When we raid we are Viking II the great heathen army

By Bob base

This is book two and in this book the Norsemen and Danes do not come to raid, but to conquer and this time they have brought an army. An army led by the sons of Ragnor Lothbrok who was slain by Aella King of Northumbria, and the Lothbrok's have taken an oath before Odin that they will have their revenge for their fathers death.And so they raised an army and landed on the shores of England.

Amongst this army is a Norse jarl with his Thanes, whilst pitted against him and fighting for his very lands is a Northumbrian Ealdorman. The two armies will meet in the field and whomever wins the battle will take everything.

   

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob base
• Release date: Jul 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386602736

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER ONE

Rolf Gullbrandson sat on the large ornately carved chair in his feasting hall he was watching as his Thegn’s drank and feasted and the large hump backed hall was full of warriors and the cavernous space was filled with sound of raised voices as men talked ever louder to each other as the Mead from the two large wooden vats in the centre of the hall slowly disappeared down the men’s throats. His lady, the lady Astrid, sat at his side still looking beautiful after five years of marriage. Her long blonde hair was plaited in intricate knots on top of her head and she wore a gown of mixed silk that once belonged to some priest in a Saxon church that he had raided, and he had had it re cut and stitched to make a stunning floor length dress that shimmered in the torchlight of the Hall whilst its embroidered sleeves and throat was some of the finest and most intricate needle work he had ever seen.

Winter was well over as was spring and as soon as the yellow flowers carpeted the upper pastures they would begin their raids, but this time the Saxons would be surprised as they were going to Wessex and not to Raid but to conquer. He might not have enough men to take the entire Kingdom. But he did have enough to take a large portion of it and hold it and who knew maybe with the Gods help he just might be able to take all of it and that was because he had heard that the present King of Wessex was weak and that he spent more time on his knees preying to his God than looking to his kingdoms defences. He had put the word out when he returned from another successful raiding season last autumn that he wanted to take an army across the sea, and his call had been answered and now sat in his Fjord swinging at their anchors were sixty ships, and more were arriving each day. Norse Land had not seen a fleet of this size assembled in one place in many a year and it was because the Kings of the North had now grown weary of their people making a barren living from rock bearing soil and so they wanted land for themselves and their people. Land where crops could be grown and animals grazed. He himself was still unsure about whether to raid Wessex or Northumbria as both offered what he wanted but at the moment Wessex was the weaker of the two kingdoms. Mercia’s King Offa had died ten years ago and he had heard that once more that particular kingdom was racked by internal war and so would not be able to offer support to either Northumbria or Wessex. There had been talk within the Kings council of taking land from the Irish but that was not where his interests lay and other Jarls would no doubt be happy to carve out their new lands from those particular people. Rolf was still lost in thought as a tall young man with long black plaited hair came up to the chair and waited until the Jarl noticed him.

Rolf felt the presence and coming out of his train of thoughts he looked at the tall man and smiled

Yes Magnus? The tall youth bowed his head slightly and then spoke in a strong clear voice.

Father Valdemar the strong has arrived and wants to know where to place his ships amongst all that fire wood you have floating in your Fjord? Rolf laughed as yet another Jarl had arrived and no doubt would require food and drink and this fine strong man stood before him was his adopted son Magnus and who was now about eighteen and had turned into a fine Thegn whilst his sons older sister had married his most trusted captain and friend Svend the grinner which had surprised everyone as Svend was at least ten years, probably more like fifteen years her senior and he was no looker as has face carried a spear scar that went from his mouth to his ear and the wound had been badly stitched by whomever had done it, and so when the scar had healed it had given him a lopsided grin and when he smiled the scar tissue forced his lip to curl up slightly on one side and this exposed his teeth more on one side than the other. But the match appeared to be love as when his best warrior was home they appeared to be inseparable and already they had two children with a third on the way.

