Viking Voices (10 page)

These visits from the Danish traders become very regular, and we soon get news from Jorvik. Their kings, it seems there are three joint rulers, have now heard of our arrival and know of Ragnald, his courage and his fighting ability. One of the kings is Halfdan, Thora's cousin. Maybe they have also heard the tales of his great treasure as that might also add to his status. Ragnald is invited to meet him and our new Danir friends are able to help him by advising how to find the easiest route to Jorvik. It is first by sea, going out of our river and then to the north. There another great river empties into sea and we can row far inland up this estuary, so sailing a lot of the distance towards Jorvik.

Ragnald has decided that we will be going soon, maybe even tomorrow, and so is planning whom and what he needs to take with him. He will take a small, handpicked group of advisers, which will certainly include me, just one drakken boat and a small crew of thirty men.

Now I have to tell Aud this news, and I cannot hope for it being welcomed by her. I hate to have to tell her and see how unhappy it makes her. We are sure to have tears and perhaps some anger too. This is the worst part of being Ragnald's closest confidante and adviser, often being required to be away from my family. She is certain to be disappointed but she is a sensible woman and she trusts me. After the tears she will realise that it is a necessary part of my duties. My role as Ragnald's adviser has been good for us; it has raised our social position and may yet bring us great wealth. If I continue to support his ambitions and he achieves the power and wealth that he is looking for I can expect to be rewarded.

The price we are paying now is to be apart at times, but she has the consolation of the constant company of her mother and mine, who are delighted to help her with little Astrithr. They both love their new roles as grandmothers, and are very good at it.

It seems likely that our peaceful, happy time here may be at an end, or, at the very least, it will be significantly interrupted.

As a consolation for Aud I have submitted to her plan to make money. The first step was to reinforce our house with thicker walls and heavier doors, just as we saw the moneyers do in Ceaster. I have made the iron casts and dies, as best I can, that will allow Brodir to cast the silver coins as Aud has planned. They are not as well made as the Anglian or Saxon dies but now the Lochlain of the Wirral have their first silver coins, though I suspect that few seeing them will recognise the head on them as the image of Ragnald. I have to confess that my dies are not very skilfully made as I did not have sufficient time to refine my skill at engraving them.

For a time at least it will earn Aud and Brodir a good living while I am away. The community will all benefit especially in gaining status as a developed society but we will benefit the most by becoming wealthier. The coins have a face value which is greater than the metal that goes into them.

My clever wife has, quite literally, found a way of making money for us.

The day we are due to leave for Jorvik comes too soon, and it is heartbreaking to have to say my good byes as the day breaks to a tearful Aud and the gurgling Astrithr at her breast, plus the two mothers. It is not a happy moment, and there is so much weeping that I feel something of a relief to get away as the boat hits the water and we start to row away from the shore. All those exhausting emotions are left behind on the shore, they are waving goodbye to me, and I wave back. The men just get their heads down and concentrate on the tasks before them, which is wise; there is a great deal to do.

This time the silver hoard has stayed behind with Thora, so Ragnald must feel he has somewhere safe for it to rest now that he is leaving again on this adventure. I have no idea where it is or whether it has a guardian beyond Thora. Let us hope that his faith is well-founded and his trust will not be betrayed. I am happier to not know about the location of the treasure, as that knowledge carries great danger with it.

We are leaving on the high tide so it is easier to find the deep water in which to move the boat easily without any danger of grounding. It is necessary to row as we cannot sail with the wind in our faces and we are organised into two crews to row alternatively. As we move downstream the flow starts to empty the water out of the estuary and we get a substantial push out of the river into the open sea beyond. Now we are turning the wind is on our beam and we can raise the sail and use the wind to assist our passage rather than row. That makes life much easier for the warriors as once again the heavy woollen sail fills and stretches, taking the strain and giving the rowers an easy time. We are soon passing the entrance to the River Mersam and get another strong push as that tidal stream moves us away from the shore. We expect to complete the first part of our journey, the sea crossing, today. Now we are well out to sea which is perhaps a blessing since we know this shore has many sand banks and swirling currents.

Soon we are passing a low lying foreland and making the slow passage to the north east into the new river, they call it the Ripam. Here we are heading east with the wind at our backs, so we can raise the sail for a time. We are in a vast, wide estuary with low land on either side, but we can see more distant hills and these are said to be where we will eventually travel.

The wind behind is us now, filling the sail, and the tide will soon start to flow with us too, so we will make good progress as long as we stay in the middle of the river away from sand banks. At low tide this is easy as we can see them all towering above us as we move up the river. As the river narrows the sand gives way to mud banks and now the tide is certainly pushing us and the water is rising. This is the best way to travel, the wind and tide doing all the work and taking the strain off the oarsmen.

