Across the Seas

by Griff Hosker

  “That would be my estimate.”

  “They may not wish us harm and they might not know that we are here.”

  Siggi said, “You forget Leif Yellow Hair. If he did not sail east then he must have gone west. He would know. He tried to take animals. We now know that animals are more valuable than gold here. If Erik saw none on his travels then there are none on the island.”

  “My son is right. “If we cannot grow crops to make bread then we rely on that which our animals produce.” Gytha’s words were like a crack of thunder. They were ominous.

  The weather began to change soon after I returned to the longhouses. There was frenetic activity. Men hunted or fished. After we had repaired it Aed and Padraig took the snekke out to catch the larger fish in the fjord. We made fish traps for the fjord too. Men went around the fjord to hunt the seals. They camped across from our home and rendered down the fat. The meat was salted and put into barrels. The snekke would be used as a ferry. We cursed Leif Yellow Hair for had we had the knarr we could have brought them all back in one trip. It was too difficult to use ‘Njörðr’. We still kept eight men at the longhouses. My news had been a warning that there could still be danger.

  More babies were born. Maren gave birth to a girl, Ada. The clan was growing but that meant there were more who were vulnerable to both the climate and enemies. We thought we had escaped them but perhaps we were wrong.

  It was Haustmánuður when the weather changed dramatically. We had had rain almost every day but it changed to sleet and then snow. Arne brought back the seal hunters and their booty. We had plenty of seal meat and shark meat. I hoped that we would be able to continue to be able to fish during winter. Gytha had organised a system of rationing. She had told Arne that it was better to have small quantities of beer and bread all through winter rather than enough to satisfy Butar and then none. The days became much shorter. In some ways, it was fortunate that Leif and the other families had left for there was just enough room for the clan in the two longhouses. We were cosy but the presence of so many people meant that the buildings soon warmed up and remained cosy. The difficulty was in living so close to our neighbours. Fótr slept on my sleeping platform. There were few single men now. Couples and their children shared beds. It meant they were warmer. Fótr was still young. Gytha did what she could but he was still lost. The memory of our mother’s death so close to him had had an effect. It had made him younger than his years. I took to telling him stories to send him to sleep. I made some of them up. I remembered some of the stories my father and mother had told us. When I had stood watches on the drekar I had occupied my mind by making them up. Some were not necessarily made up. I told him the story of the Dragonheart and of Hrolfr the Horseman. He loved the tale of the sword which was touched by the gods and the story of Göngu-Hrólfr Rognvaldson falling to the bottom of the sea and surviving. It brought us closer together.

  Arne, Siggi and I were still blood brothers. We had sworn an oath on the blade of Raedwulf but they had their own families now. Our brotherhood was for times of war. We shared secrets and we shared memories. We had all become warriors together. I trusted all of the warriors in the clan but the two with whom I would face certain death were Siggi and Arne. The three of us spoke each day. Arne had come around to the idea that we might have to sail west. As ever Siggi asked pertinent questions. At the end of each debate, we ended at the same place. Until the weather improved, we could do nothing and the change in weather might be many moons away.

  By Gormánuður our land lay beneath a sea of snow. All was white. The mountain still spouted steam and Arne and I had told the men of the steaming geysers we had seen. Gytha and her volvas, guarded by warriors had gone there to see them. Gytha said they were sent by the Mother and were a good thing. I was not sure for one night in early Gormánuður, we felt the earth shake. It was enough to wake us. Gytha explained it away by saying it was the Mother stretching her limbs. The smoking mountain was a threat and no words of our volva could lessen that threat.

  When we returned to our beds Fótr said, “Are we in danger, Erik?”

  I was honest with my younger brother, “We may be, despite what Gytha says. I have put my hand in that water and it is hot enough to cook with. Something heats that water and this is not named the land of ice and fire for nothing.”

  “You wish to leave.”

