A large longship sailed down from the North full of Norse men who struggled a little to communicate with their strange accent. In the middle of their deck was a large cage with a huge white bear, which they offered as a gift to King of Danes for passage to and from the White Sea. They told various tales of its acquisition. The tales were not told well, particular with the difficulties understanding their speech, the King however was delighted with the gift. He asked what it was fed on and was told it ate fresh meat, and fresh fish. He accepted gratefully and the cage was put in the courtyard so all could see the bear. It became a sport to feed the bear and not lose a hand.
Blot arrived, and I decided to make a sacrifice to Wade at this opportune time and I gave Bumoth 20 marks of silver. He brought a white horse to the Spearhafoc, slit the horses throat over the bow, carved some runes and rubbed the blood into them.
The Wade priest noticed that there were already runes carved there, but he couldn’t understand them. I asked a few other denominations of priest, but all insisted they weren’t for their God and I decided we would need someone rune wise to tell us their meaning. The Spearhafoc had always seemed unnaturally quick and its former Brimwisa was suspected of being rune wise, so maybe these runes were the reason for the ship’s speed.
Blot by now was in full swing. Herewulf drunkenly bet a pound of silver that he could beat Zosimus in an archery contest. They had three bouts and Zosimus won all three. Herewulf performed particularly well in the second bout but it was still not enough; Zosimus was spectacularly good. Someone lent him a horse and he repeated the show from horseback.
One evening Tohrwulf, Herewulf and Herefrith were quaffing ale in the Great Hall, but I had returned to our smaller hall to sleep off the large amount I had already consumed. I had just slumped in my bed, when I heard unusual noises in the courtyard. Grabbing my sword, I opened the door out and saw that the great white bear was loose. There were a lot of children out there and the bear was roaring ready to attack. I rushed out to confront the bear.
There was a fairly sober guard armed with a spear and he was facing the bear, but he looked intimidated. There were also a few spectators and I could hear best being placed. The guard raked the shoulder of the bear with his spear, which just served to enrage it. The bear hit the soldier with both paws and then started to maul him guard. I hit it with my sword and got its attention. It dropped the guard and the guard took the opportunity to crawl away. The bear tuned its attention to me and I dodged it and it stumbled and I managed to give two more blows as it rose again. I struck it once more, but now it struck me hard with a blow from one of its massive paws and knocked me to the ground.
I rolled to try to avoid it, but it smashed me twice more. I again tried to roll away but it struck me again and I felt some ribs crack. Tohrwulf, Herewulf and Herefrith armed only with scramasaexes had now emerged from the Great Hall along with a female gesith of the King. Tohrwulf was able to drag the wounded guard to safety and staunch his wounds. Herewulf bravely rushed up behind the bear and stabbed it to attract the great beast’s attention. The bear whipped around much faster than the Geat had expected and his scramasaex was still stuck in the bear’s hind quarters. He tried to dodge but the bear smashed a large paw and its claws into Herewulf’s guts. Herefrith now arrived and stabbed the great white bear in the leg, at the same time the gesith stabbed it with her spear. I was now only able to crawl but the fight had moved a little away.
The bear turned on Herefrith, and smashed him in the keg and knocked him to his knees and then again and he collapsed unconscious. The female warrior thrust her spear into the chest of the bear and on into the beast’s heart and it collapsed – fortunately alongside rather than on top of the unconscious body of my comrade.
More people arrived and Scrocmael was one of the first on scene and treated Herefrith’s bear wound. The gesith was named Kaelberg and the guard was named Leofward. All were praised for their quick response, although Kaelberg gained the most glory, still I was content that our reputations could only increase with our involvement.