by Griff Hosker
Left alone with Long Sight I asked, “Were many warriors lost?”
He shook his head, “You amaze me, Erik, Shaman of the Bear. You are near to death yourself and yet when you awake you think of the others. We lost eight warriors and that is sad but each of them has sons who will grow under the protection of the tribe. And you, what are your plans?”
I laughed and it hurt me, “To see the sky and the trees, to play with my son and to lie with my wife. When time allows, I will speak with Laughing Deer and decide but for now, I am content to stay with the tribe for this is my home.”
He nodded, “For as long as you wish!”
The End
Norse Calendar
Gormánuður October 14th - November 13th
Ýlir November 14th - December 13th
Mörsugur December 14th - January 12th
Þorri - January 13th - February 11th
Gói - February 12th - March 13th
Einmánuður - March 14th - April 13th
Harpa April 14th - May 13th
Skerpla - May 14th - June 12th
Sólmánuður - June 13th - July 12th
Heyannir - July 13th - August 14th
Tvímánuður - August 15th - September 14th
Haustmánuður September 15th-October 13th
Glossary
Afen- River Avon
Afon Hafron- River Severn in Welsh
Àird Rosain – Ardrossan (On the Clyde Estuary)
Balley Chashtal -Castleton (Isle of Man)
Bebbanburgh- Bamburgh Castle, Northumbria is also known as Din Guardi in the ancient tongue
Beck- a stream
Beinn na bhFadhla- Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides
Blót – a blood sacrifice made by a jarl
Bondi- Viking farmers who fight
Bjarnarøy –Great Bernera (Bear Island)
Bjorr – Beaver
Byrnie- a mail or leather shirt reaching down to the knees
Càrdainn Ros -Cardross (Argyll)
Chape- the tip of a scabbard
Cyninges-tūn – Coniston. It means the estate of the king (Cumbria)
Dùn Èideann –Edinburgh (Gaelic)
Drekar- a Dragon ship (a Viking warship) pl. drekar
Duboglassio –Douglas, Isle of Man
Dun Holme- Durham
Dún Lethglaise - Downpatrick (Northern Ireland)
Dyrøy –Jura (Inner Hebrides)
Dyflin- Old Norse for Dublin
Eoforwic- Saxon for York
Føroyar- Faroe Islands
Fey- having second sight
Firkin- a barrel containing eight gallons (usually beer)
Fret-a sea mist
Fyrd-the Saxon levy
Gaill- Irish for foreigners
Galdramenn- wizard
Hersey- Isle of Arran
Hersir- a Viking landowner and minor noble. It ranks below a jarl
Hí- Iona (Gaelic)
Hjáp - Shap- Cumbria (Norse for stone circle)
Hoggs or Hogging- when the pressure of the wind causes the stern or the bow to droop
Hrams-a – Ramsey, Isle of Man
Hundred- Saxon military organization. (One hundred men from an area-led by a thegn or gesith)
Hwitebi- Norse for Whitby, North Yorkshire
Jarl- Norse earl or lord
Joro-goddess of the earth
kjerringa - Old Woman- the solid block in which the mast rested
Knarr- a merchant ship or a coastal vessel
Kyrtle-woven top
Ljoðhús- Lewis
Lochlannach – Irish for Northerners (Vikings)
Lough- Irish lake
Lundenburh/Lundenburgh- the walled burh built around the old Roman fort
Lundenwic - London
Mast fish- two large racks on a ship designed to store the mast when not required
Mockasin- Algonquin for moccasin
Midden- a place where they dumped human waste
Miklagård - Constantinople
Njörðr- God of the sea
Nithing- A man without honour (Saxon)
Odin- The "All Father" God of war, also associated with wisdom, poetry, and magic (The Ruler of the gods).
Onguiaahra- Niagara (It means the straits)
Orkneyjar-Orkney
Ran- Goddess of the sea
Roof rock- slate
Saami- the people who live in what is now Northern Norway/Sweden
Samhain- a Celtic festival of the dead between 31st October and 1st November (Halloween)
Scree- loose rocks in a glacial valley
Seax – short sword
Sennight- seven nights- a week
Sheerstrake- the uppermost strake in the hull
Sheet- a rope fastened to the lower corner of a sail
Shroud- a rope from the masthead to the hull amidships
Skræling -Barbarian
Skeggox – an axe with a shorter beard on one side of the blade
Skíð -the Isle of Skye
Skreið- stockfish (any fish which is preserved)
Smoky Bay- Reykjavik
Snekke- a small warship
Stad- Norse settlement
Stays- ropes running from the masthead to the bow
Strake- the wood on the side of a drekar
Suðreyjar – Southern Hebrides (Islay)
Syllingar Insula, Syllingar- Scilly Isles
Tarn- small lake (Norse)
The Norns- The three sisters who weave webs of intrigue for men
Thing-Norse for a parliament or a debate (Tynwald in the Isle of Man)
Thor’s day- Thursday
Threttanessa- a drekar with 13 oars on each side.
