The Adventures of Helgi the Viking

By April, the weather was mild enough to haul the Swan down the slipway and into the water. Halfdan took a party of men from the farm down to the boathouse, where they removed the wedges which held the roller logs in place and laboured all day to free her from the shed and move her to the top of the slipway. Word quickly spread around the valley, and the next day the whole community turned out to watch the launching, amid great excitement. Everyone crowded round to admire the Swan and touch the freshly painted woodwork and sniff her sides, for the dark, smoky, resinous scent of pine tar made her smell as beautiful as she looked. Small children played tag around the keel and clamoured to be lifted up on board, while among the adults there was a lot of laughter and noisy chatter. Then Halfdan ordered everyone to stand well back and forty willing hands began to drag the ship down the sloping beach to the low-tide mark. As one roller was uncovered, it was carried forward and placed in front of the keel so the Swan could continue her stately progress down to the water. She moved slowly with a low, ponderous rumble but sometimes her own momentum carried her and they had to throw their shoulders and backs against the heavy hull to slow her down.

Once she had reached the low-water mark, they waited several hours for the tide to return. The Swan lay alongside the jetty, moored at both ends, with the gangplank in place. When the sea began to lap her sides, Halfdan and Hedin, Helgi and Embla, Audun, Jorund, and Karl climbed on board to see how she floated. Sam, Kormak, and Alf followed them but stood hesitating on the gangplank.

‘Can we come aboard?’ asked Sam.

‘Yes, yes,’ replied Halfdan, with a distracted air. He and Karl were crawling around in the hold, examining the boards at the bottom of the boat. ‘There’s water running in here,’ he told Karl, reaching underneath the foredeck and patting the boards with the flat of his hand. Karl peered inside the dark triangular space below the deck planks and reached in up to his shoulder to have a feel around. ‘So there is,’ he said. ‘Better take up the floorboards and have a look.’

Sam, Alf, and Kormak hastened on board to join their friends. The water gradually rose up the hull and before long the Swan was lifted free of the bottom.

‘Hey, Audun, look!’ cried Sam, pointing at the inside of the hull. Audun was alarmed to see several leaks springing between the strakes.

‘She’s leaking like a sieve!’ declared Sam.

‘I thought you said you’d recaulked her, Audun,’ said Kormak, frowning at him.

‘I did—it took me ages!’ said Audun, who was beginning to feel sick inside.

‘Halfdan won’t be too happy when he sees this,’ said Sam, glancing first at his brother and then at Audun. Kormak’s mouth started twitching, as if he was trying not to laugh.

‘Is it serious?’ Audun asked worriedly, crouching down next to Jorund, who was plugging the leaks with cloth.

Jorund looked up at him and said, ‘For a fisherman’s son, you don’t know much about boats.’

This was true. Audun had left home just when he would have been old enough to go out fishing with his father.

‘You mean it’s normal?’ he asked.

Sam and Kormak burst out laughing. Jorund smiled at him and said, ‘No, it’s because she’s been laid up all winter in Arnor’s boathouse. She’s like all shrunken and dried out, like a winter apple.’

‘Oh, right,’ said Audun. He could have kicked himself for being so stupid, and made a resolution to keep his wits about him from now on. ‘She’ll plump out, now she’s back in the water,’ he added, just to show he had understood.

‘Yes, in a day or two,’ said Jorund. ‘She always leaks a bit, but once the wood swells with water, it’ll reduce to a trickle.’

When they had mounted the steering oar in place, Halfdan suggested that they row the Swan out into the bay. Everyone liked this idea. Three pairs of long oars were produced and slotted through the oar-holes. Only six men could row at a time, so they drew lots to decide who would go first. The men took up their places, standing at the oars fore and aft because there was nothing to sit on.

‘We’ll row her out standing up,’ Jorund told them. ‘No point cluttering up the deck space with benches, when the oars are only used for manoeuvring. This ship relies on sail-power. Once she’s been rigged, you’ll see what she’s really capable of.’

‘What if there’s no wind?’ Audun asked him.

‘We wait for one. We can sit on our sea-chests and row if we have to, but it’s a long, hard slog without the sail.’ Jorund went away to help Karl haul up the anchor and cast off.

‘Ready, men? One, two, three, pull!’ cried Halfdan.

The men put their weight on the oars and tugged with all their might. On the second stroke the ship began to move, and once they were underway the blades bit upon the water with more effect. Everyone cheered as the ship pulled away from the harbour and glided out across the water. Halfdan stood on the stern-deck, calling out instructions and keeping time, while Hedin manned the tiller. When they reached the middle of the bay, they practised turning the ship—Hedin put the tiller hard over and the oarsmen on one side rowed backwards instead of forwards. Then they rowed back to the shore.

