Book 3: 'Arrow Odd'

15.0 PRINCESS OLVOR'S SCALE-MAIL SHIRT

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

PRINCESS OLVOR'S SCALE MAIL SHIRT  (Circa 864 AD)

"The shirt will have powers thus: "You shall never get cold when

wearing it, whether on sea or on land.  Swimming shall not wear

you out, and fire shall not burn you, hunger shall not waste you,

and iron shall not bite...you unless you are fleeing."

Princess Olvor; Arrow Odd's Saga

(864 AD) A few years after the Siege of Constantinople in 860, Arrow Odd had a run in with King Roller of Norway. While attending the wedding of a common cousin in The Vik, Captain Oddi and his foremost man, Asmund Ingjaldson, were arrested for wanton piracy by their king, who was also attending the wedding, for the king and the captain had numerous common relatives.

"King Frodi has charged you with piracy and attacking several of his sea kings up and down the Nor'Way coast," King Roller stated sternly, as Oddi stood in front of his high seats in his royal longhall in The Vik. "And in my brother's ship, Fair Faxi, no less. Tell me of your adventures, Captain Oddi, foster-son of my cousin Grim 'Hairy-Cheek' Ketilson?" Roller was beginning to have some serious doubts about Oddi's parentage.

"We set out from Hraegunarstead in Fair Faxi," Oddi started, "and met up with some Vikings who'd sailed down from Halogaland in two more Nor'Way ships." Oddi was dressed in a white silk shirt, bright red tunic, his hair bound by a gold headband tied round his long golden locks, his bright blue eyes flashing earnestly. "We searched out a Viking named Halfdan near Elfar Skerries. He had thirty ships so I challenged him to a sea battle. He asked me who I was and I told him Arrow Odd and when Halfdan asked me why I wanted to fight, I told him I wanted to see who the better Viking was. Then he asked me how many ships I had and I told him we had three against their thirty, but I prevailed in the battle anyway and I slew Halfdan and destroyed all his ships. And Asmund was not involved in any of this."

"Those were King Frodi's ships," King Roller started, then bit his tongue. "King Frodi's warrant mentions a Captain Soti and another Danish fleet?"

Before Captain Halfdan died, he told us of another Viking named Soti, in the south off Skane. He, too, had thirty ships, all large dragonships."

"All King Frodi's," Roller whispered to himself through clenched jaws.

"While we were searching for Soti, he seemed to be stalking us. We played a back and forth trap game and finally we caught Soti in his own trap and destroyed his fleet."

"Again, King Frodi's ships," the Norse king muttered, "Go on!"

"On my next voyage, I sought out five famed berserk brothers on Denmark, anchored off Zealand with six dragonships. The brothers had gone inland to visit their concubines, so I alone went inland to challenge them. I met them on their way back to the coast and I attacked them before they could go into their fits and I cut them all down. I'm not sure what happened to their ships."

"This warrant claims that you took those ships as well," and the king waved for his prisoner to continue.

"I left the ships in the hands of the original crews that surrendered to me. What they did with them, I'm afraid I do not know."

"But it is King Frodi that you should be afraid of, for he has asked for your head, Captain Oddi. Although he has returned to Kiev, he still wants your head in his court in Liere. The Halfdan you killed was half Danish, as was Soti, and the berserks you dispatched were full Danes killed on Danish soil. That is why you were apprehended. I shall have to consider his request." King Roller looked down at his shoes. "Take them away!" he ordered, and the guards prodded their guests out of the high seat hall and the shackles around the prisoners' ankles clanked and clattered as they were led off into the shadows. The two young ladies who had watched from the benches at the entranceway of the longhall got up, disappointedly, and left.