Eric Olafson, Neo Viking Vol. 01

"What business I have on my home planet is none of yours, Freeman. I am a lawful Union Citizen and that is all you need to know. Scan my CITI and be done."

The customs officer did and said, "We don't have any police on Nilfeheim so we like to check who comes, especially in a heavily armed ship and a box full of weapons, but your CITI checks out and the weapon scan identifies only registered and legal weapons. You do know the local laws about these rights?"

"I am an Olafson. I was born here."

"Oh, and Olafson! Welcome home then. I bet you came to the wedding!"

"What wedding?"

"Everyone talks about it of course. Isegrim Olafson is marrying Ilva Ragnarsson."

Hogun once again shouldered the box and walked past the man. His enormous right hand clenched into a stone-hard fist ever since the man mentioned his brother's name. The main reason he had left in the first place. Then as he passed into the lobby, he saw her standing there with her hands demurely folded before a white apron and wearing a traditional blue dress to long flaxen braids, Freydis Bredeberg.

His chin dropped. He had sent her a letter via Union Post over three months ago, that he would return and gave her an approximate day of arrival, all that came to his mind was, "How did you know I was coming today?"

She smiled the most charming smile and looked at the big man with deep love burning in her eyes. "I came here to wait for you every day since I got your letter."

He dropped his box and scooped her into his arms.

-""—

WEDDING

As it was ancient tradition the first day of the wedding festivities began on a Friday to honor the goddess Freya and make her bless the newlyweds.

And what a day it was; the First Keeper of Hasvik himself officiated the ceremony in the great hall of the Olafson Burg, with real oak tree branches and mistletoe shipped from Earth itself decorating the hall.

All the Elders were present and so were many clan chiefs, friend, and foe alike.

There was a hushed whisper as the Eldest, the Hermit of Nilfeheim appeared and blessed the couple. He threw the runes and as he foretold a son to be born, both Volund and Erik Gustav almost burst with pride.

Volund was not even ashamed of the tears in his eyes as he embraced Hogun, his long lost second-born, who also appeared before the gates and requested admission. Hogun, now a grown man, was a head taller than the tallest Norse and as massive as only an Olafson would grow, with arms bigger than some of the strongest men's upper thighs.

During the festivities, he bested them all in challenges of strength and arm wrestling. Hogun put great shame upon the Elhir sons Leif and Arifin as he won a challenge of strength against both of them at the same time.

Isegrim threw the axes straight and true and cut Ilva's braids.

Food and drink were consumed in enormous quantities, the rafters and halls vibrated of the merry laughter and the old songs of the gods and war. There was not a dry eye and not a Viking heart untouched as Ilva sang the Song of Sif to honor her new husband and no one believed there was a more beautiful woman on all Nilfeheim.

It was near midnight of the third day of festivities, most of the guests were more than drunk and the event was long past its climax. Isegrim had danced the Dance of Ax and Sword with more skill than even Volund hoped for. Ilva skillfully tended to his cuts and bruises and the Elders praised the wedding as a testament to the value and importance of the old traditions.

Egill found this a perfect time for him to slip out the door. He liked the food and the drink, but he was a hermit for too long to feel really comfortable around crowds. Many of the guests were already sleeping or held on to tankards with glassy eyes. Some were still singing, but not as clear and vigorous as they did hours ago.

One of the servants helped him into his ragged-looking Fangsnapper coat. However, as he went through the door into the bitter cold of Longnight, a man approached him. "It is a long time we have seen each other, Old Egill."

"You should talk, Elkhart. Compared to you I am still as young as a freshly hatched Silver-flicker."

The man with the stringy white beard was Elkhart the First Keeper. Only a handful of beings knew that this old man had been born on Earth and was the Ship Master of the Stockholm Ark. Egill did not know how the man managed to stay alive for almost 3000 years now, but then he himself was now a little over 400 years old and beings of great age were rare but not uncommon in the galaxy-spanning Union beyond the clouds of Nilfeheim. "I am surprised to see you away from your secretive nest underneath Mount Muspelheim."

"And I am surprised to see you. What was it that made you abandon your tall rock? You have never been known to attend festivities."

