Issalyn's Story

As time progressed, Bjorn Ironside and a small band of Iskjerne Viking berserkers had set out from Iskjerne Castle and were hot on the trail of his Norman Ellarian uncle Duke Robert I, who Bjorn had intended to capture, alive if possible. They scoured the hills and fjords, expecting to find Duke Rollo hiding in one of the nooks and crannies along the riverside. But Rollo was nowhere to be found, and after some time had passed with no success of finding him, Bjorn began to wonder if maybe he had drowned or been swept out to sea. The search party had traveled quite a distance from home, and soon realized that they were no longer in Iskjerne Bay, but had arrived in a strange dark swamp. But since Bjorn had only a handful of berserkers with him, he contemplated if it wouldn't be safer to go around the Groenbogs instead, or return home. Little did he know, however, that Duke Rollo had actually not been swept out to sea, or gone through the forest, but had swam across the river on a small karve-like boat he had been given and returned to his Norman Ellarian duchy further south. He had no intentions of returning to Iskjerne Bay or trying to exact revenge, but would live out the rest of his days in quiet solitude. Robert I of Ellaria and his Christian wife Poppa would eventually give birth to a son named William Longsword, but that's a story for another time.

Bjorn Ironside looked around quietly, sniffing the air. For a moment he thought he smelled perfume. Listening carefully, he heard some rustling in the nearby trees and with one finger to his lips, Bjorn quietly motioned for his berserkers to lay low and be silent. The six of them, all cloaked in bearskin mantles, slowly and quietly pulled out their axes. But just as they were about to strike, Bjorn was suddenly startled by a small group of women who stepped out of the wooded thicket. But these women were no strangers to Bjorn and his men. They were Iskjerne natives, led by Bjorn's own mother, Queen Lagertha the witch-slayer. "Bjorn," she said sternly. "Mother?" he responded back, surprised to see his own mother so far away from the castle. "What are you - but how did you - but," Bjorn fumbled to find the right words to ask. "How did I find you? Well I am the queen you know, and I'm also your mother," she answered sternly. Just then, more women came walking out of the forest behind her. They were all dressed for battle and carrying weapons as they stood behind their queen, looking at the handful of berserkers who were now outnumbered two to one.

"Did you see Rollo? Did you capture him?" Bjorn asked intently, wondering if his mother and her shield-maidens had had any more luck than his gang. "Yes," she answered, causing Bjorn to smile. "That's great! Where is he?" Bjorn asked, looking over the heads of all the other women as he peered behind them. "I let him go," she answered softly, gazing into her son's eyes. Bjorn's face instantly turned beet red at that moment as his excitement suddenly turned to blind anger. "You what?!" he asked, as his brain tried to process what his mother had just told him. "I let him go Bjorn, I helped him get away," she said boldly, narrowing her eyebrows at the anger in Bjorn's eyes. "You helped him get away?! What? But, but, how did you - what? Why would you," again he stumbled for words, unsure of what to say. Lagertha could see the confusion in Bjorn's eyes and stepped closer to him, placing her hands on his shoulders while gazing up at him. "Because he is your uncle, Bjorn Ironside," she said calmly, still looking into his eyes.

"But he is a Christian!!! You know our father hated him!!!" Bjorn shouted, his loud voice matched by his towering stature. "Your father loved him!!!" she shouted back, now raising her voice to match his tone. "And besides, what difference does it make what god he worships? What harm has he ever done to you and your brothers? Has he not always been there for you when you needed him? Huh?" she lifted her eyebrows and cocked her nose up at her son, showing no fear of him at all despite being much shorter now than he was. Bjorn just shook his head and looked away, staring at the ground. "You know I'm right Bjorn, these silly blood feuds have to end. I've already lost your father, and I just watched your brothers take off for a war that they can't possibly win. I'm not about to lose you too, not to some petty religious quarrel between you and your uncle," Queen Lagertha assured him. Bjorn bit his lip, scratching his short stubby blondish red bearded chin with his axe. It was no use trying to argue with her. Lagertha was right. For too long the Iskjerne Vikings had been fighting amongst themselves. Bjorn had already lost two of his brothers, one to the other, and it seemed that very soon he might lose the rest of them as well.

He glanced down at her again, regaining his composure as a look of calmness swept over his eyes. "But what about your husband, King Harald?" that was obviously his next question. Bjorn Ironside knew that if King Harald found out, he would have them both arrested and hanged for treason. "King Harald doesn't have to know," she said calmly, offering a look of hope. Bjorn nodded quietly before crouching down and squatting his legs, drawing his axe through the sand. He started to contemplate a way in which to inform the king that Rollo had escaped. He couldn't just tell him that the Duke was dead, because if Rollo ever decided to return, then King Harald would know that he was lying. As he looked up again, Bjorn started to count the number of witnesses. There were five berserkers and twelve shield-maidens, not including his mother or himself. Lagertha's position as the queen meant that nobody there could question her authority, but that didn't guarantee their loyalty once they had returned to the castle. They would have to swear an oath of silence, and that meant they needed to make a blood sacrifice. This was no problem for the other men, who had already removed their tongues the moment they were initiated into the berserker cult. They wouldn't be able to snitch anyway, all they could do was growl. But the women, they were another story altogether.

But he couldn't just kill them either. They were the queen's personal guard, and in such troublesome times when the Vikings were already so few in number, Bjorn knew that their survival depended greatly on what few warriors they had left at their disposal, and especially the women who were now more powerful than ever, as they alone had the gift of motherhood and would be responsible for carrying on their Viking bloodlines. To complicate this matter even further, Bjorn's own wife Torvi was also one of Lagertha's shield-maidens and was now pregnant with both of his children inside her belly. Torvi would never snitch, but there was no guaranteeing that her sisters wouldn't betray them all as soon as they returned to Iskjerne Bay, as there was not one woman among them who didn't dream of being a queen. Even Lagertha herself had murdered her former husband's other wife in order to become the queen. Such was the struggle for power in Iskjerne Bay, and so Bjorn knew that he needed a better plan. He started to over-think the whole situation. That is, until his wife Torvi suggested that all of the women in their circle make a pledge by cutting off one of their nipples and casting it into the fire so as to be on equal terms with the men.

All of the shield-maidens agreed. Since the berserkers had cut off their own tongues as a vow of silence, Lagertha's shield-maidens would cut off one of their own breasts and take the same vow over an open firepit, swearing not only before their queen, but also before their own gods and goddesses in the presence of all the ghosts inside the swampy marshlands. That night, they camped on a mossy wet hill inside the Groenbogs and fulfilled their vows, building a small campfire and making the painful blood sacrifices. Although most of the women cried in pain as they cut off their own nipples and cast them into the flames, not one of them showed a lick of cowardice. When it came time for Torvi to do the same, she accepted the red hot dagger and removed one of her dress sleeves, but as she went to follow through, Bjorn suddenly seized her wrist. Torvi just smiled, however, assuring him that it was okay before she pulled away from him slowly and gritted her teeth. Bjorn looked over at his mother Lagertha, who nodded quietly to both of them as further reassurance. Torvi nodded back and winced in pain as she followed through with her pledge, casting her right nipple into the fire. Afterwards, the other women in the circle helped Torvi to dress her self-inflicted wound, just as she had done for them.