After the sacrifice ceremony, Ragnar led the largest crew in history to the sea
There are currently two routes from northern Europe to Britain:
The northern route starts from the west coast of Norway, replenishes fresh water supplies in the Shetland and Orkney islands along the way, and then arrives in northern Britain.
The southern route is more risky, requiring a direct crossing of the North Sea from southern Norway, following the North Atlantic current, and finally arriving in eastern Britain.
The fleet
is large in scale, with twenty slow-moving baggage ships, so Ragnar chose the safer northern route. He led the fleet slowly along the Norwegian coast, then took a short rest in Bergen.
Three thousand five hundred marauders harassed the local area for two days, causing great irritation to the Lord of Bergen. Due to the comparison of forces between the two sides, he did not dare to neglect them at all, and enthusiastically entertained these uninvited guests until they sailed west.
"Odin, please call up a storm and send all these lowly creatures into the sea to feed the fish!"
...
After leaving Bergen, the fleet officially began this unpredictable journey. Vig's longship was loaded with forty warriors, and Ivar was the captain.
As Ragnar's eldest son, Ivar followed his father to sea at the age of fourteen. In addition to the usual work with sundials and positioning the North Star, he also mastered the rare skill of determining location with a sunstone.
Meeting Vig's curious eyes, Ivar briefly demonstrated, "If it is a cloudy day with dim light, the sun is covered by heavy clouds and its position cannot be determined directly. At this time, point one end of the sunstone at the clouds and it will split into two beams of light. Adjust the angle until there are two beams of light... Then that direction is the direction of the sun."
After trying for a while, Vig quickly mastered the skills, but still felt that skills like sundials and sunstones were too primitive, far inferior to the technology of the Age of Discovery.
"Alas, this is a complete gamble with life."
At night, the crew took turns rowing. When Vig was woken up by his comrades, he found a gray fog hanging around. He looked up and tried to find the North Star, but saw only the gray night sky.
"What should I do?" " he asked Ivar, who took out his horn to communicate with the other ships. The low sound continued to spread towards the fog, and there was no answer from start to finish.
They were separated from the fleet.
The next day, endless dark clouds hung overhead, making it difficult to breathe. Ivar used the sunstone to determine the direction at regular intervals, and constantly adjusted the course of the longship. After sailing for three days, he still did not see any trace of the Shetland Islands.
"Release the ravens."
According to tradition, each Viking longship carried 2 to 4 ravens. Once released, these scavengers usually fly to land to find food. If a released raven flies in a certain direction and does not return, this proves that it has found land, and the longship can sail in that direction. If the raven circles in the air several times and then returns, it means there is no land in sight.
At Ivar's command, the crew opened the cage and the dark-haired raven soared into the sky, then returned to the ship in front of everyone's disappointed eyes.
Realizing that the situation was bad, one of the green-faced crew members lost control of his mind: "This is the fog released by Jormungandr, it will eat us..."
"This man is crazy, tie him up." Ivar knocked the man down with one blow. The most taboo thing about sailing is that sailors talk nonsense. Letting this panic spread would at least affect morale, and at worst, cause a mutiny.
The next two days were still cloudy, the wind and waves gradually increased, and the sea water pushed the ship left and right. Someone suggested holding a sacrificial ceremony and choosing a loser to be thrown into the sea, which resulted in Ivar beating him up.
"Remember, this ship can only be decided by the captain. If anyone disagrees, just come and fight me!"
Looking at the many evasive eyes, Ivar felt uneasy. Violence could only have a short-term deterrent effect. Without land, the crew would one day mutiny. Who would want to stand by his side then?
Bjorn, Vig, Nils...
Five names flashed through his mind, just five.
It was time for the eighth day.
The sky was still gloomy, but the wind and waves had become much weaker. Ivar considered this a favor from the gods and urged the crew to row desperately. He stood at the stern of the boat and steered, making a few encouraging remarks from time to time.
At midday, the gray clouds revealed a little dim light. Ivar opened the cage and released the last raven into the waiting eyes of the crew.
After a few noisy cries, the black bird circled the longboat several times and suddenly flew off to the southwest without looking back.
"After her!" shouted Ivar, and everyone strained with all their might. Five hours later, Nelson, who had the best eyesight, suddenly shouted, "Land! It's a rock!"
On the gray coast in the distance, steep rock walls pierced the clouds like giants' teeth. Although they did not know the exact location, they had finally found a piece of land.
...
The longboat ran out onto a pebbly beach, and the creaking sound of the boat's bottom rubbing against the gravel frightened a flock of seagulls. Leaving ten men to watch the boat, Ivar led the rest inland to find out the situation.
They soon found a few thatched farmhouses on the hillside, with smoke coming out of the chimney. When Ivar kicked the door open, the people in the house were cooking soup around a fire. When they saw this group of marauders, they immediately grabbed their axes and prepared to fight.
Ivar: "Are you Vikings?"
"Yes." The man in the house answered with a cold face.
"Put away your weapons." After a few seconds of silence, Ivar decided to let these guys go and revealed his identity.
Hearing that this man was the famous Boneless, the 13 or 14 year old boy couldn't help but shout: "Are you Ivar? Can you take me with you?"
The next moment, the male host covered his son's mouth and replied with a pale face: "Take what you want, don't do this."
"Don't be nervous, I'm not one of those berserkers who are full of murder." Ivar showed a smile that he thought was friendly, took out two silver coins and threw them, asking the interlocutor if he had seen a large fleet.
"Yes, three days ago a large fleet was heading south." The male host poured the interlocutor a bowl of hot soup, making it clear that this was the land of the Picts, the soil there was uneven and barren, only slightly better than in northern Europe.
The Picts, a Scottish region in later generations?
The concept of "Scotland" did not appear in Vig's memory at that time. As the Picts in the east slowly merged with the Gaels in the west, a new nation was gradually formed over a long period of time - the Scots.
Similarly
, "England" does not exist today. It had to wait until the Wessex monarch Alfred the Great (849-899 AD) defeated the Vikings. After that, his descendants successively conquered the territories of the "Seven Kingdoms" and finally united them into the Kingdom of England.