by Griff Hosker
By the time we had finished so had the other men and we were defensible. Our ships were protected. It was now Haustmánuður and the weather was changing. We had harvested all of the barley and oats. We had given two sacks to Mikel the Follower, Uddi and Æimundr Loud Voice. The two sacks were all that we could spare and their voyage would be shorter than ours. They would need them and then we set about building their knarr. We built it on the beach. We were limited in its length by the size of the trees. My advice was sought, for I had built two ships and was a navigator. Some of our men were angry that Mikel the Follower, Uddi and Æimundr Loud Voice had not helped us and yet they expected us to help build their knarr. I silenced them, “My crew and I will help Mikel the Follower, Uddi and Æimundr Loud Voice build their knarr. We would have no men working against their will that is bad luck and would offend Ran.”
In the end, ten men helped us and Æimundr Loud Voice was grateful to me, “I am sorry if I offended you, Erik. I meant no harm.”
I nodded, “I know. You are well named!”
He laughed, “Aye you have the right of it.”
By the middle of Haustmánuður, we had the skeleton built. She would be just twelve paces long and eight paces wide. That was more than big enough for the three families. We then began the harder part. We made the strakes. It meant hewing wood and splitting it. Already we had exhausted the trees which were close to our halls and we had to have men chopping timber further up the fjord. We did not carry the logs down to the beach. We tied them together and towed them down the fjord. It saved time and kept the timber from drying out.
The nearest pine was on the other side of the fjord. To test the snekke we replaced the ballast and the deck. I sailed across with Fótr and Rek to bring down the tree we would need for the mast. It had to be tall and straight. Pine was best. I had an ulterior motive. I wanted pine tar and I told Arne that the three of us would camp out. We cut down the tree and while Fótr stripped the branches and leaves Rek and I began to dig up the stump and roots. This was the best time of year to collect the resin. In spring it rose up the tree but, as winter approached, it gathered in the roots. We had made rough clay pots to hold it. None of us were good potters but the vessels just had to be able to hold a hot liquid and be stoppered. They would do.
The nights were getting longer now and so we worked after dark. We managed to get the stump and roots out. Fótr, when he had finished cutting the branches, built a kiln. We had brought some of the hard, black fire rocks. We could create a hotter fire and make more tar. We had found a rock with a natural channel and we placed the bowl beneath it. Then we lit the kindling and when the fire was going well put in the chopped stump and roots. We covered the top and then ate.
Rek said as he chewed on the seal meat, “I will not miss this place. I have seen somewhere better. I have told my mother and my sisters. They do not like this land. I would sail now, Captain.”
“As would I but we are not quite ready. We still have things to make and we owe it to the three families to do as much on the knarr as we can. We will not finish it before the snows come.” Already we could smell the snow in the air. We had experienced one winter and this time we knew what to expect.
I sat up all night feeding the fire and the tar trickled out until not long before dawn. I stood and walked next to the water. The settlement was shrouded in darkness but I knew that men watched for our enemies. We knew that an attack was coming and we watched. I agreed with Rek. I would be glad to leave. I knew that my mother and my grandfather lay here but my father lay in the land of the Saxons. Their spirits lay in my head. Gytha had told me that she had used the dead to speak with me and that gave me comfort. I had not known that it was my mother and her father but now I would listen to the thoughts in my head. I would know that the dream I had when I awoke, came from them. It was a comforting thought.
Chapter 12
We managed to have half of the knarr’s strakes fitted and the mast step fitted before the snows came. We had even shaped the mast. The three families who would use the knarr were grateful to me. We stopped work and, before the ground and the snow froze, we hunted the seal. They had become wary of us and we had to climb over the ridge to the next bay to find them. We slew many. We needed their meat, their oil, their bones, and their skins. When we returned to our halls the snow was so deep that we struggled to get through it. Some thought it meant that our foes would not come but Arne and I knew differently. The sea was free of ice. The wind came from the west and Hakon Long Memory would be angry. Leif Eriksson had left him. That would hurt his pride and he still needed revenge for his brother. He would come. He would come because he would think that we would not expect him. We would watch because it just cost us a little sleep and that was easier than risking the great sleep. We began to use two men to watch each night. I had told Arne that when we had returned from our voyage, we had been guided by the fire and it had made us invisible. We watched without a fire. The men who watched used furs.
It was my turn to be sentry and I watched with Gandálfr. We had the middle watch. I was warm for I had a hat made of deerskin and lined with duck down. Bear Island had yielded us great treasure. The duck down made my head feel warm, despite the freezing air. Around my shoulders, I wore my bear fur. Gandálfr had a fur but it was not made of one animal. He had pieces of stoat and weasel as well as squirrel and hare. Where the skins were stitched the wind whistled in. We had our swords but wore no helmets. We sat by the pile of ballast we had unloaded from the drekar. It gave us some protection from the wind. They would use most of it for the knarr but it provided a handy windbreak for us.
“Was it warmer in this new world of yours, Erik?”
I heard the doubt in his voice. Gandálfr had never been further south than the Maeresea. “You have heard men talk of the land of the Moors and Miklagård?”
“Aye, they sound like magical places.”
