THE VIKING

 

THE VIKING

CHAPTER TWO

Skagen, Danish Kingdom

1011AD

The preparations for the great war were immense. Thors, son of Thorkell, descendant of the great Thor himself lead a small battalion of one hundred soldiers to aid the great Jomvikings already in Great Britain, who were stranded by the great winter of Britain. Some likened the snow to Valhalla for it was a great feat and where many soldiers died.

Here in the Danish Kingdom the sun hung high and winter did not reach these far parts, Odin has been good to us said Leif one of the commanding generals. The flaura was filled with verdure, rich and green as if in spring. Mountains towered over them with a silky white snow cap. Flowers bloomed in great succession, shining brightly over the lurid cooling sun.

The air was thin and fresh as a daisy. But the rain was interminable and endless. It hindered all the ship building activities that took place, especially Thors Bifrost he named his ship after the great rainbow bridge that would teleport in between worlds of Venir to the gods and Midgard to the humans.

His ship was bigger than all the rest and had colorful art drawn across it to resemble its indignant name. Floki his great friend and ship builder aided him in building his great ship. Floki and Thors were child hood friends that grew up together in the village of Skagen until Thors decided to start a family and relocated to Geiranger.

The clouds’ bellies soon gave way to the warm sun and finally there was a great rainbow of great hues of pink and yellow as the great biaduct of the rainbow bridge. There under the warm sun they trained steel upon steel, hammer upon hammer until the soldiers were tired and weary.

It was finally time to go to war.

Bibury, United Kingdom

They arrived in the great English empire in the dead of night undetected by their scouts. There they raided and butchered hundreds of English men and women: Fathers, mothers and children. It was a time of great sorrow for the English people especially the small-town fishing village of Bibury.

They burned down homes and markets, stole precious loot from their temples called churches and took the great people of Britain as slaves and the high born as hostages. One of them being prince Athelstan of the Saxon Kingdom.

He was at the Bibury monastery learning about their God who seemed to be living in the sky. When the Vikings heard about their religion they laughed in ribald coquetry.

How can a God live in the sky?

 Surely, he would fall?

And his son, so weak he was killed by man?

They all mocked him saying that the Norse gods were stronger than their God tenfold. And would defeat him in any battle especially in Ragnarök where all the gods will fight and die in their own glory.

The raid went on well and for great a number of weeks but there in Winchester they were ambushed by a battalion of English forces as they were departing to leave for Denmark. Thors armed with his hammer Mjolr he fought them off with great might crashing their skulls in a great feat.

It did not take long until their forces were overrun and defeated for, they were great in many numbers. It didn’t take much time for them to be held captive by the English army, they attacked in the dead of night while they were asleep.

Thors managed to fight them off one by one but the enemies were too mighty for him, they had special weapons like bows and arrows, laces and catapults that destroyed their battalion from the inside out.

The English with their great longswords pierced the hearts of the barbarians with cruelty and great skill. Thors slashing and dicing, hammer on one hand, sword on the other laid a wake of dead bodies in their way. Until he was subdued by the great English Knight known as Bravos.

Bravos a skilled Knight and protector of the realm wore a steel armor that was obsidian black and resembled night. His cape was crimson red and he wore it like a badge of honor. On his left hand was his great sword he called the dragon for its scarlet red color gleamed by the shiny moon.

There in the heart of the village was a standoff, a duel to the death between Thors and Bravos, they fought gallantly and filled with rage. Both of them filled with blood lust. Bravos was a huge Knight towering over Thors.

His armor protected him on most attacks by Thors. The great hammer Mjolr did not even dent his armor for it was made of a special metal known as silver. Bravos heavily protected delivered a swift punch to the gut, leaving Thors gasping for air in a pang of pain.

Thors got up as quickly as he fell down the delivered a heavy blow on the Knights’ near using his great hammer. But nothing. His efforts futile. He then tried to raise his arm wielding his sword with a counter strike but it was caught midair.

Bravos with his helmet gave Thors a headbutt sending Thors spiraling to the ground like a bird that fell from its nest. There Bravos stood tall over him, towering the great Viking. He raised his great sword high and brought it down with great force only to land beside his head.

“Take him as hostage!” he said with a booming voice.

“We have much use for him” added the great dark knight.

For the rest of the Viking army, all was lost, there boats were burned such that they could not retreat. Their comrades were killed and butchered, the village stunk of a pungent rotting smell as the bodies of the Vikings piled high and above inside the town.

Crows filled the sky like a black cloud, devouring the remains of the dead like vultures. Their ships were set ablaze like an infernal fire. Thors was chained like a slave and kept hostage together with the other Viking Generals.

Norway, Geiranger

A small war ship arrived at the fishing village of Geiranger carrying the wounded and the defeated in battle. All the townsfolk said that they would all go to Hel for they did not fight until death, they would be a cowardice bunch that would not see Valhalla.

When one of the emissaries, informed Bjorn, Thors son, of the great defeat in Britania and his fathers’ capture he dropped to his knees and made an oath to himself.

Vengeance will be mine!

I will come rescue you father!

I will kill them all!