Wræcca
Page 27
Below them, off to the West, the sound of the battle horns drifted up to them announcing the start of the final attack on the tattered remnants of Hythcyn’s army, still cowering inside the fire scorched hunting lodge.
Arni stopped his horse and peered anxiously back towards the sound of the distant clash as the fighting was renewed.
Cola turned and smiled at the genial Swede.
“You would never make it. It would all be over long before you got even half way back along that poor excuse for a road.”
Gunnar supported his friend.
“He’s right for once. It would take you hours to get back there and Beowulf needs you.”
To their surprise Arni still looked disturbed as he chewed nervously on his lower lip.
The light of the full dawn was upon them now, its fingers burrowing slowly into the valleys below.
Cola threw his brand to one side and walked his horse back to the young Swede.
“What’s wrong Arni?”
Arni jumped, as if he had forgotten that they were even there. He looked at Cola uneasily.
“The horns.”
Cola nodded, confused by his reaction.
“Yes, the battle horns. They herald an attack, what of it?”
Arni swung himself back onto his mount and turned its head southwards. Looking down at Cola he continued.
“Do you remember the sound they made before the Bison attacked yesterday morning?”
Cola looked over to Gunnar for help.
What was he trying to say?
Gunnar answered the question for him.
“There was no sound. King Ongentheow shouted the battle cry and spurred his horse into the attack.”
Arni nodded grimly at Gunnar as he began to understand.
Cola watched, uncomprehending, as the colour began to drain from his friend's face. Finally Gunnar looked down at him and explained.
“The Swedes never use battle horns.”
MONSTERS
Afterword
Based on a poem first written down over one thousand years ago and relating events from a pagan, illiterate past, the Beowulf manuscript could never be considered a ‘History’ in any modern sense. Fortunate though we are to have the writings of Saxo Grammaticus and Snorri Sturluson to guide us, there is no doubt that a vast amount of knowledge has been lost over the centuries.
We do know from other sources that the main points of our tale are firmly anchored in real events which took place during that far off time. Although the existence of a real, flesh and blood, Beowulf is very unlikely, the battles at Sorrow Hill and Ravenswood are believed to be historical fact and the existence of the other main players in our tale, Ongentheow, Ohthere, Eanmund and Edgils on the Swedish side and Hygelac, Hythcyn and Heardred of the Geats most certainly are.
However much we would all love a ‘History of the North 501-550 AD’ volume to be discovered in a dusty Roman catacomb or hill top monastery we will have to live with the fact that it is extremely unlikely. Thankfully the historian’s loss is the novelists gain. I have attempted to weave my tale in and around the few fixed points which are known to us.
The practice of concentrating ships into one large ‘fighting platform’ was known to have occurred in the North at a slightly later date and there is no reason to suppose that this obvious method of coming to grips with the enemy is anachronistic here. The Heimskringla, the Lives of the Norse Kings, tells of a battle outside Solskel in the late ninth century between the forces of King Harold Hairfair and King Arnvid and describes how, “It was then the custom when they fought on ships to lash the ships together and fight on the stems.”
One of Beowulf’s boasts in Heorot is that he raided a troll’s nest. I chose to base the trolls on Neanderthal’s. The classic description of a troll in medieval Scandinavia is that they were ‘bigger than people but extraordinary ugly’. Modern analysis has concluded that there is between 1% and 4% Neanderthal DNA in most present day populations of the World and that their larger body size and light skin and hair colouring were ideally suited for colder climates. Although most known traces of Neanderthals are typically from places in Southern, Central Europe and the Middle East it made sense to me that they would have retreated northwards with the ice sheets under increasing pressure from populations of ‘modern’ humans. Perhaps evidence for their later survival in Northern Scandinavia still awaits discovery?
Nithing poles, sometimes called Scorn poles, were a powerful, public, form of insult in Northern society at this time. Horses held powerful associations with the gods for Germanic pagan society and their use in this context was seen as powerful magic. Occasionally the object of scorn was depicted taking the most common female position in the sex act. Such attacks on a man’s character and honour were of course attacks on his ‘reputation’ and therefore diminished the chances of his deeds in life outliving him. As Woden himself tells Beowulf in volume one,
“...glory and reputation never die for the man who is able to achieve it in his lifetime.”
Beowulf’s act forces Hythcyn’s hand, as intended, with tragic consequences for them both.
In declaring Beowulf a Wulfes Heafod, a Wolf’s Head, he places Beowulf outside the protection of the law. He was denied food or shelter and could be killed without incurring a wergild or compensation payment. ‘Aiding and Abetting’ a Wolf’s Head risked joining him in outlawry. It was in effect a virtual death sentence.
The temple at Uppsala I have based on contemporary descriptions from the very end of the Scandinavian Pagan period and the magnificent ‘Stave Churches’ of Norway. There really was a golden chain encircling the temple and there are several sources which describe the sacrifices which took place at the disablot every nine years.
One of the historic facts that we can know for certain to have occurred which are related in the Beowulf poem is the death of the Geat King Hythcyn at the Battle of Ravenswood. Again there is no evidence that his character was as I have chosen to portray it and I again ask his spirit for forgiveness.
A theme which runs through this volume like a dark stain is the effects of Beowulf’s ‘affliction’. Those of you who have read the first volume in this series, Sorrow Hill, will most likely be able to pinpoint the incident which is responsible for his worsening condition. It would have been common at this time to attribute medical conditions with no obvious cause such as a visible wound to the malevolence of elves or gods.