Egill drew the seams of his cloak closer together. "The Olafson's and the Ragnarsson clan coming together is a momentous event, these are old clans with much history and clout." Then he cursed. "I am too old to freeze my face off and stand around in the cold. You know where I live, and you can come by and tell me how things are underneath your mountain and why you have officiated instead of the current First Keeper. Risking exposure of your little secret just to officiate in a wedding is not something I expected."

Elkhart appeared immune to the cold, dressed in only a thin cloak, exposing his bare legs. "Yes, I think it is time I visit you. Since you have not been at Hasvik for ages. Expect me then in the next weeks to come."

Egill snapped in his usual grumpy and coarse way. "Don't think I will clean just because you decide to visit." But he added in a softer tone. "There is more to this wedding, is there?"

The Ancient Keeper brushed snow out of his beard and raised an eyebrow, "The White One has sent you here has he not? He too sensed the significance and that is why you came."

"You should not be able to read my mind, but yes Tyr has asked me to witness the Union between Isegrim Olafson and Ilva Ragnarsson. I do not know why. He tends to be even more cryptic than you."

"I can't read minds as you can Old Grump. I do not have the benefit of a godlike friend who can bestow such talents, but I am around for a long time and I can see patterns that are invisible to others."

"And you are an Old Liar. I know you are far more than just an old man who forgot to die."

"Perhaps, perhaps not; let us continue this when we meet at your burg. I am already afraid it is worse a pigsty than it was eighty years ago, when I saw it last, but it will be warmer."

"You can stay away if you don't like it." Egill grunted and stomped slowly down to the main gate. Then he turned and said. "See you then Old Keeper, and by Odin's name get a thicker coat. I am getting cold just looking at you."

The Old Keeper waved and said. "Have a safe journey back to your burg." Egill turned around one more time and saw the figure of the Old Keeper slowly dissipating just like a ghost; becoming insubstantial and then from one eye blink to the other the old keeper was gone.

Egill grunted. "Old man my ass, you are about as human as Tyr."

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Prelude Part 4: Volund

4999 OTT

The crumbling walls of Olafson Burg were no longer on his mind. Volund was now the steward of Ragnarsson Rock. Erik Gustav had kept his word and had given him stewardship and the rule of all that was Ragnarsson on this world.

There were tanneries in the extensive basements, several Nubhir farms on the permanent ice of the southern pole region and large Fangsnapper herds, but most of all there were five modern and well kept fishing boats and three Hunting Subs in the cave-like, voluminous Submarine Pen.

Volund was once more doing what he loved best. He commanded the Hunting Subs, harassed the boats of the clans of the East and returned to the Xchange at Halstaad Fjord with Three-Fins and Tyrannos in tow. Life was good and the name Olafson once again spoken with respect at the Xchange Cafe and the Taverns.

He had just returned from another long trip to the Uhim grounds and decided to have a few tankards at Hogun's Inn.

His second born also had married, in a small and far less spectacular ceremony to a daughter of an Eastern clan no one of the Western clans really knew much about. Hogun's wife, a Bredeberg, however was given an Inn as part of her dowry. Her father won it in a gambling venture.

So it came Hogun was an innkeeper now. To everyone it was clear that this was his true calling. Hogun's Inn became one of the most popular Inns of Halstaad Fjord, not in the least due to the cooking and grilling skills of Hogun and the collection of local and Off World beers and ales he offered.

It was the very Inn he had met the old Ragnarsson and where his fortune and the fate of the Olafson clan changed forever. Fights and brawls were a thing of the past, at least in Hogun's Inn. No one in his right mind wanted to make Hogun angry. It had not taken very long and Hogun's almost inhuman body strength became the source of many tales and stories.

Volund greeted his second born and grabbed his underarm in the traditional greeting. "The hunt was good, my son. Let me celebrate with my men under thy roof and bring good ale and hearty food. The boats are fine indeed but the cooking skills of my men are much to be desired."

While Hogun went into the kitchen to personally fry a few Tyranno steaks for his father and the boat crew, Pit, one of the Freemen working for Hogun, served tankards of mead and ale.

The mood was merry and the food was good. The hours went on and Oddløg, celebrated for his expert harpooning that killed a Tri Halfer, was comfortably drunk as he staggered into the back to relieve himself.

