Chapter 4: Now Begins My Tale of Huginn’s Yule

“I hight the Lady Fan, and my maiden name before my marriage to King Harald Wolfs-Fang, the Old Wolf, was, in the way of my people, the Princess Yuan Fan, for my father, Prince Yuan Cheng, was a Prince of the Royal Dynasty of the Empire of Northern Wei, a General of Armies, a commander of men and a feared warrior, as were my older brothers, and now begins my tale of Huginn’s Yule,” I began, in the manner of my husband’s people, and under my fingers, my erhu played a lament for fallen Northern Wei as I spoke, and the song I played was “Rain in Jiang-Nan,” and alas, none but I knew that.

(An aside: If you’d like to listen to this as you read, search for “雨碎江南 二胡版 Rain in Jiang Nan_Erhu Cover” on Youtube)

Those notes of sadness accompanying my words, uttered now in the barbarian tongue spoken by my husband and his people, and by my children, for they knew not the tongue of my own ancestors beyond a few words, and all listened, for this was a tale I had never told before to the folk, of how I came to this land, though all knew my husband had found me alone in the far lands to the north and east of Miklagard and brought me here, although to most, Miklagard was naught but a tale told on a long winters night, and none of the warriors who had then accompanied my husband now lived, and of all here, only I was alive who had seen far-of Miklagard, which, fabled as it was, was but a town compared to the great cities of my homeland.

“It is a long tale, this tale of Huginn’s Yule, and it begins many long years ago. Two score and five years ago, when, as a girl of but fifteen summers, I was summoned into the presence of the Emperor Daowu, ruler of Northern Wei, together with my Father, the great General and Prince, Yuan Cheng.

I will tell you now a little of my homeland, of Northern Wei, for none here but I know of the far-of country from which I came, and it would take a man three long years on horseback, riding every day from dawn until dusk, to reach the land of my birth, and indeed, I left home as a girl of fifteen, and I was twenty years of age when King Harald brought me here, to his hearth and his folk, and almost every day of those five years was spent on the road, on horseback or, after I wedded Harald, riding the sea-steed beside my husband as we sailed the whale’s way.

Now my homeland, Northern Wei, it is a land that lies far beyond the lands of Gardariki, far beyond the great River Vlaga, of which some here have heard, for it is the river down which my husband, King Harald, had led his dragon-ships, sailing the great inland sea that lies to the east, and raiding the peoples to the south who are wealthy beyond all dreams of avarice.

That river Vlaga, and that inland sea into which it flows, they are a year’s travel and perhaps more from here if you row east, up the rivers, and then down the great river that flows to that sea on which Miklagard is set, and if you sail east along that sea, you will find another great river up which you row for weeks, and then you will portage to the Vlaga, but that is only the first stage in that journey to my homeland, which lies far beyond the Vlaga, far across the great steppe, the grasslands that stretch forever, where distance is measured in months of riding.

Beyond the Vlaga, around which the Murom’s and the Mordvinians dwell, and they are people like as to the Finns, then there are the lands of the Magyars and the Bulgars, and after them, the lands of the Xiongnu, and beyond the Xiongnu, whom some call the Huns, are the Rouran, whom men here know as the Avars, and beyond the Khanate of the Western Avars lie a range of great mountains, clad in snow and ice, reaching to the very sky, and lest any doubt me, I have crossed those mountains myself, and weeks upon weeks of travel that took for my escort and myself, and many died in that crossing, frozen to death or fallen from the paths into the deep gorges.

On that route, there are many enemies, for out there on the great sea of grass, every man is an enemy, so it is doubtful that any may now retrace that journey, and indeed, of all my escort of a thousand warriors and a hundred women sent with me by the Emperor and my father, I was the sole survivor, and that was chance and luck, not skill, for neither was I the most beautiful of the women, nor was I the most skilled with the sword or the bow, and of this you need not now ask, for I will tell you when my tale reaches those parts, so needs you must be patient.

Now beyond those great mountains that reach to the sky lie the great deserts, the Takla-Makan, the Gobi, and others, deserts where there is no water for thirty days at a time, deserts where the sandstorms will eat a man down to the bone in an hour if he is without shelter, deserts where the sun will boil a man’s brains within his skull, and he will drop dead from the heat, and in winter from the cold, and beyond the great deserts are the cities of the Xiyu, the Kingdom of the Tuyuban, the realms of the Zhang-Zhung, and many others.

Only after you have crossed these lands do you reach the distant western borders of the land that was my homeland, the great Empire of Northern Wei that stretched across two thousand miles from east to west, so vast that weeks of travel on a fast horse are required merely to reach the western border from the capital of Luoyang, and vast and powerful was that Empire, before which Miklagard itself would be but an outlying fortress, and I say this as one who has seen Miklagard with mine own eyes, for great were the cities of Northern Wei, wealthy were her people, strong were her armies, and all envied her.”

And all the while, as I began the telling of this tale, my fingers plucked and played my beloved erhu, drawing out the notes of that song, a plaintive lament for fallen Northern Wei. I was not the last of her people, of that I was sure, for even with Northern Wei fallen, many would live, many would have surrendered, changed sides, formed new allegiances, but I had heard also of the fate of my father and brothers, and indeed, of the Emperor and his family, and all that had mattered to me was dead, for my father and my brothers had led their armies to the bitter end, never betraying the Emperor, never betraying that fealty they had sworn, and, remembering, sadness filled my heart, and I played from my heart, for my homeland was gone down in defeat, and all I had loved as a young girl was lost long ago.

