The Alfheim elite looked genuinely alarmed now.
One chieftain leaned toward his companion. "What just happened?"
The other man's face was grim. "He turned their voices into one, and pulled everyone into his side." His friend grimly responded.
"How?"
The man sighed. "Hope." He paused then repeated the same word again. "Hope."
He added. "And he did it without claiming he deserves to rule them."
The first chieftain shook his head slowly. "That makes him more dangerous, not less."
Bjorn turned toward the lawspeaker and waited. The ancient rituals must be followed. The law required it.
The lawspeaker stood in silence for a long moment, visibly collecting himself. He was shocked by what he had witnessed, but he was also the guardian of tradition. His role transcended personal feelings or political ambitions.
He was not a power-seeker like the Jarl. But his words carried immense weight because custom and law were the bedrock of their entire society. He understood that law was flexible—it bent and adapted to circumstance and power. But if Bjorn truly was touched by the gods, opposing him too rigidly would be not just politically dangerous but spiritually perilous.
He looked down at the unconscious Jarl. The man had led Alfheim through difficult times, but his power base had evaporated. His huskarls were dead Those who remained were in Bjorn's service now, at least for the immediate future.
The lawspeaker raised his voice to address the full assembly.
"The gods send signs to guide the worthy and warn the foolish. When they speak clearly, men must heed them. None present can deny what we have witnessed with our own eyes."
He paused, letting his words carry.
"Yet law is the foundation upon which our people stand. Without law, even a man blessed by the gods has no ground beneath his feet. We judge a man not by signs alone, but by his deeds and the oaths he swears."
Another pause as he gathered his thoughts.
"The men of Vestfold demand wergild for their dead. The men of Alfheim say they cannot pay. Both speak truth. Therefore, I see only one path to justice. Let those who owe the debt join with Bjorn Ragnarsson, who swears before gods and men to sail west and win silver until the obligation is fulfilled. Let those who doubt his words doubt with their own weapons at his side, so they may witness his deeds directly."
The lawspeaker lifted a heavy arm-ring from where it rested on a sacred stone. The ring was ancient, passed down through generations, a physical symbol of oaths and divine witness.
He turned to face Bjorn directly.
"Bjorn Ragnarsson, approach the sacred ring. An oath must be spoken. Without an oath, there can be no peace. Without peace, there is only blood feud and outlawry."
Bjorn walked forward steadily. Every eye in the assembly followed his movement. Men swore their most sacred oaths upon this ring, calling the gods as witnesses to their words. It was not merely a symbol—it was a binding contract sealed in the presence of the divine.
The lawspeaker's voice took on a formal cadence, the words worn smooth by centuries of repetition.
"Lay your hand upon the ring, Bjorn Ragnarsson. Let your tongue bind your fate before men and gods alike."
Bjorn placed his right hand firmly on the cold metal. His voice was clear, loud enough for everyone present to hear.
"I, Bjorn Ragnarsson, Earl of Kattegat, swear this oath upon the sacred ring and before the eyes of the gods. I will sail west with those who join me. I will lead them in battle and in raid. I will win silver and spoils until the wergild owed to the people of Vestfold is paid in full. Let Thor strike me down with his hammer, let Odin take my other eye, let Hel claim my soul if I break this oath."
The lawspeaker nodded gravely. "The oath is spoken and witnessed. By the power of this oath, sworn before gods and men, Bjorn Ragnarsson is bound to his word. He have shown himself to be invincible in battle, and wise after victory. So he is hereby declared protector of Alfheim and guarantor of peace between Vestfold and Alfheim."
The weight of those words settled over the assembly.
Not everyone was pleased. When the unconscious Jarl finally woke, he would find his position drastically weakened. He had been the next in line to become King, naturally assuming he would become the central figure in Alfheim's future. Instead, he had publicly failed the sword test and collapsed before the entire Thing. His authority had bled away while he lay unconscious.
