The Long Way

[Franconicus]

Chapter 14 – Westwards

We marched north until we left the mountains. Then we turned to the left and marched at the foothills of the Alps. There was no tribe big enough to challenge us. Therefore, our march was undisturbed.

Velleda was slowly recovering. However, the relationship between the two of us had changed. We never talked about Idun, but I saw the look in her eyes and I knew that she blamed me for what had happened. After all, she was probably right.

Sometimes at night when the wind was blowing outside the tent I often heard a voice, the tender voice of a child I knew so well. I could not understand the words, but I could hear them and I knew she was calling me. Then I stood up and strayed through the night. Usually I returned at the break of dawn. Then Velleda looked at me; she never said a word.

I always had had my share in the fate of the volk. Now, I only followed. Nevertheless, I could feel that many things were different, visible thinks as well as invisible. Many of the old comrades were dead now. I missed Magni. Glum had changed. Although he was still our leader, he had lost a big part of his authority. He had lost his spirit, his vision, and sometimes I had the impression that he asked himself constantly what went wrong with the Romans.

We had lost our mission, the reason why we were wandering. We kept on wandering, because we used to, because we had no other option, not because we had a target.

We finally reached a river called Rhine, which came from the Alps. We crossed it and found ourselves in the land of the Allobroges. Our chiefs tried to negotiate and get some land to settle down. However, they were allied with the cursed Romans. Their Roman friends told them to retard the negotiations. One day, while we still thought that we could find an agreement, we found the Allobroges in battle formation. Besides them, there was a huge Roman army under the command of Consul Marcus Junius Silanus.

We hurried to alert and then we assaulted. In the past, we had fought to win a passage, to get food or simply to defend ourselves. This time, with the hate against the Romans, pure lust to kill pushed us into the battle. Neither the Allobroges nor their Roman friends could stand our ferocity. We broke their lines and we slaughtered as many as possible. When we counted the dead enemies, we found alone 30,000 Roman soldiers.

Then we devastated the land of the Allobroges. I mean, we did not only maraud as we had done before. Yes, we marauded, but then we burned their houses, we killed the men, we raped the wives and then we sold them and their children into slavery. Those who were too old or too young to sell, we killed them too. We took all the domestic animals we could take and killed the rest. We burned the grain on the field; we destroyed the bridges and empoisoned wells. When we left, we left a desert.

After we had left the former land of the Allobroges, we camped for winter. Glum sent delegates to the close-by tribes. He sent me to a tribe in the high mountains. The mission was not very important and I assume he chose me to get me out of my lethargy. Ten warriors accompanied me. After a four days journey through the superb scenery of the Alps we finally reached the territory of the Helvetici. The chief of this tribe was very friendly. The Allobroges and their Roman allies had always oppressed them and they were very glad that this threat was gone. Therefore, they treated us more as friends than as guests.

During my visit, I made several walking-tours to explore this extraordinary nature. I loved the loneliness and peacefulness of these tours. I tried to retard our descent as long as I could. When we finally left, Gomix, the young leader of the Helvetici, invited me to come and stay in their village whenever I wanted. We returned to our camp and I reported to Glum. The camp had grown. Several hundred thousand people camped there and the area was full of noise, dirt and quarrels. There was not a lot I could do there and I decided to return to that village in the mountains. Gomix welcomed me. He offered me a place in his own house, but I preferred a small cabin at the edge of the village. I started touring again. From time to time Gomix accompanied me. We climbed the mountains and enjoyed the view. Gomix was the right partner for me; often we climbed side by side without speaking a word for hours.

Snow came early this year and cut off the village of the Helvetici. I spent my life with my new friends and shared their life. It was hard and simple. In many ways, it reminded me to the life home at the sea. It was full of hard work, but also full of silence and peace.

Spring came and I knew that the volk was decamping again. I decided to stay with my friends. Nothing called me back!

I spent four years in the Alps. From time to time traveling traders brought news from the volk. The Cimbri, still not showing any desire to invade Rome, went about their own business, looking for land in Gaul. Again, another Roman army under the command of Longinus met up with them near Tolosa. He had under his command the veterans of Metellus army from Africa. Longinus was initially successful, but was eventually caught in an ambush. Killed in action, his subordinate, Laenas was forced to surrender his position and return to Rome with fewer than 4,000 survivors.

The next year the Romans sent another army under Quintus Servilius Caepio. Although he won a minor engagement, he let the Germanians move off and returned to Rome.

The volk was still wandering, still looking for a place to settle down. However, the Roman Senate was not willing to accept the presence of the wandering tribes along the northern border of Rome. It authorized another army to be raised. This time, a force of over 6 legions was hastily prepared under Mallius Maximus, and he was given imperium over both armies. He marched to join Caepio, but Caepio, feeling that Mallius was inferior in social position, refused to obey or join his command. Bitter in-fighting between the two men, and armies, would prove to be disastrous. In the Cimbri returned and came across the Romans arranged in two separate camps, with two full armies functioning completely independent of one another. At the battle of Aurasio, the Cimbri crushed both Roman armies, killing nearly 80,000 men while sustaining minimal losses of their own.

We received the news of the battle of Aurosia with two months delay. I had almost forgotten the volk. Now all the memories jumped at me. The departure from our homeland, the long march, the battle of Noreia, the Romans, the fighting in the mountains, all my friends and acquaintance, the dead ones and the living ones. I thought of Glum. And Velleda, my wife! Was she still alive? Did she think of me? I became more restless from day to day and one morning Gomix took me aside and said: “Gunnar, my friend. I see the struggling in your mind. I know that you had hard times and that you long for peace of mind. However, you cannot escape your fate. You cannot hide forever.”
I knew he was right, I had known it for a long time, although I had managed to ignore it for a long time. Gomix was right. I could not escape my fate.
The next morning hit the road. My restlessness even grew and I forced my horse to run as fast as possible. It was not hard to find the way. The volk had left a trace of destruction. I followed this trace, came through Gaul, and finally reached the Pyrenees. There I found a part of the volk. Glum was not there, neither was Velleda. I talked to a Celtic chief. Despite the monumental victory of Aurosia, and the opening of the doorway to invade Italy, the Cimbri were still only interested in finding new land. They divided their force, with the old and weak remaining in southern Gaul, but with the bulk moving on towards the Pyrenees and Hispania, trying to find a place were they could live in peace. I hurried and crossed the Pyrenees. There in Spain I finally met the volk again. There was Glum. I was home again.