by Griff Hosker
I had heard that a captain called Floki had used ravens to help him find the island. We had no such aid but Coel had spoken to one of his crew. He said that the fire on the island came from below the ground and filled the air with the smell of cooked eggs which were bad. More than that, he said that the few harbours they had found were often wreathed in smoke which resembled mist. The best harbour was called, ‘Smoky Bay’. It lay on the south of the island. There was a thriving colony there. We did not mind neighbours but the clan wanted somewhere without other people. I intended to sail until our noses told us we were close. The gods had sent this wind to aid us. So long as it blew from the north and west then it would bring the smell of the island to us. We just had to find it.
The hardest thing for most of the passengers was the emptiness of the ocean. There was nothing to be seen. We had seen no sea birds since a day after leaving Føroyar. We had seen whales and seals. We had spied dolphins and sharks. That boded well for we could go to sea and hunt them. What we needed was the sight of a bird which nested on land. The passengers huddled by the mast. The exception was Gytha. One night as I sat alone at the steering board, she came to sit with me. She had made, while we were on Føroyar, some honeyed beer. She put some in a pot and placed it on the clay light pot to warm. When it was ready, she handed me the warmed drink.
“Here, nephew, is a treat. I hope there are bees in this land of ice and fire. If there are then we shall make mead.”
“I know not what there will be.”
She smiled and put her hand on my knee. “It is a stop along our journey. When we were in the battle with the pirates, I felt the mind and thoughts of Ylva. She is the most powerful of witches. She told me that there is a home waiting for those with the courage to step into the unknown. Your brother is a great warrior but you are the one with the greatest courage for you pit yourself against the sea and the Norns. Never doubt what you do.” She took the empty pot from me. “Your mother, I fear, will never recover from the death of your father. She is still a Saxon at heart and she almost stayed at Larswick. If you need a crutch then use me. I will always listen.”
That conversation changed me. Knowing that Ylva believed in me gave me great confidence. When the fog came two days later I did not panic. I blew the horn to warn the others and then shouted for the other ships to close up on our stern. The wind had almost stopped and so I had the oars run out. Lines were passed to the knarr and snekke. One advantage of fog was that while there was little wind the sea would be relatively calm and so we sailed on through the mist. Sven hung over the prow and Stig sat on the spar. Halsten and Rek peered into the murk. Snorri sang our song and those on the knarr and the snekke joined in. It was eerie as we sailed in a grey and chilled world.
The Clan of the Fox has no king
We never bow or kiss a ring
We fled our home to start anew
We are strong in heart though we are few
Lars the jarl fears no foe
He sailed the ship from Finehair’s woe
Drekar came to end our quest
Erik the navigator proved the best
When Danes appeared to thwart our start
The Clan of the Fox showed their heart
While we healed the sad and the sick
We built our home, Larswick
The Clan of the Fox has no king
We never bow or kiss a ring
We fled our home to start anew
We are strong in heart though we are few
When Halfdan came with warriors armed
The Clan of the Fox was not alarmed
We had our jarl, a mighty man
But the Norns they spun they had a plan
When the jarl slew Halfdan the Dane
His last few blows caused great pain
With heart and arm he raised his hand
‘The Clan of the Fox is a mighty band!’
The Clan of the Fox has no king
We never bow or kiss a ring
We fled our home to start anew
We are strong in heart though we are few
Suddenly Stig silenced the song as he shouted, “Ware steerboard, Captain!”
I trusted my crew and I put the board hard to larboard. Out of the fog a wall of ice which seemed to reach to the sky loomed out of the sea. I had never seen such a large piece of ice. I watched the hour glass half empty and we still had not passed it. I wondered if this was one of the ships of ice Coel ap Pasgen had told me of or was it the island? When the ice disappeared, I risked putting the board to steerboard. I trusted Stig and Sven to keep us safe. We still saw nothing.
Arne shouted, “Brother, the men tire. Can we not rest?”
The woman’s voice in my head told me to sail on. I said nothing. I peered ahead. I saw shadows and then as I sniffed, I smelled rotten eggs. “Stig what is to steerboard?”
“Nothing, Captain I… I see birds! The mist is clearing! I see land. Captain, you have found it!”
Almost as though by magic the fog parted and I saw the treeless rock that was the island of ice and fire. Sven shouted, “There is a beach! I see seals!”
I put the steering board over and, as the mist evaporated, I saw, ahead, our new home. As a flock of seabirds took flight and seals dived from rocks into the sea, I knew that the first part of our journey was over. We had found the land which would keep us safe from King Harald Finehair but my talk with Gytha told me that this would just be a stop on our journey. As the crew and passengers cheered and banged the deck, I clutched my hammer of Thor, “Thank you father and Ylva. Your voices brought us here. Now it is up to me.” There were new lands to find and perhaps, even a new world.
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 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)
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)
Hrams-a – Ramsey, Isle of Man
Hundred- Saxon military organisation. (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
Midden- a place where they dumped human waste
Miklagård - Constantinople
Njoror- 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).
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 and1st 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
Skeggox – an axe with a shorter beard on one side of the blade
Skíð -the isle of Skye
Skreið- stock fish (any fish which is preserved)
Smoky Bay- Reykjavik
Snekke- a small warship
Stad- Norse settlement
Stays- ropes running from the mast-head 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 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)
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
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
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.
St. Elphin is Warrington. The name Warrington is Norse. The nearest Saxon settlement whose name survives is Wilderspool. The same is true of St. Oswald. Its name now is Winwick; once again a Viking name.
This is the first of a trilogy. Erik will get to America. This is a work of fiction. I have no time machine. My time machine is the books I write! Enjoy!
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
November 2018
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