Shieldmaiden (23 page)

‘All in the past,' he kept muttering. ‘All different now. Why rake it up?'

Lothar struggled to understand. His command of the Norse language was still hesitant. Olvir, who had appointed himself Lothar's guide, helped explain to him. He had learnt enough Frankish to be able to translate and to add a few embellishments of his own. When the story turned to how I had slain the redheaded berserker, Lothar could not hide his amazement.

‘The Mistress Sigrid did that? A lady …' he laughed and shook his head. Ragnar, grim-faced, got up and left the hall. I followed him outside.

He went down to the lake and stood in the light of the halfmoon. He picked up pebbles and threw them into the water, one by one, as if there was something below the surface he tried to kill. When I joined him he growled like a wolf:

‘You're showing me up. I'm a Manx warrior. Our women don't try to be like men and behave like, like…'

‘So on Manx, who defends the farm if it is attacked when the men are away?'

‘Why, the men who have been left behind.' The way he shrugged his shoulders made anger swell my chest.

‘Like who in this case? Who did you and your father leave to defend your family here in Buttermere?' He edged away from me but I had gone too far to stop now. I grabbed his arm. ‘When the farm here was raided, who was around to defend it? Three raids! People killed, women raped, cattle stolen. Your mother and sisters could have done with their own swords and spears then.'

He swung away from the lake and faced me. In the pale light his eyes were dark hollows.

‘Raids! Why was I not told about this?'

‘Three years you were away, Ragnar! There's been too much to tell. Nobody wanted to spoil a happy homecoming with sad news.' I could have added that, when the warrior returns, his people listen to his tales, they don't complain to him about their own past misfortunes.

He sighed and rubbed his temples with his fists.

‘I'm lost, Sigrid. I don't know the life here. When I'm fighting I know what I'm about. I'm my own man, answerable only to the king who has hired me and only for as long as it suits me.'

‘Yes, I know. It's a simple life but it cannot go on for ever. Sometime you have to grow up and …' His laughter sounded angry, like a sneer.

‘Grow up, is it! So Sigrid, warrior-queen, you think going to Norway will set everything right. You set off with an old berserker and a couple of youngsters. What do you hope to achieve with that gallant force? Norway is not a safe place. There are many who would challenge your uncle for the throne. Or is there more you have forgotten to tell me about? Is there a splendid drakken waiting for you somewhere, with a crew of seasoned warriors?'

‘Don't mock me, Ragnar Sweinson! I'm not waging war. I'm not going raiding. I think I've seen what that leads to.'

‘You say too much, Sigrid Kveldulfsdaughter!'

By now we were facing each other, shouting and waving our arms, too absorbed in our quarrel to notice we had an audience. Aisgerd, leaning on Olvir, walked towards us with unsteady step. Ragnar saw her first and fell silent. He looked shaken. Aisgerd's breathing sounded like air forced through a blacksmith's bellows. In the moonlight she seemed an apparition from Helheim.

‘My happiness has been great these last few months since you returned home, Ragnar. I am not asking that you should stay here. It is not the way of men. But remember that, as long as you are an outlaw, your son remains a bastard and can have no inheritance. I shall die soon. I would go to Frigga's fair halls with a light heart if I knew the life of my grandson was safe.'

‘Don't speak of death, Mother,' said Ragnar and I thought I heard tears in his voice. He walked off along the shore. I knew there was no need to run after him because just then the moon broke free of the clouds and painted a straight, wide path of silver on the lake. Odin showed his approval of my plans and he would make Ragnar see it too.

I returned with Aisgerd and Olvir to the house. Our people looked worried and Thorfinn got up. I waved to him to sit. The air in the hall was heavy with unspoken questions and nobody seemed able to find anything to talk about. Aisgerd sat pale and silent with Thora and Olvir stroking her arms and patting her hands. In the end the gloomy atmosphere got too much for me and, against my better judgement, I asked Thorfinn for a drapa. He thought a while and muttered to himself then he rose and declared:

Sigrid fair and fearless maiden
with her faithful followers abide
by Aisgerd's audacious son.
In blessed bountiful Buttermere
brave and resolute Ragnar
Cumbria's proud son …

Nobody had noticed Ragnar coming back. Now he interrupted Thorfinn:

‘Please stop before the gods call down a curse and punish us all for your awful poetry.'

