AN: And here it finally is… the beginning of the Viking Age. I Hope you enjoy it, because I certainly had fun writing it.
Viking age (793 - 1066)
Lindisfarne 793
The monastery was all quiet, except for the quiet hymns sung by the monks in praise to God. A small boy sat in front of the altar staring up at the statue in front of him, green eyes sparkling in admiration. His people had a great respect for their god, and so he was send to spend time at the monastery on order from his king. And he followed the order as a personification of the land.
Everything was like normal, slow, quiet and with monks going around their daily business cleaning, writing and worshipping. However the peace of the day was broken by a loud yell coming from the beach "There are a number of ships coming!" For some reason the boy sensed danger and got up in search of a window so he could get an overlook of what was happening outside. Something was very wrong, he could just feel it.
Outside of a window the boy could observe a small fleet[1] of ships closing in on land at a great speed. The signs painted on the boats were not anyone he could recognize from people he had traded with earlier and he found it alarming that shields were placed along the entire side of each boat. That and the speed the boats was closing in with was cause for worry, and it all became worse when he could hear loud shouts coming from the ships. After that he was quick to suspect that he would soon come to miss the normal everyday life of the monastery with its peace and quiet.
On the bow of the first ship stood the three Scandinavians, silently waiting for their ship to graze the bottom and give them the opportunity to rush on land. Sweden was keeping a firm hold on a broadsword and kept his icy blue stare straight ahead. Denmark looked barely capable of keeping still, constantly changing grip on the battleaxe with a wild grin on his face.
Norway was holding one hand on the sword at his hip ready to draw it when they were close enough to get ashore. His face was the usual blank one, but his eyes were sparkling with anticipation, the only thing about him revealing any emotion about the situation. They had been planning and waiting for this moment for quite a while now, and finally they were here, in the land to the southwest.
There was no more need for heavy strokes of oars from the men to reach land. The ship had high enough velocity to reach it on its own now and the men could finally pick up the weapons they had brought with them and claim the shield hanging on the rim. Swords and axes were beaten against wooden shields to make noise enough to bring terror to the very souls of the people on this Island.
It was as though time stood still as the ship glided over the last few meters of ocean before finally the ship caught ground and the horde of bloodthirsty men took that as a signal to jump ashore with weapons raised in expectance of battle. Cries of several Norsemen echoed over the lands as they rushed of the ships. There was no one to stop them from taking what they wanted.
People on land had sensed danger and now deep bells from the stone building not too far away from where the Norsemen had landed were ringing desperately. "Follow the bells" Norway said sharply. "There is no other place where they can have hidden treasure." Denmark was practically bouncing beside his friend and grinning. "Let's go then! Show the way"
And Norway did take the lead on the small patch leading up to the monastery. There was not a single person in sight. The one man they had seen had run from the shore screaming as he saw the ships approaching. But running would only delay the unavoidable. Cries of terror got louder as they closed in on the building proving that more people were present and trying to get away.
The first person they met was dressed in a dark dyed habit, and on the top of his head all hair had been removed to form a hairless circle. There was no time to waste on wondering. The man whimpered as Norway approached him with a blank expression and cold eyes. He started begging but his words were easily silenced when a sword made its way across his throat.
The Norwegian did not flinch or show any expression as the man before him fell to the ground, gurgling on the way down. Beside him the malevolent laughter of the Dane sounded and behind him the laughter of the other men in the raiding company. The sight did not bother them the slightest.
His chieftain stepped up beside him and turned to face the raiders. "You all know why we are here" he yelled to the men. "Those who oppose us shall fall, those who survive shall be slaves and all treasure will be ours!" The Vikings were encouraged by the speech of their leader and cheered before they all stormed off in different directions to murder and plunder everyone and everything in their path.
Now Denmark was the one to take the lead and Norway followed on his tail. Sweden was nowhere to be found, but neither of the two cared. They had more important business to take care of and the Swede could handle himself. In a courtyard on their way two men met a Danish battleaxe and one more a Norwegian blade.
"Both Thórr and Týr[2] themselves must be on our side" Denmark said looking to the skies. "Our opponents fall before us without a fight. There really is nothing to oppose us." Then he laughed, that loud annoying laughter Norway had become so accustomed to over time. That earned the Dane a whack over the back of the head. "You idiot, these men are not warriors" Norway snarled "anybody with half a brain can see that" "Doesn't make it any less fun" the Dane laughed. "They fall like flies around us."
And with those words he stepped over the lifeless bodies of the monks they had slaughtered only a minute earlier and kept on walking in the direction they were headed for in the first place. They had still to find out where the riches were hidden.
