Hrothgar’s Saga

Vikings for all occasions, no tale too loooong

Manaraefan Herred

Scouting out the enemy

 

Hrothgar took two of the stoutest members of his hearth troop, Torsten the Wend and Magnus the Timid, to spy out the lands of his old foe Thurstan the Shoeless.  They crossed a rickety bridge and entered a land of heath, bog and woods guided by a local peasant called Thorgrim the Cripple.  This Thorgrim said the journey to Thurstan’s lands would be short but his concept of distance was different to that of Hrothgar and his warriors.  They marched on and on over hill and down dale for such a great distance that their shields grew heavy in their hands.  Eventually, after a long and arduous journey they reached Thurstan’s land and made camp for the night.  Torsten and Magnus argued over who was to light the camp fire, each was vying for the honour. Hrothgar told them to light a fire each and then push them together for a single blaze.

Torsten set out to hunt and hadn’t been gone long when the quiet of the evening was rent by the cry of the Great Beast of Crane Born.  There was a great crashing sound in the forest and cries of pain and fear but soon Torsten returned with the corpse of the beast.  He had overcome his fear of the creature and had lopped the head from this one and then ripped out its guts, he planned now to roast parts of it over their camp fire, he hoped therefore to gain strength of limb and heart from the beast.

Once night fell each in turn set out to spy out for the enemy.  First to go was Magnus and when he returned he reported that he could not find the foe but that he had come across the camps of strange little goblin like creatures who were dancing and singing about their great bonfires.  Magnus had become afraid that they might discover him and tear him apart so he retreated back to their camp.  Hrothhgar went next, he took care to give the goblin camps wide berth and came upon a fire with men talking about it.  He stealthily approached the fire until he could hear the words of the enemy but was disappointed to discover that the men there were in the thrall of the goblins.  Hrothgar retreated from the goblin camp and continued to seek out the enemy.

Hrothgar eventually came upon a camp of Thurstan’s men and approached stealthily, he saw before him the silhouette of a sentry and moved closer intending to slay him.  Hrothgar was close enough to strike his foe and had not yet himself been seen.  He raised up his axe and brought it down with a mighty blow at the sentry’s chest.  Unknown to Hrothgar a second sentry was crouching behind the first and struck at Hrothgar with his weapon.  Hrothgar just managed to jump aside and after exchanging a few insults with the enemy returned to his camp.

On his return to their camp Hrothgar found that Torsten was still trying to roast his beast, Magnus took over that task so that Thorsten could scout out the enemy.  He too found the foe but was unable to approach very close to them, on his return he discovered an enemy scout and chased him off.  By now the beast was roasted and they enjoyed a good meal, they even allowed Thorgrim the Cripple to join them.

Hrothgar, Magnus and Torsten liked the look of their camp as a good place to fight the enemy and decided they would await their enemy at there.  They decided they would get a good nights sleep but awake early to prepare to meet the dawn attack they expected the enemy to make.  This they did but the enemy disappointed them so after a good breakfast of porridge they broke camp and set off to attack the enemy.  As they marched porridge dripped from Magnus’ helmet for he had not removed his it as he ate, not wishing to leave a trail for their enemies they paused and waited while he cleaned his helmet. They found a secluded place to drop their camp stores and stealthily approached the enemy camp, it was deserted.  They returned to their camp stores and as they did so little goblins shouted insults at the Vikings and challenged them to charge, the brave heroes ignored the impish taunts but cursed them for blasted brownies.  On reaching their stores Magnus discovered that his cloak was missing, he set to weeping and wailing as his wife had only just made the cloak for him and he greatly feared her wrath!  He was so distraught that he even approached a pair of goblins and asked if they had taken his cloak, the little monsters said they knew not what a cloak was!  Torsten meanwhile had returned the their overnight camp where he could see Magnus’ cloak laid out, he returned to the others and they agreed that the enemy had taken the cloak and must be lying in wait for them at their night camp. 

Hrothgar, Magnus and Torsten decide to approach their night camp from a different direction and they came up behind the enemy who were looking to ambush them. These were three of Thurstan’s best men, Torvik Nine-Finger, Horsa of Wessex and Dane Bjornsson. They had taken their enemy by surprise and Torsten immediately rushed to attack them, so quickly indeed that Hrothgar and Magnus struggled to join him before he killed all of the enemy. As Magnus joined Torsten they realised that Horsa was behind them while they faced Torvik and Dane.  Then Hrothgar came up and started to rain arrows down on Torvik and Dane, Magnus immediately turned around and charged Horsa, so hard did he charged that he drove Horsa into a holly bush where he died a prickly death.  Torvik and Dane charged towards Torsten and Hrothgar who shot Torvik between the legs as he leapt a ditch, stunned he found himself helpless before Torsten who swiftly cut him down.  Hrothgar meanwhile had had to leap over a bush to avoid the rushing Dane.  Dane now found himself surrounded and quickly succumbed to attacks from Torsten and Magnus. This last enemy they took alive, they interrogated Dane and gained much valuable knowledge from him.  The excitement of the fight had been too much for Magnus and he had to rush into the woods and drop his trousers. On Magnus’ return they made their way back to their own lands.

 

Saracens

 

Hrothgar led the Host to Hastingas where they fought an army who had come from the Holy Land where they had been at war with the Saracens.  Many of their weapons and much of their armour had been made by the Saracens and their appearance was strange and much commented upon.  Many came from Normandy with them and there was a great and hard fought battle.  Hori-Hjort carried Hrothgar’s  battle standard Land Grabber for the first day of fighting and Nik the Canadane carried Land Grabber the second day.  It was here that Leif Tyrsson tested his strength against a horse, the horse showed itself to be fearless and smashed Leif into the ground much to his surprise.  Hrothgar told Lief to stop playing the fool and fight like the old warrior he was.

Bjornhelm the Frail fought hard and strode like a great colossus over the raven field smiting to his left and smiting to his right, so  great were his strides that his trouser ripped asunder with such a great tearing sound that all about him fell to their knees and prayed in silence fearing that the Battle goddess Svava Wladsdottir had returned to punish them for fighting with feint hearts.  Bjornhelm left the field and when he returned he had on such a large pair of trousers that three men could have stood inside them!  Dressed thus he stood out from the crowd of warriors and again smote all those that came before him.  No longer considered frail after such great deeds he is now known as Bjornhelm Trouser-full.

After this the Manaraefan went to their hall at Crane Borne where they celebrated the success of the year, Susan of Lytham accompanied Hrothgar and heard for the first time the great tales of his deeds and those of other warriors of the Manaraefan. Bohn Aelfricsson told how he and his steed slew a vicious troll by attacking it with their heads.  Bjornhelm Trouser-full told how he single handedly defeated a whole hoard of enemies at Wareham and Hrothgar told of the low standards of some warriors who should know better how to behave honourably.