THE BURNING IMAGE OF WODEN
Hell was like home to Trigorth, or he thought so, as he imagined his own damnation and banishment from Valhalla.
Trigorth was weened on the blood from splattered skulls of christian monks and ate their powdered bones as a substitute for gruel. His first act as a fully blooded man was to peel the skin from the face of an Irish cleric, and use the leathery pelt as a scabbard for his seax.
His exploits had taken him from the eastern seaboard of what would become known as North America, to the eastern upper reaches of the Dniester in Kievan Rus, and south to Byzantine Constantinople otherwise known as Byzantium.
Trigorth had spent some time as a member of the Varangian Guard, but was dismissed due to is ruthlessness and uncooperative attitude towards those deemed to be in charge.
At almost seven feet tale and weighing a lean twenty stone, he was a formidable opponent to anyone foolish enough to cross him.
An earlier marriage to a freed Pictish slave had ended in bloodshed after her involvement with an Icelandic pirate, Ahoy-lad Ahoyhladson, and the only child from this short period of matrimony had been sacrificed to Thor as an act of penance for his unclean lusting for her mother.
He had remained single in recent years as he reflected on his sexuality and his love of gratuitous violence and rapine plunder. Women were often on his mind, but not in body, and his frustration often manifested itself in dark self loathing and extreme brutality towards others. His only fear was that of the vengeful Gods, Woden and Thor, and all his vicious and vicarious acts of cruelty were vehemently on their behalf.
To be continued.......
No comments:
Post a Comment