The Saga begins in winter with the Sons of Fridthof Hallbjorn Jarl of Bjarkoy standing in a frozen ditch outside of the northern village of Harstad. They intend to ambush men of the Othare clan with whom the Hallbjorns have a blood feud. Waiting to spill the blood of their families foes are; Godlaugger Hallbjorn eldest son of the Jarl, Ragnar the youngest son and Bardan their uncle. Drunken Othare men come down the road from a mead hall, and the Hallbjorns waylay and butcher them with axe, spear and bow.
“A good man (drengr) was expected to face challenges with courage and composure. Worrying or complaining did nothing to improve the situation and only diminished a man. The greatest test of a man was to fight to the bitter end, even in the face of certain defeat and death. Norsemen expected a share of trouble, and the best of them attempted to use it, and to rise above it creating fame for themselves through bravery, loyalty, and generosity.”
In the spring, The Jarl sends his brother and sons to slay a great wolf that has been killing the family’s sheep. The wolf proves to be a twisted monster and Godlaugger uses the power of the Gods to animate the skeletons of the dead sheep to fight the beast. He takes the head of the dark wolf to the shrine north of the families hall on Bjarkoy and offers it to Odin. When he places the head on the altar a great black raven descends from the sky and plucks out Godlauggers eye.
In the summer Jarl Fridthof task his son Ragnar to go north and collect tribute from the Skraelings. The Jarl subjugated the local tribe under the condition that a chosen Skraeling warrior be defeated in combat every year. Ragnar is chosen to represent the Hallbjorn Clan and the Jarldom. He ventures north to the Skraeling lands with his brother and uncle and slays the chosen warrior in a fight with bone knives on a natural stone bridge over an icy river. At this time Godlaugger first starts to have visions from his empty eye socket.
In the autumn a Ting is held in village of Neregarden on the Isle of Bjarkoy. All the freemen of the Jarldom assemble to settle disputes and levy judgments. The Hallbjorns propose that the Blood Feud with the Othare has been settled, but the Othare refuse to accept. Bribed by silver, the assembly rules in favor of the Othare and the blood feud is fated to continue. The Ting hears news of, Harald Fairhair a new King in the South. Harald has subjugated several Jarls, placing his own men in the halls of those who bend the knee to collect taxes from freemen. Jarl Hakon the Rich of Lade has requested that Jarl Fridthof send his Hird and raise an army to oppose King Harald who matches north to conquer Halogaland. The Ting votes to fight Harald.
In the winter, Jarl Fridthof places a silver arm ring on Ragnar who swears the oath as a Huscarl of his father’s hird.
“I am Ragnar, son of Fridthof, grandson of the mighty Snorri of whom many are the songs and tales. My family’s enemies sing the dirge songs that spring from my sword. I have fought the chosen warriors of the Skraelings and bested them for tribute, and I have faced Loki’s fell wolf and struck the beast a mighty blow. Greater deeds than these shall I gain, garnering fame like grains of gold! In this war-band shall my arms strike hard against our foes. If the gods of our people grants me the gift I ask, accepting my oath aye!"
The Jarl names Godlaugger as the Godi (holy man)of Bjarkoy. Fridthof gifts his new huscarls with byrnies and swords. During the feast that night Godlaugger has a vision from his missing eye of Odin falling from Sleipnir and cracking his skull on the ground, gold pours from the open wound of the God. Ragnar lies with Arndis daughter of Huskarl Stenolfr and the next morning she washes and cuts his hair and gifts him a fine embroidered shirt. The freemen of Bjarkoy are assembled along with the Jarls hird and they board the longship Domhilder to sail south and fight the upstart King. They are joined by an old companion of the Jarl, Hrolfer the Black. Hrolfer is a hulking grey bearded warrior who turned to farming until his hall burned down killing his wife and children. He pledges his axe again to Jarl Fridthof hoping to find death on the battlefield and a place in Valhalla.
“A farmer accompanied his son to the warships and gave him counsel, telling him to be valiant and hardy in perils. “How would you act if you were engaged in battle and knew beforehand that you were destined to be killed?"
The son answered, "Why then should I refrain from striking right and left?"
The farmer said, "Now suppose someone could tell you for certain that you would not be killed?"
The son answered, "Why then should I refrain from pushing forward to the utmost?"
The farmer said, "In every battle you fight, one of two things will happen: you will either fall or come away alive. Be bold, therefore, for everything is preordained. Nothing can bring a man to his death if his time has not come, and nothing can save one doomed to die. To die in flight is the worst death of all."
