well of Mimir.”
Blake saw that the Eye of Odin would bring what she truly sought, knowledge and power that few could stand against. The monk’s broken body fell through the gap in the earth as the seeress stoodastride it, head thrown back, shaking as she received the gift of prophecy from the other side of the veil.
***
Blake’s visions tunneled and he gasped, his eyes flickering open to find Morgan shaking him.
“Blake, are you OK?” she asked, her eyes concerned and questioning.
“Yes,” he whispered. “Just give me a minute.”
It took a moment to reorientate himself after reading, like putting on a pair of glasses for the first time and finding the world sharpen in focus to detail never seen before. Every time he read, Blake wondered if this time he would find himself lost somewhere, his mind trapped in another realm, another time, even though his body remained in the modern world. He always set an alarm when he was on his own.
His pulse calmed as he breathed in and out, consciously feeling his physical body on the floor of this room, where he had read so many times.
“There was a Viking raid on a monastery, on an island, a long time ago.” He told Morgan of what he had seen, describing the ritual murder of the monk and the words of the seeress in her trance.
“The Eye of Odin,” Morgan said, shaking her head. “I’ve read of this and the story gets stranger indeed. Odin always sought more knowledge, and the legend goes that he visited the Well of Mimir, the Rememberer, in the roots of the world tree, Yggdrasil. The waters revealed the wisdom of the cosmos, and when Odin asked for a drink, Mimir asked for his eye in return. Odin plucked one eye out – which one is unclear – and cast it into the well. In return, Odin drank from the waters. His eye still lies there.”
Blake rubbed his temples, the pressure easing him back into his physicality.
“The feeling I got from the seeress was that this Eye is an actual object that can channel prophetic visions from the gods.”
Morgan nodded. “The words she spoke have been passed down in the Poetic Edda Völuspá, known as the Prophecy of the Seeress. If this Valkyrie wants the Eye too, then the staff can perhaps give her the same visions as the woman you saw.”
Blake grimaced. “It seems a sacrifice is needed to activate the staff somehow before the visions come.” He described the injuries to the dead monk’s body.
“It sounds like the Blood Eagle,” Morgan said. “A horrific method of torture and execution where the victim eventually died of blood loss and shock, or through suffocation when the lungs were pulled out through the back. The wings of the splayed ribs represent the eagle, the corpse-gulper, the war-bringer and the bird of Odin.”
Blake paled again, knowing that the images would emerge in his nightmares. More bloody bodies to haunt his nights.
“Could you tell where they were?” Morgan asked.
Blake shook his head. “I looked east to the sea as the Vikings ran into the priory. It was certainly an island near the coast, because I could see the land.”
“It sounds like Lindisfarne,” Morgan said, eyes narrowing as she tried to recall the details. “There were other monastery attacks, but the geographic features sound like the Holy Island. In 793 AD it was the site of the first Viking raid in Britain, a ferocious, surprise attack that left monks dead and much of the treasure from the monastery stolen. They repeated these raids at monasteries on other islands along the Scottish coast, because the sites were so rich.”
“There was something else,” Blake said, frowning at the memory. “One monk scurried away carrying a heavy book, flanked by several of the others, so it must have been important. Maybe they wrote about the raid in that?”
“The Lindisfarne Gospels are in the British Library,” Morgan said. “It’s an illuminated manuscript written in the century prior to the
Blake saw that the Eye of Odin would bring what she truly sought, knowledge and power that few could stand against. The monk’s broken body fell through the gap in the earth as the seeress stoodastride it, head thrown back, shaking as she received the gift of prophecy from the other side of the veil.
***
Blake’s visions tunneled and he gasped, his eyes flickering open to find Morgan shaking him.
“Blake, are you OK?” she asked, her eyes concerned and questioning.
“Yes,” he whispered. “Just give me a minute.”
It took a moment to reorientate himself after reading, like putting on a pair of glasses for the first time and finding the world sharpen in focus to detail never seen before. Every time he read, Blake wondered if this time he would find himself lost somewhere, his mind trapped in another realm, another time, even though his body remained in the modern world. He always set an alarm when he was on his own.
His pulse calmed as he breathed in and out, consciously feeling his physical body on the floor of this room, where he had read so many times.
“There was a Viking raid on a monastery, on an island, a long time ago.” He told Morgan of what he had seen, describing the ritual murder of the monk and the words of the seeress in her trance.
“The Eye of Odin,” Morgan said, shaking her head. “I’ve read of this and the story gets stranger indeed. Odin always sought more knowledge, and the legend goes that he visited the Well of Mimir, the Rememberer, in the roots of the world tree, Yggdrasil. The waters revealed the wisdom of the cosmos, and when Odin asked for a drink, Mimir asked for his eye in return. Odin plucked one eye out – which one is unclear – and cast it into the well. In return, Odin drank from the waters. His eye still lies there.”
Blake rubbed his temples, the pressure easing him back into his physicality.
“The feeling I got from the seeress was that this Eye is an actual object that can channel prophetic visions from the gods.”
Morgan nodded. “The words she spoke have been passed down in the Poetic Edda Völuspá, known as the Prophecy of the Seeress. If this Valkyrie wants the Eye too, then the staff can perhaps give her the same visions as the woman you saw.”
Blake grimaced. “It seems a sacrifice is needed to activate the staff somehow before the visions come.” He described the injuries to the dead monk’s body.
“It sounds like the Blood Eagle,” Morgan said. “A horrific method of torture and execution where the victim eventually died of blood loss and shock, or through suffocation when the lungs were pulled out through the back. The wings of the splayed ribs represent the eagle, the corpse-gulper, the war-bringer and the bird of Odin.”
Blake paled again, knowing that the images would emerge in his nightmares. More bloody bodies to haunt his nights.
“Could you tell where they were?” Morgan asked.
Blake shook his head. “I looked east to the sea as the Vikings ran into the priory. It was certainly an island near the coast, because I could see the land.”
“It sounds like Lindisfarne,” Morgan said, eyes narrowing as she tried to recall the details. “There were other monastery attacks, but the geographic features sound like the Holy Island. In 793 AD it was the site of the first Viking raid in Britain, a ferocious, surprise attack that left monks dead and much of the treasure from the monastery stolen. They repeated these raids at monasteries on other islands along the Scottish coast, because the sites were so rich.”
“There was something else,” Blake said, frowning at the memory. “One monk scurried away carrying a heavy book, flanked by several of the others, so it must have been important. Maybe they wrote about the raid in that?”
“The Lindisfarne Gospels are in the British Library,” Morgan said. “It’s an illuminated manuscript written in the century prior to the
Similar Books
How to Be a Submissive Wife
Jane Pearl
Winter's End
Clarissa Cartharn
Cuckoo Song
Frances Hardinge
Conference Cupid
Eden Elgabri
Deadlock
Robert Liparulo
Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll
Paul Monette
Canadians
Roy Macgregor
Just Crazy
Andy Griffiths
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
Edmund Morris