I had never been to the lands of the Moor but where we had been was the hottest place I had ever experienced. “I dare say they are like the land which we visited. It is hot. We needed no shelter at night and during the day we were sweating just sitting around. We used fire for the flames and not for the heat. Here we wait for the crops to peer, fearfully, from the ground. There, I think that they will leap out.” He cast me a sideways glance, “I swear it. Ask the others and they will tell you.”
“Yet I still fear to cross the Unending Sea.”
“And in that, it is well named. I can understand the fear of those who never crossed it but we did. We saw the land and who knows if there is another sea beyond the land we saw.”
I saw him thinking about that. Ideas such as mine needed absorption. I looked out into the fjord. It was a still night and our breath froze before us. My bear fur kept me as warm as though I was before a fire. My feet could have been warmer but I could live with that. We were not using the hourglass. When Gandálfr and I felt we were ready to sleep we would wake the next pair. The night was so silent I could hear Gandálfr breathing. I swear that I could see the fjord start to freeze. Then I heard, in the distance, a man-made sound. It was too regular to be natural. It was the sound of oars slicing through water. I nudged Gandálfr and pointed to the sea. I slipped my hat from my head. The cold hit me like a slap but my hearing sharpened. There was an oared ship out to sea and that meant one thing; a drekar. I pointed to the hall and slipped off my bear fur. I could not fight in a fur. I drew my sword. The enemy warriors were coming. I could not see them which meant they were still around the headland. There were warriors who had been with Leif Yellow Hair and joined this other clan. We had not killed them for we had not seen their bodies. They would know the entrance was tricky and would edge the drekar in. There might be two of them. Siggi, Arne, and Fótr appeared. Fótr gave me my bow and my arrow sack.
I smiled, “As before, Fótr, you watch your brother’s back!”
He was bigger now. He was almost as big as Halsten. He had a seax in his belt but it would be his sling which he used f
irst. He whirled his sling, “Always!”
We stood where the path began to climb. It would give us a wall of men and we could make it bristle with spears. The quay was covered in snow. We had not walked upon it since the last snow had fallen. The snow would slow down an enemy. It was slippery. Men would risk slipping and falling between our ships and the quay. More men appeared behind us. Some wore helmets and some wore mail. If this was two drekar which came we would be outnumbered and our deaths, although glorious, would be inevitable. I sheathed my sword and took an arrow. I had twenty arrows and all of them had a good tip. If I struck then they would kill.
I saw the prow as it edged around the headland. It was a dragon. It appeared to stop and then turn. I could hear no voices. This was a well-drilled crew. I saw the prow turn and then the oars bit and it came towards us. We now had the clan all ready. Every warrior and boy were ready to fight. Helga and the women warriors were ready. Gytha and the volvas conjured. I heard the oars but that was all. The prow came towards us. I knew that we would be invisible for we did not move. Suddenly, I heard the sound of wood being torn apart. The drekar drove on to the stakes. Although moving slowly they had enough way to tear the wooden stakes into the heart of the dragon ship and kill it. As the water flooded in the bows dipped. The drekar came on and the stakes drove deeper into its heart. I heard voices from the steering board and watched the second drekar sail up the fjord. They would land at the beach. Men shouted as the water filled the ship. Those in mail tried, in vain, to shed their mail and they sank beneath the water. Others threw off helmets and swam towards us. Most would sink beneath the waves for the icy water would kill. I sent my arrows towards the white faces I saw in the dark. I saw a warrior with a leather byrnie raise his sword and shout, “Charge!” He was forty paces from me and my yew bow drove the arrow into his chest and he fell face down in the water. The boat then began to sink from the stern and men tried to clamber over the bow to reach the safety of the rocks at the end of our quay.
Arne shouted, “Siggi! Take half the men and go to the other beach. Slingers. Kill them!”
Stones were hurled at men who had thrown away armour to avoid drowning. My next arrow hit a warrior in the shoulder and threw him around to land on the quay. I saw warriors felled with stones. The men on the drekar just wanted to live. The water meant certain death! The ship had begun to sink but the water would be too shallow for it to completely disappear. It became a half-submerged bridge. Warriors made it to the rocks at the end of the quay. When we had built the quay, we had made it long enough for just a drekar, a knarr, and a snekke. Now I was happy we had made that decision. We faced roughly the same number of men as we had but we also had boys like Fótr whose stones could break arms and crack skulls. It enraged the wet warriors with waterlogged boots as they tried to run down the snow-covered quay.
Arne and Snorri stood together with Galmr and Gandálfr. The quay was not wide enough for more. They had shields and spears. I nocked another of my arrows and sent it down the quay. The light was not good but the men who advanced had packed together. Four, at the front, had shields. My first arrow gouged into the cheek of a Dane. He still came on. They were moving more quickly now for the stones thrown by the half dozen boys had felled one warrior at the rear. Soon I would have to discard my bow and defend myself with my sword. I had an arrow nocked and ready when one of those at the front misplaced his foot. The snow went from drekar to quay. He stepped on to snow without wood beneath it. His foot slipped and his shield lowered. He was ten paces from me and my arrow caught him in the chest. He slid between ‘Njörðr’ and the quay. I nocked a second arrow and hit the warrior behind him in the stomach. I dropped my bow and drew my sword. I stepped behind Gandálfr for I had no shield.
