Historical Setting, 626 C.E. On the River Path near the Moselle River
This morning I leave early on the borrowed horse. Ana doesn’t exactly send me off with her blessing. She thinks it’s foolish for a pacifist as I am to go off to quill a fight among wine growers. But, while Brandell is going off across the full span of the earth, I’m simply visiting our neighbors with the plea that they may be welcoming to the settlers coming to the area.
By afternoon I will be at the stopping place marked with three wine barrels, which is the home of the particular vintner who has a loft for travelers where we’ve stayed before. It’s my intention to hear what he has to say.
“Welcome Lazarus! Are you traveling alone, today?”
“Yes, but I am not on a long journey this time. I wanted to come up this way a learn a bit more about a controversy among the vintners on the Moselle.”
“First, let’s tend to your horse, then we can give you a sip of our hospitality here, and when we have said every important thing to say and we have nothing more to talk about, then you can mention those rumors of politics.”
“Yes, of course. I’ll try to remember good manners despite my purpose in coming.”
As always, the vintner’s wife is chatty.
“Your son came this way a while back.”
“Yes, we suggested this stop to Greg and his partner Gailliard of Metz.”
“You must be very proud of your son — such a gallant and heroic soldier.”
“Gallant he may be, I only hope his heroics will never be tested.”
“Even though he takes after you in outward appearance; he favors his mother with his brilliant conversation and good manners.”
“May it be so.” And by these people’s good manners my wine goblet is renewed so now I must keep my focus on why I am here.
I start, “I hope you will share with me some thoughts about your neighbors to the north, the vine growers near Trier, and the concern with new neighbors coming here from the East.”
The master of this house brings the whole wineskin to the table abruptly disrupting the normal prattle of his wife’s interrogation, just as she was moving to the topic of my “lovely wife.”
He takes a seat across from me, “Why do the politics of wine sales matter to someone who knows nothing of us or of the wine industry?”
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 