As soon as the bells of the monastery had started ringing, the monks had started to panic and one of them grabbed the green eyed boy from where he had been standing in the window sill. "Come here child" the monk cried hysterically. "They are here to kill us all! We need to hide" And with those words he was being dragged along trough the hallways in search of a someplace safe.
As they moved the hall he could hear terrified screams from the courtyard outside and the footsteps of a horde of men getting closer. Some of the screams were ended abruptly and were replaced by cheerful roars after a short singing of metal and the horrible sound that had to be the one from dying men.
"We can't let them find the boy" one of the monks said to the others as they ran. "But they are searching every room" one answered in a low hysterical voice. "There is nowhere to hide." The boy was not given a chance to say anything as he was being dragged along, not that he had anything to contribute with.
They entered one of the bedchambers and stopped dead in their tracks. From this room there was only one way in and out and that was through the front door. "The cupboards" one monk said. "Place the boy in one of them. Hopefully they will not think to look for anyone or anything in there."
And before the boy could protest he was shoved in to the dark space, and the monks started stuffing clothes and linens over him in cover. "Be silent boy. No matter what happens, you have to stay quiet." And with those words the monks shut the doors and left him in the darkness only capable of listening to what was happening outside his place of hiding.
Every single second went by incredibly slow for the boy, the only think he could hear through the doors and the massive amount of linens was the muffled sounds of prayer from the monks. They were praying for the lord above to have mercy on their immortal souls, asking forgiveness for any earthly sin they might have committed. They were not expecting to get out of this place alive, so they prayed for the life after death with their lord.
The prayers were interrupted by the door slamming open, heavy footsteps and wild laughter. The boy desperately tried to cover his ears and block out the sounds of what was surely to come next. But he wasn't completely successful; there was no way to avoid hearing as the prayers turned to begging, then screams of terror before the sounds ended abruptly.
In the silence that followed, the boy figured he could try and listen for the intruders to leave the room. But instead he could hear two people talking. "There is no gold in here and those guys are dead, let's go look someplace else." The voice of the man was loud and clear, and carried hint of amusement, as if he found the slaughter of defenseless men entertaining.
"Be quiet!" a lower voice commanded. "What?" the first voice whined. There was quiet for a bit before the quieter voice talked again. "There is someone else in here" he stated slowly as if he was analyzing his surroundings while he talked.
The boy held his breath and felt his heart rate increase rapidly. He had not made a single sound since the raiders had entered the room, he was sure of it. There was no way they could know he was hiding there. "What are you talking about Norge?" the loud voice asked. "I am pretty sure we killed everybody in this room. Are you imagining things?" There was the sound of a punch followed by a whimper.
"You didn't have to hit me!" the loud voice complained. "You deserved it!" the second one snarled. "I am not imagining things; there is another presence in this room. I can sense it." The boy's heart was beating so fast and his body shaking so badly he wondered if the entire cupboard shook along with him.
The men in the room wandered around presumably searching for him and to his terror the footsteps kept getting closer to his hiding place. There was no way to avoid what would happen next. The door was the only thing protecting him and now it was being opened and the boy found himself face to face with the two men that had left four monks slain mercilessly on the floor of the bedchambers.
He was met by two sets of blue eyes staring at him. One set was clear blue and full of life and belonged to a tall, broad man with wild light hair that held on to a giant axe. The other set of eyes were dark and cold and placed on an expressionless face. That scared the boy beyond belief even though the cold eyed man was shorter and slighter build than the other who was tall and muscular. For there was no knowing what thought were hidden behind the blank expression.
The boy did what any sane child would do under such circumstances. He let out a shriek so loud it could shatter eardrums. The largest of the men looked shocked and backed away while the shorter simply looked annoyed and clasped a hand above the boy's mouth to shut him up while he used the other arm to pin the boy to the wall of the cupboard.
The taller man stepped forwards again "How can one so small possibly make that much noise?" The shorter man gave the other an angry look "Shut it Dane. I think we need to ask this child some questions." "Like what?" the man referred to as Dane asked. "Like why his eyebrows are that huge or what? I only want to know where the gold is hidden."
The smaller man finally removed his hand from the boys face. "Tell me your name child" his voice was softened as if to not scare the boy before he got the information he wanted. The tall man had begun to drag a thumb slowly over the edge on the battleaxe's blade to test its sharpness while he was staring at the boy expectantly.
