Bjorn Janssen was not exactly what Fabel had in mind whenever he visualised a Viking. Admittedly he had blond hair, but it was a shade or two darker than Fabel’s own, and carefully but unsuccessfully arranged to conceal the pink sheen of a balding scalp. Janssen was a short and rather plump man who spoke German perfectly but to the music of a distinct Danish accent. The idea of Janssen as a steel-helmed berserker, leaping from a longboat and swinging a Viking battleaxe, stretched beyond both the comical and the physically feasible.

Janssen was standing behind a cluttered counter and extended his hand across the disorder when the two police officers approached. He had a furtive manner about him and Fabel noticed that the surreptitious glances of his watery blue eyes fell frequently onto Maria’s legs and breasts. She caught him at it and her returned gaze very eloquently expressed the word ‘creep’.

‘Herr Janssen.’ Fabel smiled politely. ‘Frau Klee here tells me that you belong to an Odinist cult, and that you may be able to offer us some assistance on a case we’ve been working on.’

Janssen smiled back and shook his head. His expression was one of weary indulgence. ‘No no no, Herr Fabel. I’m not involved in any cult. I am the Gothi – the High Priest – of the Blot of Asatru. I am a practitioner of the original faith system of northern Europe.’

‘Whatever. I would like you to tell us something about the system of beliefs you have. We are investigating murders that have a ritualistic element to them. We believe that this element is perhaps influenced by old Norse rituals.’

‘I can assure you, Herr Fabel, that Asatru is a faith of peace and harmony.’

‘Two values marauding Vikings were particularly renowned for,’ Maria said, levering a sneer into her tone.

Janssen smiled at her and continued. ‘Asatru was the faith of all northern and western Germanic peoples: the Svear, who became the Swedes, the Dan, who became the Danes, the Angles, who became the English, and the various tribes who became the Germans. Men and women, farmers and warriors, freemen and slaves. It was no more exclusively the religion of the raiders than Christianity was the exclusive religion of the Nazis. Anyway, the etymology of the word “Viking” is obscure. Some say it comes from Vik meaning village … that the Vikings were merely villagers who went on trading and raiding journeys when harvests didn’t meet the needs of a growing population. Their beliefs were more founded in nature than in war.’

‘But they made blood sacrifices,’ said Fabel.

‘Yes. And we still do. The hlautbowl is the vessel of the Blot. Today we fill it with honey mead and drink from it before offering up the share apportioned to the gods. Blot is the old Norse word for “blood”. In the olden days the hlautbowl would be filled with blood from a slaughtered animal. It’s a mistake to believe that this was a barbaric or exceptional act. People would slaughter the animal for the Blot in much the same way they would do so for a feast to be shared with a visitor. Asatru has a more immediate relationship with its gods and they were treated more like real, living and participative elements in ordinary, daily life.’