บท 7: WORK IN PROGRESS*** A glimpse of the future

"I will count to three and then I will set it." Biger said to one injured Viking.

The man was called Aage; he was lying on a Saxon table that was serving as a cot, looking up at his healer.

The man was doing his best not to appear in pain but sweat had broken out across his brow and he was wincing.

Still, Birger was impressed by it.

He'd seen countless grown men cry after dislocating a shoulder.

Another man was close on the other side of Aage , already anticipating what Birger was going to do.

"One." He said, placing one hand on the man's bicep and the other at his wrist.

Aage nodded, wincing. "Two."

Birger pushed his arm up and twisted until there was a loud pop.

Aage let out a yell that would have curdled milk, and the men around stoped whatever they were doing for a moment to stare at the yelling man.

"You said you'd count to three!" Aage moaned, rubbing his arm.

"It's better if you don't know when it's coming." He replied.

"Ha, I like you." The other man that was worried before said, chuckling, and clapped on Birger's shoulder. "You intrigue me, freeman. Enslaved at a young age and yet you have the spark for battle, seeing how well you act as a healer, I'd bet that you have some secret skills you haven't shown us yet... you are a person of many talents it seems."

Birger nodded in gratitude to the compliment, since recently he noticed how friendly everyone around was treating him.

People seemed to not care about him before, but now his feats in battle were indisputable facts.

And so was his unofficial position of authority around the group.

It was the Jarl's doing.

Men were respectful of the jarl and his sons and there was the feeling that now, they were respectful towards Birger as well.

Aage and the other Viking were proof of that.

Across the yard, the Saxon church doors were opened.

Leif and Raul stepped outside, talking heatedly.

Birger took a long look at the building, impressed how it was still standing after all the time it had been through, especially for the Midgardians' primitive architecture standards.

He'd already prevented its destruction from the raiders. He obviously wasn't superstitious about the place, not like some others. In fact, he had plans for the Saxon religion.

"Do you know what has been decided to do about the defeated king and that strange woman?" The other Viking asked Birger while he wiped his hands clean with a rag.

Aaege managed a vague shrug before sitting up, a good sign that Birger had managed to put his shoulder back in the socket correctly.

"Leif wants to kill the "blasphemous" woman and ransom the fallen king." Birger replied.

The men nodded to each other.

"Raul doesn't want that." Birger said. "And if he doesn't want it, those that regard him as wise don't want it as well."

The other man, named Harald, rubbed the back of his neck and then his aching shoulder. "Whatever it will come to pass, it's not our decision to make."

'That much, at least, was true.' Birger though.

Birger told Aaege not to use his shoulder much for the next few days and finally made his way to the cathedral.

The brothers had all left and the Vikings guarding the place were the only people still inside the church.

Inside he saw the king's figure restrained in the center of the nave.

Birger was allowed free passage to roam the church, and so after walking through the building he approached the priestess "chamber".

She was much more tranquil this time during her prayers.

Though her robes were unscathed, the expensive looking ornaments and jewelry were taken from her.

Just as she caught sight of him she kneeled and bowed to the point of touching the ground.

"My lord messiah, how can I be of service?" She asked Birger in her native language.

The door to the room was closed.

"Please, be at ease, my good woman. I've come to see how you are. Any problem? Has any one of these men harmed you in any way?" Birger asked with perfect fluency in the woman's language.

The priestess shook her head in denial, her eyes focusing on his. "No my lord, even barbarians can't help but to show humanity in your presence."

"Glad to hear it. My father offers those loyal to him a life of eternity in the end. To those following my ancient teachings he grants passage to heaven, and for these men following me he will allow entrance to Valhalla." Birger was sharing some information while subtly channeling some illusion charms to make her more susceptible to his will.

"That is tremendously reassuring to my lord. I've never lost faith that God hadn't abandoned us, these trials you have mentioned before are just another proof of your father's infinite wisdom." She said.

