Viking War

by Griff Hosker

  Two days after our ships had sailed the enemy fleet arrived. Snorri’s sharp eyes spotted the fact that there were just half the ships that Siggi had counted. It was still a sizeable number of ships and warriors. There were enough ships to carry almost two hundred warriors. The question was, where were the rest?

  “We cannot worry, yet, about the others. We need to deal with these. We will meet them on the beach. I want to kill as many as I can here.”

  We formed up in the land between the river and Úlfarrston. I had told Pasgen not to attack the enemy. If Erik and Sihtric thought we had been abandoned by our allies it would make them overconfident. My new banner fluttered bravely above my head. Tostig Sweynson held it. His father had been as brave an Ulfheonar as any and his son would defend the banner with his life. I frowned when I saw that the ships which came were those of Sihtric and I could not see the ships of Mann. Had Erik backed out or was he up to something equally underhand?

  I had no time to worry about that. My men had either bows or throwing javelins. Our shields were around our backs and our swords remained sheathed. We had spent the previous day burying sharpened spikes beneath the water line at low tide. Sihtric had come at high tide. The beach looked benign but it concealed wolf’s teeth ready to rip into his drekar. His first drekar struck the obstructions and began to fill with water. His mailed warriors tried to escape but many drowned as they jumped into deep water. Four warriors perished when they hurtled themselves into the estuary and were impaled upon stakes. Half a dozen successfully scrambled ashore, wading through the shallows. Cnut led forward twelve warriors and the six were quickly despatched as they struggled up the beach.

  Sihtric was a wise old warrior and he used the half submerged drekar as a bridge. They hacked down the mast and used that and the oars to make a causeway across the deepest part of the river. His men crossed with shields at the ready. The problem he had was that he could only bring twenty warriors ashore at a time.

  “Ulfheonar, forward!”

  The enemy braced themselves for a charge and they locked shields. We halted and made a shield wall. The arrows and the javelins came as a shock. Only a few of the missiles actually struck flesh but the ones that did not either stuck in the shields or made holes in the mail. More and more men came ashore and still they could not advance beyond the sand. To move beyond their shield wall was to invite death.

  We had a limited number of javelins and, once they were used I sent my twenty archers behind us. Twelve of the attackers lay on the beach. Drawing Ragnar’s Spirit I led my remaining Ulfheonar in a charge at the weakened shield wall. The weight of the javelins and the arrows made the enemy shields harder to lift and the first warriors we struck were all slain. I managed to kill the first. I raised my sword high and brought it down towards the head of the warrior whose spear had stuck in my shield. He tried, unsuccessfully, to raise his shield but it was too heavy and my sword split his skull. The warrior must have had a name for there was a collective groan as their hero died. I jabbed my sword in the sand, pulled the spear out of the shield and hurled it towards the warriors advancing across the deck of the submerged drekar. It hit a warrior in the chest.

  Plucking Ragnar’s Spirit from the sand I rejoined my men who were pushing back the Norse towards the ship. Once they entered the water then they found it hard to move.

  Tostig Sweynson shouted, “Jarl! They have landed further up stream.”

  I looked to my left and saw that they had managed to reach the beach where there were no obstructions. “Ulfheonar, withdraw!”

  The advantage I had was that my men would obey every command; no matter how much it went against their nature. We stepped back as one and then turned to run back towards the forest. We passed the drekar which had successfully disgorged its crew and I shouted for my men to halt and turn. I saw that two of my men had fallen. The river ran red with the blood of the many of Sihtric’s men who had perished.

  As I had hoped Sihtric’s men ignored Úlfarrston and followed us. We locked shields and the ones to the fore drew their swords. Behind us the warriors pushed their spears between us to make a wall before us while the remaining archers drew back with their bows. Once their missiles were all used they would use their spears.

  Sihtric’s men were angry and they came at us without any order. I saw one, more eager than the rest, and he almost ran into the spear which penetrated the eyepiece of his helmet. He fell dead; a human barrier for the ones behind. A spear came for my masked face. I lifted my shield and then stabbed upwards with Ragnar’s Spirit. The warrior had been too eager and there was a gap through which my sword jabbed. I skewered him. I punched his body away with my shield and swung my sword at the next warrior who was too busy avoiding his dead comrade. My sword sliced down across his neck.