He would fear Bjorn's growing influence. He would resent being marginalized in his own kingdom. But what could he do? He had no huskarls. No warriors. No resources. His power had been an illusion, and the illusion was now broken.
The other ambitious men of Alfheim faced similar calculations. They saw a young man who could command loyalty without coercion, who could rally people with words instead of threats, who carried a weapon that made his divine favor undeniable. He was becoming more powerful with each passing day.
Vikings were a deeply superstitious people. But that did not mean they were obedient people. They believe in the gods. They acknowledge divine signs. But they would still plot and scheme and look for ways to preserve their own interests.
The Thing was concluded. The oaths were sworn. The law had been followed. But the future always remained uncertain.
-x-X-x-
Bjorn was satisfied with how the Thing had concluded. Being named protector and guarantor of peace gave him legitimate authority to mobilize forces across multiple kingdoms. But he knew trust was fragile. Words spoken at an assembly meant nothing without action to back them up.
He spent that night in Alfheim, meeting with the local elite who had publicly supported him. Some were genuine. Others were simply reading the wind and choosing the winning side. A few were undoubtedly gathering information to use against him later. Bjorn kept the conversations general, revealing no specific plans or weaknesses they could exploit.
Before departing, he made his first move to bind Vestfold even closer. He took the four ships that had belonged to Tunsberg—the ones Alfheim had captured during the war—and returned them.
The gesture stirred murmurs of discontent among some, yet they admitted before they had only fought because the king commanded it.
With no king to claim them, Bjorn used his position and clearly stated that it was done to secure peace, and his word was law now.
At dawn, Bjorn sailed back to Tunsberg with hostages—the children of Alfheim huskarls who would serve under him.
The huskarls got their freedom and the chance to earn silver in the west.
Their children will live comfortably in Tunsberg and Kattegat as guests, not prisoners. Everyone understood the unspoken reality: the children's safety depended on their fathers' loyalty.
He also sent messengers throughout Vestfold and Vingulmark to spread word of what had transpired at the Thing.
In Tunsberg, Bjorn met privately with the hird leader—Father to Haelir. She had been treating his wounds and is now in better condition.
They spoke alone for over an hour. When they emerged, the hird leader's expression was unreadable, but he clasped Bjorn's arm firmly before they parted.
Bjorn returned to Kattegat and immediately called for another Thing. This one would gather representatives from all of Vestfold and Vingulmark.
He already controlled two-thirds of Vingulmark through his positions as protector of both Vestfold and Alfheim, because they were both vassals under the previous kings; Gandalf and Halfdan.
The remaining third needed to be brought into the fold peacefully.
The solution was straightforward. He offered the independent chieftains of that final third the same deal: places on his ships for raids to the west, protection from external threats, and complete autonomy over their own lands. Any new laws would be proposed and debated at the Thing, not imposed from above.
They saw no reason to refuse.
The alternative was isolation while their neighbors grew wealthy from western silver. They were also weak. If Bjorn tomorrow decided to force them into submission, they would have no reason but to do. So they saw this gesture of his as a good thing.
By mid-May, less than a month after the Thing in Alfheim, Bjorn was crowned King of Vestfold and King of Vingulmark in a ceremony attended by representatives from across both kingdoms. He had become one of the most powerful rulers in Norway.
In practice, if not in title, he also controlled Alfheim.
The huskarls under his command now numbered around four hundred. Kattegat provided a hundred. Tunsberg contributed close to another hundred. Kaupang supplied fifty. Borre added thirty. Alfheim had fewer than a hundred scattered between Kungälv and the Jarl's personal holdings.
Four hundred huskarls was a significant force.
But many were young and untested. The veterans who had survived decades of raiding and warfare had died in the recent conflict.
These new men would need years to reach that level of skill. Raiding would accelerate their training, and the silver they earned would help bind them to Bjorn's service.
Payment was less of a burden than it might have been. Many huskarls from Vestfold already owned farms that sustained them.