Thrall- slave
Trenail- a round wooden peg used to secure strakes
Tynwald- the Parliament on the Isle of Man
Úlfarrberg- Helvellyn
Úlfarrland- Cumbria
Úlfarrston- Ulverston
Ullr-Norse God of Hunting
Ulfheonar-an elite Norse warrior who wore a wolf skin over his armour
Veisafjǫrðr – Wexford (Ireland)
Verðandi -the Norn who sees the future
Volva- a witch or healing woman in Norse culture
Waeclinga Straet- Watling Street (A5)
Walhaz -Norse for the Welsh (foreigners)
Waite- a Viking word for farm
Wapapyaki -Wampum
Withy- the mechanism connecting the steering board to the ship
Woden’s day- Wednesday
Wulfhere-Old English for Wolf Army
Wyddfa-Snowdon
Wykinglo- Wicklow (Ireland)
Wyrd- Fate
Wyrme- Norse for Dragon
Yard- a timber from which the sail is suspended
Ynys Enlli- Bardsey Island
Ynys Môn-Anglesey
Historical Note
I use my vivid imagination to tell my stories. I am a writer and this book is very much a ‘what if’ sort of book. We now know that the Vikings reached further south in mainland America than we thought. Just how far is debatable. The evidence we have is from the sagas. Vinland was named after a fruit which could be brewed into wine was discovered. It does not necessarily mean grapes. King Harald Finehair did drive many Vikings west but I cannot believe that they would choose to live on a volcanic island if they thought there might be better lands to the south and west of them.
I have my clan reaching Newfoundland and sailing down the coast of Nova Scotia. The island I call Bear Island is Isle Au Haut off the Maine coast. Grey Fox island and (Horse) Deer Island can also be found there. The Indigenous people, the Miꞌkmaq, inhabited the northeastern coast of America. In the summer they would migrate to the coast and in winter, when there were fewer flies, they would retreat back to the hinterland. The maps are how Erik might have mapped them. Butar’s deer are caribou and the horse deer are moose. Both were native to the region.
For the voyage, I used the records of single-handed sailings and rowi
ng of the Atlantic.
The Vikings were a complicated people. Forget movies where they wear horned helmets and spend all their time pillaging. They did pillage and they could be cruel but they were also traders and explorers. The discovery of Iceland and after that Greenland and America has been put down to the attempt by King Harald Finehair to create a Viking Empire. True Vikings never liked kings. Rather than be taxed they sought new lands. Iceland was empty and bare but they made it their home.
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/daily_living/text/Demographics.htm is a good website with some interesting stats. In 1000 AD 75% of Vikings were under 50 and under 15s represented half! A boy was considered a fully-grown man by the time he was 16. A man could be a judge at the age of 12. Helgi and Bergr were 10 and 12 when they avenged their father by killing his killer. We cannot imagine their world.
The compass I refer to was used in the Viking times. There is a Timewatch programme made by the BBC in which Robin Knox Johnston uses the compass to sail from Norway to Iceland. He was just half a mile out when he arrived.
On average, a Viking longship went about 5-10 knots (5.5 - 11 mph). Under very favourable conditions, they could reach 15 knots (17 mph). Therefore sailing during daylight they would cover between one hundred and one hundred and twenty miles. Sailing without stopping, under reefed sails, they would cover between one hundred and ten and one hundred and fifty miles.
A word about honey in the new world. One of my readers pointed out that the honeybee was not introduced into North America until the first Europeans came over. I found this hard to believe as honey is found on every other continent. I discovered that the Mayan’s used honey from a stingless bee. I will continue, therefore, to allow Gytha to brew mead from honey and for my Vikings to use it for wounds. I am working on the principle that if the Mayans had it then another tribe might have been as resourceful!
I have had to use my imagination a great deal for I am writing about a time 600 years before the next Europeans visited the New World. The tribes who were found in North-eastern America would have evolved in that six hundred years. The landscape would, largely, be the same but the people would have different alliances, tribal areas and, perhaps, organization. I have used a dwarf deer in the story as there were such dwarf deer in the rest of the world. In south-east Asia, they continue to thrive but one species, Candiacervus, became extinct in Europe after the last Ice Age and when man was first colonising the northern lands. As I say, this is a what-if book- welcome to my mind!
