Atlantis: Bermuda Triangle

Chapter 18

“Have you ever heard of a place called Thule?” Tam Nok asked. She had the metal plate out and was hunched over it, her finger tracing the lines, her lips moving as she read to herself.

Ragnarok lowered his hand which he’d been using to block the sun so he could scan the surrounding terrain. They were hiding in a streambed, bushes surrounding them and large trees towering overhead. Stonehenge was many miles behind them and Ragnarok knew they would reach the shore early this evening once they began walking again. He was tempted to continue during the daylight but the alarm over the dead patrol must have been raised by now and he knew they would not last long against a unit of the Saxon King’s army.

Ragnarok could almost smell the sea over the horizon. He longed for the thunder of the waves on shore and the sight of his high-prowed ship pulled up on the beach waiting for them. Dusk was only about an hour away and then they could move.

“I have heard of Thule,” Ragnarok acknowledged, sitting back down on the dirt embankment, then leaning back, hands behind his head. “To the north, beyond the ice and snow and fire. Or so the old ones say.”

“What fire?” Tam Nok asked.

“It is said fire comes out of the ocean as one approaches Thule,” Ragnarok said. “I have seen such fire once when sailing along the coast of Iceland.”

“There are strange writings here,” she indicated the metal map. “Some of them revolve around Thule.”

He closed his eyes, remembering his mother’s words. “Fire and ice, the beginning of all things.”

“Tell me the story of the beginning,” Tam Nok asked.

“You knew of the Valkyries,” Ragnarok opened his eyes and looked at her. “You called yourself a Disir. If you know those things, you know of the creation and the stories of the Gods.”

Tam Nok shook her head. “I knew of those thing because you knew of them.”

Ragnarok frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

“I cannot explain it right now. Please, tell me the Viking legends of the beginning.”

Ragnarok remembered his mother, the family gathered around the fire in the end of their lodge, the wind howling outside. Her voice, low and soothing as she told the stories of the gods and goddesses. He felt a pang for what he had lost and for the first time he didn’t smother that feeling with a surge of anger and desire for revenge. It was simply there, a heavy weight on his chest.

“The world was dark and there was no order. No rule. No goodness. In the center of the world was a chasm, so large one could not see the bottom. If you threw a stone off, you never heard it hit, so deep was this split in the Earth called Ginnungagap.

“To the north of Ginnungagap is the kingdom of Niflheim, a dark world always covered in the fog. This is where Thule is also located. To the south of Ginnungagap is the world of fire and constant light, called Muspellsheim. Here lived Surtr, the flame giant whose only duty was to protect his land from those from Thule.

“But Surtr became bored as he was alone in Muspellsheim. He swung his mighty flame sword to practice and produced much steam, which rose toward Ginnungagap and froze in strange shapes. From that ice came two other creatures- Ymir, the first of the giants and Audhumbia, a large cow.”

Ragnarok cracked open his eyes to see how Tam Nok was taking all this. It had always sounded so right, so normal, when told in a Viking lodge among his own people, but telling the creation story in the land of the Saxons, to a woman from a far land, he wondered for the first time. Tam Nok was watching him, her face betraying no emotion.

“Ymir became hungry, so he milked Audhumbia. Of course, the cow had nothing to forage on in the land of ice. Nevertheless, she licked the ice and in doing so, uncovered another creature, long buried. This was Buri the Producer. He was the grandfather of Odin, the God who rules now in Asgard.

“Full of milk, Ymir became tired and lay down to sleep. The heat from Surtr’s sword made him sweat and from this sweat came Thrudgelmir, the six-headed giant from whom all the frost giants are descended.”

“A six-headed giant?” Tam Nok asked. “A man?”

Ragnarok nodded.

“We have a legend of a seven-headed snake- the Naga,” Tam Nok said.

Ragnarok shrugged. “The only snakes I know of in the legends are Jormungand, one of the spawn of Loki and Angrboda and the hydra. Jormungand is a most terrible creature that was cast into the ocean by Odin. It grew so long there, it eventually encircled Midgard. The hydra is a beast that fights for the darkness- six heads, not seven- and it spits poison. I have never seen one, but I talked to a man who said he encountered one in Eire Land”

“I have never seen a real Naga either,” Tam Nok said. “It is strange how different stories can come out of perhaps the same thing, twisted over the years of telling to fit the land where they are told in.”

