What Will You Choose?
From nothing, he woke, greeted by what he perceived to be nothing. Ragnar Lothbrok stood, expecting pain and weariness, but instead felt the precise opposite. He felt as he had many years ago. He felt like a young man. He looked down at himself and saw a long white gown, plain and bright. His hands and wrists, too, and even his feet, were clean, cleaner than he had ever seen them. It was as if he had experienced that cleansing that Athelstan had told him about.
But he had always thought that to be more of a metaphor.
Ragnar took a step forward, and when his heel hit the floor in front of him, the nothingness suddenly burst into something. All around him was indescribable, incomprehensible beauty. The grass on the rolling fields before him was greener than the jewels he had seen on some of the foreign rulers' jewelry, the sky was a magnificent blue, with occasional white, puffy clouds. He could hear birds and smell the fresh, clean earth.
"Is this Heaven?" he wondered aloud as he turned in place, trying to take it all in at once.
After completing the circle, he stopped, now face to face with a man in a similar white gown. The man smiled and stretched out his hand. Ragnar did not take it, but looked at him curiously.
"Ragnar Lothbrok," the man said. "Welcome."
"Where am I?"
"Oh, I'd say…probably the west of Ireland," the man said with a laugh as he looked around. "I'm not sure, to tell you the truth."
"But…you brought me here," Ragnar said. "How do you not know?"
"I was sent here, like you. This land was just chosen because it happened to be empty for the moment," he replied. "It doesn't matter where we are, though. I am here to give you a choice."
"A choice?" Ragnar felt as though he understood less and less the more he spoke to this man.
"Yes," the man said, looking to his left.
Ragnar followed his gaze and down at the bottom of the hill where the two of them stood, he saw a warrior walking up the slope, his arms swinging confidently at his sides. He looked at Ragnar and it was then that he saw. This man was missing an eye.
Odin.
"Ragnar Lothbrok," the man said with a hearty baritone voice as a smile spread across his lips. "A mighty battle you have fought, my friend."
Ragnar said nothing. He had dreamed of this day for so many years. It was always his dream for Odin to take him into his hall and welcome him to the feast like an old friend. But now he was confused, scared even, and he said nothing.
Odin clapped him on the shoulder and laughed. "This man here says we're to give you a choice, though, I'm afraid."
"Wh-what choice?" Ragnar asked now, looking between the two men.
"Will you come to Valhalla?" Odin asked.
"Or to Heaven?" the man in the white robe asked.
Ragnar shook his head. "I don't understand. I didn't think this was how it worked."
"Oh, it isn't," the white-robed man said.
"What?"
"Ragnar, you are being given an opportunity that has only ever been afforded to one other man," Odin told him.
Ragnar's stomach seemed to sink, and he wondered briefly, if he was dead, how that was possible before focusing back on what that last statement must have meant.
"What will you choose?" the man in the white robe asked him evenly.
"Valhalla, with all your warrior brothers, or heaven with the sinners and the saints and all that lot?" Odin asked, seeming almost eager.
"What did Athelstan choose?" Ragnar asked.
Neither answered, but they looked to each other briefly, then back to him.
"We cannot tell you that," Odin said.
The other man smiled sympathetically. "You must make this decision for yourself."
"I am making the decision for myself. I choose the priest. Wherever the priest went, I will follow him," Ragnar said.
"You cannot choose that way. You must tell us, Heaven or Valhalla," Odin insisted. "You cannot choose one or the other based on who is there."
"I want to go where Athelstan went, if he was given this choice, too," Ragnar said.
"I'm surprised you don't know where the priest went," Odin chuckled.
"I cannot be certain, so you must tell me."
"Ragnar, please," the man in white said, reaching out to touch his arm, but Ragnar shook him off with a single jerk.
The sky darkened then. Ragnar looked around and saw that clouds had rolled in and the sun was gone. He had a deep sense of anxiety worrying away in his stomach. He swallowed hard and looked past the two men, at another figure coming up the hill.
"Ragnar Lothbrok," the figure said in a familiar voice. "What will you choose?"
It was Jarl Haraldson, smiling wickedly as he came to stand between the man in white and Odin. Ragnar took a step back and looked to either side to see if there was any way of escape, but it was too dark and his eyes had not yet adjusted.
"What will you choose, my love?"
