Vinland the Good

by Henry Treece

  Thorvald was doubly angry because this keel had been

  carved specially for him by old Tyrkir. All the same, he accepted what had happened, and they got the longship ashore somehow and beached her out of the water’s reach.

  The men lost no time in chopping down some of the tall straight trees that lay just inshore, and in shaping them in a new keel to hold Wolf-snout’s strakes together. They wielded the hammers well and there was little delay. Then Thorvald said to Thorhall, ‘My brother Leif never landed at this spot. He does not know everything, though he is the chieftain in Greenland. I will set my old keel up on this headland for all voyagers to see it in future times. They will say, “Ah, there is Keelness, where Thorvald set up his carved wooden monument. ” So, it could be that I shall be remembered even when Leif is forgotten.’

  Thorhall said dryly, ‘Aye, it could be. A man can only try.’

  When they had set up the keel on the skyline, burying it four feet in the earth to keep it steady against the sea-winds, they sailed forth once more.

  But two days onwards, Thorvald said, ‘What have I done in my life that Leif has not done also, except set up a bit of carved wood on a headland? See, to our left-hand lies a pretty white beach. I want to land there and build a few huts and call them mine. Then at least I shall come back from Vinland no worse than Leif did.’

  Thorhall said, ‘If you take my advice, you will keep straight on to the north till we get to grey Slabland, and then turn east to Greenland.’

  Thorvald swung round on him and said, ‘Who do you think you are, heathen, to be giving advice to all and sundry? I have suffered you long enough.’

  Thorhall said, ‘Very well, let us land if you order it, master. You are old enough to choose your own doom.’

  And so they did. And behind a thick clump of salt-grass they almost fell over three long birchbark canoes, with about nine men sleeping in their shelter. The Vikings drew back in horror at this and said, ‘These are trolls! Look at their black hair and their yellow faces. Look at the smallness of their arms and legs. And the thick stitching on their hide tunics! Oh, they are not human men as we are.’

  Thorvald said briefly, ‘Kill them and rid the world of such

  monsters.’

  The thirty Geenlanders rushed in with axe and sword, and it was not hard work. Only one of the trolls woke and, picking

  up his light boat, ran away to the water and escaped, riding the water like a seal.

  And when it was all over, Thorvald said, ‘My mind is at rest

  now, Thorhall. These poor wizened creatures must have built

  that lonely stockade. If this is all, then there is nothing to fear.

  For these poor little beasts are but Skraeling’s, or wretches as one might call them.’

  Thorhall said, ‘We were thirty to eight, and that eight were sleeping. Suppose there were thirty such Skraeling’s, all awake, to face us. Would you still feel so victorious, Eirik’s son? Would you dare face them?’

  Now Thorvald was angry with the baresark and said, ‘Dare you go inland with me, towards that humped headland? I think that a fjord lies beyond that hump, and there I shall live for ever, Skraeling’s or not. Dare you come?’

  Thorhall snorted down his nose and bushed his black beard out with his four fingers. ‘I dare do anything, boy,’ he said. ‘But

  ….. would be a wise child to go back into your ship and take

  shelter.’

  Thorvald glared at him and set off at a fast pace towards the hill. Thorhall ordered half the ship’s company to stay aboard,

  ready to push out in a hurry if needs be, and then led the others after Eirik’s son. They caught up with him before he had reached the summit. And they all saw together that, beyond the hill and all along the fjord was a great settlement of humped reed huts, much like beehives.

  It took Thorvald long enough to understand that there were other men in the world than Greenlanders. And then he said, ‘I beg your pardon, Thorhall. I am, as you say, a child.’

  The black baresark nodded and said smiling, ‘It takes a man to admit that he is a child. Now we had better get back to Wolf-snout on our swiftest legs, because I can see a host of canoes coming out from the settlement to cut us off.’

  The Greenlanders ran like madmen and reached their longship in good time to defend it like a fortress, but not in enough time to push it off into the tides.

  Yet luck was with them, for only a few canoes came down to them, and they were more curious than furious. One of them paddled almost to within a spear’s cast of Wolf-snout, carrying four men, the first of whom wore a cloak and hood of rich furs, streaked in black and white.

