Viking Legend (3 page)

I had had trouble many years earlier and fought a hothead who had lived in the islands.  My name was known “It is a starting place.  Set course for Ljoðhús, Erik.”

It was getting on for dusk when we saw Ljoðhús.  It was a large island and there was a stockade and palisade around the huts. They knew how to defend.  The question was, against whom?  I saw three drekar bobbing in the bay as well as three small knarr.  We were arriving without shields but that did not guarantee a good welcome. I made sure that we came in slowly so that, by the time we had stopped, there was a group of warriors to meet and to greet us. I had no doubt that my ship was recognised but I had made many enemies in my life and I did not know if one of them was here.  At least Magnus’ ship was not in the harbour.

I stepped ashore flanked by Aiden and Haaken. The warrior who approached me had a long scar running down his face.  It looked as though it had been stained when it was healing for it was a bluish purple colour and his arms were covered in warriors’ bands.  He had fought, successfully, it seemed.

He held out his hand, “I am Thorfinn Blue Scar.” He gestured towards my drekar.  “From your sail you must be Jarl Dragonheart, the Ulfheonar.”

“I am.”

“I see that you come in peace but you come uninvited to my island.”

“I did not know that you forbade visitors.  Is this the King’s will?”

I noticed a frown appear, “The King is far away in Norway and he trusts me to watch out for his interests here on
Ljoðhús.”

“Then I am a timely visitor. We are looking for trade with this land.  You have fine seal oil and seal skins.”

“We do. But what can you offer in trade?”

“We have timber.” I waved a hand around the island which plainly had no trees. “I can see that you have a shortage.” He nodded. “And we have stone.”

“We have stone aplenty.”

“And there are the metals, iron and copper as well as weapons.”

That convinced him.  I saw his eyes widen when I mentioned them. “You have, as I recall, a sword touched by the Gods.  Are all your swords as magical?”

“I would be foresworn if I said so and I only speak the truth. The sword was made by my smith and it was a powerful weapon before Odin touched it.  Now it is magical. I cannot promise the same for all Bjorn’s swords. But they are the finest swords this side of Frankia.  Some would say in the whole world but that would be boasting.”

I was watching the reaction of the others and they were impressed. I think that Thorfinn Blue Scar was trying to remain impassive but he failed. He nodded, “Then you are welcome. We would dearly like to trade for fine weapons. Ask your warriors to come ashore and we will show them Norse hospitality.”

The warrior hall was very long and could accommodate a large number of warriors.  Now that he knew what we had to trade Thorfinn softened a little and became more welcoming. “What has happened to your other trading partners?”

I smiled; the stories of my exploits in the Holy Roman Empire and Wales, not to mention Wessex were the stuff of legends. He had heard of my battles.  “Let us just say that I have upset one or two former friends. I am my own man and I bow the knee to neither king nor prince.”

I saw him bridle a little.  I think he thought I was insulting him.  “The King gives me free rein here.”

“I am sure he does.  It is just that I could not do what you do. We are different.  I am not Norse born.  My blood is that of the people of Britain and Saxon.” I shrugged.  “It makes me who I am.”

We sat at his table and his thralls brought us foaming ale. “I hear your son stole the daughter of the King of Wessex and you took the daughter of the King of the Welsh.”

“Exaggerated stories.  Both ladies were unhappy.  We merely gave them transport to a place of safety.”

He laughed, “You must have balls the size of a bull.”

I laughed, “I fear no man that is true.”

“So when do you want the trading to begin?”

It was a little brusque but I did not mind.  Trading was incidental. “As soon as I return home I will send my knarr.  She carries far more cargo than I can. I did not want to send her here unannounced.  I did not wish to offend you or risk pirates.”

“I keep my waters safe.”

It was the opening I had sought. “That is good for I seek a pirate who might have raided you.  He used to be known as Magnus Slender Leg and he has a drekar with a red sail. Now he is Magnus the Foresworn and he is not to be trusted.”

He nodded, “I know of whom you speak.  He has called in before now offering his sword and his crew. You said used to be known as.  What did you say his name was now?”

“Magnus the Foresworn.  He and his men betrayed me after they had sworn to follow me.”

Thorfinn clutched his hammer of Thor. No one would contemplate fighting alongside such a man unless they were desperate. “He has two islands which he uses. As no one lives on them I allow him to use them but I have little to do with the man. Now that you have told me his true name then I will close my ports to him.  Such nithings are beneath contempt.”

“Where are these islands?”

“You will have passed one on your journey north, Dyrøy, deer island.  It is a large island but save for a few deer there is little to make a man farm there.  The land grows little but bracken and heather.  The other is not far from here,
Bjarnarøy, it is on the other side of this island.  But he is not there.”