“This is not a story,” Ragnarok said. “This is the way the world began.”

“But my people have a different way the world began,” Tam Nok said. “I have traveled far and in each land I have listened to their story of the beginning of man and there are always things that are similar. The snake in the ocean is also in my culture. It is part of the story of the way the world began and the way the world ends. Please continue,” Tam Nok urged.

Ragnarok thought for a second to remember where he had stopped his tale. “The god Buri had a son, named Bor. Who married a giantess named Bestla and they had three sons: Odin, Vili and Ve.

“A war started between the children of Bor and the children of the monster Thrudgelmir. They fought for many, many years in the depths of Ginnungagap.

“Finally, Odin and his brothers were able to ambush and kill the first of the frost giants, Ymir. His boiling blood killed most of the rest of the giants. Only a few escaped on a ship, sailing on the ocean of blood, to establish a new land to the south, where they started a new race.

“Odin, flush with victory, decided to make a world. The only thing he could use was Ymir’s body. They already had the oceans from his blood. From the flesh they created Midgard-” Ragnarok pointed down- “where we live. Ymir’s flesh is the earth, his bones the hills, his teeth the cliffs of the fjords, his hair the trees and grass, his skull the sky above.

“One day while walking, Odin came upon two trees that had been knocked down. One was ash, one an elm. Odin breath life back into these trees, giving them a spirit and a thirst for knowledge. They were the first man and woman.” Ragnarok spread his hands. “Since then, man and the Gods have had many adventures. Too many for me to tell in one day.”

“How does it all end?” Tam Nok asked.

Ragnarok thumped his chest. “It ends in a great battle. A battle for which my mother named me: Ragnarok- the final conflict between the forces of light and darkness.”

“Why did your mother give you the name of this battle that has yet to be fought?”

“I do not know,” Ragnarok admitted.

“Was your mother as seer? A priestess?”

“My mother could see things-” Ragnarok paused- “but she could not see useful things. If she had, my father would still be alive.”

“Seeing things does not mean you can change things,” Tam Nok said. “Maybe she did see what would happen, but knew there was nothing she could do about.”

The thought had never occurred to Ragnarok.

“Would your father have listened if your mother warned him about whatever it was that you thought she should have seen?” Tam Nok asked. “Would he have changed his actions?”

Ragnarok reluctantly shook his head. “No, he wouldn’t have done anything different. He had too-”

“Too much pride?” Tam Nok finished the sentence.

“Maybe,” Ragnarok said. He didn’t add that he knew his mother had warned his father.

“And who wins the final battle?” Tam Nok asked, bringing him back to their present situation.

“Both sides lose,” Ragnarok said. “The gods and monsters pair off and fight. Thor and the large snake Jormungand fight each other. Thor kills the snake with his mighty hammer but not before the snake bites him and fills him with venom.”

“A mighty hammer?” Tam Nok repeated. “An interesting weapon.”

“You think that is what we are searching for?” Ragnarok asked. “Thor’s hammer?”

“I think we are looking for a shield, but I have learned that shield’s can take many forms,” Tam Nok said.

“Didn’t the stone tell you about the shield?”

“Some,” Tam Nok said evasively.

“Is our destination Thule?”

“No. Thule is mentioned, but where we must go is here.”

Ragnarok leaned over and looked at where her finger was pointing. It was to the west and south of Greenland. Along a far coast that stretched along the entire left edge of the metal plate. Ragnarok shifted his gaze across to the adjoining map sheet of Tam Nok’s. The location was south of the Roman Ocean on that map sheet. Ragnarok was an experienced sailor but the concept of such a long journey staggered him. Tam Nok’s finger rested on a small island in the middle of the vast ocean.

“It will take a year to go there!”

“I don’t have a year,” Tam Nok said.

Ragnarok took a stick and measured the distance from Norway to Iceland. Then he measured along the coast of the strange western land down to the spot she indicated. “It depends on the winds and currents,” he finally said. “Maybe we can make it in six months. Four if all is favorable.”

“We must be there before the year’s end,” Tam Nok said.

Ragnarok rubbed a hand through his beard. “Seven months. We should be able to if Odin smiles on us. And if the Skraelings let us pass.”

“Skraelings?”