The sodden men struck our line but we had eight men to their four as the rising path enabled those of us in the second rank to strike at the heads of the enemy. Arne, Snorri, and Galmr were encased in mail. The men who came at them wore tunics. I brought my sword over from on high as Gandálfr and the Dane below me sparred with spears. I hit his helmet so hard that it was dented and Gandálfr’s spear took him in the stomach when he faltered. Fótr and the boys continued with their rain of stones. The cold began to get to the men who had waded across their doomed drekar in kyrtles and tunics. Their movements and reactions were slower. They died and it was not a glorious death. They were butchered. Some were barely able to raise their weapons.
When Arne had slain the last one, he said, “Fótr, go and see how Siggi fares. If he needs our help then we will come. For the rest let us ensure that these men are all dead. Collect their weapons!”
I retrieved my bow and slung it. I only had a few arrows left to me. I picked the arrows from the dead as we passed. If I left them until later then the air would freeze the bodies and they would be broken. I also took any metal they carried. We took their coins even though they were of no use to us. They were metal. We could use the metal. None had to be sent to Valhalla for all were dead. We reached the drekar bridge. The moon had come from behind clouds as the battle had progressed. I could see that the drekar had managed to demolish all of the stakes. Our trap had worked better than we would have thought. We had the winter to work out how to remove the wreck and let us leave. I saw a couple of bodies floating and they bore my arrows. I would have to find a way to retrieve them. Bodies floated in the water. Even as we watched I saw one body tugged beneath the black fjord. There were predators there who would feast on the dead.
Fótr came running back. He slipped, slid and then fell in a heap. It made me smile, “Careful brother.” I held out my hand to help him up.
“The other drekar did not land. It sailed up the fjord. Siggi and the others are watching it.”
I turned to Arne and Snorri. Arne nodded, “Then this is not over. Back to the hall. Light a fire and have the women fetch food. If we are to fight a battle when dawn comes then we will be warmer than our foes.”
Galmr said, “Do we not march to meet them?”
Arne shook his head, “Why? What lies to the north of us that you would wish to defend? We wait for daylight and meet them with full bellies and feet which are not frozen by the snow.”
We went back to the hall. Galmr had a wound in his leg and Gandálfr’s arm was cut. Gytha and her volvas tended to them. Her smile told me that she was unworried. I went into the hall to fetch my helmet and shield. I would not need my mail. There were others who would be in the front rank of our shield wall. My bow made me special not my skill with a sword. I had my deer hide jerkin and that would suffice. I picked up the last of my arrows. I had twelve left. With the four in my belt that was sixteen arrows, I could use before I took up my sword. Once outside I retrieved my bear fur and hat. I saw the wisdom of my brother’s plan for as soon as I donned them, I felt heat coursing through my body. I had been cold and not known it. Siggi had left men to watch the fjord and Mikel the Follower was guarding his knarr skeleton. With a fire going a pot of seawater was put on and seal meat dropped into it.
We watched the sun rise in the east. The lack of clouds brought more ice with the dawn. I could see the sheen of ice beginning to form on the fjord. The Danish drekar would be able to sail down it and return to the sea but Siggi’s men said that there was no sign of it. When the light became strong enough, I saw that they had landed just a mile up the fjord. I smiled to myself for they had landed on what looked like a beach. I knew it was not. There were rocks beneath the waterline. They had been disguised by the snow. They did not know it but their ship would be damaged. They would assume the grating they heard as they landed was shingle. I was the navigator. I knew my fjord. They had landed on rocks!
Siggi and two others, Faramir and Folkman, went with him. They had two short planks tied to their boots. We had found this was an easier way to walk across the snow. It was not quick but it prevented feet from sinking into the snow. When they returned Siggi was in good humour, “There are just forty men there. I think I recognized Hakon Long Memory. The sun
from the east shone on eight men with mail byrnies. They were debating.”
Arne rubbed his beard. He looked at the sky which was a clear blue without a cloud in sight. It would be a cold day. The air was making our breath crystallize as we spoke. “We wait. Let them make the decision.”
Æimundr Loud Voice asked, “But what if they just leave? The threat will still be there.”
“The threat will always be there. Do you not remember Leif Eriksson’s words? There are two sons. I have not seen any youths with these bearded warriors. Did you, Siggi?”
Siggi shook his head, “They were all warriors. My cuz is right, Æimundr Loud Voice, even if we kill all of these warriors then, in the fullness of time the sons of Hakon Long Memory will come for us. Your hope is that you finish your knarr before that happens.”
He nodded, “Then with the Allfather’s help we will kill these men and we will continue to build the knarr in the winter!”
All looked at Æimundr Loud Voice as though he was mad. Soon there would be no daylight to build the knarr and the falling snow would mean they would have to dig out the knarr each day but we said nothing. He, Uddi, and Mikel the Follower had made their decision. They could change their mind and come with us but I suspected that he had objected too much to change his mind, His stiff neck might doom him.