Tell Valdemar that he may berth his own wood shaving outboard on the piers whilst the rest of his ships anchor in the Fjord. But also tell him that he better not squeeze his rotting hulk next to the real ships already berthed on my piers. Magnus laughed and grabbing the shaft of his axe which was slotted through a steel ring on his belt just in case it flared outwards as he turned and in flaring it may strike one of the revellers and that he knew would probably cause a fist fight as the Mead had flowed and was now well into the Thegn’s stomachs and once their stomachs were full it would then soak their brains and that was the problem, and it was why no weapons were allowed into this hall tonight except for himself, some bodyguards, and his father. His father had told him as these Thegn’s had arrived that some of these men now seated together within the great hall and drinking together arm in arm or arm draped over a shoulder, as if they were long lost brothers, did in fact hate each other and it would not take much to ignite that hatred. How they had come together in peace and had not yet fought only the gods would know and his father was watching closely as were some of his captains just in case a spark flared in the hall. And hopefully they could snuff it out before the spark turned into a blaze. They were also expecting ships from the Danes who had sent word that they wished to join the fleet and these were due to  arrive within the next week or so and because the town was now full of Thegn’s his father had ordered the slaughtering of a herd of cattle to feed the men that had, and were still arriving and looking around the hall and knowing that there were an awful lot more men still on the ships or within a tented camp that had been set up at the edge of their town and which used to be the home and surrounding lands of the Jarl named Aesir, who had killed Rolfs own father after he had arrived in their old village and had accused his adopted grandfather of cheating him out of his full share when Rolf had first began raiding the Saxon lands and so Rolf Gullbrandson had looked for revenge for his fathers murder and after going directly to the king he had then issued a challenge, with the king himself as witness, to Jarl Aesir to take part in an Einvigi and as the challenge had been issued in front of the king there was no way that Jarl Aesir could ignore it and so a date had been set and Jarl Aesir had to turn up otherwise he would have been declared an outlaw and banished from the lands of the Norse, as this challenge was a matter of Honour.

When the Jarl had turned up he had first tried using the customs within the Einvigi to escape fighting himself by declaring that Rolf was of a higher warrior rank than he himself was and therefore he was allowed to choose his own champion. But Rolf had informed him that he was of the same rank as he had never been advanced beyond Thegn and he had then shamed the Jarl into fighting, and so within the ceremonial ring of branches they had fought to the death with the king watching and whilst Aesir died on the ground the king had made his elevated his father to the vacant rank of Jarl there and then and as he was given the title he was also given the slain Jarls lands, ships, and Thegn’s. And the story was of the challenge was still told around the Hearth during the long winter nights. But that was ten years ago and since then his father had spent every summer and early autumn raiding the Saxon lands. The Danes who were due to join them concentrated on raiding along the coast and rivers of Francia as well as along the southern Baltic coast and beyond. But the raids into Francia had become harder since Charlemagne, who was now dead and who was the Franks Emperor, had fortified the towns and had garrisoned the isolated churches and he had a force of Frankish warriors that would ride from their forts whenever a Long ship was sighted, and the alarm had been raised. Magnus made his way out of the hall thinking of how lucky he had been given Rolf Gullbrandson as a father by the Gods.

Rolf watched as Magnus turned on his heel and made his way back towards the doors weaving around seated men and the sprawled feet as he went. He was proud of his son who had grown tall and strong and he had been trained in the way of war by Svend and even he had been surprised at how well the boy had done within the training area and last year Rolf had taken him on a raid to Northumbria and they had raided two inland settlements and he had preformed well, and had shown no hesitation on wielding the axe into any man that had a weapon or any that did not for that matter. He had also seen him slay two women and although that was a waste as the two could have fetched a good price on the slave market it had showed him that the lad would not bulk. He himself had smeared the slain peasant warriors blood onto his sons face and this had made him a bloodied warrior and he had also elevated him to the rank of Thegn on Svend’s, and the other Radningar’s recommendation and this elevation from Drang had not been given lightly or because Magnus was the son of the Jarl. It had been earned in battle and his prowess had been witnessed and so he had been proud to give his son the second arm ring. The first was a simple Bronze ring that he was given when he had come of age and swore his fealty to him, not as his father but as his Jarl and the second ring was of Gold, most would be of silver but he was Jarl and had the treasury to support trinkets to those he favoured. His adopted daughter, the elder sister of Magnus, had also been given a very handsome dowry when she had married Svend and this included not only silver but land as well and although he had been warned by Svend that he might one day find a knife in his back from this women as he had slain her parents. She had in fact shown him great affection and had taken to the Norse way of life well, and Svend would tell him if she ever had the dark moods when she thought of her past. But he had told him that she seemed to have forgotten that period of her life and with her children, who Rolf treated as his rightful Grandchildren she seemed more than content, in fact she was happy and had made great friends with Astrid his own wife and many a night they would be closeted to the back of the hall talking about only the Gods knew what.

