Eric prepares Tyranno Fin Stew

Eric prepares Tyranno Fin Stew 5012 OTT Eric Olafson, Neo Viking Chapter 8 Tyranno Fin Stew

While he prepares the Olafson Burg favorite, Elkhart begins his education of Eric.

He prodded his chin up with the palm of his right hand while resting his elbow on the armrest. " Hmm. I see!" He then waved with the left hand, "Why are you standing around?  Didn't you tell me you were totally exhausted after climbing our stairs?" "You are an Elder, and in your presents, I am not allowed to sit without permission!" "You had no trouble calling me Old Man, and you did find some choice descriptions when I closed the door on you.  So why the honor treatment now?" "I think you are one of the Faceless Seven and thus equal if not higher in rank to our traditions than the Members of the Circle ." "No Eric I am not one of the Faceless Seven. The faceless seven are stone effigies, huge statues inside the Hall to resemble Odin, Thor , Balder , Heimdall , Ydun , Freya and Loki.

Our forefathers who build this place right after coming to Muspelheim, doing so with old tools, great endurance, and incredible hardship. They could not decide what faces to give the statues and decided to leave their faces blank. Therefore, if the Gods, of far away Milgard, come to this world  they could make them to their exact likeness."

He then pointed to another stone chair. "Sit in that chair, it is close to the fire. Which will thaw your bones, but before you do, be a good lad and pull off my boots. That's one simple task I am getting almost too old to do myself.  Plus, I am way too comfortable to get up and use the boot puller." After I had done that and sat in the chair, I found it made me feel equally small as my feet did not reach the ground. I was certain the chairs were designed to accommodate giants like my father and Uncle Hogun.

"Do you know why this mountain is called Muspelheim ?" "I believe I do, wasn't Muspelheim the realm of the fire Demon sons of Muspel and Sutr, the giant with the flaming sword?" "That is correct Eric, and when the first settlers from Earth arrived here this was still a somewhat active Volcano, and in our cold world, it was a source of warmth and massive geothermal heat. Underneath the ice around this mountain, if you would dig you would perhaps find the remnants of the first settlement. This Mountain, however, cooled and became a dormant volcano.   A volcanologist and other specialists from Earth predicted it will never be active again and so the focus of settling Nifleheim shifted to the big island where Halstaad Fjord and the new Thingstead is now located."

He paused and leaned over the side. "How good are you at preparing a meal? I am quite hungry you know, and I would like to talk to you a little longer before retiring." "You want a man to cook for you?  I don't mind but would that not be against the traditions?" "No Eric, cooking and preparing food is not the sole responsibility of women. Your Uncle Hogun is a well-known chef in his famous Inn, and during Festivities, he allows no one near his grills.  I guess one of the main tasks I have before me is to educate you about the real meaning of traditions and why never meant to be laws, but became laws never the less." He sighed but with a smile. "I am not an Elder, at least not one of the Circle, none of the men here are members. Even though all of them should be by age and family heritage."

"But they speak of you with respect, everyone does!" "How much did you know about us and this place before your grandfather decided to send you here?  How often has your father or any of your peers spoken about this place?" I had to think a moment and said. "Midril and Greifen spoke about this place, but in such a way I never thought it actually exists but was just some lore. I never really heard anyone else talk about it before Grandfather mentioned it."

"Because we are fading away, Eric. This place might be occupied for one, two or maybe three more generations but then it will be empty and forgotten, perhaps in a distant future it becomes a museum or a shrine again, but the real meaning of the place will be forgotten." He didn't sound angry or sad, but I could feel and sense the melancholy behind his words. "I did read up on this place after Grandfather made his recommendation at school.  It is considered an honor to accepted here and being so, almost guarantees a place on the Circle.  Doesn't that and our religion ensure the survival of this place?"

"Eric, our religion was never worshipful as some of the others. A religion requires some of the following, but not all.   Missionaries, churches, or temples. There are no dedicated priest, caste, monks, Orders, cloisters, and no seminary schools. We call ourselves the Keepers of Hasvik, as the old Settlement was once called that has sunken into oblivion under the ice.  We never believed  in priests or our faith as a religion."