  “Aye I do but I serve the clan and I bow to the will of the people. Gytha and I believe that there is a land to the west and it is not a land of ice and fire. It is a warm land which is fertile.”

  “Then I would go there for this land has brought us death and danger. I can never be happy here.”

  Fótr and I appeared to be the only ones who felt that way. We were warm and we had food. We were better off than in the land threatened by the Dane, Mercians and the Norse King. The hardship of no grain would be gone when the snow disappeared and the crops grew. We had not even heard wolves here. This land now pleased the clan. The life we had in winter was no different than it had been on Orkneyjar. But I was restless. That was ironical really for it had been my suggestion that we came here. Now I saw that the Norns had planted the idea of sailing west when I had found the driftwood all those years ago.

  By Mörsugur we had almost no daylight and the great lumps of ice which had gathered along our coast and fjord began to increase and even join together. The sea did not freeze but ships could not move without fear of striking floating ice. We saw lights in the northern skies which terrified some. Gytha explained them as the gods giving us light. I was not convinced but I remained silent.

  I had Fótr carve some fish hooks from seal bone. When we had been struck by the storm, we had lost most of the ones we had overboard. We had had other things to think about. I used the time to improve the charts I had. I could only estimate the distance we had travelled when the drekar pursued us but it gave me some idea of what lay to the south and west of the island. Nothing. There had been a storm and so we had seen no birds. The waves had been high and the troughs deep. That normally meant deeper water. I left enough space on my map to add more. The mark I made showed me that it was a day’s sailing southwest of the island.

  It was Þorri when we lost our first warrior. Marteinn Hunter decided to go and hunt seals. He took with him his son, Kalman. His son was just ten summers old. They chose a day when the snow was not falling and the air was cold. Kalman came back alone and his kyrtle was covered in blood. “My father has been attacked!”

  Arne wasted no time. “Get your weapons! Attacked by who?”

  “A great white bear. It rose from the ground and just swiped him with a paw. It took half his face with the one blow.”

  I had my boots and fur on already. I donned my fur hat and grabbed my spear. The sun had been up but an hour and yet it would soon begin to set. We had to hurry. Arne led ten of us from the longhouse. We followed Kalman but the footprints were clear to see. We were more than a mile from the hall when we heard the animal as it chewed on Kalman’s father. We could not see it as there was a ridge of snow and the land dropped down to the frozen fjord. Arne said, “Stay here!” We all knew that Marteinn was dead and his son had seen enough already. “Spread out!”

  I was on one side of Arne and Siggi the other. We were in the centre. As we crested the rise, we were greeted by a sight which still terrifies me at night. Twenty paces from us there was a huge white bear. I had never seen such a large creature. Marteinn was unrecognisable as a man. The white fur of the animal was covered in his blood. I had seen bears before but they had been the same size as a man. This one was more than twice the size of a man. It saw us. Turning, it rose onto its hind legs. It towered over us. Dropping to all fours, it began to run towards us. It moved so quickly that I was almost mesmerized. Luckily Arne was not. “Attack!”

  We ran at the beast. I pulled back my arm. Arne reached it first and he rammed his spear into the animal’s chest. The bear swiped it and Arne away dismissively. Siggi lunged at its neck and I struck at its eye. Bu
tar on one side and Finn on the other rammed their spears into its side. Asbjorn had managed to get around its back and he stabbed it there. The rest of the warriors, emboldened by our success, also stabbed it. The beast flailed but blood was pouring from the animal and it was weakening. As it tumbled to the ground, I turned to see how Arne fared.

  My brother was seated. His sealskin cape had been ripped and the fur beneath torn. He gave me a wry smile and shook his head, “That was foolish of me! Next time we meet such a beast, brother, remind me of this day!”

  When we reached the animal, it was dead. Arne had recovered his composure. “It is getting on to dark. Siggi and Erik, wrap Marteinn’s body in his cloak. We will take him home. The rest of you let us see if the rest of us can drag this beast back to the longhouse!”