The war had also left farms without owners.
Bjorn distributed these farms to his huskarls. Each man received enough land to feed five people.
Trade was already increasing. Merchants paid tolls to use the ports. Taxes flowed in from market transactions. The silver accumulated steadily.
Meanwhile, Bjorn received reports from across Scandinavia.
Fewer chieftains were preparing to sail west this year compared to last. The risks had become clear. Ships were expensive. Losing one meant losing the silver invested in its construction and the men aboard. Recovery from such losses took years.
Still, enough chieftains were preparing voyages. The potential rewards outweighed the dangers for those willing to gamble. The journey to the west took at least a week from most Norwegian ports, assuming storms did not destroy the ships first.
Bjorn prepared his own expedition. This time he took only three ships, keeping the rest in port to defend his territories. He sailed to another monastery based on information from Athelstan.
The first one they reached had already been emptied; Bjorn later knew that it was King Eirik who raided it.
They searched for the next target. According to Athelstan, only four major monasteries existed in that region. The last monastery fell just as easily as the first had.
The monks had no weapons, no training, no defenses. It would take decades for the Northumbrians to organize resources and build fortifications across the entire kingdom.
Bjorn returned home with over two hundred pounds of treasure. After taking his third as leader, he divided the rest among his men. This crew was different from previous raids—warriors from Kattegat, Borre, and Alfheim working together.
Tensions were high at first. Old grievances and suspicions did not disappear overnight. But after a few days at sea and the shared experience of the raid, they began to function as a unit. They realized they would have to trust the men beside them when battle came.
The entire raid took seven days from departure to return. They also brought back slaves, as was standard practice.
Bjorn did not dwell on the morality of it. Slavery was simply how their world functioned.
Back in Vestfold, Bjorn continued redistributing the unclaimed lands. He rewarded his most loyal followers, binding them closer through gifts of property. Rollo received substantial holdings and was assigned to spend time with the Borre huskarls, particularly Eirik Bone-crusher.
Bjorn appointed Rollo as hird leader of Borre. The position suited Rollo's skills—he was a warrior, not an administrator. With no Jarl in Vestfold anymore, the hird leader became the primary military authority responsible for defending the population.
The Jarl of Kaupang had disappeared. No one had seen him since the war. Whether he was dead or simply fled was unknown. No one seemed particularly interested in finding out.
Bjorn organized a second raid, this time to Scotland. Again he took three ships, refusing to leave his territories vulnerable. After ten days, he returned with another two hundred pounds of treasure. He did not raid Wessex. There was a big monastery he wanted to raid, but it was well defended.
Wealth was flowing into all three kingdoms now. People had enough stored grain to survive winter comfortably.
The experimental farms Bjorn had established produced thirty percent more harvest than traditional methods. The difference was undeniable.
He called an immediate Thing for all three kingdoms and made sure farmers from every region attended.
They saw the results with their own eyes—fuller granaries, healthier livestock, fewer families facing starvation. The Thing voted to implement the new farming techniques across all territories starting next year.
With the raiding season concluded, Bjorn turned his attention to coastal defenses. He ordered the construction of wooden barriers across key waterways—massive chains that could be raised to block enemy ships from entering harbors. Watchtowers were built along the coastline to provide early warning of approaching fleets.
He wanted to forge iron chains instead of wooden ones, but the cost was staggering. A single iron chain strong enough to stop longships would require as much silver as a longship in value of silver, maybe even more. (A ship is valued at 20 to thirty silver) The expense was prohibitive for now.
Winter arrived, and Bjorn returned to his papermaking experiments. One afternoon while playing with Ubbe, an idea struck him. He tried a different approach to his last hurdle.
It worked. The result was crude, barely recognizable as paper, but it was functional. He could write on it.
Two years had now passed since Bjorn became Earl of Kattegat. In that time, he had systematically taught his huskarls basic literacy. They could write their names and read simple sentences. It was a start.