  Cnut shouted, “They are outflanking us, Jarl!”

  “Back to the forest!” We had practised this manoeuvre. Every one of my men stuck out before him; spears and swords made a barrier. Then we turned and ran away. To our enemies it was totally unexpected. They stood dumfounded. It gave us the time to reach the track through the forest. The trail which entered the forest was narrow. Eight men abreast could hold it. The men with spears formed a barrier while the rest of us went to their sides in the forest. I wanted them to outflank us. I needed them to split up and avoid the killing ground that would be the trail. With Sigtrygg holding the trail Cnut spread his men out in a line to the left while Haaken did the same to the right. We were like a long arrow with Sigtrygg as the point. Tostig and I stood behind the spearmen as a lure to draw them on.

  They came on. The first warriors hurled themselves at the spears. Sigtrygg and his men slaughtered them with ruthless efficiency. I saw warriors almost fighting their own comrades to get at me. The fact that I stood there with my banner and my sword seemed to enrage them. All the time we were falling slowly back into the forest and the trap that waited them. Haaken and Cnut fell back more slowly. We were like a net catching fish. The Norse swam on oblivious to the danger from their flanks. As they tried to get around the sides they found themselves one on one with an Ulfheonar. There would be only one result from that.

  After a mile or so of retreating, Sihtric halted his men. They needed the rest. All of this was normal and to be expected. Warriors could not fight in a shield wall without rest. He thought he had more reserves than I did and he moved fresh men to the front. We kept on retreating. When his men saw us falling back it must have seemed to them that we were afraid and they had defeated us. They ran at us with their cheers of victory. Their main strength lay in the centre but Sigtrygg’s fourteen warriors held the trail and I still remained as a lure. At that moment the warriors I had hidden in the forest fell upon the Norse at the rear and the sides. We knew what was going on but they did not. They just heard the cries of despair from behind them and we remained a solid wall before them.

  The Vikings from Hibernia began to fall back. Sigtrygg and his warriors held firm and the pressure on them began to ease.

  “Now, Ulfheonar, push!”

  I put my weight into Sigtrygg’s back and we began to move forward. It had been many years since I had been in the second rank of a wedge but I knew what to do. As each face passed below my feet I stabbed down with Ragnar’s Spirit. Soon we were not just crawling forward we were running. The warriors who had been waiting in ambush were without armour. They had not been fighting or rowing for hours and they were fresh. More than that, they were keen to show their jarl that they could fight as hard as the Ulfheonar. They fell upon the raiders like furies. Sihtric gathered the survivors who fled from the trees and they made a stand at the confluence of the two rivers. It was a dense shield wall with armoured warriors ringing it.

  “Hold!” I did not want any of my men risking fighting such a formation. Sihtric had lost the battle and I would have to fight at least four other armies. I could not afford to lose a single warrior.

  The men from Cyninges-tūn were desperate to get at the invaders and my Ulfheo
nar had to physically hold them back. Sihtric was waiting for something. I think he expected Jarl Erik to come to his aid. That worried me. Where was the treacherous ruler of Mann?

  “Cnut, go to Pasgen. It is time to fire the drekar!”

  Haaken and Sigtrygg joined me. “The warriors did well, Jarl Dragon Heart. They surprised Sihtric and his men.”

  I pointed to the warriors who were standing close to Sihtric. “Look, Haaken, he only has twenty oathsworn left. The rest are his hired men. Most of them do not even have armour. When the boats begin to burn it will be interesting to see what occurs.”

  The afternoon was almost over. If Sihtric and his men wanted to escape they had two choices; get to the ships or fight us. We now had parity of numbers and we had shown Sihtric that we were not easy to defeat. There were sudden shouts from the direction of Úlfarrston and then we smelled smoke. Soon we heard the crackling of fire and as we looked south we saw the flames licking the masts of two of the drekar.

