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.The helmet once belonged tohim.He used to always wear it raiding, and folk would always scream and run away.""Folk will try to run no matter what kind of helmet a raider wears."Shrugging, Halfdan said, "I like the helmet, practical or not.I'm wearing it.If notto scare folk, then for good luck.""I'd like a helmet like that, except with moose-horns.Or walrus tusks!" Hakistaggered around the cluttered deck, pretending that he was wearing a helmet withgigantic, heavy horns.Everybody laughed.Except Venn.Like always, he was glum and quiet, watching Halfdan from thecorner of his eye.Overhead, a full silver moon stared down.The bright sky-eye was reflected in the grey ripples of the Endless Ocean.They waited.Dark clouds slid across the sky, westwards.In the cloud-gaps, stars slowly spun.A big fish splashed the surface.They waited.Finally, Halfdan said, "I think they should be asleep by now.""Having sweet dreams," Haki grinned.The steersman of Wave-Jumper called for quiet rowing towards the westernhorizon.The sails were kept down, to make the ships harder to see from shore.The othertwo ships followed.98 Soon, they saw the dim island ahead.The look-out of each ship used a length of string with a bronze weight to checkthe depth of the water as they moved, almost silently, through the darkness.They could see a stretch of sandy beach on the south shore of the island."You want to land there?" asked the steersman.Halfdan nodded.A short distance from shore, the steersmen of the three ships dropped anchors --willow-branch baskets full of stones, with wooden pieces sticking out to grip the sea-floor.The ships kept moving towards the island, with the anchor-ropes spooling outbehind them.This was another of King Lambi's old raiding-tricks -- if they needed to getthe ships away from the island quickly, men would pull the anchor-ropes and drag theirships to sea; it was much faster than rowing.Halfdan stood at the bow with his Eid-forged iron sword in his right hand, hisround painted shield in his four-fingered left hand, and the odd horned helmet on hishead.In the moonlight, the helmet made a monstrous-looking shadow on the deck behindhim.Haki and his berserker cousin Sten were close behind Halfdan, panting witheagerness.In his excitement, Sten chewed on the edge of his shield.Haki did not have ashield.Both berserkers wore bear-skins over their shoulders and had smeared blue paint,not just around their eyes, but over their whole faces.Behind brown-faced Halfdan and blue-faced Haki and Sten were the rest of theraiders, rowing; some of them almost as fiece-looking as their leaders.All were silent.Everybody had an extra pair of shoes, hanging around their neck by their laces.The beach ahead was empty.A cool, windy night.Venn, sitting in the middle of the rowers, was trembling and wide-eyed with fearand hope.He feared violence, or having to hurt somebody innocent.He hoped for achance to kill Halfdan and disappear.The nose of Wave-Jumper bit into crunchy beach-sand.Halfdan jumped from the ship, splashing into knee-deep water.Haki and Stenjumped down behind him, followed by all the fighters on all the ships, except forsteersmen and look-outs, who would stay behind to guard the ships and keep them readyfor a fast escape.In addition to weapons and shield and armour and extra shoes, each man carried atorch and a coil of rope.Three men carried ladders.On the shore, everybody sat on the sand to take off their wet shoes and dry theirfeet on a cloth, before putting on a pair of dry shoes.They left the wet shoes behind.Haki was grinning widely; the ax-handle trembled in his strong, hairy hands.Other fighters wore their shields on their backs, a weapon in one hand, a torch inthe other.The torches were each as long as a man's leg, tipped with blobs of pine-tar.Halfdan and sixty-eight raiders walked fast up the dark beach to a wildflower-covered area.To their left was an area thickly covered with bushes and trees; it lookedsubtly different from Norse forests.To their right, over a low hill, was a dim farm-field99 covered with tidy rows of small sprouting plants.The Norsemen did not recognize thegrowing crop.There was a path between the forest and the farm-land.They took the path.Soon, the low wooden wall of the outlander settlement.The smell of wood-smoke and beast-shit.The raiders stayed in the shadows of the forest to light the torches.One man useda flint and piece of iron to strike sparks onto some charred cloth, which quickly startedburning; one torch was lit from this fire, and then the fire was passed from torch to torchuntil all were burning."Go!" Halfdan hissed.And the flame-lit Norsemen charged towards the wall.Three ladders were leaned onto it, and three lines of men flowed up the laddersand jumped down inside.Halfdan, Haki and Sten were the first over.Haki was growling in his throat.Halfdan whispered, "Quiet!"They waited for the others to climb the ladders.The settlement was a dozen or sowooden buildings that formed an uneven square around the larger, stone-walled, strange-roofed building he had noticed earlier.The stone building had a tall spire on top of it,tipped by a decoration shaped like a "^ð".The symbol of Tor? Many of the Norsemen had idols in that shape hanging fromtheir necks.Did folk here also worship the thunder-god?The raiders ran in torch-light towards the building.They saw nobody at first.No open windows or doors.No sign of fire-light.No dogs.Halfdan led them towards the stone-walled building, where he expected to findthe settlement's leaders.Halfdan was amazed to see that the roof of this building wasmade of metal.Why?Wide and level stone steps led to a small porch in front of the stone building'sround-topped wooden doors.These doors were framed by carved stone, depicting twistedleafy vines and odd-looking folk with wings growing from their backs.There were two long and deep-set windows over the door, each about as tall as aman.One window had a square-shaped top, the other a round-shaped top [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]