“Then he will be at the other island, further south.”

“He could be.  I will ask Thorgeir the Clumsy.  He has a stad which overlooks Bjarnarøy. He will know.” He waved over a barrel of a man.  I saw that he only had three fingers on his left hand.  I guessed at the reason he had been thus named.  “Jarl Dragonheart seeks Magnus Slender Leg although his real name is Magnus the Foresworn.  Do you know where he is?”

Thorgeir had already drunk much and his speech was not clear.  “He is not on the islands.  I heard that he was going to sail to Norway and offer his sword to the King of Norway.” He shrugged, “Although why the King should want a runt like him is beyond me. But he seemed full of such tales.  To hear him you would think that every king wished his sword.  He even said that he was a friend of the King of Northumbria, Eanred. ”

“There you are, Jarl.  Perhaps he has fled your wrath.  You have a reputation for vengeance and pursuing your enemies to the ends of the earth and beyond.”

I nodded, “Those who hurt me and mine do not live overlong.”

He laughed, “You may not have Norse blood but you have a Norse heart. Stay this night.  I warm to you.”

I had intended to follow Magnus but it seemed it would be a fruitless journey.  We would leave the next day and return home. “Very well.  I will just go and tell my ship’s crew that we stay.”

I went with Aiden back to my ship. I waved Erik over for he had anchored in the bay. He and his crew used a couple of oars to bring her over. “We are staying the night, Erik .  I shall send some food for you and your crew.”

“You need not, Jarl. We have spotted a beach across the bay.  It is better sheltered than here. I think they do not use it for it can only accommodate one drekar but we saw some seals. Who knows we may even hunt one.  I like seal meat. We will camp there.  We will be safer for it is in the lee of the island.  I smelled a change in the wind.”

I peered in the direction he had pointed, “I cannot see the island.”

“No, Jarl.  It is hidden by that ugly little rock of an island, they call it Sgeotasaigh.”

“If you are certain?”

“Aye.  I think we will be safer.  We will be here by dawn.  Fear not.” Erik was close to his crew.  He had more crew now than we normally carried and the eight of them, mainly boys, were a tightly knit band.  They would be safe. With Karl and Cnut Cnutson he had a crew he could rely upon.

Thorfinn feasted us well.  Neither Aiden nor I tried to match him and his men in their drinking and we were rewarded with much knowledge about the King of Norway and those who lived on these islands. It seemed that the Scots and the Picts had begun to flex their muscles and there was a warlord called Alpín mac Echdach who was carving out his own kingdom on the mainland. He had been raiding some of the smaller islands and taking the people there as slaves. As I listened to Thorfinn speaking of how he would easily defeat him I could not help smiling for this Pictish warlord sounded a little like me. He was making his land safe for his people.

We all slept together in the huge warrior hall.  It had been some years since I had done so. I was used to being alone. Aiden helped me off with my armour and I slept with my sword next to me. I slept badly that night.  Perhaps it was the fact that I had not found Magnus and that it was unlikely I would in the near future.  Or perhaps it was the mass of heaving, flatulent Vikings who surrounded me. Whatever the reason I rose, well before dawn, and went outside to make water.  Aiden ghosted next to me.

I glanced at him as he too made a steaming stream into the sea. “You could not sleep either?”

“No Jarl, there is something amiss. My sleep was disturbed but there were too many in the hall for my thoughts to be clear.”

I had learned not to ignore Aiden’s premonitions. “Danger here or at home?”

“Here, Jarl Dragonheart.”

I was about to go back into the hall when a figure hauled himself out of the water.  It was Leif Siggison, one of Erik’s ship’s boys. He spluttered as he drew himself on to the stones, “Jarl Dragonheart, the captain sent me.  There are ships heading here.  You cannot see them for the island is in the way but they look to be warships.” I looked at his dripping form. “I came in a small boat but it capsized yonder in the rocks.  Luckily I can swim.”

I peered into the dark and thought I saw a pennant fluttering white against the dark night.  It was a ship. “Viking?”

He shook his head, “No, Jarl, Scots or Irish.  We could not tell.”

“You have done well. Aiden see to him.” I ran back into the hall and began banging my sword against my shield.  “Awake, there is danger!” It was my men who reacted first. 

Thorfinn stood and angrily shouted, “Who commands in my hall!”

“I do! There are ships coming across the bay and they are filled with armed men.” I knew not if the latter was true but I guessed that they were.

“Is this some kind of trick?”

“If it is then what have I to gain save humiliation and embarrassment?”

He turned to one of his men.  “Go and see if it is true.”

I shook my head and said, “My men, arm yourselves and form up outside.  We will be ready to fight whoever comes this way.”

