Chapter 14 - The Arrival of the Norsemen / 第十四章 - 北欧人的到来

Charlemagne查理曼/ˈʃɑːrləmeɪn/, the king国王/kɪŋ/ of the Franks法兰克人/fræŋks/, ruled an empire帝国/ˈempaɪər/ that stretched all through Europe欧洲/ˈjʊərəp/. His people人民/ˈpiːpəl/ called him the "Roman Emperor," because they said, "Charlemagne's kingdom王国/ˈkɪŋdəm/ is like the old Roman Empire, rebuilt. We can live in peace和平/piːs/ and prosperity繁荣/prɒˈsperɪti/, just like the Romans of old!"

But do you remember what happened to the old Roman Empire? Barbarians野蛮人/bɑːˈbeəriənz/ attacked it. And soon the empire of the Franks had its own "barbarians" to fight off. Fierce凶猛的/fɪəs/ warriors战士/ˈwɒriərz/ arrived by ship船/ʃɪp/ from the north. They attacked cities城市/ˈsɪtiz/ along the coast海岸/kəʊst/—and even sailed down the Rhine and the Seine rivers河流/ˈrɪvərz/ into the middle of Frankish land. These invading入侵的/ɪnˈveɪdɪŋ/ warriors were called North-men or Norsemen北欧人/ˈnɔːsmən/.

Look on your map地图/mæp/, up above the kingdom of the Franks, and you'll see the North Sea, a cold寒冷的/kəʊld/, grey sea often covered with clouds云/klaʊdz/ of mist. A peninsula半岛/pəˈnɪnsjələ/ reaches down into the North Sea. (Remember: A peninsula is a piece of land surrounded by water水/ˈwɔːtər/ on three sides.) This peninsula is called Scandinavia斯堪的纳维亚/ˌskændɪˈneɪviə/. The Norsemen came from the kingdoms of Norway挪威/ˈnɔːweɪ/, Denmark丹麦/ˈdenmɑːk/, and Sweden瑞典/ˈswiːdən/, in Scandinavia.

Most Norsemen didn't fight for a living生计/ˈlɪvɪŋ/. They were farmers农民/ˈfɑːmərz/ who could no longer find good好的/ɡʊd/ land to farm耕种/fɑːm/ in Scandinavia. So they built ships船只/ʃɪps/ and set out to find new homes家园/həʊmz/. In the language语言/ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ/ of the Norsemen, a man who went adventuring冒险/ədˈventʃərɪŋ/ by sea was said to have gone "i viking." So sometimes these Norsemen were also called Vikings维京人/ˈvaɪkɪŋz/.

The Viking ships were long长的/lɒŋ/ and narrow窄的/ˈnærəʊ/, with fearsome dragons'龙的/ˈdræɡənz/ heads on their fronts to frighten吓唬/ˈfraɪtən/ enemies敌人/ˈenəmiz/. The ships were built with unusual, flat平的/flæt/ bottoms. Boat builders in other countries made boats with round圆的/raʊnd/ bottoms that jutted down beneath the water. With a round-bottomed boat, you could only sail in deep深的/diːp/ water. Otherwise, the bottom of your boat would scrape against the bottom of the sea. But the flat-bottomed Viking boats floated right on the water's surface表面/ˈsɜːfɪs/. They could sail right into shallow浅的/ˈʃæləʊ/ water—and right up onto the sand of a beach海滩/biːtʃ/!

Imagine that you've come down to the banks of the Rhine River with your water-buckets. It's a cool凉爽的/kuːl/, foggy有雾的/ˈfɒɡi/ morning早晨/ˈmɔːnɪŋ/. Your farm农场/fɑːm/ is right up the road, and you have cows牛/kaʊz/ waiting to be milked and grain谷物/ɡreɪn/ waiting to be hoed. But first you need to haul water up from the river. The Rhine is shallow here, so you wade out knee-deep and bend down to scoop water into your buckets.

