Book 3: 'Arrow Odd'

28.0 KING ALF 'THE OLD' FRODISON

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

KING ALF 'THE OLD' FRODISON (Circa 887)

"The king wants to collect back tribute from a land called Bjalka (Kiev),

ruled by a king named Alf (Frodison) and nicknamed Bjalki. He is

married to a witch named Gydja, and they are both great for sacrifices

and offerings. They are so powerful as magicians that they could hitch

a horse to a star. They have a son called Vidgrip, who is a mighty warrior.

King Herraud (Olmar) has tribute to collect there that has long been unpaid."

Arrow Odd's Saga (Chapel)

(887 AD)  Prince Erik often talked with Oddi about the situation developing in Kiev. Oddi wanted the Southern Way slave trade stopped. He had promised Gudrun that he would stop it if she and Sigrid and their sons would join him in Gardariki and she had arrived quite suddenly with her whole family and father and most of the Polotsk Hraes' Trading Company people just ahead of the northern rebellion. Oddi put the sisters and sons up in his longhall in Gardariki and The Prince looked after the rest.

"This is Odd," Gudrun said, introducing her son by Oddi, "And this is Asmund," Sigrid said, introducing her son by Asmund and they were both fine looking young men and both twenty four years old. Oddi had somehow been expecting boys. And these two young men were already experienced traders of the Hraes' Trading Company of Polotsk.

"Are you the same Oddi who went to Bjarmia a long time ago?" Odd asked, shaking his father's hand vigorously.

"Traders still talk about the gold you made in Bjarmia," Asmund added.

"It wasn't really that long ago," Oddi said, looking at Gudrun. "At least it doesn't seem that long ago."

Oddi took the two sisters and his son and foster-son on a tour of Gardariki that concluded at Prince Erik's palace and a great banquet welcoming the Polotsk branch of the Hraes' company.

"So what do you think of Odd?" Gudrun asked Oddi the next morning in bed.

Oddi raised himself up on his elbow and kissed her gently. "He is so much like me," he answered, "it almost floored me. I was looking at myself."

And what did you think of Asmund?" Sigrid asked.

Oddi rolled over and raised himself up on his other elbow and said, "He is so much like Asmund. I'll have to tell him all about his father," and he kissed Sigrid gently.

Oddi then rolled onto his back and both women dove onto his arms and they all hugged warmly. It took Oddi back to his freedom days fighting slavers with Asmund and he was glad he made that port stop in Polotsk before killing King Frodi.

Prince Erik was overjoyed to see his son, Oddi, so happy, even though the people of Gardariki thought that Oddi was perhaps happier than one ought to be. Multiple wives and multiple concubines were common in Gardariki, especially with all the different religions that were tolerated in the city, but there were no marriages in Oddi's longhall and these women were free to come and go as they pleased. But Oddi and Gudrun and Sigrid were at an age where they really didn't give a shit.

One day, Princess Silkisif was alone with Oddi in King Olmar's highseat hall and she asked Oddi if he cared for her at all. "I only ask," she said, "because it always seemed to me that when you were here as the Barkman, you were always trying to impress me. I thought perhaps that you intended to court me."