“A fierce people who live in this strange land across the ocean,” Ragnarok said. “They are said to have red skin and be very fierce. I did not believe the stories overly much but-” he shrugged- “now I have seen you and you have brown skin and come from a land in the other direction I never heard. So I think maybe there are these red people and the stories I heard were real.”

He tapped the map sheet. “It will be difficult to find an island like this, out of sight of land.”

“I will find it,” Tam Nok said. “We must get to the boat. Every journey begins with the first step. We will worry about red men when we see them.” She rolled the map up and put it back in the bamboo case. She slid the metal plate inside her pack.

“There was a lot of writing on the metal,” Ragnarok noted. “What did it say?”

“It will take me time to translate much of it. It is in a very old tongue. One I learned among many other languages. I’ve read what I need for now. I will try to translate the rest later. Then I will tell you what it says.”

“You treat me like a child,” Ragnarok said. “Your gold can only take you so far. My crew will not want to cross the large sea for any amount. I will have to convince them to do it. But I am not sure you are worth convincing them for.”

“It is not about me,” Tam Nok said. “We must find the weapon to fight the Valkyries and the Shadow.”

Ragnarok shook his head. “The Valkyries are demons. We are not Gods. Why must we fight them? Why not let them fight among themselves? Maybe we are interfering with something that should not be trifled with?”

“It is my duty to-”

“Your duty,” Ragnarok said. “Not mine. How did you know my name when we first met?”

Tam Nok pretended to concentrate on the straps for her pack, avoiding his gaze.

“How did you get me to run in the fjord and then again near the stones? I have never run from a battle, even when it appeared I would die. But I have run twice since I met you.”

Tam Nok looked up, her almond eyes fixing him. “Now who is lying? You’ve run from a battle before. Once before. Did you not?”

Ragnarok was completely still, only the skin along the left side of his face moving ever so slightly as a muscle under it jumped.

“What do you know of my past?” he finally asked.

“What you have let me know,” Ariana said. She reached out and placed her hand briefly on his forehead. “It is there, always there, even when you are thinking about something else. Like the bubbles on top of a kettle of boiling water.”

“What is there?”

“Your anger. Your rage. It consumes you. You think it is about your father, but it is really about your mother.”

“How do you know such things,” Ragnarok grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “You are a witch.”

Tam Nok didn’t react. “I am a priestess. We are taught to read people.”

“How do you know what happened to my parents?”

“I don’t,” Tam Nok said. “I only know that whatever happened to them has shaped you, like the blacksmith shaped your new ax.” She reached up and removed his hands from her shoulders. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

Ragnarok turned from her and sat down, elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. He felt the pounding in his temples, the rage of bloodlust and revenge. His palms pressed tighter and tighter against his skull until he felt a soft pair of hands on top of his, pulling back.

“In my land, we say the past is done. There is nothing that can be done to change it. You have to live and move on.”

“Never!” But he allowed her to pull his hands away from his face. She gently placed hers on his temples.

“I see betrayal.”

Ragnarok nodded. “My father was betrayed.”

“Tell me.” Tam Nok moved back and sat across from him.

“He was a war leader. A man of honor. The man who all in our village turned to. The king-” Ragnarok spat- “the man who anointed himself king of the Vikings- demanded that all the villages pay him tribute and provide warriors and ships when he called for them. My father owed allegiance to no one but his people. He saw no reason to do either.

“The king called a meeting to discuss this with those who did not readily submit. Under a flag of truce. My father went even though my mother warned him not to.”

Ragnarok paused and shook his head. “My father was a very brave man. He went with only two men, as the king said he also would come. They met on an island off the southern coast of Norway. There were a dozen other leaders like my father there. Each with only two of their most trusted men as had been agreed.

“The king came with ten ships full of warriors. He told them they could submit or die. My father fought even though he knew there was no chance of victory. The king’s men killed him, cut his head off and sent it back to us.”

“And you swore revenge,” Tam Nok said.

“Of course.”

“But you don’t have the strength yet to attack the king,” Tam Nok said.

“He will pay. One day-”

“And your mother?” Tam Nok asked. “She did warn him.”

Ragnarok stood, throwing his pack over his shoulder and holding his ax in one hand, Lailoken’s staff in the other. “It is time for us to go.”

“Your mother told you to submit, didn’t she?” Tam Nok pressed. “To make peace and accept the future. Or else you would die futilely like your father.”

Ragnarok walked away from the priestess. “It is time to go,” he said over his shoulder.