The Long Way

[Franconicus]

BTW, why is he suddenly so warlike? Does he want to prove himself or has the journey made him so embittered he trusts no one anymore?

Of course he changed. The constant war and maroding did change him. Additionally he is no longer a boy, but a man and warrior. However, he is still the naive barbarian he used to be and he still craves for love and peace.

[Franconicus]

Chapter 13 – the Mountains

Next morning I had to tell Velleda about our meeting. I told her about the generosity and the amicability of the Romans. She shook her head and told me: “Gunnar, I do not know. I do not trust them. They are different than we are and I suspect that they are not honest.”
I said: “I cannot believe what you are saying. Everything what they tell us is according to Thors promise. Didn’t we all believe in this presage? Now that it is going to become reality you are pessimistic?”
“I do not know, maybe you are right. I just have a strange feeling about them and I can rely on my feelings.”
“You are so negative. You are just like your mother!”
She was offended and turned away. Maybe the comment about her mother was not wise, but she always found fault with everything. If men would always follow the concern of their wifes, no big deeds would ever happen.

Glum organized a Thing, where we discussed the offer of Carbo. Several chiefs, especially those who had joined our volk during the last year, were against the proposal. Especially Ganglerix, a young Celtic leader, was opposed to the plan:
“Listen volk! You all heard what Glum told us. Glum is our leader, but that does not mean that he can make any arrangement without our permission. We all are free men and we all have the right to decide our own affairs. He says that the Romans offer us land and that they offer us friendship. Let me ask you why they are so generous. I can tell you the answer; it is because they are scared. Look at them; they are small and they are weak! They have only a couple of soldiers. Now look at us! We are strong, we are experienced warriors and we are numerous. We can defeat them; beating them is not a big thing. It is no surprise to me that they say that they want to be our friends. Additionally Glum tell us that their tents are full of precious cloths, sumptuous wine and valuable works of art made of gold, silver and gems. If they have all these treasures here, far away from their home, can you imagine what they have at Rome? Wealth beyond your grasp. Therefore, volk of the Cimbrii, Ambrones, Teutons and all other tribes and clans of the great alliance, listen to my proposal. Take everything Carbo has; chase his soldiers away. Then let us march to Rome. We can beat the dwarfs everywhere. We can take Rome and all its treasures and divide their realm. Glum tells you that they offer us rank ground. Why should we take some acres from their mercy, when we can get all with our swords? Are we suppliants, or are we warriors?”

Many men showed that they agreed with Ganglerix words. Glum was forced to reply:

“Ganglerix, you do not know us well enough, you joined our volk lately. Let me tell you the reason for our march. We left home because of hunger and disease. Thor, the strong God of Thunder, gave us the order and he gave us the goal. He promised us a new, better home in the land of the dwarfs. We, the courage ones, started the march despite of all danger and risk. We had to cross the countries of many tribes and nations and most of them where hostile. We had to fight many battles and now finally we reached our goal. We met the Romans and they agreed to become our friends. Now listen to me: we will follow the order of Thor. We will go into the country of the dwarfs and live together with them in peace. No one of our warriors will do them harm as long as I am the leader. We are no robbers. We are tired of fighting and we yearn for a peaceful life.”

“You are dreamers! All this Thor stuff and the tales about dwarfs are nothing but cock-and-bull stories. I know these Romans very well. Yes, there is rank ground at Italy; I know that better than you do. My people, my family, owned it. They tried to live in peace with the Romans, but the Romans banished them, killed them. They burned their towns, raped their wives and killed their children. Do not tell me anything about Roman friendship. There will no friendship until they are all dead!

You all hear that Glum is tired of fighting. He shall be the leader of a bunch of hags, not of brave warriors.”

“Ganglerix, although I yearn for peace I can show you that I am not tired of fighting!” He unsheathed. When Ganglerix saw Odin’s sword he stepped back and disappeared in the crowd.

On the second day of the Thing, the volk voted and accepted Glum's proposal. We decamped and started to march again. At the parting Carbo gave us the guide. We slowly moved westwards until finally big mountains came into sight. We had passed some mountains on our way; however, there had not been anything like this. When we first saw them, they were still many days away. When we got closer, they grew and grew and we saw more details. They looked like a big barrier and yet they seemed to be the door to another world. We all realized that those mountains were different to anything we had seen before, very different to the low land we came from, the land between the oceans, the land of swamps and forests. This mountain world was a magic place and no one had a doubt that we approached the magic realm of the dwarf king Alberich.

We crossed the foreland, a land of huge mountains, but tiny compared to the ones appearing behind them. Before we entered the mountains, our guide ordered us to camp. He said that we had to get more provisions, because in the mountains food was hard to get. We separated into several groups, went hunting, and tried to gather food in many different ways. After two weeks, we met again and collected our provisions. The guide was not satisfied and told us to look for more food. We tried, although we had already killed most of the animals in the wood and the tribes in this area were not able to give us anything more. In the meantime, the guide received a messenger. He said that he came from Carbo, whishing us a good trip across the Alps. We thought that this was a good sign, and indeed, the next day the guide told us we could decamp. We sacrificed to our gods, especially to Odin and Thor, and asked for their help and support while we were crossing the mountains.

