by Mark Coakley
29: ELECTION
The mid-summer Assembly -- when court cases would be decided by a public vote, and when a king would be elected to rule the newly-unified kingdom called "Sogn and Fjordane" -- began early in the morning, with the law-speaker standing on the Law Rock to shout out, from memory, all the traditional laws of Fjordane (which now were Sogn's laws too). The Law Rock was just outside the Eid walls, near the field that had been used in the winter for war-training.
Litigants would stand on the flat-topped, grey Law Rock to shout their cases to the crowd and to call witnesses. At the end of each court-case, the law-speaker would call for the Assembly to vote. Votes were normally "ear-votes," with folk showing their support for one side or the other by yelling and clanging weapons onto shields. (Only if the ear-vote was very close would the law-speaker call for an "eye-vote," which was the counting of raised weapons.)
The case before Yngvild's involved two men who each claimed ownership of a fancy-looking set of carved and painted bed-posts. The man who now had them, Olli, claimed that he had got them as a gift. The man who'd made them, Joran, claimed that he had only loaned them to Olli. Each brought witnesses to attest to their honesty and good character.
After each of the litigants made their arguments and presented their witnesses, the law-speaker asked the crowd to make noise for Olli's position, then Joran's. The support was much louder for Joran than for Olli.
The law-speaker shouted, "The bed-posts were a loan, not a gift. Olli is to return them to Joran in seven days, or will be declared an outlaw. Next case: Yngvild of Starheim's plea for divorce."
Joran strutted from the Law Rock with a pleased grin, while Olli scowled at the crowd as he left.
Yngvild stepped onto the Law Rock.
"Go ahead," the law-speaker said, gesturing at the crowd and stepping to the rear of the big, flat-topped rock.
Yngvild saw hundreds of faces, all men, crowding the grassy field below her. She shouted, "I am Yngvild, daughter of Siv, of the town of Starheim. Five years ago, in Starheim, I married Gunnar, son of Torgill. We had no children. We lived in a house in Starheim until he lost it, because of debts from gambling on horse-fights. He was unlucky. We moved into the house of my mother, but he kept gambling on horses and losing, his debt getting bigger and bigger. This went on for about a year, until one day he disappeared. He took all the money in our silver-box. That was two years ago, and I have not seen him since. It is clear that I have been abandoned. I wish a divorce so that I can be free of my vows to Gunnar -- that nothing, that cowardly and unlucky failure of a wretch! I wish to re-marry, to Halfdan the Black. Please grant my divorce. I have two witnesses."
Yngvild's first witness was her mother, who was led onto the Law Rock and placed to face the crowd.
Siv said, "I am Siv, daughter of Tordis, and Yngvild is my only daughter. Yngvild is an honest woman. By Freya, I attest that Yngvild does not lie and that everything she told you of her marriage is the truth!"
The next witness was Yngvild's cousin, Tone, who told the crowd of jurors much the same as Siv.
The law-speaker then gestured for Yngvild and her witnesses to move to the rear of the Law Rock. The law-speaker shouted to the crowd, "You have heard the case for a divorce. Now, is Gunnar here? Gunnar, son of Torgill?" The law-speaker called for Gunnar twice more, then said, "Then this will be an undefended divorce. Let me hear the votes of those who agree that Yngvild should be released from her marriage?"
Yngvild was very popular, both for her own qualities and for her closeness to Halfdan. The noise of her support was deafening, as most of the crowd whooped and screeched and bellowed at the Law Rock, pounding handles of swords and axes onto wooden shields. The din of deep voices and wood drumming onto wood frightened birds from nearby trees.
The law-speaker raised a hand for quiet and asked, "And who opposes the divorce?"
Silence.
Then, some joker in the crowd put his lips to his arm and made a loud farting noise.
Folk laughed.
The law-speaker said, "Yngvild, you are now divorced. Next case: Knut, son of Grettir, pleads that the Assembly order Torfinn, son of Gandalf, to compensate Knut for the wrongful poisoning of his sheep."
Nervous-looking, Knut stepped onto the Law Rock as Yngvild and her cousin led Siv off.
As soon as she stepped off the Law Rock, Yngvild untied the key hanging from her belt -- the symbol of her disappeared marriage -- and casually tossed it into a bush.
At home, Siv went to Halfdan's bedside. "I'm free."
A month after the gut-stabbing, Halfdan was still too weak to leave the bed. He looked strangely thin, with new wrinkles in his face from day after day of almost-unbearable pain. But he was getting better. His belly was much smaller than it had been at his arrival, and pus no longer leaked from the stab-scar.
Halfdan smiled at her and said, in a whisper, "Free? Not for long."
Yngvild rested her head on his bony shoulder, saying, "No, not for long. When you get better --"
Halfdan said, "We'll get married."
"Yes."
Because of Halfdan's health, he was unable to be a candidate for king of Sogn and Fjordane. So he had asked Atli -- the wisest man that Halfdan knew, also very brave -- to be a candidate. Atli agreed. When it was known that Halfdan supported Atli for king, nobody else wanted to run. Atli was the only candidate.
Late that afternoon, from the direction of the Law Rock, Halfdan and Siv heard the noise of the last vote of the day. They rested in bed -- her naked, him wearing only the bandages on his belly, her arm resting on his chest -- and they listened to the hundreds of men yelling and pounding weapons outside the town.
Faintly, across the distance from the Law Rock, they could hear many voices yelling together, "LONG LIVE KING ATLI! LONG LIVE KING ATLI! LONG LIVE KING ATLI!"
After his election, King Atli of Sogn and Fjordane immediately started handing out gifts. When the gifts were all gone, a crowd of fighters carried King Atli, sitting on top of a shield, to his hall. A big pile of wood outside the hall was lit on fire when King Atli arrived. Slaves opened barrels of beer and mead, handing cups to everybody. Folk arrived at King Atli's hall, dressed in their fanciest clothes, to celebrate with their new legal ruler. King Atli now wore a long, red gown of silk and pointed whale-skin boots. His paint-smeared face stayed calm and dignified as he sat on the shield, sipping booze from a gold-decorated horn, as his fighters carried him in circles around the fire.
"LONG LIVE KING ATLI!"
