Book 3: 'Arrow Odd'

19.0 NEW IRELAND, NEW SCOTLAND, NEW ANGLELAND

CHAPTER NINETEEN

NEW IRELAND, NEW SCOTLAND, NEW ANGLELAND (Circa 866 AD)

"And his shield was called Hrae's Ship's Round,

And his followers were called the Hraes'."

Eyvinder Skald-Despoiler; Skaldskaparmal

(866 AD) After Duke Roller had failed to draw away the fleet of King Frodi, Prince Erik had seen the Hraes' fleet of his king pulling up behind his fleet, so he pushed Arrow Odd's fleet harder.

Slabland looked the same, slabs of rock and slabs of stone and not much else. Yet Oddi could not stop there. The Hraes' fleet of Prince Erik had matched him league for league across the great Atlantean Sea and behind them a half day back was the Kievan Hraes' fleet of King Frodi. Oddi and King Skolli sailed their fleets past the southern tip of Slabland, then sailed down the coast for New Ireland. They put some distance between themselves and their pursuers, but the Hraes' knew they had only one way to go...south. When Oddi reached the green island he had named New Ireland, he led his fleets between the isle and mainland coasts.

When their pursuers reached the northern tip of the island they paused to plan their pursuit. Prince Erik saw King Frodi's foremost man, Ogmund Tussock, at the forestem of Frodi's flagship and, because King Frodi had the larger fleet, he shouted, "You take the channel and scour both coasts and we'll take the east coast of the island. Once past the island sail straight south and we'll be waiting for you off the mainland coast."

Ogmund agreed and the two fleets separated and scoured down the coasts of both sides of the island, with Erik and his Tmutorokan Hraes' checking the Atlantic side and the larger Kievan Hraes' force sweeping the channel sides, both island and mainland for the Norwegians. But neither fleet could find sign of them. Erik led his men around the south end of New Ireland and waited for King Frodi at an island on the north end of New Scotland, but the Danish king never showed. He had followed the mainland coast west up the mouth of a great river and accidentally followed it and then, surprisingly, spotted some York boats of the Norwegians upriver spying on their progress up the great river. There were also signs of natives and villages deep in the woods and round bark boats that would scurry up tributaries as the Hraes' approached. King Frodi sent a ship back east to New Scotland to apprise Erik of the situation and set off in pursuit of the rebels. But Prince Erik had a dream the first night they anchored off New Scotland, and Queen Alfhild came to him and joined him under the awnings and she kissed him and caressed him and made love to him and then she told him that Arrow Odd, had taken a wrong turn into the mainland and was now heading up a great river that was leading to great lakes far inland. Erik woke with a start, realizing that he was supposed to keep himself between his king and young Arrow Odd.

Oddi had led his men upriver instead of down the coast. Then he sent his best rowers in several of the many twelve oared boats with which he had equipped his fleet. They backtracked downriver, watching for signs of the Hraes' fleet and spotted them camped along the riverbank for many miles downstream, but they only saw signs of the Kievan Hraes' fleet. The Tmutorokan Hraes' fleet that had been between them was gone. They retreated upriver undetected and returned to their own Norse fleet to find them beached at a village of some native peoples. Oddi met his returning lieutenants on the riverbank and told them that he had visited with these Mississaugan people on his first trip to the Newfoundland and he introduced them to a young native woman.

"This is Watseka," he started, "and this is our son, Ahanu, named after his grandfather. The name means he who laughs." The men gathered around the couple and child and were very obliging. Oddi was going to warn them to be gracious, for their very lives depended on the natives help, but he could see they already understood that. Once the men had given their reports, Oddi told them that the native reports agreed with theirs. The Tmutorokan Hraes' fleet had been monitored going south along the coast, just as Oddi had expected. "We have to attack King Frodi," he explained. "While the two fleets are separated. I have it on good authority that, if the Kievan fleet is defeated, the Tmutorokan fleet will leave."