Little waves splash gently around you as you pull your buckets through the calm, clear surface. But another sound声音/saʊnd/ is mingling with the splash of the waves. Could it be the muffled sound of oars桨/ɔːz/? You strain your eyes to see into the mist. Long, dark shapes are moving indistinctly in the fog. Suddenly a carved dragon's head springs out of the mist. It is the front of a Viking longship长船/ˈlɒŋʃɪp/! The ship is propelled forward, right onto the sand of the beach. You spring aside as Viking warriors pour over its edges, waving battle-axes战斧/ˈbætəl æksɪz/ and double-edged swords剑/sɔːdz/. Three more longships loom into view through the mist. You've been invaded by Vikings!

While Charlemagne was king, the Vikings only invaded the kingdom of the Franks occasionally偶尔/əˈkeɪʒənəli/. Charlemagne wasn't afraid害怕/əˈfreɪd/ of the Vikings. He called them "worthless scamps." And his army军队/ˈɑːmi/ was so well-organized that the Vikings couldn't conquer it.

But after Charlemagne died死了/daɪd/, his empire was divided between his three grandsons孙子/ˈɡrændsʌnz/. Now the Franks no longer had a strong, united团结的/juˈnaɪtɪd/ army. And the Vikings were ready to invade. They sailed into France法国/frɑːns/ again and again with their flat-bottomed boats. They burned cities and stole treasure财宝/ˈtreʒər/. They raided the western part of France so often that the king of the western Franks finally gave them a piece of it for their very own. Now the Vikings had a new homeland. The Franks called it Northmen's Land. Soon it became known as Normandy诺曼底/ˈnɔːməndi/.

Do you remember what happened to the barbarians who settled down in Rome? They became more and more like Romans. The same thing happened to the Vikings. After they settled down in Normandy, they learned to speak and dress like the French. Many of them converted转换/kənˈvɜːtɪd/ to Christianity基督教/ˌkrɪstiˈænəti/. And they no longer went "i viking." The Vikings had become Normans诺曼人/ˈnɔːmənz/.

The Vikings sailed down the coast of Europe all the way to Spain西班牙/speɪn/. They sailed into the Mediterranean地中海/ˌmedɪtəˈreɪniən/ Sea. And they sailed west, into the Atlantic大西洋/ətˈlæntɪk/ Ocean.

One Viking family家庭/ˈfæməli/ sailed west all the way over to Iceland冰岛/ˈaɪslənd/, a small island岛屿/ˈaɪlənd/ in the cold North Atlantic, and settled there. They had to leave Scandinavia because the father of the family, Thorvald, had killed a man in a fight. And soon it became clear that Thorvald's son Eric had inherited his father's temper脾气/ˈtempər/. Eric grew to be a fierce, broad-shouldered man with bright red红色的/red/ hair头发/heər/. His friends朋友/frendz/ called him Eric the Red.

One day Eric the Red got into a quarrel with his neighbors邻居/ˈneɪbərz/. The argument grew louder and louder and soon turned into a fight. By the time it ended, two of Eric's neighbors were dead死的/ded/! The other Vikings in Iceland ordered Eric the Red to leave Iceland. So Eric sailed west again, looking for a new home家/həʊm/. Soon he came to the shores of a brand new land. It was an icy, rocky, bleak place, so far north that during the summer夏天/ˈsʌmər/ the sun never set. And during the winter冬天/ˈwɪntər/, night lasted all day long for three whole months! Who would want to live in such a place?

Eric the Red didn't know. So he named his new land Greenland格陵兰/ˈɡriːnlənd/. He hoped that this cheerful name would encourage鼓励/ɪnˈkɜːrɪdʒ/ other Vikings from Iceland to come with him. And the name worked; he convinced twenty-five boats full of settlers定居者/ˈsetlərz/ to come with him to Greenland.

But on the long, dangerous危险的/ˈdeɪndʒərəs/ sea voyage, eleven of the boats were destroyed. And when the cold, wet, unhappy Vikings climbed out onto the shores of Greenland, they didn't find any green. They found a huge island covered with thick, rough ice. Only a small, narrow strip along the coast had any grass or trees树/triːz/ on it.

