Across the Seas

by Griff Hosker

  “But it is not inhabited!”

  “I know Siggi but it is not explored yet. Is there water? Are there deer? Is there an anchorage we can use? I know that there is water, deer and an anchorage on the Isle of the Bear. We are at sea and I still command cuz.”

  He grinned, cheerfully, “Aye, Erik!”

  We sailed on until I saw the bay ahead of us. The island we had briefly used looked reassuringly the same. The skrælings had not colonized it. There was no smoke. I saw no sign of bark boats. I had the sail reefed and side oars on each side manned as we edged around the southern coast and into the bay.

  “Back water!” Fótr, Fal, and Folki leapt into the shallows and ran with the lines to tie us to the rocks.

  I heard Fótr shout, “The blackened stones from our fire are still here! It is as though we have just left.”

  I laughed and turned to Arne, “Well brother, I have guided the clan to our new home. Once more you lead the clan!”

  He came to me and picked me up, “There is no other Viking could have sailed all the way across the Unending Ocean and found this island. Do you wish to be the first ashore?”

  I shook my head, “No brother, that honour is yours. I have a ship to secure and then to unload. This is our home and it is up to you and the others to make it so!”

  This time there was real excitement as the clan went ashore. This was our new home. The land of ice and fire had not impressed them but this looked, by comparison, to be paradise. There was no smell of brimstone. The air was warm and the sea was blue. The sand was yellow and not black and the land was covered in a carpet of green. My ship’s boys, Tostig included, did me great honour. They stayed by my side. Fótr smiled and said, cheerfully, “What orders, Captain?”

  “First we take Odin ashore and the other animals and then I will ask my brother to have men take the barrels and their chests ashore. I am afraid we will, once again, have the joyous task of shovelling the deck clear of Odin and his fellows.”

  Fótr nodded, “And we serve a god. It will stand us in good stead.”

  I led the bull down the gangplank. I would not tether him for there was nowhere he could go. The cow, calf, sheep and pigs happily followed. I fetched my chest and then shouted, “Arne, we have barrels to move and chests!”

  His voice came from the forest, “We come!”

  It took until the middle of the afternoon to shift the barrels and chests. The water barrels were almost full and they were hard to move. The dung was piled in a heap. It attracted flies and when Arne and the warriors had moved their chests, he ordered the clan to shift it into the forest. I knew that we would soon hew trees to make our halls and clear the ground. It would be then that the dung would become gold. Until then it was a nuisance. It was almost dark by the time we had removed the deck. I could smell food cooking on the fires and Gytha came to me, “Erik you and your boys have done enough. Leave the rest until the morrow. Come and eat.” She glowered and glared at my brother’s back, “The jarl takes advantage of you! Come. I have saved choice cuts for you.” To make sure I could not escape she linked me, “You have a good eye, Erik. This land is perfect. There may be bears but the warriors can hunt them. We are like a stronghold. The sea protects us and we have all that we need here. You were guided well.”

  I smiled at her, “When we found it, I thought you had led us here.”

  “No, nephew, it was the spirits but I am honoured that they took my form. They could have used your mother’s!”

  “No, Gytha, we both know that my mother would never send me here and besides she was Christian.”

  “And I am glad that you did not follow her down that path!”

  Chapter 17

  It took us longer to unload the drekar than it had to load her. That was because I only had Sven and my ship’s boys to do so. The men were hewing trees and clearing the land. I asked them to cut down the pines first for we could make pine tar. We would need to clear the stumps if we were to plough the land. That they did but it meant they were further away from the camp than we would have liked. Arne left eight men to cut down the trees at the beach so that we could build one hall there. We had the whole island to ourselves and had no need to be confined to one place. Arne, Siggi, and Snorri explored the island during the first few days. I was not insulted that they did not take my word for what we had found. I had not tramped every animal trail. Barrels and chests began to pile up on the beach. I did not like the disorder, every sailor is tidy, but we could do little about it. Then we shifted the sacks of scrap metal. We left the sacks on the beach and then loaded the hull with stones to give her ballast. That helped to clear the land around our hall of stones. What we did not have was turf. There had been turf on the island with Butar’s deer but this island was heavily forested.

