Reborn into the Viking series

Chapter 8

GREAT HALL - EVENING

Great trestles have been set up and the freemen sit around them, drinking and ready to feast.

Music is playing.

Earl Haraldson, with his wife and family members, sits at the high table.
There is much laughter in the hall. Then a horn is sounded - for silence.

Earl Haraldson: Before we feast, we have an important ceremony to perform. Two young men have joined us for the first time and must receive their arm-rings. Olaf the son of Ingolf and Bjorn son of Ragnar Lothbrok. Both of you come up here.

Bjorn and the other young man approach the high table. The Earl walks round to the front of the dais...and draws his sword.

Earl Haraldson: Kneel.

They both kneel. A housecarl slips two ornate bracelets of twisted silver, the clasps fashioned as animal heads, onto the blade.
Earl Haraldson holds the blade close to the young men's faces.

Earl Haraldson: These rings symbolize your coming of age - and they also bind you in loyalty to me, your chieftain. Any oath you swear upon your ring, you must honor and keep, or else lose your honor. Do you understand and do you swear so?

Boys: Yes, lord.

Earl Haraldson: And you freely recognize your fealty to me?

Boys: Yes, lord.

Earl Haraldson: Then take your rings.

The boys take their rings from the point of the sword and clasp them around their arms. Hildr gives him two thumbs up while Ragnar looks on proudly. Then sees that Haraldson is staring at him.
But the moment is lost as the freemen shout out their approval, banging their fists on the tables as the boys return, embarrassed but delighted, to their seats.

Ragnar: Let me look! Ah - it's a fine ring.
Never lose it, my son, or something dreadful will happen to you.

Bjorn: I won't father.

Earl Haraldson: Now let's feast.

Ragnar suddenly stands up.

Ragnar:
My lord...we all want to feast: but
we also want to know where we will be raiding this summer.

Earl Haraldson: Can't it wait?

Rollo: No, tell us. We're anxious to know.
We have a right to know.

The hall has fallen silent.

Earl Haraldson: Very well. Then we shall go raiding to the east again, into the Eastlands, into Rus...

Ragnar: Every year we do the same thing. We raid people who have nothing more than we have. We have a hard life, and they have a hard life - but we take from them even the few things which they have. But, lord, we have an alternative...a choice...another journey...

There is a groundswell of noise...of some disagreement. The Earl is alive to it.

Earl Haraldson: Oh yes, I too have heard the rumors. I hear that if we sail west, across the open, fathomless ocean, we shall somehow come to lands far richer and more plentiful. Yes, I have heard those stories. But I tell you now that I will not risk my ships or my reputation on wild, speculative and unrealistic visions.
I pay for the ships. Therefore they go where I tell them to go, and that is the end of the matter.
Now let's feast.

He claps his hands...and the feast is brought in. Ragnar looks at Rollo, who shrugs.

Hildr rolls her eyes she sees the HouseCarl approaches their table and she mumbles "Oh great, Earl's guard dog is approaching " she whispers to Ragnar. The housecarl has a livid scar which runs from the corner of his mouth up his cheek to his eye.