For years, the unhappy colonists殖民者/ˈkɒlənɪsts/ lived in Greenland. They raised their skinny cows and hunted whales鲸鱼/weɪlz/ and seals海豹/siːlz/. But they couldn't plant fields of grain or grass, because of the ice that covered their island. So they learned to collect sealskins, polar bear furs, horns from reindeer, and ivory walrus tusks, and to trade these to visitors in exchange for grain. But even with this extra grain, the colony did not have enough to eat. They had so little food食物/fuːd/ that the children孩子/ˈtʃɪldrən/ did not grow to be very tall高的/tɔːl/. Archaeologists who have dug up the graves of these Viking settlers on Greenland have found that the skeletons of grown women are only four feet tall—and most of the men are shorter than five feet!

In this unhappy place, Eric the Red had a son儿子/sʌn/. This son also had red hair. He became known as Leif莱夫/leɪf/ Ericsson: Leif, Eric's son. And he was determined to find a better place to live.

When he was a teenager青少年/ˈtiːneɪdʒər/, Leif used to sit around the campfires at night and listen to the tales told by the older men. One of these men, an explorer探险家/ɪkˈsplɔːrər/ named Bjarni, told a story故事/ˈstɔːri/ about his adventures in the North Atlantic. "I was sailing home from a fishing voyage," Bjarni explained, "when I saw a shore off in the distance. It had hills covered with trees. I don't know what land that shore belonged to, and I didn't have time to go explore it. And I've never had a chance to find it again." As Leif listened, he thought to himself, "When I grow old enough, I will go and find that mysterious new land."

So when Leif became a man, he bought Bjarni's boat from him and decided to go and find this new country. He begged his father Eric to come with him, but Eric refused. "I am now too old to go exploring," he protested. "I don't want to sail in an open boat across the icy ocean. It will hurt my old bones!" But Leif insisted. "You will bring good luck运气/lʌk/ to us!" he said. Finally Eric agreed to go. On the morning of departure, Eric and Leif set off on horseback for the harbor. But on the way, Eric's horse马/hɔːs/ stumbled and the old man fell off. Leif leaped down to help his father. But Eric had broken his foot. "Go without me," Eric said. "I am no longer meant to discover new lands."

So Leif set off with thirty-five followers. They sailed across the icy northern oceans in open boats. For days, they could not eat any hot food or sleep under shelter. They were soaked by waves and rain. But they kept on sailing until they found Bjarni's mysterious land—a land of hills, with plenty of grass and trees, and with clear streams running down into the ocean.

Leif and his men landed and began to explore. But soon they found that one of their men was missing! Leif set out to find the missing man, and discovered him in the middle of a patch of wild grapes葡萄/ɡreɪps/, eating as fast as he could. "Now," Leif said to his men, "we will gather these grapes, and take them back with us to our friends at home."

So with their ships full of grapes, Leif and his men set off for Greenland. Leif called the new land he had discovered Vineland葡萄地/ˈvaɪnlənd/, the Land of the Grapes. Other Greenlanders followed Leif's path back to this new land of grapes and grass. But when they arrived, they were met by native tribes which were ready to defend Vineland from these Viking invaders. The Greenlanders called these native tribes Skraelings斯克雷林人/ˈskriːlɪŋz/, which probably meant "screechers," because of the terrifying battle yells the natives used when they attacked! The Greenlanders built huts and tried to defend themselves against the Skraelings, but eventually they were forced to give up their settlements in Vineland and return to Greenland.

So where was this new land—this Vineland? Leif had discovered North America北美洲/nɔːrθ əˈmerɪkə/! The Skraelings were Native Americans, defending their tribal lands. Today, archaeologists have found remains of Viking houses, jewelry, and wood carvings in Newfoundland纽芬兰/ˈnjuːfəndlənd/, on the Canadian coast. Some historians think that the Vikings also explored down into what is now the United States美国/juˈnaɪtɪd steɪts/. Archaeologists have found a rock in Maine缅因州/meɪn/ that has carvings in its surface which look like Viking letters, or runes符文/ruːnz/. And some people claim that similar carvings have been found as far inland as Minnesota明尼苏达州/ˌmɪnɪˈsoʊtə/!

Historians continue to argue about whether these runes were really made by Vikings. But even if they didn't go all the way to Minnesota, the Vikings were in North America a thousand years ago—hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus哥伦布/krɪˈstɒfər kəˈlʌmbəs/ journeyed across the ocean.