In the final volume of our trilogy we discover if the cure for Beowulf's 'elf shot' lies within the capabilities of the local cunning woman or whether more drastic action is needed to enable him to fulfil his wyrd and finally 'cross the sea to fight a creature that could not be killed or harmed by metal blades'-The Grendel.
Cliff May
East Anglia
June 2013
Characters
ALFHELM – Ealdorman of Geatwic.
ÆSCHERE – Danish leader.
ÆTHELHILD – Swedish cwen.
ALF – Ohthere's hearth warrior.
AMUND – Jarl of Lionga.
ARNI – A Swedish warrior. The young son of Jarl Amund.
ASGRIM – A Swedish wizard.
BERTHA – Mother of Beowulf's hearth warrior, Finn.
BJALKI – Ecgtheow's hearth warrior.
BOTOLF – Geat ship master.
COLA – An Englishman, Beowulf's hearth warrior.
EADGILS – Second son of Ohthere.
EANMUND – Ohthere's eldest son.
ECGTHEOW – Ealdorman. Beowulf's father.
EGIL – King Ongentheow's ship master.
EIRIK – Ohthere's ship master.
FINN – Beowulf's hearth warrior.
GUNNAR – Beowulf's hearth warrior.
HALLDIS – Ohthere's daughter.
HARALD – A Danish ship reeve.
HEARDRED – Beowulf's cousin, son of Hygelac.
HELGI – Ship master at Trondelag, brother of Hjalti the smith.
HEREBEALD – Beowulf's unc
le, killed by his brother Hythcyn.
HJALTI – Sword smith at Ost Sund, brother of Helgi.
HONDSCIO – A Geat warrior.
HOSKULD – Ohthere's thegn.
HRANI – The god Woden.
HRAPP – A Geat farmer.
HRETHEL – Beowulf's maternal grandfather, King of Geats.
HROTHGAR – King of Dane land.
HUDDA – Ecgtheow's ship master.
HUNWALD – A Jute leader.
HYGD – Beowulf's aunt, mother of Heardred.
HYTHCYN – King of Geats. Beowulf's uncle.
KAIJA – Beowulf's friend. A Priestess at the temple in Miklaborg.
KORMAK – Leader of King Ongentheow's bodyguard.
OHTHERE – Eldest son of King Ongentheow.
ONGENTHEOW – King of Swede Land.
ONELA – Youngest son of Ongentheow.
ORME – Ecgtheow's hearth warrior.
OTTAR – Thegn at North Market.
SIGHERE – Geat warrior.
SIGRID – Beowulf's mother.
SKAMKEL – Ohthere's thegn.
SWERTING – Beowulf's great grandfather. Founder of the dynasty.
TATWINE – A Geat warrior.
THORSTEIN – Beowulf's ‘Troll Lord’
TINY – A Crewman on Ecgtheow's dracca.
TOFI – A Geat fisherman.
UCCA – A Crewman on Ecgtheow's dracca.
ULF – A Geat warrior, veteran of the fighting at Sorrow Hill.
VALESKA – Ohthere's wife.
YRSE – Onela's wife, sister of the Danish King Hrothgar.
Places/Locations
BALTIC - The Baltic Sea.
BORGHUND – The island of Bornholm.
BRITANNIA – The ex Roman province.
FROSON – An island in Storsjon Lake, Jamtland.
GEATWIC – Gothenburg, Vastra Gotland.
GERMAN SEA – The present day North Sea/North Atlantic.
GOTALAND – The island of Gotland.
HELSINGJABOTN – The Gulf of Bothnia.
KVAREN SEA – The Sea of Aland.
LIONGA – Linkoping, Ostergotland.
MIKLABORG – Kungalv, Vastra Gotaland.
MOTALA – Motala, Ostergotland.
NOREGR – The ‘North Way’, Norway.
NOVGOROD – Veliky Novgorod, Russia.
NORTH MARKET – Norrkoping, Ostergotland.
NYEN – St Petersburg, Russia.
OST SUND – Ostersund, Jamtland.
SANDY ISLAND – Gotska Sandon, north of Gotland.
SIGTUN – Sigtuna, Stockholm county.
STOCK HOLM – Stockholm.
SVARTVIK – South of Sundsvall, Vasternorrland.
TELJE – Sodertalje, Stockholm county.
TOROBORG – A palisaded hall at the mouth of the Malaren river, Stockholm county.
TRONDELAG – Trondheim, Norway.
UPPSALA – Gamla Uppsala, Uppland.
ZETLAND – The Shetland Isles.
About the Author
I am writer of historical fiction, working primarily in the early Middle Ages. I have always had a love of history which led to an early career in conservation work. Using the knowledge and expertise gained we later moved as a family through a succession of dilapidated houses which I single-handedly renovated. These ranged from a Victorian townhouse to a Fourteenth Century hall, and I added childcare to my knowledge of medieval oak frame repair, wattle and daub and lime plastering. I have crewed the replica of Captain Cook’s ship, Endeavour, sleeping in a hammock and sweating in the sails and travelled the world, visiting such historic sites as the Little Big Horn, Leif Eriksson’s Icelandic birthplace and the bullet scarred walls of Berlin’s Reichstag.
Now I write, only a stone's throw from the Anglian ship burial site at Sutton Hoo in East Anglia.
Also by C.R.May
MONSTERS
DAYRAVEN
FIRE & STEEL
GODS OF WAR
THE SCATHING
BLOODAXE
THE RAVEN AND THE CROSS
TERROR GALLICUS
NEMESIS
SORROW HILL