  It was too much for some of the warriors. The ones who were closest and had no armour jumped in the water and began to swim. Some of the archers notched bows. “Save your arrows for those who remain. They will not get far.”

  In a matter of moments the hired warriors were rushing into the shallow waters to try to get to the boats. I saw a single red sail flutter down. At least one ship had escaped the fiery rainstorm and was sailing.

  “Sihtric! You have lost. Surrender!”

  I heard a laugh, “Surrender to a boy and a handful of warriors? If you want me come and get me. The fishes will feast on your flesh!”

  I shook my head. Many fine warriors would die. “Haaken.”

  Haaken brought the archers all together and they began to aim at the warriors in mail who surrounded their leader. This time they were not loosing blindly. They were aiming. The slingers we had brought were even more accurate. I saw some of the boys aim at the unprotected legs. The warriors either protected their heads or their bodies. They could not protect both. Arrows found damaged mail. Stones cracked into shins and helmets. First one and then another fell to the missiles. More of those without armour risked the river as their comrades fell. The oathsworn closed around their leader and his banner. The drekar were now burning ferociously. It looked like just two had made it safely from the death trap and they were heading south.

  The oathsworn began their death song and a small ring of them remained around Sihtric. “Now Sigtrygg!”

  We all moved forward towards the warriors who knew they were going to Valhalla and were determined to die well. It is hard work holding a shield up and all of the shields were now ever heavier with the arrows and spears buried in them. My men were rested and we strode forward. The mailed men did not wait to be attacked; they hurled themselves at us. A Dane with a war axe brought it over his head towards me. I held up my shield and deflected the axe so that it slid down the leather cover. I stabbed forward so quickly that the Dane had no chance of bringing his shield around in time. I stepped forward with the blow and buried Ragnar’s Spirit to the hilt in his mailed body.

  The Dane smiled and a tendril of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. “I will see you in Valhalla, Jarl Dragon Heart.” His eyes glazed over and he fell dead at my feet. I looked up to see Sigtrygg as he dodged under Sihtric’s sword and stabbed diagonally through his body. Haaken’s sword took the head of the warrior holding the standard and then it was over. They had all been slaughtered.

  I lefty my men to begin to strip the bodies and made my way to the burning ships. This had gone far better than I could possibly have hoped. I had just reached Pasgen and Cnut when I saw them pointing behind me. The beacons had been lit. Cyninges-tūn was being attacked! Now I knew where Jarl Erik was. He had taken the route from Itunocelum and come over Olaf. I had been outwitted.

  Chapter 18

  “Haaken, Cnut, mount the men.” I looked around for an Ulfheonar I could rely on to organise the warriors who remained. “Tostig Wolf Hand. Bring the rest of the warriors to Cyninges-tūn as soon as you can. Issue the mail to as many warriors as possible!”

  We rode north as fast as we could. For the first two miles we had to go slowly for the horses would not step on the bodies of the dead and the men Sihtric had brought littered the trail like the leaves of late summer. Once through we were able to ride quickly through the darkening forest. Reaching the end of the Water I found the drekar waiting for me. “Jarl, our scouts report an army to the west of us. They estimate more than two hundred warriors.”

  I doubted that there would be that number unless Jarl Erik had emptied his treasury and bought every spare mercenary that he could. However even half that number could cause us a problem, as my best warriors would be tired. Attacking over the Old Man was a clever strategy for it would give them the advantage of height. I knew that Erik possessed archers; I had trained most of them. I also knew that he knew about fire arrows. Our eastern halls could be in danger and we could not afford to lose the herds of animals there.

  “Wait here for the men who are on foot. Take all the wounded directly to my daughter.”

  As we rode north I discussed with Haaken and Cnut what we might be able to do. “If he has any sense he will attack tonight.”

  “But how does he know what has happened at Úlfarrston?”

  “You are both right. He should attack tonight but he may wait for word from Sihtric. He does not know our land. He would risk much by coming down the steep mountain in the dark. I agree he should attack tonight and we will prepare for such an attack but I believe he will come in the morning.”