  Padraig and Aed became the clan’s fishermen. Each day they took their lobster traps and laid them. The put their nets across the bay and they used their lines to catch fish. We would build a small fishing boat but that was a task for the future.

  On the third day, while we had a break for food and water, I spoke to Gytha about the problem. “We have no turf for our halls, volva.”

  She nodded and smiled, “We used turf on Orkneyjar for that was all that we had. Here we have so many trees that we can use those for the walls and the roof. It means we do not need to dig deep holes for the foundations. You watch, Erik the Navigator, the halls will rise before your eyes!”

  She was right. Once we had the drekar loaded with ballast and the deck replaced we were done. When all that was completed, we tethered the two ships fore and after. There were two ropes at the bows of each ship and two at the stern. They were firmly attached to huge trees which we would leave to stand as natural bollards. They were not for timber. They were our anchors. That done we left our two ships alone. There was still work to be done to them but shelter was more important. Black clouds appeared from the seas to the east. My ship’s boys and I joined the men building the beach hall. This would be where we would all sleep for a moon or two. The climate was so clement that I was certain we could sleep out of doors if we wished. Snorri returned to supervise the building of the hall. He was now the oldest man in the clan and the wisest. The men had cleared many trees.

  Snorri looked at the land we had cleared. “We need not remove the stumps. There is little to be gained from the effort. First, we split all of the trees into two and divide them. We need two thirds to be longer than the other third. Set to.”

  It was not complicated work, it was just hard. It took a whole day to sort and trim the wood. As the afternoon turned to dusk Snorri showed us how to cut a notch towards the end of the split trunks so that we could lay them alternatively and build up the walls. “That is for tomorrow.”

  We heard Arne and the others coming back through the woods. As he approached, he was shaking his head, “We need more axes and tools. Taking out stumps damages them more than I would have expected.”

  “We have the scrap metal and we have the anvil. We could build the forge on the beach and begin to melt the iron. I am no smith but I can melt metal.”

  Harald of Dyroy was one of our biggest warriors and he had an affinity with metal. He saw Arne looking at him, “If Erik the Navigator can melt the iron then I can try to make tools.”

  Melting iron was the work for any but making moulds and pouring molten iron was the task for someone who knew what they were doing. Our store of iron was precious. We could not replace it. Our days of raiding for cereal, iron, and slaves were over. Our new world meant a new life. We had to think differently.

  I saw that Gytha had a large pot out on the fire. She smiled as I approached her, “I begin to brew mead, Erik. We have found more hives. We will not take all that the bees produce but we will make mead! By Heyannir we can hold a feast and thank the Allfather for our new home.”

  The next day while Sven and I chose the best place for the anvil, Fótr and the boys emptied the sacks. It was as they emptied them, I saw the black sand from the l
and of ice and fire. I remembered that the black stone from which they were formed had been hard. “Pile the black sand up together. Harald of Dyroy may well be able to use that to make his moulds.”

  When that was done, we built a kiln to melt the iron. It was as we were building it that Gytha came to us. “You will need to build a bread oven and a kiln to make our pots. They can all be in this area. It is far enough away from the hall that we do not risk a fire.”

  I nodded, “We do not have enough stones here.”

  “And we do not need the kilns yet but we will need them.” She pointed to the skies. The black clouds which had been approaching were almost overhead. “This looks like one of the storms we endured at sea.” Smiling she said, “You will need your capes.”