Rolf stood from his chair and walked towards the door and as he walked up the central aisle that had been formed by placing the feasting tables along the long walls at each side of the hall for tonight’s feast and which had actually began early this afternoon and the last of the revellers would probably slump into Mead induced oblivion just before dawn, or just after. And that of course would be after the fists had been thrown and the fighters had then made up and this would occur usually in the early hours of the morning when a simple belch could be seen as an insult by those whose brains were thoroughly soaked in the Mead or Ale and after they had swung their fists and broken a few noses or teeth they would then clasp each other and swear by the gods that they would from this point on be shield mates for life. He had seen it all before and he had taken part in it himself, and would probably do so again. But he now had more things on his mind than to be a drunken feaster and it was time to greet the arriving Valdermar and his captains.

CHAPTER TWO

Sherwin Oswulf an Ealdorman of Northumbria was sat astride his horse looking at the wall that now surrounded the church at Jarrow and he sighed as he looked down onto the church from the hill that his horse had just climbed as it had been raided again last year and for the first time since the Viking raids had began, some ten years ago. It was the first time that an isolated church had held off the raiders and his Thanes had celebrated this as a great victory, and he had smiled as they had celebrated and he had not reminded them that they had only faced one Viking ship with a crew of about thirty and when they had seen this ship coming up the river under oars thy had quickly barricaded the gates with rubble and the thirty men that he had placed there as a garrison had manned the wooden fighting platforms which had been erected around the inside perimeter of the recently heightened ten foot walls. He knew that two or three ships would have gained entry simply because they would have had treble the numbers of the defenders and they would only have needed ladders, or maybe they would have made a small siege tower of some description after all the walls were only ten feet high. King Aella who had replaced Osbert some years back, after he had been deposed had recruited Thanes from Mercia as the kingdom had fallen to Egbert of Wessex. But there was unrest in the kingdom and reports were that Egbert may have lost control within the kingdom and that they may be warring on themselves as different factions sought power. Why Egbert had not marched back into Mercia and asserted his power he had no idea? But it may have to do with the fact that he had just taken the land of the Angles in the southeast of Northumbria as well as two minor kingdoms in the south and his Thanes may still be pacifying these lands. He had found out quickly though that no king had been able to fully control the kingdom of Mercia since Offa as there always seemed to be someone claiming the crown Some were legitimate whilst others were not but it was who had the strength and support as to who ruled in that kingdom. Offa the great king of Mercia had died shortly after the first Viking raids and with his passing the unrest within Mercia had began. Egbert had watched and bided his time and finally he had marched into Mercia and had claimed the kingdom for himself. But now Mercia was apparently once more warring amongst itself and Egbert at the present time appeared to be powerless to stop the warring, or assert his authority once more and these factions were now all claiming the right to rule and as each warred against the other the kingdom was in chaos and Sherwin knew that King Egbert of Wessex would be pulling his hair out at the roots as his recent conquest had degenerated into yet another war and he probably did not have the Thanes available to march into the kingdom and quell this war as well as subdue the southern kingdoms.

Egbert was far too ambitious as he had also seized Lundenwic the large port on the Thames and which Offa had once held when he too had taken the land of the Angles, and so when Offa had died  Egbert had seen his opportunity and had not only crossed the border into Mercia and had seized power but he had also marched into the land of the Angles which had also been part of Offa’s kingdom but he did not have enough Thanes to occupy all of his recent conquests and some of Offa’s Thanes within Mercia and who had sworn loyalty to him under their banner and to God had now sided with different factions and were warring amongst themselves as well as against Egbert. Some had even left Mercia and were serving under Northumbria’s banner, and until Egbert could regain control of Mercia he would have problems trying to hold all that he had taken and it was probably bleeding Wessex dry of Thanes.

The upside of this was that whilst Egbert had problems in Mercia and was still trying to subdue the land of the Angles as well as Sussex and Kent he did not have the strength to trouble Northumbria as this kingdom was too strong for an overstretched Egbert and so he was now trying to renew old alliances with his king, King Aella and if these alliances were sealed it would enable him to move Thanes from Northumbria’s borders and concentrate his forces on Mercia without looking over his shoulder at Northumbria.