"That's very good, Hilda. Fortunately your king has been just as open to the plans of the all mighty." Birger concluded. "We will soon make our way back to these men's homeland, I'll need your aid in bringing the gospel truth to them. My father desires to cultivate both cultures in unity."

"Understood my lord, I'm only but a humble servant to god's plan." Hilda agreed with him. "Whenever you have the time, I'm open to learning their language."

Birger nodded and left the room.

Making his way to the restrained and defeated king, Birger notices that the Jarl was beginning to attempt to interrogate the man.

At his proximity, the fallen king brightens up and turns his attention to Birger.

"I don't know what's wrong with these people, but they seem to find you pretty." The Jarl joked at the curious fact. "And care to explain how in hel do you speak their language?"

Birger bowed respectfully before answering him. "I'm not really sure, from what I could understand I'm supposedly their god's son."

After a chuckle from the Jarl and his men, Birger continued. "As for speaking their language, I think it has something to do with my past. I'm not sure, but before becoming a slave, I think I lived among these people."

"I see." The Jarl suddenly became serious. "Well, it seems that Odin has a plan for you."

The other men became a little stunned at their leader's words and stared at Birger.

"Now, care to translate what that man is saying?" He gestures to the restrained man. "I think my previous translator wasn't strong enough to survive our recent brief skirmishes."

"It will be an honor." Birger approached the surrendered king and spoke in his language. "Please, be at ease, my good man. I've come to see how you are. Any problem? Has any one of these men harmed you in any way?"

"No my lord, I never doubted that I would be harmed while under your eternal grace. But please, could you, my lord, enlighten this humble servant to what this is all about?"

"Though I'm still mourning the death of so many pious men, I assure you that their bravery will not be forgotten. My father offers those loyal to him a life of eternity in the end. These foreigners have come to strengthen our people, father wants a union between both cultures." Birger was again subtly channeling some illusion charms to imprint his will into this mortal mind and soul.

"So, what did he say to Birger?" Asked the Jarl.

"He said: My lord, this is England! This land currently has few rulers. I, King Æthelred , give you Wessex."

"That's all he spoke? It appears you were having a longer discussion." He asked half jokingly.

"My lord, he explained to me that this conquest will give us another home. This will give our people a legacy to be proud of." Birger added and his eyes shined for a brief instant.

———————————————————

Laying on his bed, Birger felt he had rested enough. His constant usage of magic was draining him even more than the recent battles did.

The rain continued to fall as it hit his chamber's windows. The brief mist and cold weather gave way to a decently strong storm.

Birger looked to his side, there he saw the naked and sleeping figure of Hilda.

Manipulating everyone of the men to not take her was the major factor responsible for his tiredness, the interesting night he spent with his just recently acquired devoted worshiper was more energizing than anything else.

Her faith and carnal desires for him were surprisingly effective ways of empowering him.

Although his godly body was probably multiple times stronger than he was before entering his Thorsleep, this mortal emanation wasn't that much impressive.

Curious if his plans were at least possible, he rose from his bed without waking his cute cleric and sat with both legs crossed on the cold floor.

Suddenly all outside noise died down and the light from outside seemed to dim.

He was about to perform a strong divination spell.

———————————————————

1880 AD

England

Cambridge University, Professor Prince Donald Norse History Class.

"Good afternoon gentlemen. First off, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to hear me." Said Donald Norse.

After receiving nods from his audience, he continued.

"We've all heard about the rise of the Scandinavian State, a civilization worldwide acknowledged for adventuring and discovering the world as we all know."

"Before we get into any actual details of any sort, we should all be on the same page about what exactly a Viking is." Said a tall and blonde man to his audience.

"At first it might appear to be obvious, but there's actually a lot of confusion about this."

"The word "Viking" is immensely misused."

"Our grasp on the original etymology is tenuous at best, and Viking was barely even used to label the people who went out to sea."

"Vikings, in the strictest sense, were people of Scandinavian background after the 8th century who made a habit of sailing out to various places for the purposes of raiding and even colonizing them."

"The word Viking itself pretty much just means raider."