  The bear had made a mess of Marteinn. We collected the parts which had been torn off and wrapped them up. He was no weight at all. After ensuring that his son would see nothing, we carried him back over the rise. Kalman awaited us, “I am sorry, Kalman, but your father is dead. The animal which did this has been slain. He is avenged but you are now the warrior in the family.”

  He nodded, “I will help carry my father.”

  When we reached the longhouse Marteinn’s wife and the rest of his family were waiting. The cloaked body told them all that there was to know. Gytha, wrapped in furs, took charge. “The ground is too hard to bury him and we would not have the foxes disturb the dead. We will burn him.” It was the right thing to do but it was expensive. We would be using precious timber and seal oil to do so. None would disagree. We had to honour the dead. By the time the bear was brought back we had built a pyre and soaked his body in seal oil. We used less wood than we might normally have. When Gytha saw the beast she said, “Take the heart, liver, and kidneys from the animal. They can be burned with the hunter.” It seemed right. The clan gathered as in the darkness, we lit the pyre and watched our first warrior die.

  Even though the night was getting painfully cold we skinned and butchered the bear by the light of the funeral pyre. This was meat. It would be the first meat we had had in a long time. Sad though we were at the death this was not to be wasted. The Norns had spun their web and Marteinn’s death might help us survive a little longer in this bleak land. When the fur was skinned, the men all made water on it. The process of preserving it had begun. I was one of the last to enter the longhouse as the fire died. For me, this was the final sign that this land was not for us. No matter what the others thought I would look for a new land as soon as I could.

  Chapter 5

  The death of Marteinn hung over our people like a pall. His wife and family, not to mention the clan, had lost the best hunter in the settlement. We were confined to our halls and had to endure freezing winds and blizzards. There was no beer left and we had not been able to use the bread ovens for some time. A couple of the animals died. Although we ate them and were able to use their skins their loss was something the clan could not afford. We now had the bull and one cow left as well as two sheep, a boar, and a sow. It was not enough. Our cheese production would suffer. There were arguments and there were fights. Arne and Snorri prevented them from escalating but they were a warning. It was the end of Gói by the time the weather had improved enough for us to venture forth. The snow began to melt and the fjord was no longer frozen. Perhaps it had thawed some time ago but the weight of snow outside had prevented us from moving.

  Arne decided to use some of the precious barley we had left to make bread and to brew a batch of beer. He and the farmers then went to examine the fields where we had planted the crops. The animals were let out to try to find grazing. There was precious little. I went with Fótr and the ship’s boys to examine the drekar and the snekke. The drekar had fared better than the snekke. The snekke had suffered damage. Some of the strakes had sprung. We sailed her around to the beach and dragged her above the high-water mark. We had already taken her mast down and we turned her over. We had one barrel of pine tar. The bread ovens had been lit to begin the baking process. While it was still heating, we warmed the pine tar. While it heated, we took the opportunity of scraping the hull and removing the weed and creatures which had attached themselves to the wood. When darkness fell, we applied the pine tar. We would need to find more pine trees to make another batch. I recalled there being some on the lower slopes of the fire mountain. Finally, we pegged out an old sail to cover the snekke. Who knew what weather the night would bring?

  A couple of weeks later and the snow had completely gone, the days and the nights were becoming the same length and we had seen signs of growth in the fields. I was desperate to collect pine tar but Arne forbade me. We had to hunt seals and we needed to fish. The clan had had a lean winter. We had to fill our larders.

  This time we took the drekar to hunt. We rowed it the short distance across the fjord to the sands and rocks where the seals gathered. Arne was no fool. He knew that once we had decimated the colony then they would find another home. We would need to find another colony.

  It was a good hunt. As we skinned the seals I spoke with my brother and Siggi, “I wish to sail to find another and better land.”

  “We have yet to give this one a chance, brother. We lost only one man over the winter.”