"I'm Arthur" the boy whimpered "Arthur Kirkland. Please don't kill me." That caused the smaller man to smirk slightly for a short moment, and the eyes glinted dangerously. "But that is not your real name is it? I can sense it." "Sense what?!" the taller interrupted. "If you stopped being so dense then perhaps you would be able to sense it yourself" the shorter snarled. "He's a personification, just like us."
"This wimp a nation, are you serious?" The taller said and poked the child. That earned him an elbow in the side from the shorter and more whimpering from the boy. "Yes I'm absolutely serious" the shorter snarled. Then he turned his attention from the taller man and back to the boy.
The cold eyed man brought up a small dagger from his belt and held it up in front of the boy to make sure the young nation followed his every move. "I want your name child, and I don't want the one you use among the humans. I want your real one, the name that also falls to the lands I'm in."
The knife held in front of his face was more than enough motivation to talk and his secret was already out. "You're in England" Normally he would not be afraid and would fight back and scream, but now he started crying and his voice became shrill "My name is England." The tall man started laughing, while the shorter kept his eyes locked on the boy, England. "I'm Norðvegr" he said coldly before he was interrupted by the other yelling "I'm Denmark!"
The one by the name of Norðvegr completely ignored the other and started turning the knife between slender fingers. "Tell me England… Where are the valuables hidden in this place? And I can assure you that if you lie I will know it and you will join your people on the floor." He pointed to the monks lying on the floor, blood pooling around them. "It's in the chapel" England said without hesitance, there was no need for lying and the raiders would find the riches eventually anyways. He figured he had a better chance of getting out of the situation if he kept the raiders relatively happy by telling them where all valuables were kept.
"What's a chapel?" Denmark asked wonderingly. England finally dared to put some bite in his voice; he could not appear to be weak in front of other nations. "Which god would that be?" Denmark asked "Thórr? Óðinn? Or maybe it is Loki?" The child gave a spiteful snort even with a dagger in front of his face and his back against the wall.
"There is only one God!" the boy said "everybody knows that." Denmark laughed again at that. "Only one god you say. Then how come I know of so many then?" "Because you're an ignorant barbarian" the boy spat. Norðvegr calmly moved the small blade to the boys exposed throat. "This you dare say to us when you are in such a vulnerable position. I can end your life in an instant if I so wish" England whimpered again, regretting his insolence.
"I can show you the way to the chapel" the boy whispered, hoping it could diminish some of the anger in the raiders. England was not entirely sure whether or not it had worked but after a short while the blade was removed from his throat and he let out a relieved breath. "Show the way then" Norðvegr said with an icy voice. "But if you try to run I will let Denmark take your head off."
England nodded slowly and he was let out of the cupboard. The two men looked at him expectantly until he started leading the way to the chapel where he had started his day in peace and quiet. The hallways were empty, but screaming could still be heard in the distance even though it had quieted down since the attack first began.
Denmark let out a low whistle as they entered the chapel. Around them mostly in form of decorations were great amount of riches. Golden crosses adorned with valuable gemstones, golden plates and goblets just standing there for the taking. Norway grabbed a hold on England's clothing and kneeled down to force eye contact with him yet again.
"Why is there nobody here to protect all this wealth?" He asked coldly with furrowed brows. "This is a house of God" the boy answered "People give riches to the church to save their souls; there is no need to protect them. Nobody would steal from the house of God." "Well, that was until now" Denmark interrupted with a smirk.
That seemed to have caught Norway's interest. "Do all the people of this land worship this one God of yours?" There was no way for England to get away from the Norwegians cold, analyzing gaze so he nodded in confirmation. "So there are many of these worshipping buildings in your lands?" England gave another nod and swallowed nervously.
Now Denmark had begun to be curious as well. "What are you thinking Norge?" The Norway rose up again and turned his attention to the Dane. "Just think. If the people of this land all accept this god they must have many more of these religious places." "And it was extremely easy to rob since they leave their riches unprotected" the Dane finished, eyes sparkling.
"No!" You can't do that" the child England screamed. The two Vikings turned to the boy. Denmark easily spun the axe around so the blade was held a few centimeters away from the child. "You think you can stop us?" he said arrogantly. "We are so much more powerful than you and there is no way you can stop us from coming back time and time again to take whatever we please."
"Big brother will stop you!" The boy blurted out, and then he bit his tongue in regret. "A big brother you say?" Norway said "and where might he be held up?" England tried backing away from the two of them so he could make a run for it, but the blade of the axe stopped him from getting anywhere. He was in big trouble now and there was no getting away.