  Thorvald took him to be the chieftain of these folk, so he stood high on the prow-step and pointed with his spear. Then he called out, ‘I am a Christian, and no troll can harm me, monster. I tell you that your day has passed, so take warning. We shall soon come in our swarms.’

  Then he cast his iron spear, but he had misjudged the range in that clear air, and the spear fell short into the blue water. The chieftain in the striped furs watched it go down among the scattering fishes, then he turned and reached out his hand for his short bow and an arrow.

  Thorvald saw him point the arrow. He even saw the red flint of its head for a moment in the sunlight. Thorhall said to him, ‘Jump down, you fool. Don’t stand up there on the prow-step.’

  But Thorvald turned and said, ‘Would old Eirik have jumped down? Would Leif my brother? Would Thorstein even?’

  When the knock came it was hardly more than you get bumping against the doorpost in the dark. But Thorvald turned to the baresark and shook his head, smiling starkly. He said, ‘I should have jumped down, old man. Now you will outlive me.’

  The chief in the black and white furs stood watching for a time. Then Thorvald felt under his left armpit and drew out the short arrow and showed it to him. The man nodded gravely from the distance and then turned his canoe away and left.

  Thorhall caught Eirik’s last son as he fell from the step. ‘Where shall we bury you, master?’ he asked. Thorvald whispered, ‘Back on that headland by my keel,

  south of Markland, heathen. And, I beg you, put crosses at my

  head and feet. I know it goes against your grain but if I am to lie out here at the world’s edge, I would like the best chance possible of getting to Heaven safely.’

  So they did this, even old Thorhall consenting, and then they went back to Greenland with all the tides and winds they needed, and were in Eiriksfjord inside two weeks.

  When Leif heard of his brother’s useless death, he struck Thorhall a hard blow on the right cheek. The baresark bowed beneath this blow but did not speak. He felt that he had deserved it.

  And when Thjodhild heard the news of Thorvald’s death,

  she turned to Gudrid and said gently, ‘How many men must a

  woman lose, so that a new world might be found? I have lost three now. There is only one left.’

  Leif took her by the right arm and Gudrid by the left. He said, ‘Come, mother, we will go to your church and pray for little Thorvald’s soul.’

  But when they had gone three paces, Gudrid whispered to him, ‘Do not drag at her any more, can you not see that she is dead? Her heart has broken at the sad news.’

  The Thorhall came up behind them and said, ‘I have always respected this great lady. Now give me leave to carry her to her church in my own arms. I am not a Christman and never shall be, but I am the only one of her own age living in this place now, and my master Eirik would have wanted me to take her where her heart belongs.’

  So the heathen carried Eirik’s widow into her church and laid her on the driftwood bier in the small nave. And when he came out again he paused by the door and said, ‘Whitechrist, I ask few favours, man. See that the old lady travels calmly to wherever you take them. I shall want a reckoning from you at the end of my day.’

  He shook his fist like a hammer then at the altar and came out.

  Le
if met him and went with him behind the sheepbyre and there used his blue wool chieftain’s cloak to wipe the old baresark’s cheeks dry of tears.

  ‘I am grieved that I struck you, Thorhall,’ he said. ‘It was a thoughtless blow and one that I shall never be free of.’

  Part Three: The Last Seekers

  14. Thorhall’s Second Warning

  After this Leif seemed to age suddenly. In the years that followed, he travelled on his roan horse through the settlements in

  Greenland and listened to all the people’s problems, and tried

  to make peace between them when feuds began between the

  various families. When the Greenlanders held their Thing-assembly, Leif saw that justice was done fairly to all. At other times he watched the unloading of cargoes from Iceland and Norway, and saw that the foreign merchants did not cheat the

  Greenlanders, or the Greenlanders the merchants. He organized

  a coastal patrol of ships, whose duty it was to see that the seas round the southern tip of Greenland were clear of pirates.

