length, the byrdingr was a smaller version of the more well-known knarr.
curragh - a boat, unique to Ireland, made of a wood frame covered in hide. They ranged in size, the largest propelled by sail and capable of carrying several tons. The most common sea-going craft of mediaeval Ireland.
derbfine – In Irish law, a family of four generations, inclu
ding a man, his sons, grandsons and great grandsons.
dragon ship - the largest of the Viking warships, upwards of 160 feet long and able to carry as many as 300 men. Dragon ships were the flagships of the fleet, the ships of kings.
dubh gall - Gaelic term for Vikings of Danish descent. It means Black Strangers, a reference to the mail armor they wore, made dark by the oil used to preserve it. See fin gall.
ell – a unit of length, a little more than a yard.
eyrir – Scandinavian unit of measurement, approximately an ounce.
félag – a fellowship of men who owed each other a mutual obligation, such as multiple owners of a ship, or a band of warriors who had sworn allegiance to one another.
fin gall - Gaelic term for Vikings of Norwegian descent. It means White Strangers. See dubh gall.
Freya - Norse goddess of beauty and love, she was also associated with warriors, as many of the Norse deities were. Freya often led the Valkyrie to the battlefield.
halyard - a line by which a sail or a yard is raised.
Hel - in Norse mythology, the daughter of Loki and the ruler of the underworld where those who are not raised up to Valhalla are sent to suffer. The same name, Hel, is given to the realm over which she rules, the Norse hell.
hird - an elite corps of Viking warriors hired and maintained by a king or powerful jarl. Unlike most Viking warrior groups, which would assemble and disperse at will, the hird was retained as a semi-permanent force which formed the core of a Viking army.
hirdsman - a warrior who is a member of the hird.
jarl - title given to a man of high rank. A jarl might be an independent ruler or subordinate to a king. Jarl is the origin of the English word earl.
knarr - a Norse merchant vessel. Smaller, wider and more sturdy than the longship, knarrs were the workhorse of Norse trade, carrying cargo and settlers wherever the Norsemen traveled.
leine – a long, loose-fitting smock worn by men and women under other clothing. Similar to the shift of a later period.
Loki - Norse god of fire and free spirits. Loki was mischievous and his tricks caused great trouble for the gods, for which he was punished.
longphort - literally, a ship fortress. A small, fortified port to protect shipping and serve as a center of commerce and a launching off point for raiding.
luchrupán – middle Irish word that became the modern-day Leprechaun.
Odin - foremost of the Norse gods. Odin was the god of wisdom and war, protector of both chieftains and poets.
perch - a unit of measure equal to 16½ feet. The same as a rod.
Ragnarok - the mythical final battle when most humans and gods would be killed by the forces of evil and the earth destroyed, only to rise again, purified.
ringfort - common Irish homestead, consisting of houses protected by circular earthwork and palisade walls.
rí túaithe – Gaelic term for a minor king, who would owe allegiance to a high king.
shieldwall - a defensive wall formed by soldiers standing in line with shields overlapping.
skald - a Viking-era poet, generally one attached to a royal court. The skalds wrote a very stylized type of verse particular to the medieval Scandinavians. Poetry was an important part of Viking culture and the ability to write it a highly-regarded skill.
sling - the center portion of the yard.
strake – one of the wooden planks that make up the hull of a ship. The construction technique, used by the Norsemen, in which one strake overlaps the one below it is called lapstrake construction.
swine array - a viking battle formation consisting of a wedge-shaped arrangement of men used to attack a shield wall or other defensive position.
tánaise ríg – Gaelic term for heir apparent, the man assumed to be next in line for a kingship.
thing - a communal assembly
Thor - Norse god of storms and wind, but also the protector of humans and the other gods. Thor’s chosen weapon was a hammer. Hammer amulets were popular with Norsemen in the same way that crosses are popular with Christians.
thrall - Norse term for a slave. Origin of the English word “enthrall”.
thwart - a rower’s seat in a boat. From the old Norse term meaning “across”.
Valhalla - a great hall in Asgard where slain warriors would go to feast, drink and fight until the coming of Ragnarok.
Valkyries - female spirits of Norse mythology who gathered the spirits of the dead from the battle field and escorted them to Valhalla. They were the Choosers of the Slain, and though later romantically portrayed as Odin’s warrior handmaidens, they were originally viewed more demonically, as spirits who devoured the corpses of the dead.
Vik - An area of Norway south of modern-day Oslo. The name is possibly the origin of the term Viking.
wattle and daub - common medieval technique for building walls. Small sticks were woven through larger uprights to form the wattle, and the structure was plastered with mud or plaster, the daub.
yard - a long, tapered timber from which a sail was suspended. When a Viking ship was not under sail, the yard was turned lengthwise and lowered to near the deck with the sail lashed to it.
Other Books by James L. Nelson:
Fiction:
The Norsemen Saga - Novels of Viking Age Ireland:
Fin Gall
The Brethren of the Coast - Piracy in Colonial America
The Guardship
The Blackbirder
The Pirate Round
The Revolution at Sea Saga – Naval Action of the American Revolution
By Force of Arms
The Maddest Idea
The Continental Risque
Lords of the Ocean
All the Brave Fellows
The Samuel Bowater Novels - Stories of the Confederate Navy
Glory in the Name
Thieves of Mercy
The Only Life that Mattered – The Short and Merry Lives of Ann Bonny, Mary Read and Calico Jack Rackham
Nonfiction:
Reign of Iron: the Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and Merrimack
Benedict Arnold’s Navy: How a Rag Tag Fleet Lost the Battle of Lake Champlain and Won the American Revolution
George Washington’s Secret Navy: How the American Revolution Went to Sea
George Washington’s Great Gamble: And the Sea Battle that Won the American Revolution
With Fire and Sword: The Battle of Bunker Hill and the Beginning of the American Revolution
Dubh-linn: A Novel of Viking Age Ireland (The Norsemen Saga Book 2) Page 41