The Vikings believed that there were many gods and goddesses, and that they lived in a land above the sky called Asgard阿斯加德/ˈæsɡɑːrd/. Asgard was connected with earth by a rainbow bridge, but only the gods could walk on the rainbow bridge. The Vikings believed that Odin奥丁/ˈoʊdɪn/, the king of the gods, lived in a great feasting hall called Valhalla瓦尔哈拉/vælˈhælə/. After great battles on earth, Odin would send warrior-maidens called Valkyries女武神/ˈvælkɪriz/ down the rainbow bridge to gather up the souls of dead warriors and bring them to Valhalla.

Thor托尔/θɔːr/, the thunder-god, was one of the most warlike of all the Viking gods—and so he was one of their favorites! He was a short-tempered god, always getting himself into trouble for no reason, just like thunderstorms雷暴/ˈθʌndərstɔːrmz/ that blow suddenly up out of the middle of a hot afternoon. This is one of the stories that the Vikings told about Thor.

One fine afternoon, the gods were feasting宴会/ˈfiːstɪŋ/ in Asgard. They ate, drank, and told stories. But as night came on, the mead蜂蜜酒/miːd/ ran out. There was nothing left to drink, and no kettle大锅/ˈketəl/ left to brew more mead in. The gods began to sulk. "No mead!" they complained. "We might as well go home and go to bed." But Thor rose up from his seat. "I'll go and get mead for the feast!" he said. "The giant巨人/ˈdʒaɪənt/ Skymer has a kettle a mile wide, full of the most delectable, golden, honey-flavored mead I've ever tasted. I'm off to take his kettle and his mead!"

So Thor leaped into his goat山羊/ɡəʊt/-drawn chariot战车/ˈtʃæriət/ and drove it down the rainbow bridge to earth. He thundered along in his chariot until the sun had set and dark covered the land. Off to the side of the road, he saw the lights of a humble peasant house. He yawned. "I'm tired of traveling," he said to himself. "I'll stop for the night."

So he drew his chariot up to the low stone house, tied up his goats, and swaggered in. As soon as the wife of the house saw him, she dropped her clay bowl of bran on the floor. "One of the gods is in my house!" she wailed. "And I have nothing to feed him but bran and water!" "Never mind," Thor said. "We'll eat my goats." So he walked out to the chariot, killed his goats, skinned them, and gave them to the woman to roast. He put the goatskins down beside the table. "Eat as much as you like," he said to the woman and to her husband and her children. "But don't break the bones, and put them all back on top of the skins when you're finished. Tomorrow I will need them."

So the poor family ate and ate and ate until they were full. Thor collected the bones in the skins, tied them up, and then lay down next to the fire to sleep. Soon his snores were shaking the house. The oldest son of the family, Thialfi, was kept awake by the snoring. By midnight he was hungry again. Remembering the delicious goat meat, he licked his lips. Finally he crept down to the goatskins, slid a thigh-bone out from underneath Thor's arm, cracked it open, and sucked out the marrow.

In the morning Thor woke up, stretched, and bounded to his feet. He swung his giant hammer锤子/ˈhæmər/ overtop of the goatskins. Immediately the goats stood before him, whole and alive. "Let's go!" Thor shouted. He drove the goats towards the door. But then he saw that one was limping. In anger, he shouted, "Who broke my goat's leg?" The woman and her husband and children fell down on the ground in terror. But the son, Thialfi, stood up, even though his knees shook with fright. "I did, O Thor," he said bravely. "Then you will come with me as my servant仆人/ˈsɜːrvənt/," Thor ordered, "and together we will journey to the land of the giants to steal the mead kettle that belongs to Skymer."

So together the two set off. Soon Thor yawned again. "Time for a nap," he said. "Look around for a place where I can rest undisturbed." He halted the chariot, and Thialfi scurried off. Soon he returned. "There is a cave just around the next curve, O Thor," he reported. "It has five dry, warm caverns. We can sleep there." Thor followed the boy around the bend in the road. Sure enough, a cave with five smaller rooms in it was just visible through the trees. He lay down in the nearest cavern, pulled his cloak over his head, and drifted off to sleep. But a terrible roaring and thundering woke him up.