“My homeland, Northern Wei, is a land of people such as myself, black-haired, with eyes and features such as my own, and it was not, in those days of my youth, a land of peace, for my people were never peaceful. Skilled were my people with the sword, the spear and the bow, and from the far north were we, long ago in the distant past, riding our horses across the green grass in summer, the white snow in winter, and all the world was at our feet, conquering all with our bows and our swords and our spears, and many were the peasants that tilled our fields, many were the wealthy merchants whose trade we taxed, strong were our armies, as iron were the hands of our warriors, for as all know, without a firm hand, thralls will seek to throw off the rule of their masters.

Entered my people into the lands of the Han many centuries ago, allying with the Jin Dynasty who then ruled all the lands of the Han, but the Jin Dynasty weakened, as to the south in these days, the Rome-folk have weakened, and after the War of the Eight Princes, my people came to rule their own kingdom, carved from the body of the Jin Empire, and this became in time the Empire of Northern Wei, and our soldiers were mighty, defeating and driving back the Rouran to the North, and the armies of Southern Qi to the south, and we came in time to rule all the north, from the great sea in the east, to the desert in the west, and as far as the endless steppe to the north, and ever we sought to conquer Southern Qi, and bring all the Han under our rule.”

“All envied Northern Wei,” I continued. “Numberless as the grains of sand on a beach were her soldiers, fierce and unrelenting were her generals, noble men such as my father, Prince Yuan Cheng, but surrounded and beset we were by enemies without number. The Rouran ever attacked from the north, the Southern Qi from the south, and with the Eastern Qi joining the fight, pressed were we on all sides, but our armies were ever victorious, ever defeating those who attacked us, but the cost, the cost was ruinous in wealth and in men.

Now I myself, I was the daughter of a Prince who was related by blood to the Emperor, the great Daowu, for all our Emperors were named Daowu, after the great ruler who founded Northern Wei, and my father was a great general, renowned for his skills and his victories. I grew up in the capital city of Luoyang, a city vast beyond imagination, a city to which Miklagard was as we are to Miklagard, for many were her people and her palaces. I was daughter of a Prince with vast estates and wealth, but pampered and soft I was not, for my father was a great General and I was of the ruling clan of the Xianbei.

The Xianbei were we who founded and ruled Northern Wei, and as a Princess of the Xianbei, and of the ruling clan, the Tuoba, I was expected to know the way of the Sword and of the Bow, as well as the arts of a woman, as were many of our woman, for I was bought up on the tale of the legendary Hua Mulan, who was a woman of our people who led an army of our soldiers against invaders from the North and defeated them, and in my youth I dreamed of being such a woman-warrior and General as the fabled Mulan, and perhaps it might have been, had I remained in Wei, for was not my Father the greatest General of Northern Wei, and did not every one of my brothers themselves command Armies?

Trained I was from early youth to fight with the sword, both on foot and from horse, as well as with the bow, and my father sent me to the great Shaolin Temple to study under the masters. Learned I there the way of the sword, the bow, the spear, and the horse, as well as the arts of calligraphy, of medicine, and of the other lesser skills necessary for a woman, and beautiful was I in my youth, and in this I need not be modest, for did not King Harald Wolfs-Fang love me from the moment we met, and stranger though I was to the folk, did he not take me as his wife on that night of our meeting, and have I not remained his wife above all others unto his death?”

“It is so, Lady,” the older house-carls said, for they had not been there, but some had fathers or older brothers who had, and the tale had been passed on, and indeed, I was now three score years in age, but still my skin was youthful and my hair was jet black and without any grey, long and silky, and I could say without overstating my appearance, that still I was beautiful, and while my skill with the sword and the bow was perhaps not as it was when I was twenty, still, I had separated Hengist’s head from his shoulders in a move that would have drawn an approving nod from my old Masters at the Shaolin Temple.

“It is so,” I said. “Beautiful was I, but not without compare, for beautiful were the women of Northern Wei, and more beautiful still were the wives and daughters of the Tuoba Clan, of which I was but one daughter among many, but my father was the General, Prince Yuan Cheng, and I was a cousin of the Emperor himself, and so I was well-known amongst those whose knowledge mattered, and my beauty was spoken highly of, and always I knew my destiny, which was to be married to a man of rank or to a foreign ruler with whom the Emperor would wish to seal an alliance, and as a young and dutiful daughter of Wei, I expected this, and I knew my duty, for did not my Father and my Brother’s serve the Emperor, always at risk of their lives.

As a daughter of Wei, I knew I could do no less.

Thus, when a messenger and escort sent by my father arrived at the Shaolin Temple, summoning me to my father’s presence in Luoyang, I obeyed as a dutiful daughter should, ordering my single maidservant, to pack such minimal possessions as I was permitted at the Shaolin Temple, bidding farewell to my Masters, to the Prior of the Temple and to my friends amongst my fellow students, for I knew not if I would return, and, indeed, I would never do so, and those friends to whom I promised to write would never receive those letters. They would never know my fate, as I knew not theirs, and I could only hope for them, that they had survived the Fall of Northern Wei in those terrible last days.

But my father had summoned me, and I knew not why I was summoned, but for my father to send a messenger and an escort, it must needs be more than a simple desire to see his only daughter. The land of my Fathers, Northern Wei, was surrounded by enemies, and we were under constant attack. Rare it was for my father to be present in Luoyang, rarer still for him to summon me, for more commonly, he paid me fleeting visits at the Shaolin Temple, and thus I made all haste, pressing my escort hard as we rode the great highway leading in to the City, and I was both glad, and curious, and a little afraid, for I was but fifteen years of age, and I knew not what was wanted of me.