We are soon passing into the river itself, away from the estuary and alongside marshes and eventually the green flood plains. Above us on the north bank we can see a sandy ridge with a village on the top, another collection of timber longhouses, so here we pull our boat onto the bank and make our way up to meet our Danir comrades, hoping for a friendly welcome.

We actually get quite a surly greeting from the red-headed inhabitants of the town, but at least it's not openly hostile or aggressive. We can buy enough food for a meal with some mead to drink as well to refresh us. Ragnald pays grudgingly for our provisions with a few of his precious silver coins. We are in a place which was called the Priests Tun when the Angles were here, and the Danir have not changed its name, though they say it as Prestune. They have, however, replaced or rebuilt most of the buildings in the village since arriving.

Although small the village has a wonderful position, high and therefore dry on a sandy, well-drained ridge, overlooking the river and well above the level of any flood. The river is close by and deep enough for boats to come here at most states of the tide, and so is very easily accessible to the sea although several hours hard rowing away from it. It has a wide hinterland with a wooded plain to the north and broad marshes to the south which are full of wild fowl. The flood plain itself is excellent farming land and the black earth that covers it is fertile and constantly renewed by silt from the winter floods.

Ragnald immediately thinks this is a better place for us to live than the current settlement. In any case that community is known as Ingamund's group. I think he must want to establish a place that is distinctly his own. I am not as happy with this idea as the people have already moved twice and are enjoying their new life on the Wirral. I have a different view of life than Ragnald as I enjoy the opportunities for trade with the Angles whereas he simply views them as a military threat. This issue will have to wait though as our immediate priority is to make our journey to meet the Northumbrian kings.

As soon as we can buy enough food to provide for our journey we are back on our longboat and rowing with the tide, further up the river towards its highest navigable point which is only another hour up the river. Here we find that point marked by a small number of longboats already drawn up on the river bank. As the river shallows here, and is above the reach of the highest tide, there is a ford across the river. The shallow water allows people to walk across albeit up to their waists in water, but prevents boats from going any further. Here our boat grounds and we must haul it onto the bank, and leave it with just a small guard.

The road out of the town goes east and along the valley towards Jorvik. It's a poor road with many cart tracks and little surface other than the rutted mud. Nevertheless it shows us the way to get to our destination and so we set off on foot knowing that it is likely to be a long walk of several days.

By nightfall we are still moving along the river valley but have found ourselves on a far better road, covered with paving stones, and it is much easier to walk. We are told that it is left there from those days long ago when the Romans were here. They may be all long dead now but we are thankful to them as they are still helping us make much better progress.

It is a delight to walk in the sunshine among these low, lush green hills, alongside the winding river. It reminds me very much of the Dyflinnarskiri, our home, which is still not so very far away, but is denied to us. This is also a very scenic land, with valleys with rich farm lands. The Danes are clearly very happy to have settled here.

It's a further two long days of hard, fast walking, over the hills, through the valleys and finally towards a wide fertile plain where we finally see the city of Jorvik appear before us in the distance as evening falls. It is especially obvious from the large amount of smoke rising from many fires in many houses.

Next morning, as we grow closer, it turns from just a smoky blur into a large array of wooden buildings. In among it we can see larger and more impressive stone buildings, unlike any we have seen before.

As we draw really close we can smell it too; a pungent mixture of wood smoke and rotting waste. It is a large town, a very large town, far bigger than any we have ever seen before, much larger than either Dyflinn or even Ceaster. The town has a defensive palisade around it, and a number of gates. I am sure that they serve a good function in reassuring the citizens of their safety but, as we know from our own bitter experience, wooden palisades are of limited value.

We find the west gate and enter the city without any one taking any interest in us at all. It is certainly easier to enter this city than to get into Ceaster, there are few guards and they all seem very sure that they are not going to be attacked. Or maybe we look just like the average citizen here whereas we are seen as foreigners in Ceaster.

The city has a strange shape; it is divided into regular blocks along broad, straight and lengthy streets. The houses are packed very closely together, with each seeming to have the same size of plot, and built along regular lines, as though someone in authority has designed the layout of the streets.

In that respect it is quite different from our settlements that grow up quite randomly wherever the builder chooses to put the buildings. I wonder if that is also a part of the legacy that this place owes to the Romans who were once here.

The town is so large that it is not possible to count the number of houses or, as we get into the town itself, to guess the number of boats that are pulled up on the river banks. We have tried to do so as it how we normally judge the size of a settlement but, in the end, I can just tell you that it is a very large number.