"What is that noise?" he demanded. "I am the only god who can bring thunder!" He scrambled out of the cave and followed the sound of the roaring. On the other side of the forest, he saw an enormous man stretched out asleep, snoring. His fingers were longer than Thialfi was tall, and even lying down, his stomach was higher than Thor's head. Enraged, Thor swung his mighty hammer and struck the snorer between the eyes. Such an enormous blow would have driven a tree right into the ground like a matchstick! But the giant snorted and reached up to flick at his forehead. "Dratted flies," he muttered. His eyes opened, and he saw Thor with the hammer in his hand, ready to strike. The giant sat up and chuckled, and his laugh shook the ground.

"Who is this little man with the tiny hammer?" he asked. "Can this be the mighty Thor, come to see me all the way from Asgard?" "Who are you?" Thor demanded. "Why, I am Skymer, the giant who lives in the castle just up there." The giant yawned and glanced around him. "Oh," he said, "I see you've found my glove. I wondered where I dropped it!" And with that, he picked up the cave where Thor had been sleeping, and drew it onto his hand. When Thor realized that the five "caverns" had actually been the fingers of the giant's glove, he felt foolish. But he was determined to steal Skymer's kettle. "Well," he demanded, "aren't you even going to ask me in for a feast? Don't you know how to welcome the gods?"

"A feast?" Skymer said. "Certainly. Come on, little man." He leapt to his feet and strode across the ground, each step covering a mile. Thor whipped his goats into a gallop just to keep up with him! Thialfi was left far behind. Soon they arrived at gates that reached so far up into the sky that Thor could not see the tops. Skymer pushed them open and showed Thor into his feasting hall. Thor clambered up onto a bench and stretched his neck to peer up onto the table. There, he could see Skymer's kettle, and next to it an enormous horn filled with mead.

"I'd offer you some mead," Skymer sighed, "but my horn is too large for you to drink from." "Nonsense!" Thor snapped. "Give it here!" He seized the horn and tipped it to his lips. He drank and drank and drank until he thought he would burst, but the mead in the horn remained at the same level. Finally he dropped the horn, gasping for breath. "Dear me," Skymer said. "Is the horn too full for you? What else can I offer you? Perhaps you'd be better off playing with my cat." He lifted his finger, and an enormous grey cat bounded into the hall. It patted at Thor with one enormous paw. Thor braced himself, but the cat licked him with its rough tongue and knocked him flat onto the floor.

Enraged, Thor leapt up, put his shoulders under the cat's belly, and did his best to heave it from the ground. But the cat arched its back and purred. All Thor could do was to lift one paw from the ground. "You're even weaker than I thought," Skymer said gloomily. "I'll find you a playmate worthy of your strength." He opened a door at the end of the hall, and in shuffled an old, bent woman, so ancient that she could barely move, and so shriveled that she seemed more like a raisin than a human being. "Here," Skymer said. "Wrestle with my old nanny." Thor hurled himself at the old woman. But she raised one skinny arm, threw him to the ground, and pinned him there. He struggled and huffed and strained, but she put one old foot on his chest and kept him on the ground.

Skymer leaned down. "Well, Thor," he said. "Do you think you can steal my kettle now?" Thor, humiliated, could only shake his head. "Then let me tell you what you have done," Skymer said. "When you swung your hammer at my head, you struck the earth so hard that you opened a valley three miles wide and a mile deep. When you drank from my horn, you were drinking from the sea—and you drank so much that you lowered the surface of the ocean. I thought you would drink the sea dry! When you lifted my cat, you were lifting the Midgard Serpent—the world serpent that lies around the edge of the earth with its tail in its mouth. You should not have been able to budge it, but you lifted it almost to the sky. But despite your might, you could not beat the old woman, for she is Old Age. And no one can conquer Old Age. It brings even the strongest men to the earth, weak as children."

Thor roared out with fury over the giant's trickery. He jumped to his feet and swung his hammer over his head, ready to fight. But in a moment the giant, the old woman, the horn of mead, the cat, and the castle itself all shimmered into the air. And Thor stood alone in the middle of a lonely forest, swinging his hammer and shouting at emptiness.