Gone Viking 3
Commerce
Vikings-- bloodthirsty marauders, rapists, plunderers, defilers. MERCHANTS! Yes, business. And Ellaf was a businessman. As was Niband, leader of her band and chief trade negotiator; at least, in large matters. Private deals were being struck between crew members of the longship and the People.
But first, the trade goods were unloaded from the longship. Ellaf was up at dawn, rousing the bleary-eyed crew. I was surprised because I thought I was awake. I must have dozed off after the early morning "visit" of the shaman. Did I dream of him?
His reality was demonstrated by the welts on my arm from his rawhide whip. My face...Ellaf did not react, except to my breath.
"Someone has given you mushrooms. You have the look and smell of a mushroom nightmare."
After last night's feast and late night "partying," breakfast was not on my mind, nor apparently, on anyone's agenda. This day was for business... serious business.
I helped carefully unload bundled cloth-- wool and woven linens. Perfumes, iron and steel tools for hunting, farming, and forestry. A few fine steel weapons of war. Ivory of walrus, elephant, and hippo. Gold and silver jewelry; a great surprise to me were bags of silver coins.
"Of what use is coinage to these People?" I asked myself.
I found out. The coinage was of value to the people as ornament, but they do understand that Northmen praise it for its value as currency.
I examined the coins closely. They were very thin but finely made. And the script! "Arabic!"
The People had furs, tanned deer hides, mocassins, deer-hide shirts; feathers of many birds, reed baskets, dried fish, preserved meats, and a concentrated food that included meat and fruits in a dense collection of fats, sugars, proteins, and calories.
Pine sap to repair leaks and waterproof hulls. Honey and syrups; bushels of dried corn. Timber. The People used the axes of the Northmen to stockpile suitable wood for the repair of the longships. They had debarked them and built a drying house to store and season the wood. The Northmen would buy the seasoned wood and take it to their base where they had a sawmill.
Along the seacoast, I learned there were safe harbors, stocked with supplies to repair ships damaged in the dangerous crossing from the Northlands. Cached preserved food and casks of fuel, water, and ale.
There was no ale or strong spirits in our trade goods. I didn't know why and none of the Northmen would tell me. Whether it was a peculiarity of this ship or this load or cargo, I couldn't decipher.
The trading was spirited. Loud, very loud. You would think violence was imminent. But I learned quickly this was the manner of negotiation in this place. Not so in other places. Each group had its own personality and also its own specialty.
Sometimes, captives were traded. Hostages returned to their own home band... at a price with the Northmen as a go-between. In this fashion, they served as diplomats, as well as traders.
The business of trading took all morning. By midday, the sun had burned all the mist off the river; Ellaf had inquired about the bands upriver.
The answer. "We have not heard from them since the ice broke on the river. All winter, they trekked on the ice, wearing snowshoes on sunny days to visit, as their camps are usually only a half day's short walk to the north. The game in their area was proving elusive, so they moved their camp further north. Now, with the ice floes just breaking up, the river has been too treacherous for dugouts and canoes. We have nothing like your mighty vessel," they said, pointing at our longship, small though it was.
Ellaf figured this next band was a good day's or so hard pull against a strong current, unless the wind gods favored us with a favorable breeze.
The Northern bands were good trading partners because their women were experts on the tanning of moose hide, and the beaver pelts they prepared were superior. They were also good customers for the boar spears; the other bands had no interest. This band had found the boar spear a good weapon for finishing off moose wounded with a poor arrow strike.