"The Europeans on the receiving end of these spontaneous blade-wielding visitors called them Northman, Danes, Rus or initially "those pagans who invade our lands"." The professor made a strategic pause and the attentive crowd began laughing.

Professor Blake continued. "And the Scandinavian behind this violent tourism didn't really try to correct them."

"But as you all know, history is 20% iffy-nomenclature by mass, and the name has since stuck."

"Still, even our modern usage is problematic, because the term often gets applied as a catchall for medieval Scandinavian when its meaning is rather narrow."

"But let's not confuse the point here, most Scandinavians probably weren't Vikings."

"Because it's difficult for a whole society to make an entire lifestyle out of just exploring and conquering. That's straight up unsustainable."

"Most of the Scandinavian people were probably farmers, craftsmen, traders or all sorts of important jobs that people around that time would've had."

"Scandinavia and Vikings are like Europe and Knights, there were plenty of knights in Europe, but to say that a majority of the population regularly engaged in knightly matters would be absurd."

"Vikings were always a subset of the broader Scandinavian people and their culture, but their historical impact and overwhelming cool factor earned them top billing in history."

"Viking is the act and the associated profession of raiding... just being a pirate." His projector portrayed illustrations for his statements.

"So although Scandinavian does not by-default equal Viking, we describe the history period following their collective ventures as the Viking Era or Viking Age."

"As if to compensate for their wibbly moniker, the Viking became very precise in the timeline department."

"Due some evidence showing a sudden shift in their culture, historians agreed to date the age from 793, opening with the sack of Lindisfarne monastery, as the turning point from the Ancient Age."

"But if Vikings were pirates, then their age should be thorough in its coverage of involuntary-treasure-reallocation." Some whispers could be heard among the students, then they promptly returned to silence in respect to the professor.

"So really, we could even bring down the opening date by at least a few decades."

"Scandinavians were trading, seafaring, and occasionally plundering long before Lindisfarne."

"It's always tempting to imagine a culture just kind of appearing onto history as a fully-formed entity, but Scandinavia had several Vikings traits from early on, and the society gradually evolved through the first and second millenniums AD."

"Trade networks in the Iron Age reached into the Celtic and Roman worlds, and the maritime culture was already fairly robust."

"Scandinavian was a tough place to traverse, as inland areas were either full of trees or covered in mountains, so people and supplies had to travel by water if they wanted to get anywhere."

"Luckily these guys had immense reserves of trees, so they became most proficient at woodworking and shipbuilding." The projector displayed images of high quality work in wood and some sketches of the classical ship.

"With the convenient training zone of the enclosed Baltic Sea, Scandinavians developed a truly brilliant ship design, using an overlapping plank construction on a long, narrow, and shallow hull."

"This meant that ships could sail the open sea and row along rivers, which, to the delight of Scandinavians and the abject terror of Europeans, made the Vikings quite versatile travelers."

"While Scandinavia was outclassing the rest of the world in seafaring skill tree, their land situation differed from Europe's Post-Roman Migratory Reshuffle."

"Instead of kingdoms full of cities and shiny monasteries, Scandinavians lived on small farmsteads and had no overarching government."

"So, by the 700s, Scandinavians were becoming familiar with the wider European world, sailing eastwards in the Baltic, and hopping westwards to the Frisian coast."

"This trading was sometimes a little aggressive, on the order of "buy these furs or so help me Thor I will axe you", but that's piracy for you, and it worked decently well."

"However, the Vikings set themselves apart by just going for it."

"Northwest Europe and the British isles happened to have some shining monasteries, stacked with treasure and utterly lacking any defenses capable of resisting the Vikings."

"When the Vikings arrived up to the British island of Lindisfarne in 793AD and occupied the place, stealing the artifacts but refraining from enslaving anyone who didn't face them in combat." The last statement prompted a little commotion among the students.

Professor Norse turned to his audience and understood the matter. "Oh yes, slavery was a significant occurrence in the Scandinavian culture."

