Toting burden after burden, I aided the laborious process as each vessel was beached and unloaded: every grain sack and water butt, each cooking pot, every spear and sword, all the ropes and sails and rowing benches. When every vessel was but an empty hull, the men stripped off their clothes and waded naked out into the swirling, waist-deep water where they shouldered the ropes-some at the bow and others amidships-and with brute force hauled the unwieldy vessels along. Some of the crewmen employed oars to fend the hulls off the nearer rocks, and the whole party proceeded slowly, keeping as close to the bank as possible to avoid being swept out into swifter water and thrown against the sheer rocks. Once the ships were safely past the danger, all the supplies and weapons were trundled downriver and loaded into the craft once more.
This labour occupied the whole of two days for each cataract. And if the first six were not bad enough, the seventh cataract was by far the worst. Not only were there rocks and whirlpools, but also two falls to be traversed. Njord, who had until now been less help than the king thought sufficient, was not forthcoming with a ready solution.
'What are we to do?' demanded the king, growing impatient in the face of the impossible task before us.
'A man may journey by many roads,' observed Njord sagely, 'but only one way leads to his destination.'
'Yes, yes,' growled Harald. 'That is why I have brought you with me. Show us the way to go.'
Njord nodded, his narrow eyes became slits, and his teeth gnawed his lower lip as if he were working out a complicated calculation. 'It is difficult,' the grizzled pilot conceded at last. 'Your ships are too big.'
'What is this!' roared the king, making the earth tremble with the force of his cry. 'Have I taken you this far only to be told my ships are too big?'
'It is not my fault your ships are too big,' Njord answered petulantly.
If ever a man stood on sinking sand, Njord was that man; yet, he seemed oblivious to the danger he faced at that moment. 'If you had asked me,' the pilot sniffed, 'I would have told you.'
'Is there anything which you will yet tell me?' wondered the king, his voice menacing and low. I could almost hear the knife sliding from its sheath.
Njord pursed his lips and stared at the water with an expression of deep inscrutability. 'If the mountain is too tall to climb,' he pronounced suddenly, 'then you must go around.' Turning to the king, he said, 'Since you ask my advice, I tell you the ships must be carried.'
The king gaped at him in disbelief.
'Impossible!' cried Thorkel, unable to contain himself any longer. He thrust himself forward to appeal to the king. 'Strike his worthless head from his shoulders and be done with him. I will do the deed gladly.'
Njord's frown deepened. 'If this is how you would repay the best advice you will hear the whole length of this river, then give me my part of the reward now and I will be gone from your sight.'
'No,' said the king firmly, 'you will stay. The ships are here, little thanks to you. Now it is for you to earn your silver and get them safely across the cataract, for that is what you agreed to do. Fail in this and you will have the reward you deserve.'
Emboldened by these words, the slight pilot stirred himself from his indolence and began ordering the preparation of the boats. 'Stand you aside,' he said, 'and watch well what I shall do.'
As before, the ships were emptied. Then Njord began to display the acumen for which he was acclaimed, but of which we had heretofore seen so little demonstration. He ordered the oars to be removed and the masts struck. He commanded tall fir trees to be cut from the forest and trimmed of all branches; other trees were cut to use as levers. Then the empty hulls were pulled from the river and dragged with ropes over the bank on the round logs.
It must be said that, once begun, Njord warmed to his task and acquitted himself well. He seemed always to know just the right place where a lever would be needed, and could foresee difficulties before they arose and took steps to overcome them, or at least mitigate their severity. By day's end we had one ship beyond the rapids and another half way along.
That night we camped on the bank and commenced again the next morning in a chill rain which began at daybreak. The rain made the task more difficult, for the paths grew muddy and the men's feet slipped, and the wet poles were difficult to grip. However, the remaining vessels were smaller than the king's longship, and could be moved more quickly and with somewhat less effort. Night found us with the last two ships more than half way along the dry course. At dawn the Patzinaks attacked.
King Harald was the first to perceive the danger, and it was his bull roar which roused the work-weary Danemen from their sleep. If not for this, I have no doubt we would have been slaughtered where we lay. Up we rose as one man, spears in hand-for raiding Sea Wolves always sleep with a weapon ready, especially when on land.
The Patzinaks were small and dark and shrewd, striking with quick, furious thrusts of their wide-bladed spears and axes before darting away again. All the dodging and feinting made them hard to hit. This frustrated the Sea Wolves, who much preferred a foe to stand his ground and trade blow for blow. The Patzinaks had encountered Danemen before, however, and had learned best how to deal with a more powerful opponent.
Harald saw how they meant to wear down his men, or perhaps through frustration to draw them into a fatal blunder, so he signalled his men to retreat to the ships and make their stand on the riverbank. There, with backs to the solid oak hulls, they stood to face the feisty Patzinaks.
When the foemen saw that the Sea Wolves would no longer be drawn into the open, they soon lost interest in pursuing the fight further. But, far from discouraged, they simply changed their stratagem; retreating a short way off, they held council and elected an envoy to proceed under the sign of the willow branch.
As the envoy approached, the king motioned me to him. 'We will speak to them, you and I,' he said. 'Though I think we will hear little to our liking.'
When the Patzinak party had come within fifty paces, they halted and waited for us. The king, ten of his house karlar, and myself went out to meet them. The king, frowning mightily, scanned the ranks of foemen, sharp disdain furrowing his brow and making his lip curl.
Up spoke the envoy's leader, uttering an unintelligible stream of gibberish. When this produced no effect, he tried another tongue, which was, if anything, even more incomprehensible than the first. Seeing that neither of us understood him, he abandoned this speech and tried yet a third: 'I give you good greeting, men,' he said in sorry Latin.
This I understood well enough and replied in kind, telling Harald what he said.
'We see that you are not afraid to fight,' the envoy continued smoothly. 'Therefore, it has pleased our lord to allow you to pass through our lands unmolested.'
I repeated his words to King Harald, whose response was ready. 'Your lord has a most peculiar way of expressing his pleasure,' the king grumbled. 'Yet, I have been worse hindered. Fortunate for your lord and for all who follow him that I have lost no men, for we would certainly be having a very different manner of discussion at this moment.'
'That is indeed true, Your Greatness. For this, you can thank my lord, who ever extends his hands in brotherhood to those who desire his friendship.' The envoy, a slight dark man who was missing most of his right ear, paused, smiled affably, and added, 'Of course, such friendship is best established with due and proper consideration.' He rubbed the palm of his right hand with the fingertips of the left.
'It seems to me,' replied Harald, once I had conveyed the envoy's words to him, 'that your lord extends his hands for a more tangible reward than brotherhood alone.'
The envoy smiled and shrugged. 'The demands of friendship are many, and not without obligations of their own. A man of your undoubted eminence must certainly find this to be so.'
King Harald shook his head when he heard this. 'They are cheerful thieves,' he told me. 'Ask them how much silver it will take to establish this bond of friendship between us.'
I asked, and the envoy answered: 'It is not for me to say, Gracious King. Rather look at your men and ships and weigh their worth in your sight. As you are a man of obvious rank, I am certain you will behave accordingly.'
Harald considered this and summoned one of his karlar who hastened back to the longship, returning on the run with a small leather bag. Reaching into the bag, the king drew out a silver armband.
'This is for friendship,' he said, placing the silver in the Patzinak envoy's outstretched hand. 'And this,'
