Historical Setting, 631 C.E. The armor markets at Dorestad
We are at a market for armor and helmets. The overt mission of Greg and Gaillard is to purchase swords and helmets. The covert mission is to listen and learn who is outfitting armies in these times.
Greg and Gaillard don’t work together. Greg goes to a smithy to negotiate a repair to his byrnie reenforcing a weak link in the mail. While Gaillard studies the displays of helmets available.
I just watch the artist decorating a helmet. He pounds a thin sheet of copper over a form to make borders that look like a line of braid or a nalbinding of wool. It is as though a helmet for war could pretend to be a warm knit cap made by a mother’s own hand. I watch for hours, as a labyrinth of perfect curves becomes a pair of serpents intertwined, each gripping the other in a fanged reptilian clasp. How close must the enemy be to this helmet to see the terror in this image? I imagine any enemy warrior would need very good eyesight to appreciate these skills.
As I think about it, I am grateful the boys brought me on this journey with them. I’ve seen things I never would have sought and I actually have learned less of the simplicity in the bleeding howls of wars I complain about ceaselessly, and more of the arts.
Maybe these bits and pieces of trims for warriors are made to endure the rotting of the grave and are really only intended to speak to the people of the future. Maybe they are intended for the heroes’ burials to keep memories of ancient courage for the mortal earth.
History is made of bits and pieces of wars turned up in a field by some far future ploughman. But may we not forget, that life of future isn’t just made of relics it comes with generations of loves and losses. Yes, I do still grieve for Ana. Yet, here, in Greg, is her living courage and her smile and her eyes. His whole being affirms her tender guidance. It is how a mother manages our brood is how a good captain manages his men. May a copper-trimmed helmet not be needed to mark his place in time.
Greg and Gaillard release the bird with the feather marked in blue, to warn of wars to come from the north. The message is, “Beware the Anglos and the Saxons, and know also that the Norsemen are studying war now.”
(Continues Tuesday, Oct. 29)
Lazarus Ink 