Sherwin had not liked the idea of a binding alliance with Wessex because if you let a snake into your bed you would eventually get bitten. And he also had advised the king of the possible consequences of an alliance with Wessex, and King Aella had listened him, as he was now a full and trusted member of the Witan. But he also knew that Egbert the smooth tongue, would use his family through marriage to cement any alliance especially if there were any doubts about the new alliance, and of course marriage would come with silver, and possibly land which would make the alliance between the two kingdoms even more attractive.

His mind and thoughts wandered to the plague that had appeared in this land and that was the Viking raiders who had came out of the mists of the northern sea and had terrorized this land, and others for years now, and in all that time he had only fought them in a standing battle just the once, and that battle had been fought on a small hill at Hexam abbey. They had caught the Vikings as they were raiding the abbey and there numbers were equal except that they were mounted with spears whereas the Vikings were on foot. They had crossed the old Roman bridge on the Tyne as the Vikings had formed a shield wall upon a hillock and Sherwin could not believe his ears as Ealdorman Bronson, who was in command owing to the majority of the Thanes were his own men, and he also commanded fifty of the kings Thanes that had been loaned to him for the season in order to bolster the patrols along the northern border of his district and which was also Northumbria’s northern border, in order to dissuade the Picts from raiding, or to ambush them if they had crossed the river that was the natural border between there two lands. Bronson had ordered them to dismount and form a shield wall as he intended to engage them man-to-man. Sherwin had been appalled by this order as Bronson was throwing away their advantage of being mounted and the fluidity of movement that the horses would give them by being able to ride around the Vikings position and attack at will from any direction or even to attack en-masse. He had of course shouted and argued with Bronson but the fools mind had been clouded by the priests and the Bishops and it was only as they formed into the shield wall that he realised that this fool believed the words of the priests who had told them all that they were the chosen of God and the Pagans would not stand as they were cowards and had never met real warriors and as they were heathen they were despised by God and his aid in the coming battle was assured. He had taken his place in the wall and a few heartbeats later they had been beaten and Bronson was dead an Axe cleaved into his skull. And he himself had been knocked senseless and had fallen into a bramble entanglement, and this was what had saved his life as the Vikings killed those wounded that had fallen near them but they had retreated owing to a simple trick which led them to believe that reinforcements were on the way and so like ghosts they had melted away yet again.

But whilst they had stood on that hilltop these Pagans had fought like the devil was within them  and Sherwin had realised that these Norse men were true warriors and that they were also skilled in the art of war and should be respected, and to prove how good these fifty Vikings were with their axes, spears, and swords they had to bury two hundred of their own men at the foot of that hillock, and on returning to Eoferic he had told the king how these men had fought and that they had met them shield to shield and that within three heartbeats their own wall had been split asunder and the Vikings axes had rose and fell over their shields and they had also used these simple woodsman’s weapons to hook their shields which then opened them to what he assumed was their shield mate as they had at times seemed to fight in well drilled pairs.

Since that small battle and which had remained within his head and which he constantly thought about he had increased his Thanes numbers, and he now had two hundred and fifty fully equipped warriors and his Fyrd, which was from his own village and lands, numbered about three hundred and these peasant warriors were now also well trained and he insisted that they train at least five weeks of the year and away from their villages in tented camps and this was worked around the Agricultural calendar. He also had fifty peasants trained as archers and these men had become very proficient in the use of the bow.

Their early warning beacons had also proven to be useless as the coastal chain of beacons and their attached messengers did give warning of the raiders but by the time the Thanes were assembled and got to the place where the Vikings had raided all they were useful for was burying the corpses. The king himself had a raised a swift force of cavalry but these too had proven to be useless, not as warriors, but because the Vikings rarely stayed in any place for longer than an hour or two, and when they did stay for longer it was always behind ditches and palisades, or other defensive measures and good men had been lost throwing themselves against those defences only to see the Vikings once more sail away.

For two years now the Vikings had not raided their shores but he knew that they had raided the Picts, the Celts of Kernow, the southern shore of Wessex, and the land of the Irish and he had heard whilst in council that they had actually made a fortified port somewhere along the Irish eastern coastline and whether they were still there he did not know but he had told the king that he suspected that the Vikings may now be looking to settle. He had also had a row with the Bishop of Eoferic and he could not make the over dressed man see that the reason the Vikings kept coming back was that they kept restocking the churches and abbeys with books, silver, and precious irreplaceable reliquaries. But the only answer he got to his verbal warnings, and even his pleas from the Bishop was that God would protect them, and which he had reminded the Bishop that so far he had not done. And the only thing the church had actually done in response to the raids was to move a couple of saints bones to safer areas, when he had heard this he had smiled to himself as the area these bones had been moved to was more affluent areas from where they had originally been kept and these areas just happened to be where the people in the town, or who  lived and farmed near these rural churches where the bones had now been deposited could pay more coin to touch the caskets, or sometimes even the bones themselves.

