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Four years.
In the far east, raiders from the North Sea hacked a bloody path to the heart of the Pendragon's golden kingdom. They called themselves berserkers. Fearless in battle, they fought possessed by the spirits of animals, bears and forest wolves, hacking and tearing at Uther's armies like they were made of straw. Fire and sword laid waste to the Christian churches Uther built. Holy places, of the new religion and the old, were desecrated and strange gods sat in bloody sacrifice at the altars.
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For a time, Albion held its breath to see the conqueror become the conquered. The northmen's leader was a man of vicious temper and skill. His men called him Arne Bloodspear. He claimed to have sacrificed the beating hearts of twelve northman chieftains to his gods to bring him safely to Albion. Twelve more, including Uther, were promised for death unless they paid a ransom for their kingdoms.
Eleven kings, from up and down the eastern seaboard, paid.
Uther did not.
Arne Bloodspear swore to stick the Pendragon's greying head above the bowsprit of his longship.
It would have been so, if not for the blood-traitor Merlin.
Merlin, using his knowledge of the old arts, ventured deep into the Forest of Mercia. The gods alone know what dark promise Uther's pet wizard made with the Green Man of the Forest but he emerged three days later, laden down with the largest oak tree ever seen in the land of Albion. Stories claimed it took three wagons pulled by fifty horses to remove the oak from the forest border.
How Merlin brought it so far alone, on foot, was a mystery none wished to answer.
From the oak, Merlin carved forth a great table. Large enough to seat one hundred and fifty men, its like had never been seen before in Albion. Not long or square, it was round.
As round as the sun in a summer's sky. So large, only Uther's great hall could hold its width.
On the wizard's instructions, Uther melted down four dozen chests of gold. Twice the amount of Arne Bloodspear's ransom. Merlin took this gold and, in the grooves carved deep into the oakwood table, inscribed the names of one hundred and fifty men.
