Thank you all for being so supportive - you've encouraged me to the point where I will try to put up a new chapter or at least part of a chapter every month. I should be able to clear Book 1 this year... maybe. If I can stop revising.
So this month, to finish the prologues.
Year 90 – Prologue
Great Reykjavik ruler of Iceland,
Safe in its ocean isolation,
To the Gods returned. The tide seemed good
To reopen links to the living folk,
Rare survivors of the rash sickness,
In Denmark's isle, in the deepset fjords
Of fierce Norway, in the firwood cloak
Of dern Sweden, in Suomi’s wild
Lake-maze fastnesses. So few survive,
So much is lost; so little is held
Of the ancient lands, of lore, of folk,
Though rumours echo of realms forsaken.
But in Reykjavik, riched by earth-might
By sea warded, saved by the Gods
From the rash sickness, civilisation
Is still preserved in the city's streets.
To official ears speak four colleagues,
Folk with purpose, confederate wights,
Proposing to send a party resourced,
Planned and chosen to explore the halls
Of the silent lands, the secrets lost,
The craft-hoards kept from necrotic rage.
The king-folk gives for the federates’ scheme
Gold insufficient for the full design –
Or the sociate folk themselves confront
Terror-haunting fiends, Tuoni’s doorwards,
The troll-shent souls in the Silent Lands;
In person to cross the path of the Swan.
But the group’s preference is for proxy risk.
Flinching from dole in their flesh-clothing,
The four involved, the Västerströms
Siv and Torbjörn, savant spouses
With tightened purse; strategic skald
Taru Hollola; time-spent General
Trond Andersen the tricky old fox,
Make do and mend with the money given.
The store-needs trim, the staff downcount,
Till nothing is left that need will demand,
Till they see clear their silver runs
Only to fools, unfettled, untried;
To the weary trapped by wanhope bleak,
By drear boredom, by dreadful peers,
By stupid dreams; to stark idiots
Wiseless enough to be willing to risk
A hopeless throw. A happy band
To set together in the Silent World.
