Myths of Yesteryear

Between Freedom and Fate

Oh, winds of the sky and waves of the sea, tell of the battle lost in history. Truth, we seek about a Queen's trickery which led her Sea people to a bridge in Tollense Germany. Oh, most swampy earth and hardened ashes, reveal the lost story of these clashes. Tell of a young girl's most spirited plea which led to death in 1250 B.C.E.

"Papa, I should be fighting in the midst. You said I'm good with my arrow or fist." The young girl said from the top of her horse where she sat away from the action's force.

"Now, little sparrow, your power is true." He bit his lip; this war shouldn't have brewed. He watched for his adopted daughter's grin. "You could probably beat a hundred men." But he should have listened to the advice and took heed of the Sea Queen's awful price. For she begged him to move his home away. But his family, he couldn't sway.

"Then why am I here instead of the fray?"

"You need Patience." Her father said. "We need to save our best weapon for the end."

Bjorn sighed wondering if he were evil, for they were battling Truth's own people! They watched as hordes of Sea People emerged from the foam of the river. But the men of land refused to wither.

Bjorn could not help but remember that day and the visit that the Queen of Fate paid. She was but a pretty, black-haired Goddess, visiting a man who was most modest.

It happened on the worst day of Bjorn's life, he was pondering how to tell his wife, for she just gave birth to their first baby then fell unconscious, even though she's a tough lady. She knew not if it was a boy or girl. It was a girl, he would have named her pearl.

He went to the river alone to grieve, but he would not have any reprieve.

For the Sea Queen came out of the River and implored him to do her a favor.

"Woman, don't you know how I have labored?"

"Oh, but good sir, I bring you great fortune. My daughter, my husband can never see, for her fate is tragic to my Sea King. Allow me to take your poor dead babe so that the King of Freedom might be saved."

"No father should bear what I'm now feeling. Woman do you know the hand you're dealing?"

"Aye." Said the Queen. "It's a terrible price, but for your wife can't you make this sacrifice?"

A stronger man wouldn't have agreed, but he had to do it for Amalie. She named the black-haired baby girl, Truth, ignorant of the irony bestowed on the youth.

Truth watched the long battle of the brave men who unbeknownst to her fought her kin. They emerged from the river, what a sight! It was a pity that they had to fight. They wore decorative coils in their hair and bands around muscles on skin quite fair. They armed themselves with bows and spears and had horses that weren't from around here.

Unlike the Sea people who fought for their King, the landmen fought for their own glory, for one day the bards would have to sing about this epic battle story. The men of land bore axes and clubs. Some of the men noble others were scrubs.

Dread took root where eagerness once laid, for all the death, Truth admitted she made. Two weeks prior, she made a decision much dire. She spied the Queen in the river Tollense. It didn't make sense, so Truth listened in.

"The secret my husband has discovered, for it was whispered by another." Queen Fate said as Truth inched ever closer. The Queen looked like Truth, but she was older.

"I feared that one day this would be the case." Her father said, in haste.

"In two weeks' time, my husband will attack, to find that which is his and mine."

"What should I do, this situation is cruel."

"Pack your family along with your things, find a place where the water doesn't sing."

"Give up my home, my craft, and my living?"

"Yes dear, for the King is unforgiving."

Truth could hardly believe what she heard, thinking about moving made her eyes blur. She lived to swim in the ocean so blue, it was the secret that nobody knew.

She jumped into the river never wondering what gave her such speed, she just followed the Tollense to the Peene. Quickly she swam into the Baltic Sea. In every small fishing town, she would meet men searching for their honor and glory. She told her tall tale and the men agreed to fight the bad sea people in Tollense. Whispers of her story spread far, and near and battle-ready men showed up there. They kept the men fed with millet and grain, for they needed full bellies while they trained. Truth was proud of the provisions they stocked, she came to think of the men as her flock. But realization began to dawn, she had used the men of land as her pawns. She didn't lead men to glory or honor. She led them to their final slaughter. She could not say she was overzealous. In truth, she was being downright selfish.

"There is the King." Truth heard her father say. She kicked her horse in motion with nary a neigh. She nocked an arrow and aimed for the King, but one look into his purple eyes and she knew she couldn't let her arrow fly.

"Daughter, I have found you." The Sea King said.

She didn't respond for he was shot dead. He jumped in front of an arrow meant for her. The last moment of King Freedom's life, a blur. The bronze arrow lodged into his skull. As Queen Fate's prophecy once foretold.

Truth turned away from the awful melee and jumped in the river leading to the sea.

A/N: There were some liberties taken with this.  At the end of the Bronze age, Egypt was attacked by the "Sea People."  They did not materialize from the sea as in my story; however, their origins were unclear just as the origins of the men who fought in the great Tollense battle were also unclear.