Historical Setting: An unknown time in a cold land
The ferocious, tottering man at the door of this house yields his weapon and reaches out to point to his empty woodbin. Repeating the words of the thrall for “heat,” as “heit” and “man,” I’ve been given a name, “Heit-man.” I lay the logs in the bin, and some feeding the fire on the hearth, so that they may bring light and warmth to this cold, dark, little room.
I see this thrall, this child, captive from warfare, as a promise for peacemaking with these people because she can translate the words of my old tribal language until I, too, can learn the language of these others.
The thrall calls this man smiðr as that is who he told her he is. But she tells me now that she has heard others speaking in this language and she realizes that smiðr is his gift as artisan, not his name. Can those things be separated? And if he has a name, it is unknown to us.
The child tells me her name before she was “thrall,” was Marian.
“I will call you Marian, then,” And I beg a bowl of gruel.
She says the artist is very poor, because he took no time from his work when it was the season for growing a garden. And when the shipbuilders needed his work, they gave him Marian as payment. All the food here is begged or stolen from the community cache. Marian said she found some peas and beans and she draws from a sack in the cache an amount for his bowl, putting some aside for herself and she shares with me from the bag.
“He gives you no food?”
“Not always a daily meal. Maybe, everyone is poor here. Though some have gardens. Sometimes, the village feasts when a large beast falls into the pit in the woods. Then the village shares bread flour all around, for every oven, even our own in this poor place. Then everyone feasts here and we eat and eat until every bone is picked clean and everyone has had their fill. Nothing rots, nothing molds. No one is hungry. There is rumor now, that a moose is in a pit and we will feast for the solstice.”
I can find they have a need here for my strength, such as it is. Here, even fire logs are valued.
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 