  A warrior ignored a volva’s warnings at his peril. We left the iron kiln and fetched our capes. Our chests were now ashore and under the eaves of the trees. “Come, we need to find stones.” We had barely stepped into the trees when Odin unleashed a storm upon us. Padraig and Aed left their fishing and ran to the shelter of the half-finished hall. There was a canopy of leaves above us but, even so, the rain found a way through. Before we had walked four hundred paces the ground began to turn to a leafy, muddy morass. The wind made the mighty trees sway. I prayed that our ropes held our ships to the shore. They had to for we could do nothing about it now.

  I headed for the place Arne and the men were clearing the trees. It was close to a stream. When we planted crops, we would be able to water them in times of drought. We had no drought in the land of ice and fire, Larswick and Orkneyjar but this was a new land. We had to be prepared for any disaster. Farming was hard. It was why we were always ready to raid. Here we could not raid. When we reached the clearing that our men had made, I saw them all sheltering beneath the trees. They did not have their seal skin capes and they huddled under the thicker branches. Arne smiled. He had to shout above the wind and the sound of the rain, “Ever prepared, little brother. What brings you here?”

  I cupped my hands to shout back, “Gytha needs more stones for a bread oven and a clay oven.”

  Harald of Dyroy was close by, “You have finished the smithy?”

  I nodded, “We can begin to melt the iron whenever you are ready. We have black sand from the land of ice and fire to make your moulds.”

  Arne pointed to the skies. “There will be no melting of the iron for a few days yet. As for stones? There are plenty here. You will be doing us a favour if you take them.”

  I nodded, “We will have to build a cart. We have wheels back at the drekar. I will go and fetch them.” I turned to Sven and the others, “You have seal skin capes and hoods. They cannot hew wood but you can collect the stones. Make piles of them here. Cut the wood for the cart.”

  We had had carts on Larswick. We had never needed them in the land of ice and fire but the four wheels were still there. We had brought them ashore. I would just need two of them. Back at the camp, the rain was so hard that all work had ceased. Snorri had taken the spare sail and rigged it over the half-finished walls of the hall. The women children and builders sheltered. I saw the two ships in the bay. I was thankful we had chosen this narrow inlet. The two ships rose and fell alarmingly but they were held. Had this been an open bay, such as the one on the Isle of Butar’s Deer, then they might have been torn from their moorings. As it was, I still worried that they might be damaged.

  Snorri came to the beach with me while I collected the two wheels. He pointed to the distant islands to the west. The land was shrouded in rain and we could see nothing. “You chose the best place for a camp. Look.” I saw huge waves rolling towards the islands. When they hit it they seemed to engulf it. “I am guessing that the eastern shore of this island is suffering just as badly! Had we been on the eastern side of the Island of the Bear then we would have lost the ships already.”

  As I headed the half a mile or so back to the clearing, I thought on that decision I had made more than a year ago. Had that been the Norns? Snorri was right. This was the most sheltered anchorage we could have found. Before I had set off, I had picked up a dozen or so of the nails we had made. We would need them.

  The rain had not abated but the wood for the cart, roughly hewn by the men, was ready to be assembled. The boys were working their way across the clearing fetching the stones which had been dragged to the surface when the stumps of the trees had been removed. Arne, Siggi and I built the cart. It allowed us to talk.

  “How long, brother, to clear the trees?”

  He laughed, “How long is a piece of rope? We need to clear a larger area than this. We picked a higher piece of ground so that it would be well drained but crops need sunlight. I think that in half a moon we will have cleared enough ground to spread the animal dung and then, a week later plant our crops but we will still be hewing trees.”

  Siggi nodded, “And taking the timber to the beach to build the second hall. This is where we need horses or oxen. I suppose we could use Odin. He has given Freja another calf. He can work too.” The voyage had not harmed the animals and both the sow and the cow were carrying young.

  The cart was crudely made. Only the wheels looked finished. We had not smoothed the timber but it would enable us to haul the stones more easily.

  “Sven, begin to load the cart.”