It wasn’t that difficult, rowing standing up, thought Audun, but he couldn’t have kept it up for hours. He was having to strain his arms, legs, and back, and the ship wasn’t even weighted with ballast yet! Alf was rowing on his left, and Sam and Kormak stood behind them. His friends weren’t yet official members of the crew, but anyone could tell, by the grins on their faces, that they were completely hooked. Audun was confident that they would ask to join before the day was out.

Sure enough, that evening, Sam, Kormak, and Alf called on Halfdan and presented him with new lines made of linen and horsehair, and some reconditioned weapons, and volunteered for the expedition. Halfdan welcomed them all with open arms. ‘It’s good to have some skilled hands,’ he said. ‘You can start by helping Jorund to step the mast, and when that’s done, there’s several tons of stone ballast waiting to be shifted on board.’

The launching ceremony seemed to have a galvanizing effect. The next day, Halfdan called Audun in and told him there would be a meeting that night to discuss the recovery of his stolen goods from Eric’s farm. The weapons were entirely necessary for their expedition. He asked Audun to pass the word to his friends.

That evening, Sam and Kormak met up with Audun and Alf and they made their way over to the Forge together. Helgi and Embla, who were hanging around outside, showed them in. Audun tapped on the back-room door. From inside, a voice called, ‘Come in.’ Audun pulled the door open and stepped inside, followed by the others. Halfdan sat back in his chair as they entered. Jorund and Karl were already there, sitting on one of the benches. The new arrivals gathered around Halfdan’s chair.

‘Find a place to sit,’ said Halfdan, gesturing at the other bench and the table. ‘Now that everyone’s here, we can start.’

Helgi perched his behind on the edge of the table and Embla followed his example. ‘Hedin’s not here,’ he observed, glancing round the room.

‘Hedin doesn’t want to be directly involved in the raid. His betrothal to Solveig places him in an awkward position.’

Everyone looked distinctly unimpressed by this excuse and one or two members of the stickball team rolled their eyes. That was the kind of self-interested behaviour they had come to expect of Hedin, ever since he let them down in the games.

Halfdan ignored their disgruntled faces and began: ‘As you all know, we can’t leave on our expedition without our weapons and chainmail, which were stolen from us by Eric. We know the stuff is locked in his storehouse, but up till now we’ve had no means of recovering it. Now we have a team of six good men. Here’s what I want you to do. The night before we leave, you will go in there, remove the boxes from Eric’s storehouse, and carry them down to the Swan. You will do it by stealth, without raising the alarm. I’d rather not have any casualties before we’ve even left Iceland. Once our stores and weapons are on board the ship, we’ll be able to set sail.’

‘How do we know the weapons are in his storehouse? Eric has loads of outbuildings—he could have hidden the stuff anywhere,’ said Helgi.

‘We know, because our spy has done some scouting for us. Tell us what you’ve found out, Grimnir.’

Helgi and Embla exchanged glances, both interested to learn that Grimnir had been snooping round next door as well.

Grimnir stepped out of the shadow of the wall where he had been standing unobtrusively. All attention turned to him; having barely noticed Grimnir before, people were suddenly curious to hear what he had to say. Grimnir, however, said nothing. He moved to the centre of the room and scrawled something on the table-top, with a few strokes of chalk. Everyone gathered round to get a better look. It was a rough map of Eric’s farm, showing the perimeter wall, the stream, the cluster of buildings and the positions of their entrances. Grimnir’s bony finger jabbed at a square which had been marked with a cross. It stood right next door to the main farmhouse.

‘That’s where he’s stashed the goods,’ he said, with a trace of roughness in his voice.

Audun stared at the map. If they came through the front entrance they would have to cross the yard, but if they went through the hay meadow they could sneak in round the back. But the storehouse stood at right angles to the farmhouse. Its front doors were overlooked by the main building, so anyone breaking in would be easily spotted.

‘The farm is well guarded at night,’ Grimnir went on. ‘There’s a two-man patrol, and six guard dogs in addition to that. Getting past them won’t be easy.’

‘Jorund will direct the raid, but you’ll be working together as a team,’ said Halfdan. ‘Should anything happen to Jorund, his father Karl will take over. They’ve been on raids before. For the rest of you, this is your first job and I’m sure you’ll be keen to show us what you can do. If anyone has anything special they can contribute to the mission, we’d like to hear about it. But first, any questions?’

