We have been here too long.

Hi There.

So, the last I wrote was before I joined Leif and his crew to a wintering location called Repton. Well, I have been here for awhile now and I am tired, ready to go home, and wishing I didn't come. My spirits are extremely low. There has been tension between some of the crews here and due to differing loyalties to different chieftains, some of the Vikings have parted ways. There is even two distinct places where we bury our lost ones due to the separation within the army. It's hard living at the wintersetl. Things are tight quarters and I have been revealed to the true lifestyle of the men. There are even women here whom the men took from their families and forced to become their slaves. I am ready to leave.

Word has spread that other vikings have been traveling to different places and founding longphorts. Apparently there has even been some places where we are more welcomed, rather more tolerated, than here. We are hated here. People look at us, especially the women, as beasts. I am ready to move to somewhere where it feels more like home.

Leif has mentioned that his cheiftain, Ivar, is interested in following the most recent fleet's journey last year, 859, that followed the coastline southwards and then ventured easterly to a place named Camargue in Frankia. Ivar thinks there is much more wealth to be found along the way. Leif thinks otherwise. He thinks the journey would be way too dangerous and we should either return home or head to a place with a name that means, "the black pool." After our recent defeat by King Alfred's fleet on the ocean, Leif has become concerned for our safety as a crew. We have already lost so many and not too long ago, an entire fleet that left from River Loire was defeated by a another ocean fleet from the East. The risk is just too high. I don't know what we are going to do but I am beginning to feel as though we, the Norse, are needing to either settle in or go home. I wonder what home is like. I wonder how Snotra's baby is. I wonder if I will ever become a mother.