Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Skåne
Sjókona is no longer known to me simply by her purpose, seiðr, she is a human being with a name, though not a name given her by loving parents as a birth gift. At least it isn’t a statement of utility; it is a name. But it is a name that reeks with purpose in myth – mother of sea creatures. And here she is grieving for a child she never had. Maybe it’s always true that a woman is burdened with purpose even when the world fears increasing the generations of people could cause famines.
Low tide now, so I kneel to search the tidepools. She comes behind me and lays her hands on my shoulders, maybe a kindness, maybe to ease my stiff shoulders. But in my own grief it is the terrible dream over and again of the gentle touch, the fragrance of woman, then I wake prepared to set my gaze on Ana, warm and familiar and here is this stranger. I stand and step away from her, scowling…
“What? You are afraid to be touched?”
“My grief is too raw.”
“How ridiculous! Your old life was long ago and far away now. Here you are free from obligations of any Christian rules of chastity.”
Sjókona believes “father” means nothing more than planting the seed in the womb. And maybe she wants that from me. She came to this house to wait for a child to be discarded so she could take it up and have it as her own.
She argues, “Think of the wonderful infant he would be, son of an eternal time traveler and a seer – he would be a god.”
“No, I can’t even think of that now, Sjókona.”
“Don’t worry. I will rescue the child myself, just place the seed. You can just be on your way and never look back.”
“No. I can’t do that Sjókona. My grief isn’t resolved. Always I find my way following that fine silken thread of love, but it seems out of reach for me, right now.
There are some crabs and shellfish in these rocks that can be eaten without the need of a fire. I break them with a rock, so we sit out here on the boulders and share breakfast with no Christian blessing on this food, and no word spoken.
Now she says, “You can’t leave now, because you have yet to learn of bind runes.”
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 