Book 3: 'Arrow Odd'

16.0 HOLMGANGER ON SAMSO

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

HOLMGANGER ON SAMSO (Circa 865 AD)

"Hervard, Hjorvard, Hrani, Angantyr,

Bild and Bui, Barri and Toki,

Tind and Tyrfing, two Haddings,

East in Bolm they were bairns,

Sons of Arngrim and Princess Eyfura."

Arrow Odd's Saga; Author Unknown (Chappell)

(865 AD)  Arrow Odd gripped a bow in his left hand and held three arrows called Gusir's Gifts in his right and he surveyed the misty shores of Samso Island, struggling to keep his balance as the waves of Munarvagr Bay rocked his Nor'Way ship, Fair Faxi. He had never seen Samsey, as the locals called it, but he was sure this was the right island, the island where the holmganger had been called, west of Zealand, east of Jutland, smack in the middle of Denmark. The bay looked just as Hjalmar's lord, King Hlodver, had described it, strangely mystical in a moonlit dusk, with a bright curving beach that instantly turned, with a grassy lip, into forest. "This must be it!" he called out towards the other longship pulling up beside him.

Hjalmar 'the Brave' stood at the forestem of that ship and answered back, "I see no one here. I think they are late."

"That's okay," Oddi shouted. "Tomorrow we'll work on your ship." They had hit a bit of rough weather while sailing from Sweden. Hjalmar was in need of a new rudder oar. The awnings were let on both ships, lookouts were posted and the crews slept at their benches, weapons at the ready.

On the way to Samsey, Angantyr, a giant of a man a head taller than his eleven berserker brothers, touched in at Jarl Bjarmar's stead and he married Svafa, the Jarl's daughter...not because he wanted her, but because he did not want Ingibjorg. He wanted to give the world notice that he was after their heads, Arrow Odd's and Hjalmar 'the Brave's. And that's why they were late. After their wedding nuptials, Angantyr had a portent dream and he stirred so much in his sleep that he woke Svafa. The next morning he told Jarl Bjarmar about it.

"In my dream," Angantyr said, "we went to Samsey and we found a lot of birds there and we slew them all. Then we walked further and two eagles came at us; I struggled with the first and we fought long and hard and the second eagle fought my brothers and seemed to get the upper hand. I woke in a cold sweat and I fear the dream's meaning."

Jarl Bjarmar told Angantyr to return to Holmgard and tell his father, Prince Arngrim about the dream, because the felling of mighty oaks seemed to have been foretold.

So Angantyr and Svafa returned to Holmgard with the brothers and Prince Arngrim understood the portents of the dream and he told his sons that he had never before feared for his sons in their travels, but he agreed with Jarl Bjarmar's interpretation. Princess Eyfura pleaded with her sons to stay, but they refused to have their honour rebuked, but she would not let Svafa leave with them. Prince Arngrim accompanied his sons to their ship and gave Angantyr the famed sword of Prince Erik, Tyrfingr, saying, "I think that good weapons will be needed now."

When the twelve berserk brothers came to Samso from the east, they saw two longships anchored in the exposed expanse of the bay called Munarvag. They knew right away that they were the ships of Arrow Odd and Hjalmar 'the Brave'. They rowed their own longship hard toward the other two and, just when the two crews had got their oars into the water, the berserk's ship came crashing through them. Shattered oars kicked up and sent men flying, as the sons of Princess Eyfura drew their swords and gnawed their Lindenwood shields before flying into their berserk rages. Of the twelve, only Angantyr was not a berserker. He was so big and so strong, he didn't need to fly into fits.