I grabbed my mail and donned it.  I had no time for my wolf skin but I jammed my helmet on my head.  As I left the hall I was nearly bowled over by the warrior Thorfinn had sent to investigate.  “It is true, Jarl, and they have fired our ships!”

As the men of
Ljoðhús donned their armour I went outside and looked across the bay.  The three drekar and knarr were afire.  Had Erik not moved my ship then it too would have been destroyed,
wyrd
. I saw the five enemy ships. They were shorter and tubbier than our ships; they were more like large knarr.

Haaken and Snorri appeared next to me.  “I want us in two lines. Put the new men in the second line.”

Snorri nodded and turned to give the orders.  Haaken said, “Do we fight?”

“Of course we do.  We are guests. We owe it to our host.”

“I thought we would.  It is good to know the woman, Brigid, has not changed you.”

I looked at him in surprise, “Your wife did not change you. I was married for many years to Erika, remember.”

“Aye but Brigid is young and you are sporting some grey hairs. I wondered if it might have changed you.”

I laughed, “Then you do not know my heart, Haaken.  I am surprised.”

Thorfinn and his men emerged, “I am sorry I doubted your word, Jarl Dragonheart.  Whatever the outcome this day I am in your debt.” The burning drekar illuminated the advancing ships. We could see the warriors crowded on their decks. “Picts and Scots!”

“You recognise them?” He nodded. “How do you wish to fight them?”

“We meet them at the edge of the sea. They will be hampered by the waves and the sand when they try to land..”

I nodded, it was a good plan.

He raised his sword. “Forward, we take no prisoners! I want their heads along the beach as a reminder of their folly!”

Our spears were still on my drekar. My warriors had swords only. They would have to do. It was a sloping shingle beach which bordered the wooden jetty.  Thorfinn sent his archers to the jetty while we began to spread out along the beach. I could now make out the half naked warriors who crowded the bows of each of the five ships. Each ship appeared to have a leader who wore a helmet.  I saw no armour. That was a good thing. Although the ones who leapt ashore first might be the only ones who were lacking mail.

One ship was moving faster than the others and it headed for the jetty. The others all headed for the safer approach of a wide shingle beach. The twenty bowmen who were standing on the jetty began to shower the deck with arrows.  The lack of armour amongst the men on the ships and the shortness of the range drove the ship towards the beach which was safer than the wooden jetty. The jetty would be safe and the archers there could continue to pour death into the flanks of the Scots. As we watched them approach, ever closer, I realised that but for Erik we would have been surprised.  Thorfinn kept no watch upon his bay.  We would have been slaughtered where we slept.
Wyrd
.

As luck would have it the boat closest to me ground upon the shingle and the sea was filled with reckless warriors who jumped into the surf and raced towards us.  Thorfinn had been correct.  They struggled towards us.  Their legs sank into the shingle and it took more steps to reach us than it should have. It looked to take twice as much effort to move a short distance.  The shingle and the sea would sap the energy from their legs.

The first ones ashore made it to our shields quickly for they were bare footed and had no mail.  They threw themselves at our shields screaming ancient war cries. They were easily slain but allowed those slower ones with mail to begin to clamber up the beach and meet us sword to sword on the level sand and shingle where we stood.  Their leader had a hammer and a shield. He roared some unintelligible words at me and launched himself towards our line.  He brought his hammer from a long way back. His feet were still in the soft, slippery shingle. Had we fought on dry land then I might have been in trouble but the treacherous shingle conspired against him.  I angled my shield as the blow came.  He slipped slightly and the blow slid harmlessly down the side of my shield. I brought my sword overhead too but I had feet firmly planted. I caught him across the neck. The blood spurted and sprayed the men adjacent to the leader.

There was a roar of anger as the men around him saw their leader die.  I knew then those close to him were his oathsworn and they would either kill me or die trying. Haaken and Asbjorn the Strong flanked me.  Our shields overlapped. The warriors who tried to get at me threw themselves recklessly at our blades. Their swords clattered and clanged off our shields and our helmets. We sliced, hacked and stabbed at the sea of Scots who flooded from the surf towards us.  I felt a blow on my knee as a dying warrior tried to hurt me with his last act on this earth. His sword struck my long byrnie which came below my knees.

The rising sun behind them showed their reckless courage for bodies were floating away on the ebbing tide. Suddenly a spear head was thrust from behind the man I was fighting. It found a tiny gap between the sides of my helmet and the tip pricked my face.  I brought my shield up sharply and the head broke on the sharp edge of my shield.  The metal head fell at my feet. It had barely penetrated but blood flooded freely down my face. I judged that we had taken enough. “Ulfheonar! Forward! Drive them into the sea!”