Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at Bergenshalvoyen
As the story continued this account of sailors meeting Sjókona sent the Norsemen chanting and cheering, though for me, it was painful. The story was finished and now there are only the murmers of a drunken party. I asked the storyteller, so what of Sjókona?
“Was Sjókona carried back to her homeland? Is she safe?”
He dismissed my question without an answer. I followed him to the beer keg.
“Tell me, what do you know of Sjókona?”
He fills a horn, and takes a swig and hands it to me.
“Red Shirt, I told a tale I heard from others. If you want to know truths you have to wait for the ones who were there. Surely, they will return anytime now on this new wind.”
So, this has become a tale to be passed along with twists of truth and amazing wonders and horrors just to captivate listeners. But with my pangs of guilt, I listened and believed the truth of it, because a few pieces of it were accurate.
We wait here for the gathering of the ships. And sure enough, the new wind brings more ships from across the sea. Some are sailing a ship that looks very familiar to me and three more of the sailors I’ve known are bringing that newest longship that was being constructed with the gunwales carved by Auld Bjorg, and its monster’s head made over from a Sphinx head. These are the same men who brought Sjókona and I over; and the one of them named Gunnar is the one I told of Sjókona’s need as they were preparing to make another crossing to her homeland, rowing against the wind.
I had asked Gunnar the favor of checking on her. I found him approachable, among these brooding and intense sorts who are always preparing for a fight. And now, here he is, so I ask him for the truth of the story.
“First,” he asks, “what have you heard of this?”
“A storyteller here said you found the corpse of an old woman, in silken dress, clutching the jade pendant I had known Sjókona to wear. Sjókona told me that pendant was used in place of a cloth to stifle an infant’s cries when an infant was put out for exposure.”
“Ah, that explains a lot. We did find the corpse of a very old woman just where you told us we would find the goddess of the sea.
“But that wasn’t Sjókona?”
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 