Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Skåne
We are leaving here this morning to sail on the fresh wind into the harbor of Bergenshalvoyen just north of us, our meeting place. The coxswain announces this is the place where these ships will join with others and in greater numbers we will set our sails anew. We will make our camp site on the beach area, behind the rocky shore on the bay side. Emil is grumbling that the Norsemen weren’t told to bring their own tarps and tents. I happen to have deerskins for a tarp, so now I find the only thing I have happens to be the very thing I need. Our ship’s coxswain finishes his instructions, then calls me aside.
He makes good on his promise to pay for my work as a rower, giving me a woven woolen shirt. He provides one that was once dyed red, which seems very fine quality and I suppose the color would add to the cost. I humbly offer to take an undyed shirt if that would be a savings. He gives me a long incredulous glare.
“The red is for the thrall, you know.”
“No, I wouldn’t have thought that. It would be more expensive to make.”
“It is more expensive, because it is owned by one who is wealthier than the wearer of the shirt.”
“So, my new red shirt is owned by a wealthy man?”
“Yes, you are owned by a wealthy man who provides a shirt for you.”
“You mean, I am here as a thrall and not a free man as when I came?”
He doesn’t affirm that assumption with an actual answer.
“Whose thrall am I?” I ask.
“All the red shirts you see belong to one man who is the trader of slaves.”
“I understand.” What else could I say?
The shirt is wonderful, warm and soft, stretching to fit perfectly. It is a luxury to wear a shirt now and not simply a deerskin with fang holes here and there. It would be expected that a foreigner, such as I am here, would be a slave. I know that I’m at the whims and mercy of Norsemen masters. But learning that I am a thrall is more of a shock than I had expected. I’m in a place where I don’t know the structures of power; as a thrall, at least the expectations for me will be assigned.
(continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 