As Audun turned over the various aspects of the mission in his mind, he found he had plenty. There was the problem of breaking into the storehouse and transporting the boxes. And they would have to steal past Eric’s dogs, not to mention the guards who would be patrolling the grounds. The idea of creeping around Eric’s farm at night did not appeal to him at all, but he knew better than to give voice to his doubts.

‘How much will we have to carry?’

‘He took eight large boxes altogether,’ said Karl. ‘A whole cartload.’

‘We can’t transport the stuff by cart. It would be too noisy, and anyway, we’d have to unload everything to get the cart across the lava …’ Audun’s voice trailed off as he considered the alternatives. ‘Maybe we should take it by sea. Load it onto a boat at Eric’s end of the bay and ferry it across to the Swan.’

‘We’ll bring our boat!’ cried Sam and Kormak in unison.

All three looked at Halfdan, who nodded and appeared satisfied with their solution.

‘We’ll still have to hump the stuff down to the beach,’ Alf pointed out.

‘We can use pack-horses,’ said Audun.

‘Have you considered how to get round the six dogs?’ asked Grimnir. ‘Eric lets them loose every night, to discourage trespassers. He only feeds them once a day and never gives them too much. He likes to keep them keen.’

‘They’re vicious brutes—I can tell you that from personal experience,’ muttered Audun.

‘We could dope them,’ suggested Embla. ‘They won’t bark or bite if they’re asleep.’

Everyone started joking and talking excitedly. ‘Dope them! How?’

‘Feed them some doped meat. I can knock up a sleeping-draft,’ replied Embla.

‘What about the men?’ asked Audun.

‘Toss them some doped meat too,’ said Helgi, and everyone laughed.

‘We can’t expect a warm welcome,’ said Jorund. ‘Every man should bring a weapon and be prepared to use it.’

‘It would be better, if only for the sake of my brother and those we leave behind, to avoid bloodshed if we possibly can,’ said Halfdan. ‘But should it come to a fight, don’t hold back. Think of it as the first stage in our campaign, a foretaste of the tough and bloody combat that is to come.’ He smiled and stood up, to show everyone that the meeting was at an end. ‘Our work on the ship is advancing towards completion. We’ll be sailing any day now, if this fine weather lasts. I’ll give you a day’s notice and then we’ll go into action.’

‘We could do with some inside help,’ Audun said quietly to Embla, as they filed out of the room.

‘You mean Solveig.’

Audun nodded. Solveig had come down two days earlier, accompanied by three of her father’s followers, whom Hedin had persuaded to join the expedition. Audun hadn’t gone over to see her so far, because Hedin was there most days and the Ericssons were always around. He was afraid to approach her in any case. He had not seen or spoken to Solveig since the autumn games, and immense changes had happened since then. He was still ready to throw himself into all kinds of perils for her sake, but he did not know where he stood with her now that she was betrothed to another man.

‘Would she help us, do you think?’

‘I know she doesn’t approve of her uncle stealing Halfdan’s stuff. And she wants the expedition to succeed, for obvious reasons,’ said Embla, smiling at him.

‘Obvious reasons?’

‘Yes, she wants you to succeed, obviously.’

‘You keep saying that, but I don’t think it’s at all obvious,’ said Audun gloomily. ‘I don’t know what she wants.’

‘Why don’t you go over there and ask her?’

‘I can’t! I mean I want to, I want to talk to her and sort it all out, but it’s all so awkward. She might not want to see me any more. I can’t just go over there asking her for favours before we’ve had a chance to talk. And besides, she might not approve of what we’re doing. If Hedin’s decided not to get involved, it must be for a good reason. I mean, what if she tips Eric off?’

‘Audun, what a thing to say! Don’t you trust her?’

‘I don’t know! I honestly don’t know where her loyalties lie. I never find it easy to tell what she’s thinking, even when I’m with her. Could you sound her out for me, Embla?’

‘What do you want her to do?’

‘Anything that makes easier for us get in and out unnoticed. Ply her uncle and cousins with strong drink on the night of the raid? Leave the storehouse unlocked, if she can get hold of the key? It’s asking a lot of her, I know, but …’

‘You don’t want to fight her kinsmen, even if they are your worst enemies,’ said Embla, reading his thoughts perfectly. ‘All right, I’ll talk to her. And I’ll tell her you want to see her.’

‘Thanks, Embla.’ Audun put his arm around her and squeezed her shoulder affectionately. ‘I don’t know where I’d be without you.’

Chapter 20