Toni Sihvonen (order #92780) 62.142.248.1

Toni Sihvonen (order #92780) 6
The Saxons in Peace and War
The Mead-hall
Coel and young Cadda, two thegns from downriver, have
come early to the fortified hall. Their two wheezing huntceorls
carry a huge stag on their shoulders, a gift of venison
for the lord’s table. They announce themselves at the
timber gate, which swings open. Gladness for their gift
fills the mead-hall. They trudge up the muddy ramp
toward it. They announce themselves again at the runecarved
oaken door: proud words, proud welcome.
Inside, the hall-slaves untie the thegns’ wool cloaks - colorful
shoulder-draped blankets, now dark and wet from
the trip. The hunt-ceorls untie their own hide cloaks,
worn skinside out. Coel removes his helmet and Cadda
pulls the twigs from his long brown hair; the ceorls
remove their bell-shaped snoods. All the men unwrap
leather legbands, crusted with snow, from their plain
trousers. They swap their leather shoes for baggy woolen
soccs and accept fresh gray tunics - long, with gold-scalloped
hems at knee level - and hand their weapons to
the hall-ceorl who governs the hall-slaves.
The timber hall is warmed by a fire-pit running down its
length. The pit is surrounded by a long “U”-shaped table.
Around it, many benches are fixed to the floor, each one
carved with runes from the theod that sent it here in submission.
Coel and Cadda take their bench - not at the
head of the table, where the lord’s wife will serve his
gesiths, nor not at the ends, where slaves bring chicken
broth to tired ceorls, but in the middle. They drink spiced
beer and praise the trophies (Pictish spears, elk antlers, an
unusually wide-browed skull) that adorn the walls. The
lord’s daughter, his sister-in-law, and his niece heat up