After a eating some delicious stew, my father and I had a wonderful nights sleep after a long day of walking at our family friends’ long house. My father and Domnall, the landowner, were dear friends growing up and even went on one journey together a long time ago. Both of them enjoyed a life of farming better than dedicating their lives to traveling. Our stay there was pleasant however there has always been tension between Domnall’s son, Olaf and me. Before I met Leif, Olaf had wanted to marry me but neither Domnall nor my father believed he would be a strong enough husband for me. As the youngest child, Olaf is not only extremely immature and a poor worker, he is an extremely small man. His nickname in the region is, “Olaf the little hunchback.” So, seeing Olaf was somewhat awkward. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to leave early in the morning for Kaupang.
The journey from Domnall’s farm to Kaupang is fairly treacherous but very doable if traveled patiently. The distance between my father’s farm and Kaupang is small, but there is a large rock outcropping we have to pass before coming into the town. Kaupang itself is situated on the western side of a tidal inlet by Viksfjord and is fairly small. I have heard of other markets that are much larger than Kaupang but I just cannot imagine it. Kaupang, to me, seems like a busy town already!
After hiking for a few hours on the extremely rocky trail, my father and I finally arrived to Kaupang. Instantly, I looked for Leif’s ship and saw nothing. But still, I kept my hopes high. I made a sacrifice to Freya last night and woke up to a beautiful sunrise. I thought to myself, “this could be the day his ship sails into harbor.”
Although my father visits Kaupang frequently, it is always exciting for him as well because there always seems to be new people and new things that have just arrived. My father once thought he would move the family from the farm into Kaupang during the summer season. However, it just would have been too difficult to find more helpers to take care of the farm while he was away. The farm is his main priority anyway. Trading is just an additional thing he does to help Leif while he is away. Although it only takes 10 minutes to walk from edge to edge of Kaupang, there are so many people there! This summer, there were almost 1,000 people living here! However, right now, seeing that the winter is approaching quickly, there are only about 600 people in Kaupang.
While my father began to stake out a location to set up for the day, all the glass beads, pottery jugs, and coins on merchants’ tables distracted me. With a small payment of silver that I should have purchased new sewing needles with, I decided to treat myself to a new brooch with an amethyst stone within its design. I thought to myself, if this was the day Leif’s ship was going to arrive, I would be ready and look particularly nice for him.
1 comment:
Looks great
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