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.The helmet once belonged tohim.He used to always wear it raiding, and folk would always scream and run away.""Folk will try to run no matter what kind of helmet a raider wears."Shrugging, Halfdan said, "I like the helmet, practical or not.I'm wearing it.If notto scare folk, then for good luck.""I'd like a helmet like that, except with moose-horns.Or walrus tusks!" Hakistaggered around the cluttered deck, pretending that he was wearing a helmet withgigantic, heavy horns.Everybody laughed.Except Venn.Like always, he was glum and quiet, watching Halfdan from thecorner of his eye.Overhead, a full silver moon stared down.The bright sky-eye was reflected in the grey ripples of the Endless Ocean.They waited.Dark clouds slid across the sky, westwards.In the cloud-gaps, stars slowly spun.A big fish splashed the surface.They waited.Finally, Halfdan said, "I think they should be asleep by now.""Having sweet dreams," Haki grinned.The steersman of Wave-Jumper called for quiet rowing towards the westernhorizon.The sails were kept down, to make the ships harder to see from shore.The othertwo ships followed.98 Soon, they saw the dim island ahead.The look-out of each ship used a length of string with a bronze weight to checkthe depth of the water as they moved, almost silently, through the darkness.They could see a stretch of sandy beach on the south shore of the island."You want to land there?" asked the steersman.Halfdan nodded.A short distance from shore, the steersmen of the three ships dropped anchors --willow-branch baskets full of stones, with wooden pieces sticking out to grip the sea-floor.The ships kept moving towards the island, with the anchor-ropes spooling outbehind them.This was another of King Lambi's old raiding-tricks -- if they needed to getthe ships away from the island quickly, men would pull the anchor-ropes and drag theirships to sea; it was much faster than rowing.Halfdan stood at the bow with his Eid-forged iron sword in his right hand, hisround painted shield in his four-fingered left hand, and the odd horned helmet on hishead.In the moonlight, the helmet made a monstrous-looking shadow on the deck behindhim.Haki and his berserker cousin Sten were close behind Halfdan, panting witheagerness.In his excitement, Sten chewed on the edge of his shield.Haki did not have ashield.Both berserkers wore bear-skins over their shoulders and had smeared blue paint,not just around their eyes, but over their whole faces.Behind brown-faced Halfdan and blue-faced Haki and Sten were the rest of theraiders, rowing; some of them almost as fiece-looking as their leaders.All were silent.Everybody had an extra pair of shoes, hanging around their neck by their laces.The beach ahead was empty.A cool, windy night.Venn, sitting in the middle of the rowers, was trembling and wide-eyed with fearand hope.He feared violence, or having to hurt somebody innocent.He hoped for achance to kill Halfdan and disappear.The nose of Wave-Jumper bit into crunchy beach-sand.Halfdan jumped from the ship, splashing into knee-deep water.Haki and Stenjumped down behind him, followed by all the fighters on all the ships, except forsteersmen and look-outs, who would stay behind to guard the ships and keep them readyfor a fast escape.In addition to weapons and shield and armour and extra shoes, each man carried atorch and a coil of rope.Three men carried ladders.On the shore, everybody sat on the sand to take off their wet shoes and dry theirfeet on a cloth, before putting on a pair of dry shoes.They left the wet shoes behind.Haki was grinning widely; the ax-handle trembled in his strong, hairy hands.Other fighters wore their shields on their backs, a weapon in one hand, a torch inthe other.The torches were each as long as a man's leg, tipped with blobs of pine-tar.Halfdan and sixty-eight raiders walked fast up the dark beach to a wildflower-covered area.To their left was an area thickly covered with bushes and trees; it lookedsubtly different from Norse forests.To their right, over a low hill, was a dim farm-field99 covered with tidy rows of small sprouting plants.The Norsemen did not recognize thegrowing crop.There was a path between the forest and the farm-land.They took the path.Soon, the low wooden wall of the outlander settlement.The smell of wood-smoke and beast-shit.The raiders stayed in the shadows of the forest to light the torches.One man useda flint and piece of iron to strike sparks onto some charred cloth, which quickly startedburning; one torch was lit from this fire, and then the fire was passed from torch to torchuntil all were burning."Go!" Halfdan hissed.And the flame-lit Norsemen charged towards the wall.Three ladders were leaned onto it, and three lines of men flowed up the laddersand jumped down inside.Halfdan, Haki and Sten were the first over.Haki was growling in his throat.Halfdan whispered, "Quiet!"They waited for the others to climb the ladders.The settlement was a dozen or sowooden buildings that formed an uneven square around the larger, stone-walled, strange-roofed building he had noticed earlier.The stone building had a tall spire on top of it,tipped by a decoration shaped like a "^ð".The symbol of Tor? Many of the Norsemen had idols in that shape hanging fromtheir necks.Did folk here also worship the thunder-god?The raiders ran in torch-light towards the building.They saw nobody at first.No open windows or doors.No sign of fire-light.No dogs.Halfdan led them towards the stone-walled building, where he expected to findthe settlement's leaders.Halfdan was amazed to see that the roof of this building wasmade of metal.Why?Wide and level stone steps led to a small porch in front of the stone building'sround-topped wooden doors.These doors were framed by carved stone, depicting twistedleafy vines and odd-looking folk with wings growing from their backs.There were two long and deep-set windows over the door, each about as tall as aman.One window had a square-shaped top, the other a round-shaped top [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]