  With the stones laid in the cart, I took Fótr back with me. He helped me to push the cart along the track back to the camp. Already our footsteps had begun to make the game trail into a human path. Soon the wheel ruts would mark it as the domain of men. “You will stay at the beach. You can help to unload the cart and then sort the stones. It will make it easier to build.”

  I swapped with Sven after two trips and I helped to move the stones across the clearing. By the middle of the afternoon, we had completed the movement but the rain did not look like stopping. Arne had taken the men back not long after noon when it became clear that they would get no more work done that day. The clearing was in a sorry state. Our boots had churned up the freshly turned soil. As soon as we left, I knew that the birds would be down to feast on the worms!

  The rain stopped after dark but the winds did not abate for two days. Arne and the men returned to their work and we could begin to build the kilns and ovens. Before we did that Sven and I waded out to the ships and added two more ropes to the drekar and one to the snekke. The moorings had held but there was little point in taking risks.

  The storm acted as a spur and the hall was finished by the time the winds had ceased blowing. We had not had enough turf for walls but we were able to find enough grassy sods for the roof. Sand was put inside to cover the stumps and some of the smaller stones and shingle laid to make a floor. It would compact down and, eventually, we might put down a wooden floor but we had a roof and we had a fire. Our hall was built.

  Harald of Dyroy returned for I was ready to melt the iron. Those were long days. The storm had gone and the temperature rose. We almost prayed for a breeze to cool us down. I worked wearing just my breeks as did Sven and Fótr. Helga smeared seal oil on our backs and chests to stop them becoming red. Harold of Dyroy made his moulds. We learned from our mistakes. Some of the first iron we melted was contaminated with impurities. We had to put it to one side. We would use it but not for axes and weapons. It was adequate enough to make nails and hunting arrows or for strengthening shields.

  The start of Sólmánuður meant we could plough the new fields. We were still clearing around it but it could be ploughed. We had brought the plough from Maevesfjörður and we had made a harness from some of the deer hides. We had never used Odin to pull anything. As I had been the one to bring him back from the land of the Saxons Gytha suggested that I should be the one to lead him. A Gytha suggestion was an order from any other. I was not certain what to do. I had never ploughed. I had rarely seen anyone ploughing. Benni was our farmer and he came with me to offer advice.

  Benni was just a little younger than Snorri. He was a kind man and he was patient, “All we need to do is turn th
e deeper soil over and mix the animal dung into it. Digging out the roots and removing the stones has done the hard work for us. Just keep the bull moving and we will see what we can cover.”

  Odin began well enough and we soon covered the length of the field four times. Then he became bored or tired or, perhaps, just awkward.

  Benni shrugged, “We will just have to wait.”

  It was Fótr who had the idea. He went into the woods and brought out a handful of some longer strands of grass. He stood before Odin and waved the grass. Intrigued, Odin moved forward and started to chew. Fótr walked backward and we managed another half a length before he stopped again. I could have used a goad but Fótr’s method was working. Tostig and Rek quickly joined Fótr and soon he worked happily knowing he would be rewarded every half-length or so. More than half the field had been ploughed when he decided he had had enough. Arne and Benni were satisfied. It meant we could finish the ploughing the next day and then begin to sow the day after. We hoped for a quick crop. The air was much warmer. Men worked in breeks and kyrtles. The women needed shade from the sun. We had not yet needed to hunt and Arne decided to wait until the second hall was erected before we did so. Padraig and Aed had been successful in fishing and now spent each day making a fishing boat. It was smaller than the snekke and broader in the beam. Our new home was, so far, everything that the clan had hoped.

  Once the seeds were in the ground we waited. We had planted half the field with oats and half with barley. We still had some seed left and Benni advised us to clear a second, smaller field, for a later crop. We began work on the second hall. We left enough space between the two longhouses so that we could have a walkway and we used the lessons learned in the building of the first. The young were sent into the woods to collect grass and turf. There was not a huge amount but there would be enough to give a roof. Having built the beach hall the second went up much more quickly. We had enough timber hewn to make floorboards for the first hall.