Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Skåne
Some of these ships are prepared for a journey. I imagine, with the calm winds and the complexities of navigating these inlets more men will surely be needed at the oars. My language doesn’t seem an impediment here. This harbor chatters in a cacophony of languages and I know words for every meaning. So, I ask.
“With all these ships, surely rowers are needed.”
“Indeed, rowers are always needed – marauders and merchants alike, we all need rowers.”
I learn that rowers on these vessels either have a stake in the journey, or they are thralls or debtors. I am simply in need of purpose and a shirt. Rowers have both. But since I have no stake in a ship, and I am neither a thrall nor a debtor, it is suggested I offer myself to a coxswain for whatever trade can be negotiated.
I’ve found a ship that has a place where an oar lays loose with no trunk or bench for a rower’s seat. And the coxswain is here just now, re-harnessing the tiller.
“Aye Sir, this looks to be a very fast ship with the right wind or a good string of rowers.”
“And we have neither.”
“I am an able oarsman.”
“Why are you offering? Do you know where we are going?”
“No. I hardly know where I am. But I was noticing all the rowers have fine tunics of woven fabrics and I am in need of a shirt.”
“So, you can buy the fabric for a shirt from the merchant who deals in goods for sails.”
He tells me this, as he is looking more closely at my stained and stiffened deerskins. This deer hide I wear should be an outer garment, and I think he is noticing it is pierced by wolf fangs and poorly made. Surely, he can understand why I’m begging for a shirt. Very well, row with us.
“It is a strange pattern in the skies and clouds. So often the easterly winds make the planting season drought. We expect tomorrow will be another day of calm in the heat of the day so no one would need to wear a shirt for the row. When we arrive at Bergenshalvøyen the owner of these boats will provide you with a shirt. Just put your rower’s bench next to Emil.” I see this place where I am assigned but I have no trunk or seat.
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 
In what part of the world is he and how did he get there from someplace in the Middle East, I think?
Sandy
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It is vague, isn’t it. Thanks for asking. Lazarus is just north of where he and his son and son’s partner had been shopping for a sword in the Rhine delta when they were captured and killed. Waking to life again, Lazarus had no idea where he was (either,) he walked north, finding wolves. and eventually found his way to what is now Denmark, then with the Seer (who wears a pendant strangely from an Eastern land) they are traveling a coast in Scandinavia.
It all seemed perfectly clear when I wrote it, but then, why so many words to say it now? It is those Norse people and their far traveling ships that bring the mix of relics and remnants from the east and the middle east. The people he meets have just been traveling in their fast ships to the world markets through the waterways both north and south of the European continent. (May it be known that the ancient Scandinavians building and sailing their longboats were technological advanced, and they were indeed far travelers.)
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I would have guessed somewhere in Scandanavia because the words seem Norse-ish.
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Yes.
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