I thanked Odin. Ragnar looked himself again, tall, handsome, his green eyes teasing and laughing, my hero as I had dreamt him and known him since a girl. His mother opened her eyes and smiled, household and guests all relaxed and laughed. Ragnar went up to Aisgerd and knelt in front of her.

‘A son can carry out his mother's request without shame. If it is your wish that I go with Sigrid to Norway then so I shall.'

A tear made its way down Aisgerd's withered cheek. She spoke with effort:

‘For my grandchildren, even if I never see you again.'

‘You shall see me a free man and you shall see my children grow to be brave warriors and fair maidens.'

Ragnar reached out for me. I took his hand and he pulled me out of my seat.

‘Sigrid Kveldulfsdaughter, shieldmaiden and ring-giver, I will not be your karl but I will be your man and your husband.' He pulled the widest, most beautiful ring off his arm and offered it to me.

‘You want me to be your karl?' My reply set the hall alight with merriment. Ragnar laughed with the rest. Had he really tried to trick me?

‘No Sigrid Kveldulfsdaghter, I want you for my wife. We shall both owe allegiance to each other. You are who you are and I shall match you and surpass you and you shall be proud of me and proud to be my wife. Thor, the god of fine adventures, has spoken to me and shown me the way my destiny lies.'

We prepared to leave Buttermere. Ragnar buried most of his hoard below the post next to the high seat. He showed Aisgerd and Lothar and told them to be careful how they used it. We took coins and such items as were easy to carry and use for payment and barter. Ragnar insisted on wearing his mailshirt, helmet and two swords.

‘You cannot hide being a warrior,' he said and so it was left. The only disguise he agreed to was to grow his coarse, red beard and to plait his long hair to make him look like a Neustrian. He would go under the name of Robert d'Ivetot, after a Viking settlement in Neustria. Thorfinn too wore full armour and Anlaf had his father's mailcoat and helmet. Ulf had a good leather tunic and a helmet his father had captured from an Irish warrior. It was old but had been polished with such vigour it shone like fire in the sun. I strapped on Dragonclaw and put my helmet in a sack behind me on my horse. My shield had to be left behind as it would not go with my status as a widow, travelling with her two sons, Kveldulf and Olvir, in the company of a small body-guard and a monk. There was some debate about whether Ansgar should be included in the party but he argued that Hakon was known to be a good Christian and would look with favour on a party with more than one devout soul in it. He accompanied this opinion with a glance at Thorfinn, who made haste to agree with him.

Lothar asked to stay behind to keep the farm safe. Thora's blushes indicated that it wasn't just the farm he was intending to care for. Bjarne argued long and well to be allowed to accompany his friend Olvir, but when I explained that Lothar would need another man on the farm, he relented and agreed to stay.

Ragnar was right, it was not an army I led but a small group of adventurers. We had not the means to equip our own ship but in Jorvik there would be plenty of traders sailing for Norway.

19.

Jorvik, capital of Northumbria, was, since the battle of Brunnanburh, in the hands of Aethelstan who appointed as his representative my uncle Eirik Haraldson, also known as Bloodaxe because of the way he killed, so they say, most of the men of his own blood. Eirik Haraldson had been King of Norway for only one year. Then my other uncle, Hakon returned to oust him. Eirik turned the prow of his sea-dragon towards Scotland and England where King Aethelstan entrusted to him the peace of Northumbria. We had this information from a trader we met in Aldeburgh.

‘King Aethelstan has both a victorious army and the support of the saints. God grant he brings us peace and prosperity.' He crossed himself. Ansgar smiled. Ragnar looked glum.

‘What's Jorvik like under Eirik?' I asked.

‘Peaceful. King Eirik is accepted by Danes and Norse alike and the Saxons are content he is Aethelstan's man. Besides he has a fearsome reputation as a warrior and they say his housekarls are berserkers to a man. I can't see anyone mad enough to challenge him.'