The men didn't have to threaten him much before he was screaming "To the north, he's further to the north!" Scotland was going to kill him when he found out that England had told two nations of raiders about him, but that was a problem to worry about later. The Norsemen would surely have found him anyways, just not as soon as they would with this information. England was now quivering in a corner to afraid to move awaiting his fate as the two northerners was going through the treasure in the chapel.
"Hey Norge" The Dane said as he was going through a chest of jewelry he had found. "Why are you so interested in where that brother was held up?" "I was thinking of going there" Norway answered flatly. "What? Why?" Denmark blurted out clearly shocked. Norway put down what he had been inspecting and looked to the other. "We can't always go raiding together. You, I and Sviþjòð are three separate countries; there are some things we should do on our own."
"I don't see why" the Dane said and England in his corner was surprised by how sad the tall and broad man sounded and looked. The Norwegian however looked completely indifferent. "Three chieftains and their men will never be willing to share treasure if they are to go on more raids." "We can ditch Sverige" Denmark exclaimed. "He's not here and he is the least willing to go overseas[3]; it can just be the two of us."
"You're an idiot" Norway said shaking his head "chieftains are not fond of sharing riches at all, this is for the best." "I thought we were planning on terrorizing and robbing other places together" Denmark didn't take his eyes of the shorter male as he walked over to grab his shoulders. "You can't leave me alone."
"I didn't say we would never meet again or anything, I just told you that we can't always go on raids together" Norway said with slight annoyance in his voice. "But we can go on some raids together later right?" Denmark's voice almost turned desperate as he clutched the other's shoulders.
Norway sighed and nodded "Yes" and that was all he had time to say before he was crushed in a hug. "Now let go of me! We have treasure to steal" the Norwegian commanded coldly. Denmark let him go and smiled brightly again, all traces of sadness completely gone from his face.
"And Norge, you better make that a promise" the Dane said as he went back to looking through the jewelry box. Norway sighed "fine, I promise. This is not the last Viking raid we will do together" then he continued looking at the religious books he had found in a shelf "Are you happy now?"
"Very much so" Denmark said smiling to himself. Then he paused in looking through the jewelry as he had found an item of interest and held it up for closer inspection. "Find anything interesting Norge?" he asked casually and walked over to the other once more. Norway was engrossed in the books he had found.
"Actually I did" he answered. "These books have so much detail in the paintings, it's quite amazing." Denmark quickly grabbed the book and looked shortly at it before he threw it away to protest from the Norwegian. "What did you do that for?" Norway looked angrily at the Dane and none of them noticed the child creeping from the corner to grab the book and hide it under his clothing[4].
"There are so many valuable things in here we can take, why would you go for a book?" the Dane said loudly while he was still clutching the small item he had taken from the jewelry box. "As a personification, I myself have no need for any of the treasures in here" Norway murmured. "Our people will be here soon to claim the riches, and I figured I could take the book for myself, it's not like any of the men out there would appreciate it."
"I was thinking you should take something prettier" Denmark said with a smirk. He opened his palm to show the object he had been holding on to, revealing a golden cross. "What is that?" Norway asked scowling. "It's a hairclip well" Denmark said. That did not make the Norwegian lessen his angry look. "Firstly that is one of their religious symbols; secondly it is a woman's jewelry, what makes you think I want it?" Norway's murmur had risen to a slight snarling.
"I think it would look good on you?" Denmark said innocently and made a move to place it on the shorter male, but his hand was slapped away. "This is treasure stolen from our enemy, if you won't wear it, just keep it in memory." "If it is such a great symbol of this raid then you wear it" Norway said angrily. Denmark laughed "you are the one with the longer hair falling in your eyes blocking your view of the world; it would just look ridiculous placed in mine."
"So we went all the way to England for me to return with a hairclip with some foreign religious symbol?" Norway asked shaking his head. But he did take the golden cross to study it closer. Denmark grinned "As you reminded me we are personifications. Even if we will not always go raiding together or to the exact same places we will get the chance to steal something else on a later time."
England had been keeping quiet until that point, but the thought of raiders coming back on a later point made him let out a weak whine in terror. Both of the northerners snapped around like they had completely forgotten that they had left the boy quivering in the corner earlier, something they probably had.
Norway was quick to hide all the traces of emotion that had managed to make their way to his face during his discussion with the Dane returning it to the blank unreadable one, but England noticed that he tucked the clip away in his tunic now that the Danes attention was away from him. Denmark just grinned wider and his eyes sparkled in promise of further terror for England.
