Querencia \\ Hvitserk Ragnarsson

Prologue

An important man had sailed all the way from Wessex to the northern lands, planning on settling there and gaining lots of knowledge. Knowledge of the northern ways. The man, prince Wulfric was young king Ecbert's nephew. He had failed to fulfil his potential and had decided to sail to the north with the few people who had the courage to do so.

Once the man had arrived in a place called Hedeby, he met a young woman named Asta and fell in love with her. Asta knew that Wulfric wasn't from Norway and that he wasn't even Viking. It didn't take her very long to figure out that he was actually from Wessex. In order to make sure other people wouldn't find out Asta tried to teach Wulfric the ways of the Vikings. Soon Asta also fell in love with Wulfric.

Asta was great friends with the earl of Hedeby, Lagertha. Even though Lagertha wasn't exactly the earl, -she had yet to kill her husband- she was the rightful person to be. Asta had happily made her way towards her friend and told Lagertha that she was pregnant. Lagertha responded to her friend by showing her how happy she was for Asta and by telling her that she and Björn would gladly look after the newborn if Asta and her husband ever needed an escape.

However, more and more people started to figure out that Asta was pregnant and had married someone. Most people did not know who that someone was and they were curious enough to find out.  So one day a group of three men and five women followed Asta into the woods towards her small house that was located a few miles away from the people. Asta had told the people that she and her husband enjoyed the quietness and the peacefulness of the place, but she had not told anyone except Lagertha about who Wulfric was.

As the people reached the cabin, they saw Wulfric sitting outside. They walked up to him and congratulated him on marrying Asta and the soon to be born baby. When Asta noticed she had been followed, she walked up to her husband and tried to help him out. The group of people said that it was of importance to the baby's health to make a sacrifice. The couple agreed and just after their daughter was born they returned to Hedeby for the sacrifice. They told Wulfric he had to be the one to sacrifice the deer and an old man handed him the long blade.  It was Wulfric's hesitation that betrayed him. Not long after the sacrifice people started to figure out that he wasn't Viking.

One day, someone else walked up to the cabin when Asta and Wulfric weren't there. The woman had entered the house and found a bible and some other things there, which was enough for her to know that Wulfric was from England and that he was a Christian.

Soon a group of people came up to Asta and Wulfric's house and violently they took Asta, Wulfric and the newborn to the centre of Hedeby and they made a big fire. Wulfric was the first to die as he was a Christian. Christians were the enemy. Asta had screamed so loudly that she had woken  Lagertha up from her sleep. Lagertha was too late to save Asta, who had betrayed her people by marrying and having a child with a Christian, but she was still on time to save the innocent baby.

The newborn, whose name remained unknown to everyone except Lagertha and Björn, was renamed Bjarke and raised by Lagertha. Lagertha kept Bjarke away from the people until the Viking-Christian baby was forgotten. Bjarke would always stay at either Lagertha or Björn's side because her son Björn was the only one she trusted.

Within the following seven years, a lot had happened. Lagertha had become earl Ingstad, had killed two of her husbands and become a strong leader. Lots of people worshipped her and the seven-year-old Bjarke had been raised by her. However, things had changed. People changed. Lagertha had made the decision to trust another person. Someone who would take Bjarke and teach her everything he knew. No one knew except for Lagertha. Not even Björn knew.

King Ragnar Lothbrok, who was about to take some sort of a break from his kingship, would take Bjarke with him on a journey. He would teach her how to fight, how to defend herself and everything there was to know about politics and leadership.

Ragnar already knew that he was going to fail his sons and he felt like Bjarke might make up for that. Even though she was so young, she was already so strong. Maybe not physically, but she was smart and fast. When they would return to Kattegat, one day in the future, she would be of use to his sons. All of them. She could help them lead when he'd be gone. She'd be a part of himself that Ragnar would leave behind when he died. An important part.

And so Bjarke was raised to be a great leader. And even though she didn't know it at the time, she would never truly be forgotten.