Historical Setting: 793 C.E. The North Sea A stiffer wind and we are reefing the sail to give the wind less of us to chew on. With the speed of these ships, we can cut across the waves like well-honed blades skinning the vellum from the meat. It seems we are moving very fast,Continue reading “#69.2, Wednesday, June 4, 2025”
Category Archives: Historical Fiction
#69.1, Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. The North Sea Sailing east across the North Sea toward the Northumbrian islands where Christians huddle with their riches, each wind gust comes stronger and more southerly than the last. With the lifting of the clouds comes the rougher sea. Ever larger waves are racking us broadside. Everyone is seasickContinue reading “#69.1, Tuesday, June 3, 2025”
#68.13, Thursday, May 29, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at The North Sea It was an uneasy sleep never knowing when the wind would turn. It will take a rare easterly to set us on our way and this may just be that day. The orders for thralls are for two slaves in each ship. The liftingContinue reading “#68.13, Thursday, May 29, 2025”
#68.12, Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at The North Sea The instructions are repeated, “Always, quick and quiet, invisible under the shroud of dark,” The orders devolve into our instructor’s own longing for the journey, “As silently as an evening lap of sea water tongues the tender thigh of shore, your oars will caress theContinue reading “#68.12, Wednesday, May 28, 2025”
#68.11, Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at The North Sea We are given the slave orders for the journey. But really the only thing slaves need to know is obedience. “Slaves are assigned two to a longship, one with the bow rowers, and the other at the stern taking orders from the coxswain.” TheContinue reading “#68.11, Tuesday, May 27, 2025”
#68.10, Thursday, May 22, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. The North Sea Gunnar didn’t call me “thrall,” he called me “red shirt.” I am slave to a particular master who identifies his own with the red shirt. My shirt is hardly a brilliant shade of red even though I’m new, because the shirt, like an owned man, is theContinue reading “#68.10, Thursday, May 22, 2025”
#68.9, Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at The North Sea It’s a sleepless night for every man under the worn, waxed sails and sheltered beneath these boats we’ve hauled up on the beach to keep them from the storm. The booms and crashes, cracks of thunder, flashing skies — it is hard to know ifContinue reading “#68.9, Wednesday, May 21, 2025”
#68.8, Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at The North Sea [Art note: painted by this blogger copying a photo by Carol Ann Munro taken on an early morning on the SW side of Lake Michigan] Is the source of heaven only in the human imagination? Is it a pondering we all share as humankind of aContinue reading “#68.8, Tuesday, May 20, 2025”
#68.7, Thursday, May 15, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at The North Sea We are gathering ships and men for a journey at sea. It seems to require lots of preparation and lots of waiting. I ask Gunnar what he knows of this. “We’ve all seen it and felt it. The gods are restless and the timeContinue reading “#68.7, Thursday, May 15, 2025”
#68.6, Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Mooring at Bergenshalvoyen Gunnar, one of the sailors on the boat that stopped for Sjókona, is telling me what has become of her. We are both assuming Sjókona’s demand for a “god” could be met by any man. I was hoping her idea of a Christian god was not aContinue reading “#68.6, Wednesday, May 14, 2025”
Lazarus Ink 