As they sail south for the Trondheimsfjord and Nidaros seat of Jarl Hakon, they hunt and kill a narwhal taking its tusk as a charm of luck. The sea fog drives them ashore one night and they are stalked and attacked by seawolves, Hrolfer fights them off alone but fails to find the release of death. Eventually they reach Nidaros, where the assembled forces of Halogaland prepare to face King Harald Fairhair. The battle commences the next day in the snowy fields east of the city. Jarl Fridthof stands with Jarl Hakons guard and shield wall. His hird and the forces of Bjarkoy join a flanking attack, using their ships to move up the fjord and hit Haralds forces from the North. The snow turns to pink sludge and the Valkyries swarm as the battle rages. At the end of a hard fought day the Halogalanders have held against Haralds attack. The forces break apart expecting to face each other again in the morning. Searching for thier falther on the battlefield, the Hallbjorns find that Jarl Fridthof Hallbjorn was struck his death blow while in the main shield wall. Godlaugger, Ragnar and Bardan join him as he dies in the snow with the back of his skull smashed in. With his dying words he names Godlaugger as Jarl of Bjarkoy and asks his brother and sons to never bend the knee to a King.
The next day the forces of the Freemen under Jarl Hakon and the army of King Harald Fairhair are again arrayed for battle. Suddenly horns sound and Jarl Hakon and his daughter ride out to meet the King between the lines. King Harald agrees to marry Hakons daughter, in exchange for the Jarls of Halogaland swearing an oath of allegiance. The Hallbjorns are betrayed their father’s death in vain, they decide they uphold his dying wish and vow not bend a knee to the King. Bardan slays Jarl Hakon with an arrow as he rides back to the lines. He then fights Hakons son and heir Fjolf in a duel, slaying him with a poison dagger. Hakons remaining heir is just boy and the Othare clan quickly assumes control of the Jarldom. Godlaugger calls for all the free Halogalanders to join him in opposition to the King, a band of sixty do so and they fight their way back to the ships. Before they reach the shore a force of Haralds elite Danish mercenaries is going to cut them off. Alone between the two converging warbands stands a small Sami shaman.
“You urge your weary men forward, racing to reach the ships before Harold’s forces cut you off. Behind you can see Hakon’s loyalist forming to move against you. As you advance it is clear that Harold’s forces will reach the ships before you, they are a larger body moving quickly and with discipline, mostly Danes judging from their axes and helms, but at the rear are a handful of near giants, wearing animal skins, Harold’s elite berserkers. As you draw nearer to the shore and the inevitable clash you see a small Saami man, wearing a white rough spun robe over reindeer leather standing alone before Harold’s advancing forces. In one hand he holds an antler in the other a torch. He seems unconcerned about the hundreds of men charging straight towards him. Just before he is trampled he calmly drops the torch and springs away, a leaping shadow against the raging holocaust of flame that rears up between you and the King’s men.”
Baza the Sami shaman has come from the far north seeking Godlaugger, for a Raven brought the shaman the Norseman’s eye. The new Jarl of Bjarkoy and his loyal band board the longship Domhilder and escape the combined forces of the Othare usurpers and the King. They sail north and raid an Othare holding only to be caught by the pursuing ships. A fierce sea battle ensues, and Godlauggers men triumph. Unsure in which direction to sail, Godlauger sacrifices one of the prisoners to Odin and asks the Gods for direction. The omen points to the West, and they turn their prow to the setting sun.
“You sail west across the winter sea. Cloudy nights obscure the stars, and cold salt fog hides the sun. Once away from land you cannot follow the course of birds, or find your way with landmarks. The older warriors among you have sailed this route in summer, but the winter makes for rough seas and difficult navigation. You become lost in the mist. Fierce storms wrack your ship exhausting you and the crew. Shivering and wet, you watch with despair as the night sky taunts you with sinister displays of red and purple lights. Eventually your food and water run out and very quickly men begin to die. All hope is surely lost, the Gods have abandoned you. At night you see a great serpent writhing between the sky and sea. Survivors attempt to eat each other, or cast themselves into the black abyss that is the ocean. Then one morning the sea is calm, and you sail through a world of silent fog. Nothing can be seen in the dim grey light. Suddenly pale bloated hands grip the gunwales and the dead members of your crew hoist themselves aboard the vessel, black mouths pour foul water on the decks as pale milky eyes seek living flesh to consume.”
After fighting off the Draug crows feast on the flesh of the dead and Domhilder collides with the shore breaking apart on the rocks of the Orkney Isles. Ketil Flatnefer , a mighty warrior with no nose is Jarl of the Orkneys , and he takes the wary band into his hall.
““A fell wind howls across the winter water, the earth shakes, my men tell me Jörmungandr rises, and now a grim band of warriors rises from the sea like the draugr of my nightmares. Has Ragnaraok come? Tell me, who are you and what curse do you bring to my hall?”