He spent the winter months producing sheets of paper and writing out the alphabet clearly on each one. When spring came, he planned to post these sheets in public spaces throughout Kattegat.
He would assign someone to stand by the posted alphabets and help anyone who wanted to learn. If someone dedicated an hour or two each day, they could master reading and writing the alphabet within six months. Maybe even less.
Of course, not everyone would bother. Many would see no practical use for literacy. But some would learn, and that was enough.
Bjorn also reorganized his shipbuilding operation. Instead of having different workers scattered across various tasks, he centralized production in a single shipyard, Kattegat's.
He could now produce two ships per year instead of one.
But he quickly encountered a new problem: iron shortage.
Scandinavia had no major iron mines. Most iron came from bogs and swamps—deposits of bog iron that formed naturally over centuries. There were some iron-bearing rocks in the hills, but not enough to supply the construction of a large fleet. Sometimes iron had to be purchased from foreign merchants at considerable expense.
The process of extracting usable iron was labor-intensive. Workers collected the bog iron and heated it in small clay furnaces. The fire had to reach extreme temperatures to separate the metal from the ore.
This required enormous amounts of charcoal, which meant cutting and burning massive quantities of wood. The process was slow, and each batch produced only a small amount of usable iron.
Bjorn knew he could improve the efficiency. Better furnace design would generate higher temperatures and extract more iron from the same amount of ore. Water-powered bellows would keep the fires burning hot without exhausting the workers.
Careful preparation of the ore before smelting would reduce waste.
Organized division of labor—some men mining ore, others producing charcoal, others operating the furnaces—would streamline production.
These improvements could double or even triple iron output compared to traditional methods.
But even with perfect efficiency, the supply was fundamentally limited.
Forests could only produce so much charcoal before they needed time to regrow. Bog iron deposits were finite in each region. Skilled workers could not be trained overnight.
The reality was clear: Bjorn could build ships faster than other Viking leaders, but he could not build an endless fleet. Eventually, he would need to either trade for iron from distant lands or keep the production at this level.
Before winter fully set in, Bjorn received news from merchants about other raids to the west.
King Eirik of Hordaland had attacked Northumbria but returned with relatively little silver.
His haul included some treasure and slaves, but nothing comparable to Bjorn's success.
Eirik had struck a monastery, but not one of the wealthy ones.
Without someone like Athelstan to provide information about which targets held the most treasure, raiders were essentially just guessing.
They would eventually figure out the language barrier and find translators, but that would take time.
The raiding season had been mixed for most. Some returned with decent plunder. Others barely broke even. Fortunately, no major storms had destroyed entire fleets this year.
But when merchants spread word that Bjorn had conducted two separate raids and returned with approximately four hundred pounds of silver—not counting gold, slaves, and other valuables—people took notice, King Eirik among them.
The books Bjorn had also brought back meant nothing to most Vikings, but Bjorn spent winter evenings studying them anyway. Even if they only contained some history, knowledge was still valuable.
The year 796 AD began with significant changes across Scandinavia. New rulers emerged. Alliances shifted. Many chieftains who had hesitated to raid the west began preparing expeditions. The risk of losing ships and men was real, but the risk of falling behind while others grew wealthy was worse. Bjorn's success had demonstrated what was possible.
But Bjorn was planning something more ambitious than two or three ships. The largest raiding party sent west so far had been four ships carrying eighty warriors. Bjorn was preparing to sail with eight ships and two hundred men.
The raids started with only twenty men.
Then sixty to seventy men.
Now it's Two hundred men.
After the spring planting season concluded in May, he would launch the largest Viking raid yet attempted. Kattegat alone now had seven ships ready. But of course he won't take all of them.
The treasure he brought back would be substantial enough that other Viking leaders across Scandinavia would rush to imitate him.
The age of Viking expansion was truly beginning, and Bjorn was leading the way.