I used the following books for research:
Vikings- Life and Legends -British Museum
Saxon, Norman and Viking by Terence Wise (Osprey)
The Vikings (Osprey) -Ian Heath
Byzantine Armies 668-1118 (Osprey)-Ian Heath
Romano-Byzantine Armies 4th-9th Century (Osprey) -David Nicholle
The Walls of Constantinople AD 324-1453 (Osprey) -Stephen Turnbull
Viking Longship (Osprey) - Keith Durham
The Vikings in England Anglo-Danish Project
Anglo Saxon Thegn AD 449-1066- Mark Harrison (Osprey)
Viking Hersir- 793-1066 AD - Mark Harrison (Osprey)
Hadrian's Wall- David Breeze (English Heritage)
National Geographic- March 2017
Time Life Seafarers-The Vikings Robert Wernick
Griff Hosker
February 2020
Other books by Griff Hosker
If you enjoyed reading this book, then why not read another one by the author?
Ancient History
The Sword of Cartimandua Series
(Germania and Britannia 50 A.D. – 128 A.D.)
Ulpius Felix- Roman Warrior (prequel)
The Sword of Cartimandua
The Horse Warriors
Invasion Caledonia
Roman Retreat
Revolt of the Red Witch
Druid’s Gold
Trajan’s Hunters
The Last Frontier
Hero of Rome
Roman Hawk
Roman Treachery
Roman Wall
Roman Courage
The Wolf Warrior series
(Britain in the late 6th Century)
Saxon Dawn
Saxon Revenge
Saxon England
Saxon Blood
Saxon Slayer
Saxon Slaughter
Saxon Bane
Saxon Fall: Rise of the Warlord
Saxon Throne
Saxon Sword
Medieval History
The Dragon Heart Series
Viking Slave
Viking Warrior
Viking Jarl
Viking Kingdom
Viking Wolf
Viking War
Viking Sword
Viking Wrath
Viking Raid
Viking Legend
Viking Vengeance
Viking Dragon
Viking Treasure
Viking Enemy
Viking Witch
Viking Blood
Viking Weregeld
Viking Storm
Viking Warband
Viking Shadow
Viking Legacy
Viking Clan
Viking Bravery
The Norman Genesis Series
Hrolf the Viking
Horseman
The Battle for a Home
Revenge of the Franks
The Land of the Northmen
Ragnvald Hrolfsson
Brothers in Blood
Lord of Rouen
Drekar in the Seine
Duke of Normandy
The Duke and the King
New World Series
Blood on the Blade
Across the Seas
The Savage Wilderness
The Bear and the Wolf
The Reconquista Chronicles
Castilian Knight
The Aelfraed Series
(Britain and Byzantium 1050 A.D. - 1085 A.D.)
Housecarl
Outlaw
Varangian
The Anarchy Series England
1120-1180
English Knight
Knight of the Empress
Northern Knight
Baron of the North
Earl
King Henry’s Champion
The King is Dead
Warlord of the North
Enemy at the Gate
The Fallen Crown
Warlord's War
Kingmaker
Henry II
Crusader
The Welsh Marches
Irish War
Poisonous Plots
The Princes’ Revolt
Earl Marshal
Border Knight
1182-1300
Sword for Hire
Return of the Knight
Baron’s War
Magna Carta
Welsh Wars
Henry III
The Bloody Border
Baron’s Crusade
Sentinel of the North
Lord Edward’s Archer
Lord Edward’s Archer
King in Waiting
Struggle for a Crown
1360- 1485
Blood on the Crown
To Murder A King
The Throne
King Henry IV
The Road to Agincourt
Tales from the Sword
Modern History
The Napoleonic Horseman Series
Chasseur a Cheval
Napoleon’s Guard
British Light Dragoon
Soldier Spy
1808: The Road to Coruña
Talavera
The Lines of Torres Vedras
The Lucky Jack American Civil War series
Rebel Raiders
Confederate Rangers
The Road to Gettysburg
The British Ace Series
1914
1915 Fokker Scourge
1916 Angels over the Somme
1917 Eagles Fall
1918 We will remember them
From Arctic Snow to Desert Sand
Wings over Persia
Combined Operations series
1940-1945
Commando
Raider
Behind Enemy Lines
Dieppe
Toehold in Europe
Sword Beach
Breakout
The Battle for Antwerp
King Tiger
Beyond the Rhine
Korea
Korean Winter
Other Books
Great Granny’s Ghost (Aimed at 9-14-year-old young people)
For more information on all of the books then please visit the author’s web site at www.griffhosker.com where there is a link to contact him or visit his Facebook page: GriffHosker at Sword Books