Authors: Robert Low

Crowbone (46 page)

BOOK: Crowbone

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‘Why do men want it so badly if all it brings is ruin?’ Orm wondered aloud and Crowbone’s smile was scornful.

‘For one it will bring victory. The worthy one.’

They looked at him then and it was clear who he thought that Yngling hero was.

‘I shall take it back from Haakon’s hand, together with the throne of Norway,’ Crowbone added blandly. ‘He is not the one worthy to marry Odin’s Daughter – but I will prove my worth by taking Haakon’s High Seat with my own strength and fame. Then Odin’s Daughter will be worthy of me, as well as me of her. Together we will make an empire in the north.’

Orm smiled back at him, a little sad twist of a smile.

‘Make sure you get it before that axe goes all the way home to that goddess. I am thinking you may not survive another encounter with the Sami.’

‘Especially their new goddess,’ Finn growled and then stopped, shaking his head.

‘That was a poor way to treat a Wend woman,’ he added.

Crowbone’s glance was cool.

‘I am after thinking it was no good matter with her,’ Finn persisted, squinting and rubbing his iron beard. ‘It seems she had feelings for you and did not take kindly to becoming the next goddess of the mountain.’

‘Fear and love are fox and dog,’ Crowbone said and his voice was a chill down their necks. ‘They do not walk well together and so it is best to choose one or the other. In balance, it is safer for princes and kings to be feared than loved.’

Then he sighed and shrugged.

‘I am sorry for it, all the same,’ he added, killing their sympathy in the next second. ‘I could not persuade the yellow hound to leave her. I will miss that hound – but I hear there are good ones to be had raiding the Englisc these days.’

They watched him slosh, boot-careless through the half-frozen shallows, and be hauled up into the ship where his Stooping Hawk banner flew. Oars clattered and the
drakkar
sloughed away through the grue of ice, men yelling and setting a blood-red mourn of sail – in time, Crowbone had told them, he would paint the ship black too, and call it Shadow.

It was an echo of the Oathsworn and their
Fjord Elk
, but a distant one that left Orm more forlorn than comforted.

‘May the gods save us when he becomes Norway’s king,’ Finn grunted, then scrubbed his beard.

‘Ireland, is it?’ he said and Orm smiled grimly. Ireland and Thorgunna.

‘Digging an unwilling wife out of a Christ place in Ireland,’ growled Finn, shaking his head and following him to their own ships.

‘It might well be safer following bloody Crowbone.’

HISTORICAL NOTE

Eric Bloodaxe was the second king of Norway (930–934) and the eldest son of Harald Fairhair. One theory for the wonderful name is that he quarrelled with his other brothers and had four of them killed. My own is that the name (
Blotøks
)
translated as ‘blood axe’ but is probably more accurately rendered as ‘sacrifice axe’ – the Old Norse equated sacrifice with blood – and I liked the idea of such a weapon, thought to be the treacherous gift of Odin.

Eric, of course, is a historical character, as is his wife, Gunnhild, the arch-nemesis of Crowbone since before he was born. Gunnhild’s reputation for
seidr
magic was already legendary when she married Eric and included her living with two Sami wizards to learn all their magic – then she set Eric to kill them and married him.

There are also accounts of her helping in the killing of some of her husband’s brothers and other enemies by poisoning or raising storms to drown their ships. She was reputed to go into prolonged trances – the essence of
seidr
– transform herself into a bird and in that guise cross great distances over land and sea, spy out the movements of hostile armies from the air, or listen to the conversations of unsuspecting enemies. She had Crowbone’s father killed, but missed the wife, Astrid – and the unborn son, young Olaf Tryggvasson, otherwise known as Crowbone.

Eric’s youngest half-brother, Haakon, ousted Eric from Norway in 934 and, after unsuccessful attempts to get it back, Eric and Gunnhild and their sons moved to Orkney and then to the Viking Kingdom of Jorvik (York). His rule here was turbulent and he was ousted at least once, by the Viking king of Dyfflin, Olaf Cuarans, but regained the throne. He lost it, finally, when he was expelled by the populace and betrayed by Osulf, high-reeve of Bamburgh, and killed at Stainmore in 954.

The hunt for the axe takes Crowbone to a part of the world I had avoided with the first Oathsworn novels, simply because it was a route well travelled in other books – but the North Sea coast, from the Isle of Man to Orkney is an interesting place in the late tenth century. The Dyfflin Norse are humbled by the emergent Irish, first under the High King Mael Sechnaill at the Battle of Tara and then at Clontarf some thirty years later, under Brian Boru. At the same time, the Scots are slowly emerging as Alba while the last of the Picts cling to parts of the far north, a shadow of their former greatness; their fortress at Torridun (or Torfness) can still be seen today, as formidable earthworks at Burghead.

The Sami (Lapps) of the far north have already gained a place in Viking folklore as a strange, highly magical people and so were perfect for keepers of Eric’s Bloodaxe.

Gunnhild, according to the Jomsviking Saga, returned to Denmark in 977 and was drowned in a bog on the order of King Harald – a suicidal visit and not, in my opinion, in keeping with the cunning old
spaekona
. I prefer the alternative version of her fate that has her imposing herself on Orkney and dying there circa 980. She had eight sons – including the most famous of them, Harald Fairhair – and a daughter and, as far as I can ascertain, Gudrod was the last of them.

This, however, is the story of the emergence of Crowbone, Olaf Tryggvasson, already forging the reputation for hardness that will carry him all the way to the throne of Norway and, even as a stripling, determined to be first on his own boat rather than second on one belonging to the Oathsworn of Orm Bear-Slayer.

As ever, this is best told round a warming fire in the crouching dark; any errors or omissions I claim as my own – but do not let them spoil the tale.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The list of those without whom etc:

The Glasgow Vikings (
www.glasgowvikings.co.uk
) and the rest of the Vikings, national and international (
www.vikingsonline.org.uk
) who provide entertainment and education in several countries and have actually drunk Lindisfarne dry.

My agent at United Agents, Jim Gill, for being canny, steady and perceptive. Katie Espiner and Louisa Joyner at HarperCollins for having faith and Joy Chamberlain, one of the legion of unsung editors who do so much more than sort the apostrophes and split infinitives.

The Historical Writer’s Association (
www.thehwa.co.uk
) whose members offer constructive criticism and are (usually) right.

The process of writing this has been encouraged by a firm band of fans, who have followed the Oathsworn and now want to carry on reading – more power to you all for your praise, criticism, comments and unfailing humour. I hope Crowbone carries on the Oathsworn saga in the direction you all want to travel.

About the Author

Robert Low has been a journalist and writer since the age of seventeen. He covered the wars in Vietnam, Sarajevo, Romania and Kosovo until common sense and the concerns of his wife and daughter prevailed.

To satisfy his craving for action, having moved to an area rich in Viking tradition, he took up re-enactment, joining The Vikings. He now spends his summers fighting furiously in helmet and mail in shieldwalls all over Britain and winters training hard.

www.robert-low.com

Also by Robert Low

THE OATHSWORN SERIES

The Whale Road

The Wolf Sea

The White Raven

The Prow Beast

THE KINGDOM SERIES

The Lion Wakes

The Lion at Bay

Copyright

HarperCollins
Publishers

77–85 Fulham Palace Road,

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Published by HarperCollins
Publishers
2012

Map © John Gilkes 2012

Robert Low asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Source ISBN: 9780007298587

EPub Edition © September 2012 ISBN: 9780007486038

Version 1

FIRST EDITION

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, while in some cases based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.

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