"What should we do with this one Norge?" Denmark asked as he closed in on the boy who backed further into the corner. "Kill him? Take his lands and bring him home to work for us?" "Do you really want to drag this whining child with you back to Denmark?" Norway was back to his flat, cold tone of voice again.
"Do you have a better idea then?" the Dane asked and turned wonderingly to his friend. Norway nodded slowly and the dangerous glimmer in his eyes was back. "I know exactly what to do with him." Denmark was about to ask what the plan was but the Norwegian interrupted him. "We have been in this place long enough, it is time we gather up the riches and slaves and return back home[5]."
Denmark was the one to call out to the rest of the raiders to them so they could bring everything of value to the ship. Norway had knelt down by England and forced the boy to look him in the eyes. "I want you do see what we are capable of doing" he whispered coldly sending a shiver down England's spine.
"You should know that no place is going to be safe from now on. We will come back as often as we please. To your lands, to your brothers or wherever it is we want to go. I will guess that some of your religious men managed to get away from our men and they will tell other people about us, but I do think it will make more of an impression on your people if their own personification is to tell them about the Viking roaming the seas."
"Norge" Denmark interrupted "The others are here," Norway turned to him and nodded slowly. "Let's go Dane" he said. "While the others are loading the ship I want to show little England here the handiwork of our men." England whimpered as the Norseman grabbed a hold of the neck of his clothing and dragged him along, Denmark simply smirked.
The first Vikings entered the chapel as they were about to leave them. The men were covered in the blood from the monks they had slaughtered, and now they were busy gathering everything of value and tearing down religious symbols and ripping out pages of the books in the shelves. England got to see them turning a once religious place in to a gigantic mess.
England had no idea where he was being taken, but on the way his capturer made sure he got a good look at the devastation left by the raiders. Everything was in disorder and they saw several bodies of monks. They had been defenseless men of God and they had been cut down like they were nothing.
The boy was dragged away to a point where they got a view over the monastery and then they stopped. "Watch boy!" The Norwegian commanded as he forced the boy to kneel facing the building. "What are you planning Norge?" Denmark was leaning on his battleaxe and stared at the Norwegian who answered "I want him to see it as we burn down the house of his God."
Only a few minutes after the words were said yellow flames could be seen licking the wooden structure of the monastery and black smoke was beginning to rise. Whenever England attempted to close his eyes he would receive a whack from the butt end of the axe as a reminder he had to keep his eyes on the building as the fire worked to reduce it to ashes.
"You can run now boy" Norway suddenly said with cold contempt in his voice. "Run to your leader and tell them of us" England was so surprised by the command he was barely capable of getting his feet to obey his order. He received a kick in the back of the knee and tumbled to the ground.
At the sound of loud laughter he scrambled back to his feet and ran as fast as he could. Not stopping at all, not even to make sure no one was following him. Not stopping to see as the fire devoured the rest of the monastery. He stumbled over rocks and branches on his path, but always got back up and kept on running. Clutching to his chest he kept the book he had hidden under his clothing in the chapel. He had managed to save one thing from Lindisfarne, one think the Vikings had not managed to taint with their heathenism.
In the evening silence settled over Lindisfarne again. The roars of the fires had died and only the embers lay smoldering on the ground telling the gruesome tale of the earlier onslaught. Soft rain had begun to fall and began washing away the partially dried blood from the fallen men.
The Norsemen had left as sudden as they had showed up and they were leaving in ships filled with newly gained treasure. Their journey had been a great success and gave them good reason to plan further raids on these lands. This was only the beginning of the adventure. The Vikings would spread out in the rest of the word showing how strong the north could be.
AN: I hope I didn't mess up the characters behavior too badly in this chapter.
And I feel like a horrible person, because I seriously had waaaay to much fun terrorizing little England. And that is also why I have prepared a short "bonus" chapter from his point of view set right after the attack on Lindisfarne.
I wasn't entirely sure about posting it, but it would be evil of me to mention a chapter and never post it, so you'll get it whether you want it or not I guess ;P It might me a bit crazy, but you'll see for yourself around Wednesday.
[1] It's a bit wrong of me to make the attack seem a bit big. The first Viking raids were pretty small in the number of ships, but hey… I'm the one telling the story now
[2] Tor/Thor god of thunder and battle and Tyr god of war
[3] Swedes tended to go East raiding; Danes went for France and England while Norwegians went to the north of England, Scotland, Ireland and islands in the north Atlantic.
[4] The Lindisfarne gospels were saved from the Viking raids by some escaping monks or in this case by England himself^^
[5] The Vikings would usually make a surprise attack, slaughter and rob before they left as sudden as they had appeared.