"Because, as they soon found out, the Muslim world was incalculably rich, and had a substantial market for slaves imports."

He also pointed out. "Christians weren't supposed to be in the slaving business, but the markets in Frisia, Rome, Venice and Constantinople clearly weren't losing any sleep about it."

"So the Vikings of the early 800s enjoyed a stunningly efficient business model: Sail, Raid, Conquer and Sell."

The professor smiled at his class and said. "The Europeans were initially horrified back then."

"In the early 800s, the British isles were the main focus. It's kingdoms were small and weak, and Irish monks basically prepared a buffet of beautifully-sackable monasteries." He showed the historical national map and began pointing out locations.

"In the span of a few years, a Scandinavian army makes base in East Anglia, marches north to conquer York and the kingdom of Northumbria, swoops down to take the Mercia, and loops back to East Anglia to make it basically all of the Saxon kingdoms under their influence." He concluded by circulating with his stick the map.

Professor Norse then switched images and said. "Then there's Ireland, which ends up being a place where Scandinavians came to live while also becoming the jackpot of the Viking World."

"Because after they cleaned out the countless monasteries, they built coastal merchant towns at the bases of rivers to face inland forces and to enslave and sell the defeated warriors at markets in Spain."

"Norse settlers had more long-term luck in the wider Celtic world, like the Isle of Man, the Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetlands, and Lowlands Scotland."

Professor Norse then looked at his audience. "But if we wanna talk about settlement colonization, we've got to go off the edge of the known world for one of the highest Viking accomplishments: Iceland."

"Situated smack in the middle of the North-Atlantic, Iceland is a little out of the way, but evidence seems to point out that it was found rather than discovered."

"It's easy to see why Iceland instantly became prime real-estate: tons of good land, no locals to fight and the Valkyries put on a light-show every winter."

"As centuries go by it became part of the mainland of the Scandinavian state."

"A sudden change to their culture around the beginning of the Viking Age shows that the old oral storytelling traditions got put to writing, resulting in one of the most stacked literary cultures anywhere."

"This, dear reader, is why our sources for the Vikings are so unique."

A few images depicting historical artifacts and sites. "Scandinavian also left multiple inscriptions in runestones and uniquely had just begun recording their history from the Viking Age until our present."

He then cleared his throat. "Documentation that had been shared by the Scandinavian State, showcases a vast quantity and quality of details."

"Archeology is a very interesting example, because settlements, remnants and burial patterns across the occupied land were fascinating to scholars for centuries."

"As it happens, their culture eventually was able to reach basically the entire globe despite their nation territory being relatively small sized."

"Some records show that the old custom of Raid-and-Trade routine comes from the system of waterways, running from the Baltic, down the Volga, and to the Caspian Sea."

"The swindle here wasn't in sacking monasteries, but in trading furs, lumber, amber and wool, plus capturing defeat warriors and selling them into slavery."

Doctor Norse now looked to the gentlemen close to him and said smiling. "The morality of that last operation was rather bankrupt, but the economics were quite the opposite."

He wasn't left alone at that remark, the captive audience laughed in appreciation of his comical remark.

"The only inconvenience was that Vikings had to work with middlemen in the Bulgar and Khazar Khangnates, so in the mid-800s they expanded from the Volga river and onto the Dnieper."

"This new route fed into the Black Sea and landed them right on the doorstep of the biggest and shiniest city in the Christian World, Constantinople."

"Thus being the Vikings, they obviously sack it."

"Even though this time the Byzantines had the benefit of actual defenses, it wasn't enough to hold out the Scandinavian might and wise military strategy."

"Interestingly, the Byzantine ended up becoming fascinated by the Vikings, whom they called Varangians, and decided to make a peace treaty while also hiring them for the emperor's personal guard."

"As it was common for them, they began making similar deals throughout the globe."

"Despite the initial hostility, Scandinavians were thrilled to deal directly with Constantinople, and built up trading towns along the Dnieper river, such as Kiev."