While Hogun had spent considerable money to install modern Union grade recycler bathroom stalls and urinals, he had a hard time making the long time patrons use it. The old Vikings much rather went out in the back as they had done so many times before.

During Shortsummer it stank horribly despite the Gong Farmers, Lowmen paid by the Innkeepers to remove the disgusting mess left behind. Until recently the Lowmen had to use pick axes to break the frozen mess from the old Sea Wall that begun right behind the row of Inns and Taverns, of which Hogun's Inn was one.

Hogun however paid one of his own employees and to clean a good section every day with a high pressure washer to keep the mess managed and placed big signs everywhere inviting them to use his modern toilets.

All this was of no concern to Oddløg, he had pissed against that Sea Wall behind the inn for as long as he could remember and he would do so tonight.

He was just about to relieve himself as a movement just out of his field of view made him turn his head. He laughed roughly, "Aye the spears and harpoons of Olafson warriors are legendary in size and length, are you ashamed of yours or why are you hide in the shadows?"

A woman, of all things, stepped into the yellowish light of an age old lumi plate glued to the back of a building. "Oh I remember the spears of the Olafsons; yours is rather pathetic."

Of course the back of the Inns were frequented by the harlots and prostitutes of the lowest kind; seeking to earn a coin or two to support their usually fatherless families living at the outskirts of town. The Circle of Elders tried to prohibit it, but it was an open secret among the Freemen and the clan-born alike. However she didn't really talk like one.

He said. "After I am done you better be gone or I tan your hide, harlot."

"Of course you will and you one eyed bastard don't even remember who I am." She raised a small pen like device and something sharp pierced Oddløg's skin right underneath his chin.

She came closer. Now he recognized the woman, it was Gretel.

She wore a red dress underneath her cloak and said, "What a fitting place for you to die. I had to hide in a barrel of piss to hide from your master, now you going to drown in it."

Oddløg tried to reach for what stung him but he could not.

Gretel laughed, and said. "Go get him boys, he is all yours."

A gang of ragged looking Lowmen peeled from the shadows, armed with clubs and pick axes.

They would have never dared attack a clan warrior in command of his strength. Yet Oddløg could not even lift a hand, his muscles felt like blubber, as the four Lowmen started to hit him.

He could not even yell for help or raise alarm and he fell face first into the the yellow snow and ice and saw his own blood flow and freeze. The last thing he heard was Gretel's cold laugh, "You are only the first."

No one could tell Volund where Oddløg was even after almost a month. No one had seen his right hand man. Now crime and murder were rare but not entirely uncommon. The Olafson's had a fair share of enemies among the clans of the West and then of course there were the clans of the East, the pirates of the Black clan and there was Oddløg's temper. He never could stay out of a fight, pass a brawl or not get mixed up in a duel. Volund was sure his friend had met his fate, or he would have shown up by now.

There was no police or anything like that on Nilfeheim except at the spaceport but the spaceport security could not and would not enforce the law beyond Union ground. Volund only noticed Oddløg missing after almost three days, as he had a serious hangover and suspected Oddløg to sleep his off in the bed of a Lowmen wench.

He did call the Union Clinic but Oddløg had not been there and had not been treated recently.

Volund felt the loss and was sad that he could not give his friend a decent burial.

But then the new burg had many warriors and Volund hoped that wherever Oddløg found his fate, he did it fighting and would be welcomed at the table of the Aesir.

What distraught him more were the reports that his son was no longer spending much time with Ilva but was seen almost daily flying to town and returning late.

That a man of his strength had a few concubines on the side was understandable, even though it was neither traditional nor proper. Volund himself had cheated a few times on his beloved wife while she was alive, a fact he regretted now.

But the good news were that Ilva was now pregnant. Hogun's wife, who also was a midwife, told him the good news, after nature took his course and in about eight months there would be twins and if the midwife was right, one of the twins would be a boy.

While he was sure the Union Clinic could determine that for sure, there was no need to involve the Off-Worlders.

Volunt had just left the Inn, talking to Hogun, hoping he had news of Oddløg simply being sick or still drunk or perhaps nursing the bruises of a fight he lost.

