by Griff Hosker
He looked at me in amazement as though this was some trick and I would kill him when he ran. I sheathed my sword and pointed. He ran, grateful that he had survived when all the rest had fallen. "Search the palace and take everything of value. Then burn the whole place to the ground. I want ashes here!"
As we entered the palace I could see that we had caught them by surprise. There were boxes and clothes all over the hall. Our women would be grateful for the fine clothes the ladies of the court had left. There were jewels too. They had taken some but others lay scattered where they had fallen. My men gathered them up. We found fine weapons and two suits of mail. We also found much food. Everything was gathered up. Nothing would be left and we would examine our finds when time allowed. The Ulfheonar were the last to leave and it was we who put our torches to the palace. Most of it was made of wood and it would burn well. By the time we reached our ship the whole of the headland looked like an enormous pyre. Smoke spiralled into the sky and we sailed down the river, with the tide.
No one spoke. We all took off our armour for we would have to row before too long. While the river carried us we ate and we drank. We had deserved it. As night fell we still saw the glow from the fire until we turned back around the western coast of the island and began to head north. The warriors took to the oars and I sat with my back against the chest. "Where did you put the treasure from the Roman fort, Erik?"
"In that chest, Jarl Dragon Heart."
I opened the lid. I saw the small chest we had brought. I took my knife and ran it around the edge of the box. If Aiden had been with us then he would have picked the lock. I was too impatient and I used my seax to break it off. When I opened the lid I saw that it was filled with coins. Although most had the head of a Roman Emperor upon them there were some which showed a mounted warrior carrying a banner from which a dragon flew. Those coins looked as though they had been minted yesterday and they were clean and sharp. I doubted that anyone had even used them. They were also on the top. As I put the fortune back inside I speculated. Someone must have found the Roman coins as I had and added some to the chest. I could not work out why but the hairs on the back of my neck told me that it might have been the one they called the Warlord. When I had found the tomb I had seen drawings and paintings on the wall showing him riding a horse and carrying a dragon banner. That was wyrd. I was Dragon Heart and the coins had a dragon upon them.
I closed the lid on the small chest and took out the pouches. I was intrigued as to their content. The leather thong which bound the pouches was so old that it broke as I tried to undo it. I emptied it on to my lap. They were green stones. Each one was the size of an eyeball. I guessed that they must be precious but I knew not what they were. Perhaps they could have been emeralds? I had heard of such stones but never seen one before.
I replaced them in the pouch and put it back in the chest. The second pouch was larger and felt heavier. I tried to undo this one without breaking the thong but I failed again. As I opened it I felt a shiver run down my spine. I could not explain the feeling. It seemed to emanate from within the pouch. I poured the contents out and the first thing which fell from it was a small metal wolf. I could not help myself and I glanced up at Haaken. He was rowing steadily as Sigtrygg called out the cadences but from his neck hung his wolf pendant; it looked identical. How could that be? We had had to take them from a hole which had been hidden since… Then it came to me. It had been my ancestor who had put these objects here. I did not know why. Perhaps he intended to return one day. I had found his sword in Gwynedd in an underground, water filled cave. Perhaps it had been his death which had prevented his return.
I knew, before I emptied the rest of the pouch, what I would find. The blue stones, which Angharad and Kara had said were magical, tumbled on my lap. I smiled at the irony. Angharad had been so close to the stones when she had been in the hill fort and yet she had not known of their presence. If she had not drugged Kara then Kara would have sensed them. It was wyrd! I held the stones and felt calmness and serenity moving up my body. I felt sleepy and the next thing I knew I was asleep. It could have been the motion of the drekar but my heart told me it was the stones. I dreamed.
I was a bird flying high above the island of Ynys Môn. I saw, below me, a column of men sitting atop large horses. A warrior came out of the Roman fort we had destroyed. He mounted a jet black horse and the column of men headed west across the island. They all wore mail and carried an oval shield. Their helmets had a point and a feather plume. They looked to be mighty warriors. I saw no faces but the horsemen rode ever eastwards. They reached the end of the island and there was a wooden bridge. They galloped across it and the bridge disappeared. I saw that a few of the warriors had also disappeared. They turned south and rode along a road which bordered the sea. They passed a half demolished stone castle and climbed a ridge. Before them was a vast Army. From their weapons they were Saxons.
The mounted men formed a line and charged the Saxons. It was a futile charge for they were outnumbered more than ten to one but still they charged. As I circled above the battlefield I could see that they rode knee to knee. They struck the line of Saxons and swept through it. Beyond them another line of Saxons appeared and the mounted horsemen swept through them. Then I saw that their numbers were fewer. As they charged each successive line more of the mounted men fell to be butchered like animals by the Saxon horde. The horsemen relentlessly sought the Saxon leader. I could see him now, quite clearly. He had a red shield with four interlocked legs. There were just three horsemen left when, miraculously, they caught up with the Saxon and his oathsworn. The three of them plunged into the Saxons and there was a furious battle. It was a maelstrom of weapons, bodies and horses. Suddenly there were just two figures left alive; the Saxon leader and the leader of the horsemen. They fought long and hard on the top of that mountain. Suddenly the Saxon leader fell as the horseman took off his head. I swooped down and saw that the horseman was wounded. Below him the rest of the Saxons raced to get at the warrior who had killed their leader. He ran but his steps grew slower and slower. Finally he could go no further. I recognised where he was as he dropped the sword he bore into the hole which lay by his head. He put his head on the ground and then he was still. I dived down to get to him but he kept slipping further away from me. He grew fainter, as though he was in a fog and then he disappeared but I could not stop. The ground was rising up to meet me. There were jagged rocks and I would be smashed to pieces. I shouted for help as my death approached.