The news about my uncle unsettled me. All the way from Aldeburgh to Jorvik I kept trying to work out how it would affect our journey. Should I make myself known to Eirik and his shape-shifter witch of a wife or would it be better to avoid them? They would not be able to help but if they felt slighted they could make things difficult.

We camped just outside the town-walls. Jorvik was many times the size of Keswick and any of the places we'd passed through on our journey. Smoke from numberless buildings floated in the air as if the town lived under its own permanent cloud. There were vessels of all kinds moored along the river. In the town itself there were knorrs, river-boats and ferry boats. Further out beyond Jorvik we could see the tall masts of long-ships, many of them with banners fluttering in the breeze. Ragnar and Thorfinn went to ask around and find out who was likely to have space onboard for passengers. They and the two boys would offer themselves as crew so it was just me, my children and Ansgar, who would take up valuable space. They argued it would be quicker to get passage with a dragon-ship since a knorr would follow the coast and keep stopping to trade. To find a trustworthy ships master would take some judgement. There were plenty of stories about hapless passengers who, after paying for their voyage, were sold into slavery by ruthless chieftains and traders. Ragnar and Thorfinn were hoping someone from Norway might think it advantageous to carry King Hakon's niece.

We were a somewhat unusual group of travellers. Women and their children came from Norway to join husbands in England but they rarely travelled in the other direction.

‘The King will get to hear about us,' said Thorfinn, ‘and if he doesn't the Queen will. Nothing escapes her. He may have his spies but she is a seer.'

‘But why would they be interested in my business?' I was looking for an excuse not to meet this malevolent woman.

‘They probably aren't.' Ragnar shook his head. ‘But they'll want you to show the respect they think themselves entitled to. Don't offend Queen Gunnhild. She's not one to have for an enemy.'

So I decided to present myself to the King and Queen. Brother Ansgar, who knew Jorvik and the way to the King's Court, accompanied me. I was glad to have him along. I had no reason to think King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild would wish me harm but there was so much I didn't know about my mother's family. I had already seen my father killed by one of them.

We went towards the city and joined a throng of noisy people bringing food, animals and other goods to sell. The open gates were as wide as six ordinary doors at home. They hung between towers so tall they seemed to touch the clouds. The walls on either side were not as impressive – earth mounds with palisades which bore the marks of much damage and careless repairs. I was jostled between oxen and sheep and I stumbled over geese. I was pushed from all sides by men and women carrying bundles and baskets, all eager to enter the city and barter their wares. By the gate men in Norse armour demanded tax from anyone bringing goods or cattle into or out of the town. The levy was for the King, they said. I had to pay for the modest gifts I had brought for that same King. This grieved me but I thought it better not to argue.

I was relieved to leave the crush at the gates behind. The crowd spread out and I could breathe again. Inside the walls we walked between rows of fields and trees but soon the wide street was lined with houses standing so close together they almost touched. Narrow passages led between them and I spied cows, pigs and hens behind the houses and in deep cellars underneath them. We got to the river and crossed on a bridge as wide as the street and high enough for knorrs and other small vessels to pass underneath. It stood on sturdy timbers but I still thought that, surely, it would collapse under the weight of so many people and animals. There were more buildings on the other side and Ansgar slowed our progress by his annoying habit of not being able to pass a single church without entering and saying prayers for the saints. I was impatient and apprehensive in equal measure and would stand shifting from one foot to the other, waiting for him to finish. After three such detours, he said:

‘It wouldn't hurt you to join me in a prayer or two, Sigrid. I fear the saints will punish you for your desertion.'

After another two stops we came to the inner set of ancient walls. These were in even worse repair than the outer ones but the gatehouse we stood in front of was the most imposing and frightening structure I had ever encountered. It was built of stone. How any mortal man had been able to pile the large blocks so high I could not fathom. There must have been magic at work here. I leant back to see the top of the tower outlined against the fast-moving clouds. It began to lean over me. It would crash down on my head. I tried to step back and out of its way but lost my balance. I would have fallen over had Brother Ansgar not grabbed hold of me.

‘Steady Sigrid, don't look up. You'll only get dizzy.'