“I never heard of them!” he said. His breath sobbed in his throat. “You…didn’t you Icelanders come from Norway?”

“Yes, about a hundred years ago,” I answered patiently. “After King Harald Fairhair took all the Norse lands and—”

“A hundred years ago!” he whispered. I saw whiteness creep up under his skin “What year is this?”

We gaped at him. “Well, it’s the second year after the great salmon catch,” I tried.

“What year after Christ, I mean?” It was a hoarse prayer

“Oh, so you are a Christian? Hm, let me think…I talked with a bishop in England once, we were holding him for ransom, and he said…let me see…I think he said this Christ man lived a thousand years ago, or maybe a little less.”

“A thousand—” He shook his head; and then something went out of him, he stood with glassy eyes—yes, I have seen glass, I told you I am a traveled man—he stood thus, and when we led him toward the garth he went like a small child.

* * *

You can see for yourself, priest, that my wife Ragnhild is still good to look upon even in eld, and Thorgunna took after her. She was—is tall and slim, with a dragon’s hoard of golden hair. She being a maiden then, it flowed loose over her shoulders. She had great blue eyes and a small heart-shaped face and very red lips. Withal she was a merry one, and kind-hearted, so that all men loved her. Sverri Snorrason went in voking when she refused and was slain, but no one had the wit to see that she was unlucky.

We led this Gerald Samsson—when I asked, he said his father was named Sam—we led him home, leaving Sigurd and Grim to finish gathering the driftwood. There are some who would not have a Christian in their house, for fear of witchcraft, but I am a broad-minded man and Helgi of course was wild for anything new. Our guest stumbled like a blind man over the fields, but seemed to wake up as we entered the yard. His eyes went around the buildings that enclosed it from the stables and sheds to the smokehouse, the brewery, the kitchen, the bathhouse, the god-shrine, and thence to the hall. And Thorgunna was standing in the doorway.

Their gazes locked for a moment, and I saw her color but thought little of it then. Our shoes rang on the flagging as we crossed the yard and kicked the dogs aside. My two thralls paused in cleaning out the stables to gawp, until I got them back to work with the remark that a man good for naught else was always a pleasing sacrifice. That’s one useful practice you Christians lack; I’ve never made a human offering myself, but you know not how helpful is the fact that I could do so.

We entered the hall and I told the folk Gerald’s name and how we had found him. Ragnhild set her maids hopping, to stoke up the fire in the middle trench and fetch beer while I led Gerald to the high seat and sat down by him. Thorgunna brought us the filled horns.