Marching in the mountains was very hard. The ground was full of stones and we had to pass cliffy inclinations. Often we marched through deep and narrow valleys and the convoy, already several hundred thousand people, stretched over many miles. Magni and his berserkers kept aloof from the rest.

I went side by side with Velleda. I had to carry Idun. She could walk without help, but in the mountains, she refused to. She also refused to stay in the cart, so I had to carry her all the time. In return for this service, she talked without a break. Finally, she fell asleep and I could lay her into the cart. Now I had some time to look at the outstanding surrounding. I walked side by side with Glum and Velleda. Looking at the majestic mountains Glum said: “Gunnar, to see these mountains is worth all the trouble we passed. Look at that one on the left. Its top is made of solid rock and although it is late, spring snow covers it. I have never seen anything like that. Can you feel the magic, can you feel the presence of Thor. I know that he is somewhere there, watching us. I assume he is pleased with us.”

Velleda said: “You may be right, Glum. However, there is something else out there watching us. I can feel it. There is another force and it is not a good one.”

We marched through the mountains for several days. We climbed up and down; we were getting higher and higher. Although we were closer to the sun, the temperature was falling. We were not used to all this climbing and became short-winded.

We did not meet many voyagers. The inhabitants had left the area before we arrived; we saw some travelers, but most of them made a big bow to bypass us. However, some of them came to talk with us. They did not know how to speak our language, so they talked to our guide and to Vindelicus. After the last concourse, our guide decided to increase our speed. He told us to turn into the next side valley. We were very happy because the valley was declining and we all were tired of climbing uphill. That night we spend in a canyon. We camped in several groups; I had a tent for Velleda and the papoose. In the middle of the night, Velleda roused me. She was wet of sweating and told me: “Gunnar, I had an awful dream! Nott sent me terrible signs. Something bad is going to happen.”
I tried to hush her. However, she said: “I am not foolish, Gunnar. This was not an ordinary dream. It was so real. I cannot describe it, but I know that something bad is going to happen. I know it for sure, as sure as I know that I love you and Idun.”
Hell, what was I expected to reply? I said: “I will look out. I will take care of you and our child.”
She shook her head: “I know, you will. However, there is nothing you can do. Maybe we should return, but even then …”
She lie down and fell asleep again, a very anxious sleep. Needless to say that I could not fall asleep for the rest of the night.
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That's it for a while. I need a break!

[matteus the inbred]

If men would always follow the concern of their wifes, no big deeds would ever happen

what's that saying? 'behind every great man there is a good woman'

Well done Franconicus, your keyboard must be smoking hot by now!
Left it on a nicely portentous moment too, a cliffhanger...

[Kommodus]

Thanks for continuing this, Franc! Looks like the great tragedy we've all been waiting for is about to occur.

You've earned a break. Just don't let it take too long.

[Franconicus]

I have to dampen your expectations. The way is much longer as you may expect. I will be on the road for the next two weeks. If you cannot wait, take a look at your j´history books. There you find the rest of the history.

[Ludens]

I have to dampen your expectations. The way is much longer as you may expect. I will be on the road for the next two weeks. If you cannot wait, take a look at your j´history books. There you find the rest of the history.

Pity. Well, good luck on your own long way and have a good journey.

[Kommodus]

I have to dampen your expectations. The way is much longer as you may expect. I will be on the road for the next two weeks. If you cannot wait, take a look at your j´history books. There you find the rest of the history.

I actually did that fairly recently, curious as to who the Cimbrii really were. It seems they were quite important to the history of the Roman empire. However, it looked as if you were deviating from history somewhat (for literary reasons, I assumed). Thus, while I expected the story to turn out roughly the same as history, I suspected it would differ substantially in the process. Perhaps you were planning to bring an end to the Cimbrii before their time?

Anyway, have fun on the road!

[Franconicus]

Hi Kommodus,

some time ago I was looking for a good story for an interactive and I thought that the Cimbrii could be a good one. So I started to gather information. However, I had to realize that there was not much and that an interactive would soon become pure speculation. So I started to write this story.

Many things are mysterious about the Cimbrii. It seems to be known where they came from. However, it is not so obvious who they were. They seemed to be somehow Germanians, although the Germanians did not have their identity then. And there were also some Celtic elements (for example the Ambrones). As they crossed Europe the Celtic element seemed to become stronger.

They seemed to be poor peasants at first. Not clear what made them wandering, propably hunger. Then they changed. The poor peasants became warriors that managed to beat the Romans several times. And they became maroders.

In my story I wanted to give an explanation why they started to wander. And I wanted to describe how the wandering changed their character, from peasants to warriors to marroders.

Another mystery is, that they did not try to invade Italy, although they had beaten the Romans several times and although they must have known about the wealth of this country. I wanted to find a (fictive) explanation for that too. When they finally decided to march south they were defeated and killed (men, women and children).

I agree that they were very important. First of all they made the Romans reform their army. Second, and maybe most important, they disturbed the Celtic societies north of the Alpes and destroyed the equilibrium there. I think that promoted the raise of the Romans as well as the raise of the Germanians. And third, they were the first wandering Germanian tribes.

You say that I am deviating from history. Where exactly?