He raised his eyes to the heavens and asked Wotan to protect them as he kicked into his horse’s sides and began to ride back down the hill to the Church and his son who was leading the Thanes.

CHAPTER THREE

Rolf was stood on the small bow deck looking ahead of Dragon spite as she led the fleet of sixty ships down the Fjord towards the open sea. He had three thousand Thegn’s aboard these ships and in council with the other Jarls and Captains it had been decided to raid Wessex. He also had ulterior motives to raid Wessex and this was why he had led the discussion towards a mass raid of Wessex as he himself and the king had decided to meet with the high king and it had been decided to invade Northumbria within the next two years and this invasion was to capture and hold land and as such a large army would be assembled from all of the Jarls, and even the Danes had agreed to take part. The Wessex raid was to be a feint in effect as it was going to be used to tie down the King of Wessex’s forces, and as they swept through his lands plundering he would be loathe to send any war bands to Northumbria the following year especially if they left a sizeable force within a fortified fort over the winter months with orders to harass and raid in the spring and early summer. The Wessex King would have to assume that the main force of Vikings would return to aid them. The Jarls and some of the captains had not been told this plan but the Thegn’s were ignorant of it, and just maybe they could actually take Wessex, doubtful, but who knew it was all the hands of the Gods

His sailing route was easy this season as they would not try to cross directly to the North isles that was above the land of the Picts pointing north east like a knuckled finger. Instead he intended to sail south along their own coastline and then pass the peninsular that was Jutland and which was now mostly inhabited by the Danes, and then he would turn westward and hug the northern coast of Francia until they reached a known landmark along that coastline before turning north and then they would sail across the narrow sea to the great white cliffs whereupon they would again turn west and run along the coast until they found the island that the Danes had told him the Saxons called Wiht land and which was south of the large mouth of the river Aire and this Island they would land upon and they would take it from whomever lived upon it and he would make it their base where their ships would be safe whilst they raided and walked upon the land of Wessex. He knew that although difficult in its upper reaches the river Aire led nearly directly to the king of Wessex’s own town which was called Winchester. They had discussed going down the river Temese but the town along that river had grown considerably and a few Dane raiders had tried to take this port town a year or so ago, but they had failed and although there were islands on the river where they could secure their ships and fortify the island whilst they swept inland he did not want to leave his ships with a large enemy town close by and as it was a trading port it had ships What type he did not know but all ships could carry war bands. He would leave that particular river and its very large town to the Danes who were rumoured to again be going to try to lay siege to the town, or plunder the countryside around it, and in order to do this they would probably secure their fleet of ships to one of these islands within the river and which they would fortify and after they had laid siege or plundered they may decide to move west and into Wessex whereupon they would join together with his own army. But the king on the strength of the Rumour had only surmised this was what the Danes were about to do.

The Danes messenger had arrived at his Hall two days ago and he had been disappointed with the message as the messenger had confirmed the rumour that the Danes were going to raid along the Temese and carry out a possible large scale siege of the port and so they could not spare the ships or men to join with Rolf, and so after feasting the messenger and plying him with copious amounts of Mead had they pried other bits of information out of him, which was sent verbally to the king and thence it would be sent onwards to the High King. Rolf had heard from the drunken messenger that they the Danes were overstretched as their ships were away and engaged in raiding many places around the Francia coast as well as in the Skagerrak and Baltic seas and beyond and since the death of Charlemagne they were now becoming increasingly wary of his successor as he had been left a strong army and he might want to flex his muscle and if he did he just might try to use tis large force to invade their lands and if the had any indication of him marching north at the head of this army they would want to assemble their Thegn’s and to do that quickly they would want to keep a lot of their ships in home waters, or at least close enough to be recalled. As they would be needed to defend the earthen walls that had been thrown up across the base of the Peninsular many years ago and had lately been repaired and n some places rebuilt He had never seen this earthen wall but he had heard about how the Danes had fought behind it before. But that was not his concern it would only be his problem if they needed help and called upon the High King for aid.

