On hillside drear the fir-tree dies,

All bootless its needles and bark;

It's like a man no one loves,

Why should his life be long?

-Hávamál

Aslaug's screams pierced through the night. The völva continued to sing her galdr in feverish intensity. The midwife tried to confort Aslaug, but she was hardly aware of the world around her. Sweet and tears where dripping across her face. She had given birth to three children before. It had not been easy the first time, but for every son she had brought into the world, the next had been easier to birth. But this was different. In her thoughts, she pleaded to Frigg.

"Help me, Mother!"

Outside, in the hall, Ragnar sat in a corner. He looked at his hands. Every enemy who had threatened him and his family had he killed, but he had no power to help his wife or his son. He was sure it was a son growing inside his wife. But the gods had killed his unborn son before. The helplessness was eating into him. All through his childhood, his father had drilled him: "A man must protect his family. If he can't do that, how much of a man is he otherwise?" The words where echoing through his head. Ragnar felt emasculated. He had already lost Gyda and a son. He knew that, eventually, all his children would be the gods'. They could have the consideration to let them be his until they had grown old. They had time to wait. Inside the bedchamber Aslaug was starting to convulse in pain. "But something in the mouth!" The midwife yelled to Siggy. She had been standing still in a corner of the chamber, transfixed in fear. Siggy started to look around her after something. She picked up a piece of torn cloth and rolled it to a ball. Siggy ran up to the bed and fell on her knees beside Aslaug. "Here, bite into this." Siggy put the ball of cloth into Aslaug's mouth. Siggy looked to the midwife. "Will she make it?" The midwife turned her head to Siggy. "I am most certain the child is dead, but by Eir, I will save her." Aslaug shook in anguish. Siggy leaned in towards Aslaug and took her hand. Siggy moved up next to Aslaug's ear. "There, there. Don't cry. You have three strong boys. You are young, you can have more children." Siggy looked into Aslaug's eyes. They where red from tears. "Come on, Lady Aslaug. You have to push and get it out. Just squeeze a little bit more." Aslaug let out an agonising noise. The midwife cheered on. "That's it, that's it... I can see it." Then came the scream. It was not Aslaug. It was the crying of an infant. The völva fell silent and steped forward next to Siggy. The face of the midwife broke a smile. "It's alive! It's alive, Lady Aslaug! You just need to push a little more." The völva sighed. "Thank the gods..." Aslaug spat out the cloth. She took a deep breath and let out one last scream. She pushed. "Let me see, is it a girl?" The völva pushed Siggy and moved in next to the midwife to have a better look. Then they where silent. Nothing but Aslaug's exhausted breath and cries of the baby. "What's wrong?" Siggy tried to get a look at the baby, "Æsir ok alfar..." whimpered the midwife. Aslaug tried to sit up. "Let me see him." Siggy leaned in over the bed and saw the child. "Twilight of the gods... No..." she let out. "Give me my child." The midwife looked at Aslaug. "Why won't you give me my child?" Slowly, the midwife lifted up the baby. "My lady, it's a boychild." Aslaug saw her baby and her heart fell like a rock. It was a little boy. He looked just like his brothers. Atlest his face did. Where the child's legs where supposed to be there where only something that looked like twisted twigs. Aslaug strected out her hands. "Give him to me." The midwife carefully handed over the misshapen boy to Aslaug. Aslaug took the boy in her arms and held him close to her. Carefully she opened her dress to reveal her breast. He led the childs mouth to it so he could feed. She gave mo thought to the three women around her. Aslaug and her baby where the only people in the entire world.

And that was how Ivar was born.

Glossary:

*Æsir ok Alfar – Litterary "Æsirs and Elfs", a Norse expression taken to mean "all divine powers"

*Eir – A godess associated with medical skill. Her name means "help".

*Frigg – The wife of Odin, the cheif god. She was called upon to assist in childbirth.

*Galdr – Incantations sung in a poetric metre known as "galdralag". The god Odin is sometimes refered to as the "father of galdr".

*Völva – Litterary "Wand Carrier". They where famale shamans in Norse society and patrons of the godess Freyja.