  He even tried to like Freydis his sullen sister, and her weak-willed, husband, though this was more difficult than sweeping the pirates away. Whatever Leif said, Freydis was bound to take the opposite view. She seemed determined to quarrel with everyone she met. It was as though she could not help herself.

  And always her husband, Thorvard of Gardar, sided with her, however wrong she was.

  One day sitting by the fire, Leif said to old Thorhall, ‘Freydis will bring dishonour on the name of our family, mark my words, friend. If only her husband would control her, she might turn out to be a good woman in the end. She is shrewd enough at housekeeping and farming.’

  Thorhall said gruffly, ‘Her husband could not control a sheep, much less such a wolf of a woman. I would never turn my back on such a woman, if she had a knife in her hand.’ Leif smiled and said, ‘There, there, baresark - she is not as bad as that. She may be spiteful and bitter and sharp-tongued, but she is not a murderess.’

  Thorhall said, ‘She may not have struck the blow yet, lad, but she has it in her heart. I shall say no more. But watch her, this is my advice to you.’

  Leif said very gravely, as a chieftain should, ‘You cannot make such accusations, Thorhall, without something to back them up. What is in your mind? Come on, speak out, I must hear.’

  Thorhall said, ‘Your mother and father are dead. Your two brothers are dead. You and Freydis are the only two of old Eirik’s blood left. Being the eldest son, you hold Eirik’s land and all his livestock. Freydis has nothing, except what her husband has. Suppose you were to die, by falling over a cliff, or drowning in the fjord, or drinking a cup of poisoned ale… What would happen then, Leif?’

  Leif said, ‘All my belongings would go to Freydis, of course. That is the law. She is next of kin.’

  Thorhall nodded. ‘She might help you to die, chieftain, so that she could get the land and cattle, and her husband could become the greatest man in Greenland, don’t you think?’

  Leif said slowly, ‘You are not as mad as I thought, old one. I will watch her, as you say.’

  Thorhall said then, ‘There is one other way to stop her gallop. If you were to marry a good woman and raise a family of your own, then your children would inherit the land and livestock. She could not kill them all.’

  Leif frowned and said, ‘What you advise is no doubt true enough; but I am not the sort of man who cares much for marriage. I like to run my house as I please, and I do not wish to be ruled by a wife. Nor am I cut out to be a kind father. I have so many things to attend to in the settlement, there is little time for playing with children. Besides, I am happy enough as I am, with all my servants and thralls to attend to things for me.’

  Thorhall said, ‘Why do you not marry Gudrid? She is a fine woman and knows your habits. She would not try to rule you. Indeed, for a Christian, she is quite outstanding. If all Christians were like Gudrid, I might even become one myself.’

  Leif answered, ‘I cannot marry Gudrid, even if she would have me, because that would go against the wishes of my dead brother Thorstein, who warned her in a dream never to marry another Greenlander. I would not wish to bring her doom upon her, Thorhall.’

  The Hunter glowered at him darkly, then said, ‘Well, there is only one other way in which you can keep Freydis from getting her claws on your farmstead, short of throwing her into the fjord with a stone tied to her ankles - which, as a good Christian, you could never bring yourself to do.’

  Leif looked up sharply. ‘And what is that way, Thorhall?’ he asked.

  But the old man was now weary of the talk and shrugged his shoulders. ‘If you don’t know, then I shall not tell you,’ he said. ‘The folk here come to you for your wise advice - use some of it for yourself, if you are so clever.’

  15. The Man on the Rock

  Then he stumped off down to the fjord, where he had a comrade called Bjarni Grimolfsson, an Icelander from Breidafjord, who was a great rover and a fierce fighter, much like Thorhall himself. This Bjarni always stayed just within the law, though there were many farmers in the settlement who thought they saw their sheep grazing in his pens. Only Leif and Thorhall could deal with him; all other Greenlanders backed away from his fierce scowling and his restless right hand.

  He said to Thorhall, ‘Did you warn Leif about his sister?’ Thorhall nodded. ‘He will not take advice,’ he said.