He waved his hand. "Don't let me stop you preparing something to eat while I try to educate you, young Olafson! I am still hungry and thanks to your slow ascent I had to watch, our kitchens are closed." "Where are the kitchens and where is the food?" I asked. "You were able to make a fire out there. This isn't a huge place.

Look around see what you can find and surprise me." I got up and looked around. I found that one shelf did hold necessary cooking utensils and earthware jars with herbs and salt, grease, oil vinegar, and pickled fish. He leaned forward so he could look around the high back. "Don't stop there; open the pantry, that's the door behind that large old Snapper fur next to you!" The pantry was cold, maybe as cold as the outside and there hung smoked sausages, long strips or Tyranno meat, on hooks gutted and skinned Nubhir and a whole Snapper leg.

In the Olafson household it was always deemed that cooking was for Lowmen and Low women, nothing a warrior would do. However since I was never considered to reach that lofty position, my father had me more often than not help in the kitchen. I did more than mob floors and scour pots. Midril had taught me many of her skills, and if this was a Challenge by the Old Keeper, I was confident I could earn some points. I decided on our Burgs favorite: Tyranno Stew with plenty of Snapper bacon, seaweed flower buds, and bread.

I found the needed ingredients easily enough, and the big stone table was more than a suitable work surface. He was still looking past the armrest, seemed satisfied with my choice and watched me for a moment cutting the meat." I like onions in it!" He said, " Midril does put Onions in hers, does she not?" "You know Midril?" I was stunned. "I know her stew, Eric. Now get cooking so we can eat. I am starving, and you should be too!" As he mentioned, I realized I had not eaten since the last school lunch, and that seemed like a lifetime ago. I was hungrier than I was tired." Yes, I am!"

He disappeared behind the back of the chair, and a few moments later I heard him. "Our gods don't require much worship. Odin doesn't really care, Thor is content if a man lives as a man should and remembers them. The Elders and clan leaders should and thankfully still do, praise the gods by feasts and acts of valor. So it might come to a surprise to you, but you are not here to receive religious instructions. Yes, I love to talk about the gods, but they are my gods and my faith, and it is you who must find them by deciding you want to do that or not. Everything else is religion, Eric and that is man-made. Religion has nothing to do with faith. Surprisingly that holds true to the one religion that has replaced ours on Planet Earth, it was their teacher called Jesus who wanted men to believe and have faith and not turn the whole thing in some sort of enforced cultural ritual. All that was pretty much the cause of Ericson to gather his followers and accept the Earth government offer to settle a new world."

A cast iron pan of enormous weight and significant dimension was now hot enough for the bacon. The strips were soon sizzling, and the fat was making bubbles around the wooden spoon, the right temperature for the onions and diced weed heads. The smell that was wafting through the room was mouthwatering, and I realized how much I enjoyed what I was doing. I almost could hear Midril and her instructions. Again he utterly surprised me as he was right behind me looking over my shoulder. I almost ran into him after I had swung the kettle over the fire to bring the water to a boil to get salt and oil. For an old man, he moved quickly and silently. "Don't let me stop you, Eric. You are doing fine so far, just a tad slow perhaps."

Wordlessly I took flatbread I had put in a covered pan close to the fire to warm it, sliced it up and placed a spoon full of fried bacon and onion in it and handed it to him." Midril often does that when I found the stew took too long. It's good!" He smiled and took it. I now put the fish cubes into the pan to roast them. He was done with it faster than Greifen and Greifen was known to be a good eater! "You were correct this was good!" He walked back to his seat. "What I will teach you, however, are a few things a future warrior, father slayer or Spaceship captain might find handy to know. Including how to walk making much less noise moving around. You sound like a herd of Nubhirs on the run for the water!"