Hogun, never known to be drunk, recalled the night and remembered Oddløg going for a piss, but could not recall seeing the old warrior coming back.

Hogun watched his father leave.

He remembered Oddløg well, from the time before he had left

Oddløg had a mean streak as wide as the behind of a pregnant Fangsnapper, but Hogun remembered him as being smarter than most, with a keen sense for trouble and very quick reflexes. True Oddløg was drunk, but not more than at any other time. If he would have died in a fight, there would be others wounded or injured as well.

He put his fur cape around his shoulders and said to Pit, one of his employees, "Take care of the place. I be back in a few hours."

Pit simply nodded, but Pit never spoke unless absolutely necessary.

He went out the back, past the modern bathroom facilities he had just put in and proceeded to the so-called sea wall.

This was a tall dike kind of structure, erected by the first colonists that arrived on this, the largest open landmass on Nilfeheim. They did that bone breaking labor to protect the then small and only settlement on Bifrost, as they called this about Ireland sized island, from flooding.

Hogun, who had visited Earth and knew what the Ireland reference meant, smiled about the simple minds of his ancestors. Nilfeheim had no moons, and no tides. The ice that came in the long winter came from the existing water, the water level did not raise a single centimeter in Shortsummer.

There was no need for a seawall, millions of tons of rocks and concrete were used to build this great defense against, well, against nothing really.

Halstaad Fjord and the entire region from up the most northern tip of the island, called Ice Jättens Näsa where the small village of Honningsvåg was, all the way to Mount Asgard and the Mehir field was the land that Lars Erikson had claimed for himself and his family. No clan, no family of Nilfeheim had ever dared to claim this region, not even during the many clan wars.

An old burg-like structure North of the city, well mostly a big pile of rubble, had been erected when the first colonists actually arrived, long after Lars Erikson had died. Deep underneath that crumbled structure they had placed the stone coffin of the first and still only leader of all Nilfeheim. Above in the sealed hall, the legendary throne of Lars Erikson.

Hogun knew the story of Nilfeheim well, perhaps even better than the Elders themselves who suppressed and ignored much of it.

As strange at it might sound, he had learned more about Nilfeheim while he was away than he ever could on Nilfeheim itself. The Central Archive of the Union, held every piece of information ever written or recorded about Nilfeheim. While there was no one except perhaps the elusive and almost forgotten Keepers of Hasvik who kept an unbiased record of history.

Hogun loved this world but he no longer saw it as a Neo Viking but also as Union Citizen.

The seawall section here on the western side of the island separated the actual town of Halstaad Fjord from the sea harbor and the ocean port facilities.

Halstaad Fjord had grown much, even in the almost fiveteen years he had spent in his self-chosen exile. Over a million Freemen and an uncounted number of Lowmen. Hogun was certain at least another million was living in the small villages and towns dotting the island's surface.

While Halstaad Fjord and Isen Lansby, the two largest settlements had something akin to a town council, there was no actual government for the entire planet other than the Circle of Elders. There were no social services, no police and no one ever asking for a census to find out how many that actually lived on the planet.

Hogun was convinced that none of the Elders or clan Lords really ever wanted a count to be done.

Such a result could technically make it to the Assembly or a Union Court, carried there by a member of the Lowmen, and maybe show that there were far more Lowmen than there were clan Families. Something that might put the so called Nilfeheim Exception in jeopardy.

Of course Nilfeheim was not the only Union member society with certain exceptions to Union laws, almost every society had some local conditions that did not entirely fit with Union laws. He understood concessions had to be made to make this magnificent multi culture society work.

Hogun sighed as he watched four men dressed in rags working with pick axes, hammers and shovels to remove the disgusting mess the patrons of the many Inns left behind.

Here on the sea-facing side of the big wall were many fishing and hunting related businesses. This part of town was called Harbor's Row and between the shops and stores that offered tackle, nets, harpoons, ropes and all the many things seafaring vikings needed, were many of the traditional inns, taverns, guesthouses and pubs that catered to the tastes and needs of this rough clientele.

As far as Hogun knew, he was the only business on Harbor's Row featuring indoor plumbing and bathrooms.

He walked up to the men. He recognized two of them and they knew him. They were called Gong Farmers but also much worse.