  “And that is why I would take the snekke. If I take Fótr and three of the ship’s boys I leave enough here to protect the clan and to provide for the families.”

  Siggi nodded, “I think it is a good idea. We came here to escape our enemies and we have but there might be a better place. My mother is convinced that Erik is destined to find a new land. She has dreamed it.”

  Arne was a sceptic. He was more like my father than me. “No disrespect to the volva but she thought that coming here was a good idea too.”

  “Arne, so did I and Gytha never saw this as the end of the voyage. It was a stopping off point. Føroyar could have been our home but we moved on.”

  “The difference is that we knew there was a land here. We know not what lies to the west.”

  “Until someone sailed here then this was hidden. That is why I am happy to sail across the Unending Sea. I would be the one to find a new world.”

  His silence told me that he would let me go. He was stiff-necked and did not like to be seen to be defeated. When next I broached the subject, he would not refuse. First, we had seal oil to barrel and flesh to preserve. We had more trees to hew and fields to prepare. We planted a second, summer crop of barley and a crop of oats. The first crop was not as successful as we might have hoped but we would have enough for bread and some beer. All of this meant that it was some time before I was able to go with Fótr and Halsten to collect the pine tar. We took food with us as we would have to camp out. Halsten was a youth now and would soon be able to take an oar on the drekar. Fótr had his sling and the two of them, as we trekked up the lower slope of the mountain, were able to bring down a couple of birds. We would have hot food.

  When we reached the trees, I walked to the edge of the woods. I could see across the bay. There was no sign of settlements there. I knew that the ones I had seen were further west. I spied no ships and so I had the other two light a fire. I had them light it on a flat rock which was at a slight angle. We would cook the birds and then we would render down the pine.

  I chose a smallish pine tree and cut it down. Then the three of us began to dig the roots and the stump. I chopped it up into the smallest pieces I could. It took some time and the birds were cooked by the time we had cut half of the stump and some of the roots. I set the other two to collect as many rocks as they could. We were lucky. The mountain had many and they were hard. This was perfect for what we intended. I chopped at the roots. The ones we had removed I piled at the side. When they had the rocks, they gathered all the pine cones. I began to make the kiln. I piled the rocks around the fire. I packed soil in the gaps as I did so. When it was high enough, I finished chopping the stump and the roots. We put the pine cones in the bottom of the kiln and added kindling. When the
fire took hold, we put the stump and roots on the top and then covered the top of the kiln with the larger, fatter stones. I used more soil and then we added a second layer of stones. That done we waited. It would take all day for the wood to be burned and the tar to be released. I had left a channel and lined it with a piece of leather. It led to the barrel we placed below it. As the tar was made it would trickle and settle in the bottom of the barrel. We ate.

  “So Halsten, do you wish to be a sailor or a warrior?”

  He smiled, “Are you reading my thoughts, Erik the Navigator?”

  “No, but I saw that you brought your sword. That is a sign.”

  “I like sailing. I would happily steer but when Marteinn was killed I realized that if my father was killed, I would have to be the one to care for the family. I am no farmer. That means I would have to raid.”

  “And that means fighting those who are on this island. There are few of us. That would mean a blood feud.”

  “I do not think it will come to that yet and I have time to grow but I can see a day when this island has many more people and we will have to fight to keep what we have or to take what we need.”

  He was right and, for me, that was confirmation that I needed to find a better land. I did not sleep all the way through the night. I kept waking to check that the pine tar was flowing. I should have had the others help me but I did not mind. The last time I woke it was before dawn. The tar was down to a trickle and the barrel was three-quarters full. I was content, I had made enough to coat the whole of the drekar if I used it judiciously. As we had coated it before we left Larswick it would only need application if we sprung a strake. There were still bones and some flesh left from the birds. I put them and some water in the pot we had brought. The top of the kiln was hot and so I put the improvised stew there to warm. By the time dawn came, we would have a broth to sustain us for the journey the three miles or so to Maevesfjörður.