Approaching from Thassa, one enters an inlet between high cliffs
Lichens cling to rock, small bushes and stunted trees are visible
Water in inlet is deep and cold There was a great cheer from the men of Ivar Forkbeard. The serpent
turned slowly between the high cliffs, and entered the inlet. Here and
there, clinging to the rock, were lichens, and small bushes, and even
stunted trees. The water below us was deep and cold.
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Cliffs loom high on each side as men of Forkbeard sing and row home
Great curved bronze horn blown to announce arrival
I felt a breeze from inland, coming to meet the sea.
The oars lifted and fell. The sail fell slack, and rustled, stirred in the
gentle wind from inland. Men of Torvaldsland reefed it high to the spar.
The rowing song was strong and happy in the lusty throats of the crew of the
Forkbeard. The serpent took its way between the cliffs, looming high on
each side. Ivar Forkbeard, at the prow, lifted a great, curved bronze horn
and blew a blast. I heard it echo among the cliffs. Amidships, crowded
together, standing, facing the star-board side of the vessel, were the
bond-maids and Aelgifu. She wore still her black velvet. They were in
throat coffle; their wrists were fettered before their bodies. They
looked upon the new country, harsh, forbidding, which was to be their
home.
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Up the inlet, a horn answers
I heard, perhaps from a pasang away, up the inlet, between the cliffs,
the winding of a horn.
Soon, I gathered, we would be at Forkbeard’s landfall.
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The dock at Forkbeard's Landfall
Dock of rough logs covered with adzed boards Then the ship turned a bend between the
cliffs, and, to my astonishment I saw a dock, of rough logs, covered
with adzed boards,...
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Rolls of leather hang at side of dock to cushion the ship being moored
The serpent of Ivar Forkbeard, gently, slid against the rolls of leather
hung at the side of the dock. Eager hands vied on the dock to grasp the
mooring ropes. The oars slid inboard; the men hung their shields at the
serpent’s flanks.
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The Landfall
A wide sloping area of several acres
Short green grass and strewn with boulders Then the ship turned a bend between the
cliffs, and, to my astonishment I saw a dock, of rough logs, covered
with adzed boards, and a wide, sloping area of land, of several acres,
green, though strewn with boulders, with short grass.
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Log pailisade a hundred yards from the dock There was a log
palisade some hundred yards from the dock. High on the cliff, I saw a
lookout, a man with a horn. Doubtless it had been he whom we had heard.
From his vantage, high on the cliff, on his belly, unseen, he would
have been able to see far down the inlet. He stood now and waved the bronze
horn in his hand. Forkbeard waved back to him.
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Four small milk bosk graze on short grass
Flock of verr herded on the sloping hillside I saw four small milk bosk grazing on the short grass. In the distance,
above the acres, I could see mountains, snow capped. A flock of verr,
herded by a maid with a stick, turned, bleating on the sloping hillside.
She shaded her eyes. She was blond; she was barefoot; she wore an
ankle-length white kirtle, of white wool, sleeveless, split to her belly.
About her neck I could see a dark ring.
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Men were now running from the palisade and the fields down to the dock.
They were bare-headed, and wore shaggy jackets. Some wore trousers of
skin, others tunics of dyed wool.
Fields fenced with rocks in the sloping area where vegetables are grown
I saw too, fields, fenced with rocks,
in the sloping area. In them were growing, small at this season,
shafts of Sa-Tarna; too, there would be peas, and beans, cabbages and
onions, and patches of the golden sul, capable of surviving at this
latitude.
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Small fruit trees
Bee hives
Small sheds for work of craftsmen and drying fish and making butter I saw small fruit trees, and hives, where honey bees were
raised; and there were small sheds, here and there, with sloping roofs
of boards; in some such sheds might craftsmen work; in others fish might
be dried or butter made.
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The Forge shed
One of Forkbeard's men, skilled at smithing, has an anvil and irons
heated "Heat the irons!" called the Forkbeard.
"They are hot!" laughed a brawny man, in leather apron, standing on the
dock.
The girls shuddered. They would be branded.
"Bring the anvil to the branding log!" said the Forkbeard.
They knew then they would wear collars.
"It is there!" laughed the brawny fellow, doubtless a smith.
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A log, a yard in thickness, with bark removed lies on the ground behind the
forge shed When this was done, I accompanied the Forkbeard to a place behind, and
to one side, of a forge shed. There was a great log there, from a fallen
tree. The bark had been removed from the log. It was something in the
neighborhood of a yard in thickness. Against the log, kneeling, one
behind the other, their right shoulders in contact with it, knelt the
new bond-maids, and Aelgifu. Some men stood about, as well, and the
brawny fellow, the smith.
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Anvil is nearby on a large flat stone
Two canister braziers nearby Nearby, on a large, flat stone, to keep it
from sinking into the ground, was the anvil. A few feet away, glowing
with heat, stood two canister braziers. In these, among the white coals,
were irons. Air, by means of a small bellows, pumped by a thrall boy,
in white wool, collared, hair cropped, was forced through a tube in the
bottom of each. The air above the canisters shook with heat.
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Long low shed against one wall of cliff for animals in winter
Another thick shed of heavy logs in shadows of cliff for ice house Against one wall of the cliff was a long,
low shed; in that the small bosk, and the verr, might be housed in the
winter, and there, too, would be stored their feed; another shed, thick,
with heavy logs, in the shadow of the cliff, would be the ice house,
where ice from the mountains, brought down on sledges to the valley,
would be kept, covered with chips of wood.
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Most cattle driven higher into mountains to graze wild in summer
Brought back to the shed in the fall
There were only a few bosk visible, and they were milk bosk. The sheds
I saw would accommodate many more animals. I surmised, as is common in
Torvaldsland, most of the cattle had been driven higher into the mountains
, to graze wild during the summer, to be fetched back to the shed only
in the fall, with the coming of winter.
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Men working in the fields, thralls, wearing short tunics of white wool
Men in the fields wore short tunics of white wool; some carried hoes;
their hair was close cropped; about their throats had been hammered
bands of black iron, with a welded ring attached. They did not leave
the fields; such a departure, without permission, might mean their
death; they were thralls.
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An overseer wearing scarlet in charge of thralls working in fields In
the fields I saw an overseer, clad in scarlet, with a gesture of his
hand, releasing the thralls.
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Ivar Forkbeard's Landfall in Torvaldsland on Gor