"Jarl Dragon Heart!"
I looked up and saw the terrified face of Karl the ships' boy.
"You were screaming and the captain worried for you."
I looked up at Erik who also looked afraid. Before me the rowers had all stopped. I found I still had the blue stones in my hands. I put them and the wolf back into the pouch, returned them to the chest and then closed the lid. As I stood I saw that we had sailed all the way around Ynys Môn and we were under the baleful glare of Wyddfa.
I smiled, "Fear not my warriors. I have just been taken back in time by the power of the stones and the Holy Mountain. I know where I come from. I know my blood. Let us return home for we have much to tell and much to celebrate. We were meant to return here. The Weird Sisters had not finished with us. This was wyrd!"
Epilogue
We never rebuilt my home. It remained a blackened line of burnt wood and graves until the forest slowly reclaimed it. Within a few years the only signs that anyone had ever lived there were the seat hut which I still used and my grave mounds. Rolf, my guards and my servants were buried alongside Erika. When the forest made the landward journey too hard I took to sailing across on a small skiff I had built. It became a place of contemplation for me. I could look down the Water and almost see Ynys Cybi and the hill fort. If I closed my eyes then I saw Cnut and heard his chants as he kept the cadence in the drekar. When I immersed myself in the Water then their spirits would swirl and surge around me creating a feeling of peace. Finally, when I sat
in the sweat hut and allowed my body to be cleansed the spirits cleansed my mind and I was able to become the Jarl who watched over my people and kept their protection at the fore of his mind.
Aiden and my daughter unravelled the mystery of the wolf pendant and the blue stones. When I told them of my dreams they too took the stones in their hands and a potion which Kara made. They too dreamed. They spoke with my mother. Both of them were silent after they awoke as though they feared to speak of what they had seen. They told me that the man I had see fighting the Saxon had been my ancestor but that was not what had put fear and awe into them. They had spoken with the great wizard, they had spoken with Myrddyn. They would never tell me all that he had told them. All that Kara had said was that it was best not to know. When I pushed her she had said that it might make me a weaker warrior if I heard what he had to say.
Although I was unhappy about that I respected both of them for, from that day, their powers increased. They healed more of our people and, they began to see the future with a clarity which was truly terrifying. I had thought that I had gone to Ynys Môn purely for revenge. I had gone there to vent my wrath. I now knew I was meant to go there. The Norns had not finished with me. My story was not yet ended. I had gone berserk and lived; I had passed the test. I was Jarl Dragon Heart, the curse of the Welsh and the bane of the Saxons still.
The End
Glossary
Áed Oirdnide –King of Tara 797
Afon Hafron- River Severn in Welsh
Bardanes Tourkos- Rebel Byzantine General
Bebbanburgh- Bamburgh Castle, Northumbria
Beck- a stream
Beiti-ass -a wooden spar used to tauten sail when tacking
Blót – a blood sacrifice made by a jarl
Byrnie- a mail shirt reaching down to the knees
Caerlleon- Welsh for Chester
Casnewydd –Newport, Wales
Cephas- Greek for Simon Peter (St. Peter)
Chape- the tip of a scabbard
Charlemagne- Holy Roman Emperor at the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th centuries
Celchyth- Chelsea
Cherestanc- Garstang (Lancashire)
On Corn Walum- Cornwall
Cymri- Welsh
Cymru- Wales
Cynan ap Rhodri - King of Gwynedd 798-816
Cyninges-tūn – Coniston. It means the estate of the king (Cumbria)
Drekar- a Dragon ship (a Viking warship)
Duboglassio –Douglas, Isle of Man
Dyflin- Old Norse for Dublin
Ein-mánuðr- middle of March to the middle of April
Fey- having second sight
Firkin- a barrel containing eight gallons (usually beer)
Fret-a sea mist
Frankia- France and part of Germany
Garth- Dragon Heart
Gaill- Irish for foreigners
Galdramenn- wizard
Ghyll- a narrow rocky cleft, normally with water running through it
Glaesum –amber
Gói- the end of February to the middle of March
Grenewic- Greenwich
Haughs- small hills in Norse (As in Tarn Hows)
Heels- when a ship leans to one side under the pressure of the wind
Hel - Queen of Niflheim, the Norse underworld.