He turned around. Aslaug was coming up behind him.
"No," he said, shaking his head.
"Heaven or Valhalla, Ragnar. It's not that hard of a choice," Odin's voice whispered, right in his ear.
"Father."
Ragnar turned about once more, and there, with Odin's hand on her shoulder, was his only daughter, Gyda. And behind her, he saw his son Sigurd. Tears filled Ragnar's eyes and he let out an agonizing, sobbing moan, and he lunged forward, hugging first little Gyda, then Sigurd.
"Oh, both of you," Ragnar said amongst his tears. "Sigurd, please tell me your death was not for my sake."
"It's alright," Sigurd said, hugging his father.
"How did it happen?"
"Ivar," Sigurd said simply.
"My son has killed my son," Ragnar said regretfully as he took a step back. "Oh, what a tragedy."
"Ragnar," Odin said. "Your people are with me."
"You told me I am not to choose based on who is in either place! Why do you show me this?"
"He is right," the man in white said to Odin. "You are not to persuade him. Only to offer him a choice."
"What will you choose?" the voices asked, one by one, all around them.
"I don't know!" Ragnar screamed. "I don't know anymore!"
"You always wanted to go to Odin's hall," Aslaug said, caressing her husband's face.
He turned away from her.
"Now you can," she said.
It was then that he saw Ecbert coming up the hill, and without really thinking, he ran to him.
"You!" Ragnar shouted, grabbing him by the shoulders. "You should be alive!"
"As should you, my friend," Ecbert said soberly.
"I don't understand," Ragnar said yet again, this time to the old king before him.
"It's alright," Ecbert said with a smile and a sigh. "Just make your choice, Ragnar."
"I…I don't know how," he said.
"It's easy."
Ecbert walked on by, and he disappeared into the crowd. Ragnar tried to follow him, but when he did, he bumped into a woman.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, smiling up at him.
"Helga? You –"
"I am happy now, Ragnar. Don't worry," she said. "I am in Valhalla with my daughter." Beside her he saw the little girl. "Floki will come soon enough, so I am content."
"No." Ragnar shook his head.
"I know it's hard to believe, Ragnar, but you must try," Siggy said, appearing at his side. "What will you choose?"
"Siggy," Ragnar said, leaning in close to her ear. "Is Athelstan in Valhalla?" he whispered.
"YOU CANNOT," Odin boomed, quieting the crowd before halting and regaining his composure, "ask them any questions such as that."
"But –"
"What will you choose?" a soft, far-off voice asked.
Ragnar looked down the hill, and there, coming up slowly and clothed all in white just like the rest of them, was Athelstan.
"Athelstan!" Ragnar cried, departing from the crowd and going to meet him. "My dearest friend."
"Hello, Ragnar."
"I've missed you," Ragnar said, looking him up and down. "I…"
"I know," Athelstan replied. "I have missed you, too."
Ragnar wrapped him in an embrace which he returned without hesitation. "They are making me choose."
"As they made me," Athelstan said.
"I want to go with you," Ragnar said. "I promised you I would follow you wherever you go, and I intend on keeping that promise if I can."
"Then make your choice," Athelstan said. "You know where I will be."
With a soft smile on his lips, Athelstan took a step back, and as quickly as Ragnar blinked, he and the rest of the deceased were gone. Ragnar was once again alone with Odin and the white-clothed man. The birds were singing once more and the sky was clear and bright.
"Ragnar," Odin said. "It's time for your choice."
"Athelstan is in Heaven," Ragnar said thoughtfully after a moment.
"Then you have made your choice?" The man in the white gown stepped forward.
"I have," Ragnar said.
"Then we will be going?" He offered Ragnar his hand again, but Ragnar shook his head.
"No," Ragnar said. "He is in his Heaven. He is happy. He is safe. I am content to know that."
"I'm not sure I know what you're saying," the other man said.
"He belongs in Heaven. I do not. I will go to Valhalla to wait for my sons," Ragnar decided.
The man in the white robe smiled and patted Ragnar on the arm; he smiled warmly, and he stepped past Ragnar to walk down the other side of the hill, disappearing out of sight.
"Are you ready?" Odin asked him then.
"I think I am," Ragnar said.
Odin welcomed him to walk with him by his side as a friend and an equal as they departed from that land.