I emptied the pan with the glazed onions, the bacon and the browned fish cubes into kettle added more vegetables and herbs and closed the lid. "It will now take a little time till it is done." "Tomorrow I will take you inside the mountain and show you where we grow these onions. There is also the only garden on Niflheim, as far as I know. But for now tell me what you are going to do after you killed your father, assuming you succeed?" I shrugged, lifted the lid to stir the stew and check if I should mix the noodles made from the starchy marrow of the stems of certain seaweed that could be found mostly in the southern ocean."I am not sure, but I might simply end it all." "I know a little about you, Eric and the sad thing is I believe you might actually do so, but that would disappoint your grandfather?" "Maybe but he only very recently came into my life, and I had no chance really to think about it, on the one hand, I really want to leave and simply leave this planet. I would be free out there, he could not reach me, but I might not be good enough, and they don't accept me at the academy and what happens to my vow to revenge my mother? I have failed her before. I did not protect her! I should have done something, but I did nothing.  I cried like a girl and tried to hide like a coward!" Hastily I turned and wiped my eyes. I would not cry! "What could you have done? You were five, and I know your fathers' strength and size!" I stirred the stew and said."There is always something one can do. I did nothing! I should have tried something!" I realized I was almost shouting. I clenched my fists and tried to find the strength to calm down and push the images I saw before my inner eyes in the background.

"That stew is it ready yet? It is getting late! I am quite old you know I might not be alive by the time you are done with it!" I shook my head trying to clear my mind. "I just have put the noodles in. It will be about ten more minutes." "I hold you to it!"

From the shelf, I took two bowls and spoons. They were made of lightweight metal and seemed not to fit with the other ancient things. As if the old man sensed my thoughts he said, "You picked the oldest antiques in the whole place, do you know these are titanium alloy bowls came to this world aboard the Stockholm Ark." "The Stockholm Ark?"

"I wonder what do they teach you in that Union school? That was the name of one of the three ships that carried the Settlers from Earth to this world. The Stockholm, the Oslo, and the Copenhagen. It happens that Stockholm was the first one to land. " "The actual settler ships?" I gasped. "Should they not be in some museum?"

"How many Museums do we have on Niflheim?" "I don't know. I am not allowed to go to the Town." "There is not a single museum to be found, Eric. For a world that claims to be deeply rooted in traditions, these Neo Vikings of ours have precious little interest in their heritage. You did not even know the names of the ships that came to this world. It would wager none of your generations does. In those days they made things that went aboard these settler ships to last, and these are perfectly good bowls. No be a good lad and fill one up for me. I think that stew is ready." "There is Heritage Class in the afternoon, but I am not allowed to go there. Maybe they teach about it there."

I swung the pot from the fire, scooped a generous helping into one of the bowls and carried it to him with some bread and then helped myself. I was sure Midril's stew was much better, she let it simmer for hours and certainly had a better hand in seasoning, but at the moment it was the most heavenly food I could imagine. He croaked." I hope for your sake you made enough for a second helping!" Dutiful I filled him another one."There is plenty for tomorrow too, I made more than we could eat." "Good lad!"

The thin old guy actually emptied a third bowl and then burped unashamed. "You did your Midril proud." He turned in his seat peeked past the backrest. "What in Loki's name are you doing?" "I am cleaning up, Mr. Keeper." "Leave that alone. There in the back is an alcove in the wall, padded with furs. Go and sleep! I will wake you in the morning for all your chores!"

I found the alcove and lay down, and I was sure I slept even before my head hit the stuffed skin. I found myself lying on coppery Nubhir furs, lined with bronze colored satin. Mother had the book of legends in her lap and wore that maroon velvet dress with the golden seams and her hair shone like spun gold. I knew I was dreaming and almost at the point of waking up and I didn't want to wake-up. I tried to hold on to the dream by saying something to her, and with those thoughts, the vision disappeared, and I found myself awake in that alcove of the old Keeper's house.

The fire had gone out, and it was almost freezing. The place had been tidied up, with everything back in place. The kettle clean and the kitchen utensils back in the shelf. The whole area looked the same and yet completely different as if no one had lived here for ages. The Old man as nowhere to be found, I checked the door into the pantry, but he wasn't there. All the food that had been there was gone as well. On the stone seat where I had seen him last was my fur vest.