"And even after setting those trade routes, the Scandinavians put a lot of effort into settling cities and running governments, famously building up Dublin from nothing into a prosperous self-sustaining city."

"The demographics at work here are a little murky, because it seems like the homeland Scandinavians end up becoming a minority population among the ones that were assimilated culturally through colonization." Doctor Norse said.

"To the collective thrill of the colonies, the Scandinavian began integrating relevant segments of some religions and cultures."

"But Christianity was assimilated in much more relevant ways than most others."

"Despite the adoption of Christian values, the Scandinavians practices of raiding and trading weren't completely abandoned."

"Only slightly altered." After a brief pause, he continued.

"Something like mercy to the subservient and wrath to those who dared raise even a fist against them was the given justification for the act."

"The Patron Saint historical hero of Scandinavia was a well achieved mercenary and raider that was a slave that gained his freedom in the beginning of the Viking Age."

Doctor Blake corrected his posture and looked at the projection on the board.

"His name was Birger, more known by his freeman name Erik the forever king."

"Or just his vast accomplishments and adoration by the other cultures."

"The man was really one of a kind."

Donald stopped for almost a minute before clearing his throat and moving on with the explanation.

"So, back to the slavery and raiding matter, you can't exactly say that they've abandoned their ways."

"Jumping to the west and looking at the Carolingian empire. During some incursions in the early 800s, the Vikings knew that they have significantly more to gain from actually occupying territories."

"The records aren't sure how, but the Scandinavians were incomparable diplomats and curiously even better at persuading the defeated groups to believe that they were in the presence of a real prophet to their religion."

"This last feat was significantly more impressive taking in consideration the near-constant civil warring between the three Frankish kingdoms after its partition in 840, the fact was that the brutal invaders were also great unifiers."

"Proof of that came when the Vikings gained the County of Rouen, which was later promoted to the Duchy of Normandy."

"A few centuries later, the Normans became nobility through marriage with the noble family ruling from Paris."

"And it wasn't the only exemple recorded through history."

"Similar growth in influence and power can be observed during the colonization of the African continent and the Americas."

"Though in addition to all of this I've mentioned, perhaps their most famous seafaring accomplishment was sailing to America a full five hundred years before the other European countries did."

"See, the Vikings actually had it fairly easy, because they had a convenient network of islands that they could easily hop between on their way to America."

Pointing out the trajectory in the displayed map he explained. "They would start in Scandinavia, hop over the Shetland Islands and onto the Faroe Isles, then make the jump to Iceland then to Greenland and then to America in considerably short order."

"Now, like in Normandy, the Vikings were able to establish proper states that followed the same example of cunning politics, and undeniable might, to reach the top of every civilization political hierarchy under their influence."

"New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and even Singapore were greatly influenced by the Scandinavian's presence."

"So all told, the Viking Age is a class above simple piracy and power hungry imperialism because it effectively terraformed the landscape of world policies, economics and cultures."

"But as of now, the Scandinavian State has been rigorous with its borders and privacy." He pointed out.

"Though they don't say it openly, the entire world knows that they are the most advanced nation among us." His statement was received with multiple agreeing nods from the scholars.

"Now, any questions?" The professor asked.

Several hands were raised.

———————————————————

He opened his eyes, with satisfaction displayed in his face.

"Not bad, but I think we can do better in the next try." Birger mused to himself.

Suddenly another voice answered his rhetorical statement.

"If that's what my lord wishes, then I will gladly accept."

As Birger turned his head, he noticed Hilda sitting in his bed with his blanket covering her nudeness, and her eyes staring at his bulging muscles while biting her lips seductively.

Birger just smiled and walked towards her.

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(01/10/2020)

*Apologies for my long absence. College is really taking a toll on my free time, and some minor health issues made things even harder for me. But rest assured, I'm not dropping my stories.

Hope this chapter is of your liking. Anything you wish to ask, feel free to do so.

Thanks as always for your attention and please be safe.

Any problems with my writing, just point them out and I will correct them as soon as possible.