"Vikings" by Maria Semyonova, summary Automatic translate

This book is a fictional encyclopedic collection about the lives of the ancient Scandinavians, published in 1988. The text combines four historical stories and a popular science essay, detailing the life, laws, and beliefs of these sea warriors.

Two Kings

King Aella of Northumbria captures the legendary sea chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok. The English ruler wishes to humiliate his enemy. He sits in a gilded chair while the old Viking stands barefoot in the melting snow. But Ragnar remains proud. The Dane tells a parable about a weak hunter and a whale that dragged him to the bottom. The ruler orders the prisoner thrown into a pit of snakes. Lothbrok dies with a grin, predicting the swift vengeance of his sons.

The old scribe Aethelred chronicles these events. Upon learning of his father’s death, Ivar Ironside pierces his foot with a spear, Bjorn clenches his dice until they bleed, and Ube maintains an icy calm. Lodbrok’s sons gather a vast army. Danish longships ravage the lands of Northumbria. In a brutal battle, the Angles are defeated. Ragnar’s sons execute King Aella. The scribe Aethelred is spared by the red-haired Ube. The scholar travels south to the young Prince Aelfred in Wessex, hoping to impart to him the bitter experience of the fallen monarch.

Eagle’s Cliff

The story revolves around a young shepherd slave named Arni. The boy tends cows near the sheer cliff of Arnarbrekka. One day, he witnesses a brutal fight. Two sons of Skjold the Merchant are trying to finish off a wounded man. Arni intervenes in the fight, throwing a stone and setting his dog, Svasud, on him. The stranger kills the enemy. This man turns out to be the famous Viking Svan the Red. Arni nurses the warrior back to health, retrieves a broken arrow, and helps him descend the cliff to the sea. Svan swims away, promising to return.

Three years pass. Arni continues to herd cattle. A runaway slave, Khaval, appears in the pasture. He behaves brazenly, steals supplies, wounds a calf, and kills his faithful dog, Svasud. Arni tracks Khaval down and stabs him to death in a clay ravine. The shepherd’s secret companion, the slave Turid, who brought him bread, helps cover up the evidence.

A year later, warships enter the fjord. The local chieftain, Vemund, throws a feast and forces Arni to shoot a bow at Thurid for fun. The young man refuses to be a jester. He fires three arrows at Vemund himself, cutting off the headband. The boy is saved from certain death by the arrival of Svan the Red. The Viking now has a wooden leg. He recognizes his savior. The wise skald Alvir reveals the truth: Arni is the son of Svan’s brother, the noble warrior Orm, who was betrayed by Skjold the Merchant during a storm. Svan takes his nephew and Thurid aboard his warship.

With the Vikings on Svalbard

Fifteen-year-old Helgi lives with his mother in Raumsdal. The young man awaits the arrival of noble relatives from Hålogaland. By chance, he stumbles upon a bandit named Gissur, who is planning to attack a local estate. Helgi tricks the horsemen into leading them to the remote cape of Iron Rock. Fleeing from flying arrows, the boy leaps from the towering cliff into the icy waves.

He is pulled from the water by the curly-haired Ottar, a warrior from a warship commanded by Rakni. The chieftain is searching for his mortal enemy, Vagn the Seafarer. Rakni steers the vessel far north, to the cold shores of Svalbard. On board, Helgi becomes close to Ottar and the Irish monk Lugh. During a stop at a Finnish Sami settlement, Ottar saves a local girl, Belenkaya, from being sacrificed.

Having reached the Svalbard archipelago, the crew finds Vagn’s sturdy winter hut. While awaiting the enemy, Ottar, Helgi, and the former slave Kark go deep into the mountains. Beyond the pass, they discover another hut filled with frozen corpses. Among them, Helgi recognizes her missing grandfather, Viglaf the Raven. Ottar gives the youth the ancestral sword.

Tragedy strikes upon their return. On the Helgi glacier, he nearly falls into a deep crevasse. Ottar pulls the young man out, but is himself killed when a huge mass of ice collapses into the sea. Kark confesses that he deliberately provoked the dangerous situation out of jealousy and stabs himself with his sword in front of his men.

Rakni finds the body of his adopted son frozen in an iceberg. The chieftain builds a great funeral pyre right on the old ship of his grandfather, Wiglaf. During the ritual, the trading knarr of Vagn the Seafarer bursts into the fjord. Vagn miraculously saves the ship from destruction in the drifting ice. Amazed by the courage of his enemy and devastated by the loss of his son, Rakni abandons his blood feud. He invites Vagn to share the warmth of his hearth.

Solveig and all of us

The young heir, Eirik, spends the winter at Gunnar’s estate with his adoptive father, the old Earl Högni. During a fierce snowstorm, the exhausted skier Thorgrim the Fighter wanders in. Eirik is jealous of him, his adopted bride, Asgerd.

Thorgrim helps the company build a new warship. His skill arouses the envy of the experienced carpenter, Kari the Jouster. A quarrel breaks out, and Thorgrim falls into an uncontrollable berserker state. Eirik barely manages to stop the mighty warrior. Thorgrim shows the youth the terrible scars on his back.

In the spring, the black ship Sleipnir is launched. Eirik and Thorgrim sail to the Hjaltland Islands. At anchor on the island, Thorgrim challenges the young man to a duel to the death. He confesses that he long ago swore vengeance on Eirik’s father for a woman named Solveig. This woman is Eirik’s mother. The brutal battle is interrupted by an attack by a wild polar bear. Thorgrim shields Eirik from the enraged beast, sustaining grievous wounds. The young man forgives his defeated enemy, and Thorgrim finds peace with Asgerd, who nurses him.

I’ll tell you about the Vikings

The collection concludes with extensive ethnographic essays. The way of life of the ancient Norse people is meticulously examined. Scandinavian society was based on the strict rules of the extended family. People considered themselves to be exclusively a small part of a clan. The very word "Viking" denoted not a nationality, but the dangerous profession of seafaring.

Much attention was paid to legal norms. Disputes were resolved at public assemblies, or things. Justice relied on oaths sworn by relatives. A common form of conflict resolution was judicial combat, or holmgang, held at crossroads or on small islands. An insulted fighter was obliged to wash away the shame with blood, otherwise society would brand him "niding" — an outcast. Blood feuds were strictly regulated and served as a deterrent against mindless violence.

Shipbuilding is described in detail. Craftsmen used specialized axes, splitting oak and ash logs with strong wedges. The sides were sewn together with spruce roots or steel rivets. The ships were incredibly flexible, allowing them to withstand the strongest ocean waves. A side rudder was used for steering, and the masts were removable. Navigators navigated by the stars, ocean currents, and the flights of birds, covering vast distances without compasses.

Scandinavian everyday life was closely intertwined with magical thinking. Carved dragon heads on the sternposts warded off sea monsters. The hearth was considered the sacred center of a wooden or earthen house. Food shared by the fire and beer consumed transformed a stranger into an untouchable guest. Laws prescribed strict treatment of slaves, who performed the dirtiest labor. Slaves could earn their ransom through craftsmanship or win their freedom through bravery in battle.

Women wielded high unspoken authority, often managing households during their husbands’ long absences, and could initiate grand campaigns. Norse goddesses and Valkyrie maidens were revered equally with male gods.

Relations with the neighboring Finno-Ugric Sami tribes are examined separately. Northerners endowed the tundra aborigines with powerful magical powers. The mysticism of the beast-warriors — the berserkers, who entered a battle trance — and the strict rituals of induction into the warrior brotherhood — the hird — are explored. All aspects of life, from birth to death, were subject to harsh but just customs, inextricably linked to nature and ancient myths.