  Bjarni laughed. ‘If he would only whisper the word to me,’ he growled, ‘I would attend to the matter. Of course, I should want Thorvard’s farmstead in payment; but Leif has enough as it is. He does not need any more land to look after.’

  Thorhall frowned and said, ‘It is a good thing that you have said this to me and not to anyone else. Murder is a very serious thing.’

  Bjarni laughed and said, ‘Oh, ^ know you are safe enough, old baresark. You would never tell Leif what I have said. I know too much about a few things that you have done in the past, don’t I?’

  Thorhall regarded him stiffly for a while and lingered the hilt of his iron knife. Then he let his hand fall and nodded. ‘Aye,’ he said. ‘Friends we are, and friends we must stay. We have been in a few scrapes together that would not sound very well if they were laid before the Thing-assembly for judgement.’

  Bjarni clapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘Come, Thorhall, I have had enough of this. Let us take my boat down the fjord to see if the waves have washed anything up lately. I need some driftwood for a fence.’

  And so they swept down the blue water and, lying with its back broken across a saw-toothed reef, they saw a small boat with one man clinging to it and shouting.

  As they drew closer, Bjarni said, ‘That ship never came from Iceland or Norway. And it is not an English pirate, either. What can it be?’

  Thorhall stood in the prow listening to the voice of the man shouting out at them. He said to Bjarni, ‘I have heard that tongue before. They speak it in the Hebrides.’

  Bjarni said, ‘Well, I do not feel like risking my boat to run in close on that reef to rescue a Hebridean. If it were an Icelander, I might take the chance. But not for a red-shanked fellow who yaps in the language of seagulls and seals.’

  Thorhall said, ‘Hey, hold the ship steady. Can’t you see, this loon wears a gold ring round his throat, and bracelets on both arms? He is no common fisherman, friend. He must be a prince, or at least a lord. We might do well to put in to the reef and haul him off.’

  Bjarni nodded. ‘At least we can take a look at him. We can always knock him on the head and pitch him overboard when we have had a better look at the gold he wears.’

  As they drew nearer Bjarni said, ‘Thor! But look at the ship

  he sailed in. It is nothing more than tarry hides spread over a long basket of willow-wands. To have come so far in such a cockle-shell!’

  Thorhall nodded grimly. ‘I know these folk,’ he said. ‘They are not brave in the way we are, but they are a very old people who know some things that we o
f the north have not yet learned about sailing.’

  Bjarni scoffed and said, ‘Well, he has not learned to keep afloat as far as land, anyway.’

  ‘No,’ said Thorhall thoughtfully, ‘but he has learned enough to fetch us down the fjord to pick him up, and that was no easy thing.’

  They saw that the young man had dark brown hair with red glints in it like bronze. He was very pale-faced and had strange green eyes. At first he was hissing like a wild cat, but as they stood off an oar’s length he called out to them in good Norse, ‘Throw me a rope and pull me in. Make haste, my fingers are giving way.’

  Bjarni said to Thorhall, ‘He commands us as though we were thralls. I have half a mind to pull away and leave him to the sea.’

  But Thorhall shook his head. ‘Do as he asks,’ he said. ‘I have a feeling that it will be better that way.’

  He caught the rope they flung and then jumped aboard as spry as a lark. The first thing he did was to draw his long iron dirk from his leather belt and to wipe its blade carefully on a sheepskin that lay aboard. It was a black-looking weapon with a vicious edge. When he had done this he looked at Bjarni and said, ‘Take me to Leif Eiriksson now.’

  While Bjarni gasped at the young man’s pride, Thorhall said, ‘Are you sure that Leif will want to see you, Redshanks?’

  The young man snarled a little at him, then said, ‘It will be best for him if he does. I think he has been waiting for me these many years. Turn your ship round and set course. I am cold and hungry. I am not used to being kept waiting.’

  Then he went to the after-cabin and made himself comfortable on Bjarni’s thong chair without asking the shipmaster’s leave. Bjarni was about to go for him, but Thorhall drew him back and whispered, ‘Steady, old friend. Do not start something you cannot finish. It is my guess that this lad knows how to use that pig-sticker of his, and you have left your axe at home.’