We are impressed by Jorvik, not just because of the size, but the complexity of commercial life that goes with it. It has many trades and so many shops selling goods from all around the Viking world. There are glass makers, metal workers, weavers and spinners, as well as jewellery makers working in bone, antler, amber and jet. The jet is the rarest of all and is distinguished by its pure black colour. It only comes from an area on the coast of this region.

There are even more exotic goods from further away, such as silks, which reach us here via Scandinavia but have come from very distant lands in the East. Naturally these are only for Jarls and kings. They are so very expensive that they are beyond the reach of any ordinary men.

Just as we have seen in Ceaster the old Roman fortress is still here and there are masons working to restore its walls. Stone buildings are very rare; I have never seen them anywhere before except Ceaster and just a few ruins left from earlier times near Prestune. There were certainly none in the Dyflinnarskiri. The kings of Jorvik have made their palace in the great arched entrance that was left by the Romans. Unusually it is built, or rather rebuilt, in stone. So the Danir have found some masons who still have the skill to work in stone.

Jorvik is one of the richest towns in the whole of Europe, greater than any of the big towns of Mercia: Oxford, Glaewcester or London, maybe even bigger than Winchester. The whole of the Roman city is still very obvious and many of its buildings are still standing although 500 years have passed since they left. Along the river there is a massive stone wharf with eight great towers, and beyond it the great hall of Constantine still covered with a roof and in use as a hall.

The Danish area is most developed south of the Roman fort around the Foss. This area is the most densely inhabited and you can tell by the smells. It is damp and dirty with all the rubbish that human settlement creates, but it is also humming with life and activity. The craftsmen are all at work here, so many things being created to foster trade and create wealth. Carpenters, jewellery makers, leather and metal workers all thrive.

Wide bellied knarr boats that are designed to carry large quantities of goods lie on the Foss, loading and unloading to take goods to Scandinavia and beyond. Others are ready, carrying goods by cart over the hills and down the Ribble to be sent on to Ireland.

Jorvik also has a great variety of food available to it, fish from the rivers and the sea, meats from the cattle and pigs of the plain, sheep from the hills and many forms of grain and vegetables from the farms all around the city. In season there will be many fruits on sale here too. In addition, there are many things available to drink too. Not just the mead and beer we have found elsewhere but even wine that they have imported from Germany. We are unlikely to taste any of that, as Ragnald will not pay the price they are asking for it.

Under the Angles this was a great centre for the Christian faith and many of the Anglian monks are still here, tolerated by the new kings who have been baptised themselves, and now working hard to convert the people to Christianity. Many of the Danir have taken up the new belief, though many of us still hang onto the traditional view of the gods. It will take a great deal to make me believe in this new faith; it is all very mysterious to me and I am frightened of offending Woden. He and Thor have looked over us extremely well in our adventures so far.

It is a large and very complex city, full of wonders and connections with many strange and faraway places; it is truly worthy of being the capital of the Viking world. Although I have travelled a great deal it is only here that I can truly appreciate the wonderful variety of things that fill the world.

The people too are complex and interesting. Naturally they are mostly Danir and Norse but there are so many other people here too. Of course, there are Angles here and a few Saxons too but some Jutes, Franks and Germans as well. Occasionally there are Picts, trading items from the far north.

Although we seemed to be recognised at the gate as people who look right for this city we have a strange reception when we start to speak to people. They all have a strange dull throaty accent to our ears and they claim that we are talking in a strange language too. Although it is fairly obvious that they understand most of what we say, they seem to think our pronunciation is quite funny. It verges on bad manners and several of the Danir suffer from boxed ears when they laugh at Ragnald. None of them retaliate and none do it more than once, but it leaves a dreadfully tense atmosphere.

I have to urge Ragnald to leave urgently on several occasions when are in danger of confronting a growing number of hostile Danes. Ragnald may be the largest man involved but he cannot confront a whole mob on his own.

The vast numbers of people living in such a small space has its problems, and the stench of rotting waste which we detected even when well away from the city is vastly more unpleasant now we are inside it. The citizens have a very poor idea of any need to clean the streets and the waste from their toilets and the peelings from their foods are piled high in the street. No doubt in the hope that the wind and rain will clear them away into the river.

Ragnald has noticed the smell and the accompanying waste and is much less impressed by the complicated and wonderful things of Jorvic than I am, and he seems permanently very bad-tempered. Perhaps he is just anxious to meet the kings. It seems there is a very confused situation with three Jarls of royal blood all believing that they should be king and so all are currently accepting an uneasy truce which allows them to work together. Halfdan, Eowulf and Ivarr have all agreed to be joint rulers so as to prevent bloodshed between them and to allow them to use their common strength to keep the common enemy, the Anglo-Saxons, at bay.