Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at Bergenshalvoyen
“Mothers grieve for their lost daughters. And this deceased mother of many warriors grieved for one daughter, Sjókona, once set out for exposure. She couldn’t rest in death until she visited the wretched place one more time hoping to reunite with the daughter.”
Gunnar is telling me what they found when they moored at the ruin of the house.
“When the ancient mother returned to the place where the daughter had been put out, she found a silver haired-woman waiting for an infant of her own to be delivered wanting to save a daughter as she had been saved when she was the infant. So it was, that Sjókona’s own mother found the daughter she grieved after, and Sjókona was also looking for the bond of a mother and daughter. The jade dragon pendant affirmed their belonging to one another.
“So Sjókona gave her mother the pendant to clutch in her hands, and they walked together to the rocky shore. The elder laid down on the rocks. Sjókona spread her mother’s silver hair out and kissed her mother good-bye, as had happened to her when she was an infant, all those years ago. They spoke soft words and it would seem both found their unquenched longings met.
“The tide carried the mother to a grave befitting the grandmother of the monsters of the sea.
“When it was high tide and the mother was gone, we untied from the mooring post. And all of this is what we saw there. Only truth be told.”
“Yes, I know Sjókona went there anticipating some kind of mother/child reunion. But I think she was expecting another infant to be delivered from another grieving thrall mother required to give up a daughter.”
Gunnar explained it. “She was there to become a mother one way or another. She said another mother could give her child up to the wind, or a god could plant his seed for a daughter. Her intention was the mother—daughter bond before she returned across the sea. But then her own mother passed away and her so-called ‘god’ left her there.”
“So, did she find another ‘god’ among the sailors?”
“Well, you know the kindly nature and willingness in a boatload of sailors. But she said he had to actually be a ‘god’.”
“And you had no gods among you who could satisfy her need?”
“Any one of us would rally to the cause, even though she clearly was passed her prime. Oh, do you suppose that was why she only wanted a ‘god’?”
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 