Here Wic- Harwich
Hetaereiarch – Byzantine general
Hoggs or Hogging- when the pressure of the wind causes the stern or the bow to droop
Hjáp - Shap in Cumbria (Norse for Stone circle)
Hrams-a – Ramsey, Isle of Man
Hywel ap Rhodri Molwynog- King of Gwynedd 816-825
Icaunis- British river god
Itouna- River Eden Cumbria
Jarl- Norse earl or lord
Joro-goddess of the earth
Knarr- a merchant ship or a coastal vessel
Kyrtle-woven top
Leathes Water- Thirlmere
Legacaestir- Anglo Saxon for Chester
Lochlannach – Irish for Northerners (Vikings)
Lothuwistoft- Lowestoft
Lundenwic - London
Mammceaster- Manchester
Manau – The Isle of Mann (Saxon)
Marcia Hispanic- Spanish Marches (the land around Barcelona)
Maeresea- River Mersey
Mast fish- two large racks on a ship for the mast
Melita- Malta
Midden- a place where they dumped human waste
Miklagård - Constantinople
Month of the wolf- January
Nikephoros- Emperor of Byzantium 802-811
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).
On Corn Walum –Cornwall
Olissipo- Lisbon
Orkneyjar-Orkney
Pillars of Hercules- Straits of Gibraltar
Ran- Goddess of the sea
Roof rock- slate
Rinaz –The Rhine
Sabrina- Latin and Celtic for the River Severn. Also the name of a female Celtic deity
St. Cybi- Holyhead
Scillonia Insula- Scilly Isles
Scree- loose rocks in a glacial valley
Seax – short sword
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
South Folk- Suffolk
Stad- Norse settlement
Stays- ropes running from the mast-head to the bow
Strake- the wood on the side of a drekar
Suthriganaworc - Southwark (London)
Syllingar- Scilly Isles
Tarn- small lake (Norse)
Temese- River Thames (also called the Tamese)
The Norns- The three sisters who weave webs of intrigue for men
Thing-Norse for a parliament or a debate (Tynwald)
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
Úlfarr- Wolf Warrior
Úlfarrston- Ulverston
Ullr-Norse God of Hunting
Ulfheonar-an elite Norse warrior who wore a wolf skin over his armour
Volva- a witch or healing woman in Norse culture
Waeclinga Straet- Watling Street (A5)
Waite- a Viking word for farm
Windlesore-Windsor
Woden’s day- Wednesday
Wulfhere-Old English for Wolf Army
Wyddfa-Snowdon
Wyrd- Fate
Yard- a timber from which the sail is suspended
Ynys Cybi- Holy Island
Ynys Môn- Anglesey
Maps and Pictures
Coniston Water
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Anglo Saxon London
Northumbria circa 800 AD
Porthdafarc Bay
The inlet where Dragon Heart lands and the cave where they shelter
The mountain
Historical note
The Viking raids began, according to records left by the monks, in the 790's when Lindisfarne was pillaged. However there were many small settlements along the east coast and most were undefended. I have chosen a fictitious village on the Tees as the home of Garth who is enslaved and then, when he gains his freedom, becomes Dragon Heart. As buildings were all made of wood then any evidence of their existence would have rotted long ago, save for a few post holes. The Norse began to raid well before 790. There was a rise in the populations of Norway and Denmark and Britain was not well prepared for defence against such random attacks.
M
y raiders represent the Norse warriors who wanted the plunder of the soft Saxon kingdom. There is a myth that the Vikings raided in large numbers but this is not so. It was only in the tenth and eleventh centuries that the numbers grew. They also did not have allegiances to kings. The Norse settlements were often isolated family groups. The term Viking was not used in what we now term the Viking Age beyond the lands of Norway and Denmark. Warriors went a-Viking which meant that they sailed for adventure or pirating. Their lives were hard. Slavery was commonplace. The Norse for slave is thrall and I have used both terms.
The ship, ‘Dragon Heart’ is based on the Gokstad ship which was found in 1880 in Norway. It is 23.24 metres long and 5.25 metres wide at its widest point. It was made entirely of oak except for the pine decking. There are 16 strakes on each side and from the base to the gunwale is 2.02 metres giving it a high freeboard. The keel is cut from a piece of oak 17.6 metres long. There are 19 ribs. The pine mast was 13 metres high. The ship could carry 70 men although there were just sixteen oars on each side. This meant that half the crew could rest while the other half rowed. Sea battles could be brutal.
The Vikings raided far and wide. They raided and subsequently conquered much of Western France and made serious inroads into Spain. They even travelled up the Rhone River as well as raiding North Africa. The sailors and warriors we call Vikings were very adaptable and could, indeed, carry their long ships over hills to travel from one river to the next. The Viking ships are quite remarkable. Replicas of the smaller ones have managed speeds of 8-10 knots. The sea going ferries, which ply the Bay of Biscay, travel at 14-16 knots. The journey the ‘Heart of the Dragon’ makes from Santander to the Isles of Scilly in a day and a half would have been possible with the oars and a favourable wind and, of course, the cooperation of the Goddess of the sea, Ran! The journey from the Rhine to Istanbul is 1188 nautical miles. If the ‘Heart of the Dragon’ had had favourable winds and travelled nonstop she might have made the journey in 6 days! Sailing during the day only and with some adverse winds means that 18 or 20 days would be more realistic.