Krigsgaldr - "War Magic"
Tyr was the son of the leader in a small village of Southern Svealand. A faith that came with obligations he did not want.
Freke was a wolf shapeshifter, a descendant of Fenrir some would say, and they were both loved and h...
"Someday – whenever the Norns, those inscrutable spinners of fate, decree it – there shall come a Great Winter unlike any other the world has yet seen," Vidar whispered in the young boy's ear as they sat on the floor of the longboat. "The biting winds will blow snows from all directions, and the warmth of the sun will fail, plunging the earth into unprecedented cold."
"Don't scare the boy," Tyr sniggered as he walked towards us and moved up behind me – making my body shiver from the cold and damp fabric of his cloak. I bit my lip and took a step closer to my husband, turned around and moved my arms around him to warm him from the biting winds of the open sea. Once I had hated it, but now the stillness of the water felt like a refuge from the human world, and it calmed me.
Vidar gave Tyr an unamused look before he returned all his attention back to Ari and the story. "This winter shall last for the length of three normal winters, with no summers in between. Mankind will become so desperate for food and other necessities of life that all laws and morals will fall away, leaving only the bare struggle for survival. It will be an age of swords and axes," he said and intensified his voice, "brother will slay brother, father will slay son, and son will slay father," he continued with theatrical gestures in the air.
"Is this true, father?" the blond boy asked me and met my orange eyes.
"Only the Norns know Ari," I said honestly, "besides, these are the tales of the Aesir, the human gods. Vidar and I have been told other stories when we were young."
"Can't you ask the Great Mother Wolf, then? She might have the answer?" the child continued, as curious as ever. And I wondered yet again, how many questions a small person like him could fit inside his cute head.
I chuckled at our son's thirst for knowledge, and was thankful for my maður's interruption, "Do you want to hear the story or not?" Vidar said with a smile growing on his lips and started to tickle the boy, urging him for an answer.
"Yes, father!" he yelled between laughs, "yes, yes, I want to hear the story!"
"Very well, but it's almost time for bed. So make yourself comfortable," he said and stopped his tickling to grab a blanket and pulled it over the child's body. "Now, where was I? Oh, yes, the wolves Skoll and Hati, who have hunted the sun and the moon through the skies since the beginning of time, will at last catch their prey," he said and leaned his head back on his left arm while he pulled the child closer with his right. Ari snuggled up against his chest, both laying on their backs, peering up at the sky above us. "The stars, too, will disappear, leaving nothing but a black void in the heavens," Vidar whispered.
"It won't really happen, will it brother?" Tofa asked and laid down beside them. "The stars are all so beautiful."
"It's just a story, sister, no one really knows what the future will bring," Tyr told her as he grabbed my hand and guided me to step over crates and ropes to join Vidar and the children on the furs and blankets we used as our makeshift bed.
The five of us cuddled up together, Vidar with the children on each side, me beside the boy– stroking Ari's blond short hair away from his eyes. And finally Tyr, keeping a watchful eye on us all.
"Yggdrasil, the great tree that holds the cosmos together, will tremble, and all the trees and even the mountains will fall to the ground," Vidar continued. "The chain that has been holding back the monstrous wolf Fenrir will snap, and the beast will run free. Jormungand, the mighty serpent who dwells at the bottom of the ocean and encircles the land, will rise from the depths, spilling the seas over all the earth as he makes landfall."
"But you are a mighty ulfhednar, you will surely take down Fenrir, won't you, father?" Ari yawned and closed his eyes.
"Don't worry child, your father, Tyr, will tame him," Vidar chuckled and raised to his elbow and leaned over me and him to kiss Tyr's cheek.
Tyr responded by rolling his eyes, "what happens then, oh mighty ulfhednar?" he teased, "you better finish the story before the boy falls asleep."
Vidar narrowed his eyes at the blond man, then fell down to the beddings again and started to retell the myth. "The convulsions will shake the ship Naglfar free from its moorings," he said, shaking Ari until he started to giggle, then instantly stopped. "This ship, which is made from the fingernails and toenails of dead men and women, will sail easily over the flooded earth."
"That's disgusting," Tyr grimaced, "why on Odin's beard would you want a ship made of toenails?"
Vidar hushed him and continued, "Its crew will be an army of giants, the forces of chaos and destruction. And its captain will be none other than Loki, the traitor to the gods, who will have broken free of the chains in which the gods have bound him."
"And then what?" Ari mumbled in his sleep, turning to nuzzle his face into my black fur cloak and reaching for his birth father's hand.
"Fenrir, with fire blazing from his eyes and nostrils, will run across the earth, with his lower jaw on the ground and his upper jaw against the top of the sky, devouring everything in his path," Vidar said while snickering and giving me a wink, "you always had a big appetite, my love."
I could hear Tyr agreeing behind me and had the urge to slap some sense into both of them, but stopped myself when I saw the questioning look Ari gave me. "Some humans take me for Fenrir," I explained.
"And that is why everyone fears us when we enter their shore," Tyr told our son, "they believe in these stories, so they see the god Tyr and his wolf companions and they think we are untouchable."
"Isn't that the cowardly way to fool them into submission?" Tofa asked, knowing the human traditions quite well for her age.
"Is it?" Ari asked puzzled and peered at his father.
"No, son," Vidar said gently, "it is the intelligent way. Now let me continue the story and then you can tell me what you've learnt from it."
"Yes, father," the boy said eagerly and nodded.
"At this point, Jormungand will spit his venom all over the world, poisoning land, water, and air alike. The gods will fight the monsters and the giants in a huge battle, and in the end, the remains of the world will sink into the sea, and there will be nothing left but the void. Creation and all that has occurred since will be completely undone, as if it had never happened."
Everyone fell silent, only the sound of water grazing the hull of the ship was heard in the starry night. Then Tyr's strong voice took over the storytelling. "Some say that is the end of the tale – and of all tales, for that matter," he broke his position beside me and leaned over me to nudge Ari's cheek. "But others hold that a new world, green and beautiful, will arise out of the waters. A few gods will survive the downfall of the old world, and will live joyously in the new one."
The boy sat up straight and looked at us all with wide open eyes,"Just like us father, we're sailing to a new world, to a better place, you told me so when we left."
"Yes, Ari, just like the story, we will live joyously, together in a new world," he lowered his voice for only wolves to hear, "and far away from Bjarke's grasp."
-The end-
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Thank you for reading my story! I've put so much work into this book and I'm so happy that you've read it! And with that said- I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