When he learns that Godlaugger is the son of Fridthof Hallbjorn, and what has transpired with the King, Jarl Flatnefer welcomes them and they spend the rest of the winter recovering in his hall.
The displaced hird of Bjarkoy is treated with respect in Jarl Flatnefers lands. In the spring the Jarl ask Godlaugger to lead the celebration of Eoster a veneration of Freya. A blot of lambs is made, magic mushrooms are eaten and Godlaugger has ritual sex with Eyja the Seiðkonur(Witch). Eventually Jarl Flatnefr calls the Hallbjorns and their huscarls before him.
“You have proven to be good companions and proper drengr , welcome guest in my hall but the time has come for you to pick up the strands of your fate. I still fear that you bring doom before you, and will not tempt the gods by entwining my own death with yours. You are a Chieftain severed from his people; I cannot ask you to join my own hird, so you must go. I do not send you away from my hall without a purpose however. Grim and fell are your faces, sharp and thirsty are your blades, to the North of Hrossa is an abandoned place, a mighty stone tower of the Picts on the island of Hrolfsay. My son and his men once sought to claim this broch but they never returned. My men tell me a great Troll haunts the tower. Go there and find your fate, honor or death you cannot change it. Slay the beast and the broch and island are yours in the name of Ketil Flatnefr, Jarl of Orkney. “
They travel to the isle of Hrolfsey and face Uth the Troll who wears the skin of men and sings an evil song. After slaying the Troll Godlaugger takes a ring from her finger and they explore the broch and find a wicked altar with three rooster statues; one of gold, one of copper, and one of obsidian. They claim Midhow Broch and spend the rest of the spring rebuilding the tower with the help of thralls gifted to them by Jarl Flatnefr. At this time, the Seiðkonur and her daughter come to Hrolfsey to be the women of Godlaugger. He impregnates the Seiðkonur.
In the summer, Jarl Flatnefr calls the hird of Godlaugger to the summer blot and the Ting of the Orkney’s. Ketil names Godlaugger chieftain of Hrolfsey. At the Ting, the hard men of the isles vote to decide where to raid. Most of them favor the easy pickings of Ireland, but Godlaugger and his hird want to strike at King Harald in Norway. While they argue the cases, on of Ketils men arrives wounded and tells a tale of the Picts in Caithness who normally pay tribute to the Norsemen, instead massing to attack the Isles. Jarl Flatnefr will vote to send his ships east to attack Harald if Godlaugger and his hird will help them defeat the Picts. They agree.
Jarl Flatnfer and the Godi Godlaugger Chieften of Hrolfsey join their hirds , gather the Freemen of the Orkey Isles and sail south to Caithness in order to put down Giric mac Dúngail King of Caith. The armies meet in the moorlands of Caith, and the Norsemen pit their axes and spears against the bows and bronze blades of the painted Pictish warriors. Outnumbered, but more heavily armed and skilled the Norse of the Orkney’s bloodedly crush Giric mac Dúngail rebellion, and once again collect tribute from the Picts of Caithness.
Returning to The Isles, Jarl Flatnefr gives Godlaugger a longship in thanks for joining him in battle, and the savage Vikings of Orkney sail east to attack their fatherlands now under the dominion of King Harald the Fairhair.
Godlaugger and his hird sail east to the western shores of Norway. Guided by a vision from his missing eye the Godi plants a Nithing Pole in Harald’s domain making an oath of vengeance and asking the Gods to curse the King. They raid Norse towns, targeting those lands that have bent the knee to Harold. Through the summer they raid, collecting a sizeable amount of booty. Eventually they strike the city if Vik , and are caught by Haralds forces, a pitched battle takes place in the town. The Hallbjorn warband set’s the town on fire to divide the enemy forces and cover their getaway. They steal a magnificent drakkar that they name Bitfrost from the harbor and escape.
After singeing the Fairhair’s beard, Godlaugger and his hird return to Hrolfsey in the autumn. More Vikings flock to Godlauggers banner and his hall at Midhow Broch is filled with raid won treasure. The Seiðkonur will soon have his child, but in her pregnancy she has visions of doom stalking Hrolfsey, and takes to speaking with the rooster statutes found in Uth the Troll’s lair. It is clear that a deeper evil dwells in the island. It also becomes apparent that Jarl Ketil Flatnefer’s rule of the Orkney’s is threatened by the Bjornhall’s sudden glory.
Winter arrives again in the treeless isles, the nights are long and winds like icy daggers rip at the flesh. The Hallbjorn hirdsmen drunkenly whisper of the dead climbing out of the ancient cairns around Hrolfsey. Jarl Flatnefr has not invited Godlaugger to the winter blot on Hrossa. A chill descends on the Norsemen of the Orkney’s.
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