  Just then the rain began. It was one of those heavy solid downpours we had at this time of the year. Sometimes they are over quickly and men are forced to march soaked. This time the rain became lighter but continued. The ground became even muddier and the Water spilled over the beach and onto the trail. When we reached the walls of our eastern halls we were soaked and the rain showed no signs of abating. Scanlan was delighted to see me and Rolf had brought over half of his garrison to bolster the defence. We had fifty men to defend the walls. I hoped that would be enough. We sent one of the boys to deliver a message to Aiden and Kara and tell them of the victory over Sihtric Silkbeard. It seemed hollow now. It took Rolf to give me the right perspective on that.

  “I believe this was ordained, Jarl. It could have been that Jarl Erik arrived on time. Had he done so then he would have attacked us here and we might only have had thirty men or so to defend the walls. You could have defeated Sihtric and returned here to find your home captured.”

  He was right.

  “I want two out of every three men to rest. They can be relieved in four hours. I do not think that they will come tonight but I wish us to be ready.”

  I could not sleep and I joined the sentries on the ramparts looking up at the towering head of Old Olaf. I had changed from my armour and I had my wolf cloak to shelter from the rain. The two sentries on the gate close to me stood discreetly to one side. They knew I wished to be alone with my thoughts. I closed my eyes briefly and asked, in my head, for Ragnar, Olaf and my wife to send the spirits to aid us. The men who had marched from the battle had reached us but they were exhausted and it only brought our numbers up to ninety men. This was when I needed Snorri and Beorn to be the scouts. The shepherds who had reported the numbers were used to counting sheep and not warriors. They had not differentiated between oathsworn, archers and others. The makeup of the army which faced us was important. Sihtric Silkbeard had had no archers and only a few slingers. It had made our task easier.

  When dawn broke it was a dank and dismal one. The rain continued still. The light barely lit the ridge of Grize’s Dale to the east. All of my available warriors waited upon the walls. The rain meant that we did not have to worry about fire however the women and the girls waited close by in case their warriors were wounded. Every boy had been used on the walls and they stood next to the warriors with their slingshots in their hands. We could not afford to ignore any potential
weapon against Erik.

  Snorri’s sharp eyes caught the movement on the top of the Old Man. There was a ripple of conversation which ran down the walls as they were seen. They came over the top of the mountain. At first they were hard to see for there was still a little low cloud but once they descended a hundred paces we could begin to estimate their numbers. My shepherds had been accurate. There were nearly two hundred warriors. Erik had emptied his coffers to hire mercenaries. He must have been confident that we had much which was worth stealing.

  The nature of the mountain meant that they disappeared from view for a while as they came down the paths. The scree slopes were treacherous. I had hoped that they would attempt to come down them and slide to their deaths in the blue water half way up the mountain. They were lucky; they used the path.

  “Bring food and drink to the men on the walls.”

  Scanlan, standing next to me said, “They do not need it, Jarl.”

  “I know but it gives the women something to do and it will take the men’s minds off what is to come. It will take some time for them to descend to the ridge.”

  The mountain flattened off towards the bottom and then ended in a ridge some eight hundred paces from the walls of the settlement. As I looked up to the Old Man I could not help but notice how much rock there was on the scree slopes. Most of it had been created during the wolf winter when it was so cold that even the rocks of the Old Man had shattered. Aiden had said at the time that it was a pity that we could not collect them. They would have made our walls much more secure. We could have had walls as high as Constantinopolis. It was not meant to be. The gods wished us to fight from behind wooden walls.

  The food had been consumed, although I doubt that any had actually tasted it, and the ale drunk when the line of warriors began to assemble on the ridge above us. I saw what Jarl Erik intended. He wanted to put fear in the hearts of my people. Warriors would not fear the numbers who began to fill the ridge before us but the women and the children would. We could do little about it and his men slowly extended their line. There was one large rock which rose above the ridge and I saw Erik and his standard bearer as they climbed it. He dramatically stood atop the rock. He was going for dramatic effect.