Two hours later they were out at sea and the wind was blowing from north to south and as they gained sea room from each other they all began hoisting their yards to the mastheads. Rolf watched as the multi coloured wool sails were filled by the wind and Rolf smiled as he saw the designs painted, or patch sewn onto the oblongs of woollen Cloth. His own sail was new and had a large dragon head patch stitched to the red dyed sail and as he looked at it his shipmaster at the stern was shouting out orders in order to adjust the trim, and the lattice work of ropes that encased the sail and controlled the natural stretch of the woven wool that the sail had been made of. Looking across at Svend’s ship ‘Blood Hammer’ he saw that upon his grey woollen sail was a large red stylised Thor’s hammer and although it would not look like a hammer to the Saxons everyone that worshiped the Norse gods would know what it was and they would be further helped by the red lightning forks coming from the corners of the hammer.

All of the ships sails suddenly blossomed in a riot of colour and as they caught the wind they bloomed and they were a myriad of colours and designs and it had been a long time since Rolf had seen this many ships gathered together under one command as it had been a long time since the Jarls had released their Thegn’s and their ships to take part in a single mass raid and any argument amongst the Jarls in the past had only involved a few ships fighting, or more commonly small land battles to solve the quarrel. If the quarrel looked to be spiralling out of hand the High King would step in and end it in favour of one or the other or neither.

The Danes though had assembled this many ships, and more, every other year as they liked to raid on masse, but they had recently concentrated their raids within Francia and since Charlemagne’s death the new king who the messenger had told him had a name of Louis had not so far been a ruler like his father had been and Charlemagne’s had began to defend the towns by fortifying them and this work had never been fully completed and so if they could not overcome the town of Lundenwic they had a plan in place to raid the jewel of Louis’s realm, and that was a town upon an island within a large river they called Paris. He had never seen it but if it was like the Saxon town of Lundenwic it was going to be hard to sack and they would have to lay siege to it in order to gain entry, either that or they would have to use trickery, either way it would take an awful lot of Thegn’s and he knew that the Danes and Svear’s would probably combine for a raid on this large Frankish town as he hoped that they would soon join with him and the High King to invade the lands of the Saxons in Northumbria, and that was what their King was now busy doing whilst they sailed to Wessex and he would be was gaining support and pledges for a war of conquest against the Saxons. Where they would land along the Northumbria coastline was still to be decided, and another reason for going to Wessex and engaging the Saxons was that the king wished to know how strong the men of Wessex were as they had been reported of spreading their influence into the kingdom of Mercia, as well as the land of the Angles and two minor southern kingdoms that were kingdoms in name only and I they wee conquering they may be the strongest of the kingdoms. But apart from rumours they knew little about these southern Saxons as the Danes had raided along their particular coast and they had told him little.

He heard orders shouted from the stern and some of his Thegn’s that had been securing the oars made their way to the running rigging lines and these were no longer of Bast or leather but of quality Hemp as were all of his ships rigging ropes. The raids had made the districts rich and these things could now be afforded as they traded silver and gold for the things they wanted.

He watched as his Thegn’s trimmed the sail to its optimum and then he smiled as he looked across the sea and saw that without any orders they were now racing as all of the ships started to surge forward. Soon they would shout wagers out across the gaps between the ships, but he knew it would really be between Blood hammer and Lightning streak as these two ships had been built for speed as they both had low freeboards and sharper bow strakes, their sails were also of the finest woven wool although they had tried Linen and Flax sails both of which put strain on the mast as they had no stretch, or very little, and these materials had proven to be not as efficient in the more blustery winds of the northern waters and so they had reverted to Wool.

Magnus came and stood beside his father a grin on his face as the first plume of Spray came inboard. Whose your silver on father? Rolf smiled at his tall son who had his axe through his belt loop as normal as he was very rarely without his axe and it was because when he was younger he had nearly been killed when a small Norse exiled war band from the eastern district had raided his lands and is son had been in the woods to the west of the village with a maiden named Drifa and he had been unarmed and had been caught with his trousers around his ankles and because he had been between the thighs of Drifa he had not been seen as the raiders had crept through the woods towards his village. Magnus had not shied away and he had followed the raiders and when he saw his chance he