Erik Gustav Ragnarrson, Warrior Funeral

Erik Gustav Ragnarrson, Warrior Funeral

The body of my grandfather had been dressed in his traditional Neo Viking clothing, and he was holding an ax. The lower part of the body was covered by the Ragnarsson flag. He did not really look like I remembered him. It was more like looking at something artificial.

The Elders were there sitting in their traditional seats in the roundhouse. Grandfather's chair was decorated with another Ragnarsson flag. One of them stepped forward and handed me Grandfather's sword." He willed this to you, and now it is proper you receive it.  The Circle of Elders has decreed you the right and honor to carry it at all times. The Elder girded it around my waist. I located father leaning back in a seat, high the rear area, his chin cupped in his left hand, observing everything.  He actually held his whip coiled in his right hand, and I felt his eyes on me even when I was not looking at him.

Hogun pointed me at a spot right to the right hand of Grandfather's bier and said." You stand there. Try to remain there as long as possible. In the wee hours, you can take a break. I will also be here." To my surprise, I saw Greifen, and a few of the other Servants and Freemen  of the Ragnarsson clan decked out in their finest and wearing Ragnarsson Black and twenty-two clan chiefs. After I found my spot, the clan chiefs made a line, and the first stepped before me. "The Lindgren clan was a stout ally of the Ragnarsson clan and when seals and flags of this noble name are laid in the Caves, let you be assured the Lindgren's will not forget and our oaths shall be renewed with you." The other clan chiefs said similar vows and each time they turned and looked up where father sat. Greifen who stood to my left said, without really moving his lips. "Every time your father wants to ease things on you and try to somehow make peace with you, his wife spews her poison and makes him do the opposite. He was proud as any father when you slew the Tyrannos, but when he wanted to celebrate she called him in her chambers, and as he came out he was mad at you. The day you gave him the Steiner clan I heard him say to Harkun how proud he was of your conduct. After he left the bed chamber everything has changed again." I answered in the same fashion, "There will be no peace between him and me. He has slain my mother, and if he is under the spell of a woman to the contrary of all his swagger, it makes no difference to me." I noticed Harkun sliding behind Father into the benches and whispering in his ear. I wondered what that gray skinned, hook-nosed bane of servants had to say to that brooding, dark figure that was my father. Uncle Hogun said it was okay to go to the bathroom and drink water, but anything else was deemed improper. During the night they had placed torches on stands around the Bier and the long shadows of those who stood honor guard danced with every flicker of the flames like long black fingers over the silent body of my grandfather. I was surprised to see three Non-Humanoids, a Klack Insect, a brown shaggy Garbini that looked like an octopus in a tight-fitting fur coat, using four of his tentacles to walk and the being I had seen talking to my grandfather during our Virtual visit. It almost had the appearance of a Fangsnapper, not in size of course but the pelted face certainly had a striking resemblance to these amphibious predators of our world.

Sunday began as they carried him in stages the entire eight kilometers from the Thingstead to the Sea harbor, at every stage his bearers would change, and another eight would take over. To my hidden surprise, I saw the Ancient among the crowds. I recognized him despite his disguise as an arguer. The First Keeper and a delegation of the Halls of Hasvik were here on official business invoking the gods and walking right behind the bier. From the battleship that was dominating the landscape behind us, emerged at least two or three hundred dignitaries as well as several off-world media reporters. They did keep a respectful distance though.

The last stage, I was among the last group who would carry my Grandfather to a waiting wooden dragon boat, manufactured to look like the Viking boats of Earth so many millennia ago. Uncle Hogun all alone took the bier with Grandfather on his shoulder and placed him on board the ship. He was too big and tall to share the burden with others, so it was decreed he would be allowed to be the last. Hogun's strength once more became apparent when he put that heavy bier with grandfather on his shoulder and then like someone else would do with an empty plank set it inside the ship. The wind did carry a few of the words spoken by the media men to my ears as they assured their viewers that he was neither robot nor in any other way enhanced.

The Elders and I received torches from the Keepers, and I was to toss the first onto the boat, then each of the Elders would do the same and finally some of grandfathers off-world friends. The sail billowed, and the boat moved slowly out past the harbor rocks. Suddenly a bright light appeared in the sky, expanded for a brief moment brighter than the sun and then deafening thunder rolled over us all. Hogun said." The Battleship is firing salute it will happen two times more! And just as he said it; the second and shortly after the third boom. I saw the frightened and impressed faces of the Vikings present. This battleship was so much more than the virtual Starblazer of Yngve's Virtus.

Someone behind me said as if reading my thoughts." It would take this ship less than five minutes to completely destroy Niflheim and vaporize every living thing. Humans have come a long way indeed." I turned a little and saw the Ancient standing behind me, holding his walking staff. He managed to hit me with it, without anyone noticing. "Pay attention to your grandfather's funeral and not to some old man you don't know." The boat was now burning brightly, and everyone watched silently until it had burned down to the waterline and the rest disappeared below the waves.