The care of the wooden dragon

Once flying over the area, the dragon looks down at the forest floor and sees a rather unusual sight. That sight was a toddler. The dragon finds a break in the trees and swoops down and picks up the toddler, who could not be more than one or two years of age and was a female child. The child has strawberry-blonde hair and bright, blue eyes. The child is also fair-skinned.

But wait we will get to this point in our story. Our story starts here.

The year is 793 A.D. A group of what the world would call Vikings today, we will call them Norsemen for this particular story, arrived on a small grassy, hilly island in North Eastern England. This island is called Holy Island and is the site of a monastery called Lindisfarne.

The ocean is choppy. The wind gusting strongly. The air is cool. The sky remains grey after a strong thunderstorm. The storm is possibly the work of Thor banging his anvil. Maybe it is a sign to the Norsemen to turn back or a sign to continue despite what life may throw at them. The Norsemen dock their long wooden long boat on the green shores of the island. They quickly exit the vessel and head off to find wood to build shelter and build a fire and hunt food for that night's dinner.

A few minutes pass when the carved dragon on the bow of the ship decides it is safe to transform. No one was allowed to see this, not the vessel's crew, not the island's locals, not anyone. Transform from something considered by most people today as decorative into a real dragon.

On the ship, the dragon appears as just a head and a neck, but when its transformation occurs, it appears as a ruby red dragon with mustard yellow eyes and emerald green spikes spanning from the top of its head to the tip of its tail.

The Norsemen were nowhere in sight when the dragon takes flight. The dragon soars straight up into the air. The dragon hovers over the beach for a few seconds, just to help maintain its balance in flight.

The dragon heads toward the only foresty area in sight.

Once flying over the area, the dragon looks down at the forest floor and sees a rather unusual sight. That sight was a toddler. The dragon finds a break in the trees and swoops down and picks up the toddler, who could not be more than one or two years of age and was a female child. The child has strawberry-blonde hair and bright, blue eyes. The child is also fair-skinned.

The dragon sensed this child must be scarred, although she was asleep at that particular moment. The dragon brings the child, by air, back to the ship. When the two arrive back at the boat, the dragon finds a plaid blanket and wraps the child in it. The child is then placed in a warm corner of the bow of the ship, so it could easily keep an eye on her.

"My name is Vagar and I will not let anything happen to you, little one," the dragon whispered softly.

Vagar gets his name from one of the 18 islands that make up the Faroe Islands. The word, "Faroe" means, "sheep" in the Faroese language. The Faroe Islands are located between Iceland, Norway, and Scotland, part of the United Kingdom.

Suddenly, the dragon hears and spots the owners of the ship returning to the beach. The dragon resumes its original location at the bow and changes back into wood, its original form.

The Norsemen begin building a fire and preparing the foxes they just killed for cooking, as well poured glasses of ale to enjoy with their meal.

One of the Norsemen heads back to the ship and notices the toddler.

"Gentlemen, who brought their toddler along with them on this expedition?" He asked, confusedly.

The others all looked at one another and all repeatedly uttered the phrase, "it was not me."

"Well, we cannot just leave the child out in the elements. She can stay with us," he said.

"But Bjorn, who will look after her when we raid the monastery tomorrow?" One of the men asked.

"Hogar, when we are raiding tomorrow, we can leave her in the boat. Maybe Vagar can look over her," Bjorn said.

"But Vagar is not real. He is just a statue. A figure if you will," Hogar said.

"I have faith in him, dragons real or not, ward off beasts and can offer projection," Bjorn said.

"Fine, whatever you say," Hogar said.

"That is the spirit," Bjorn said as he patted Hogar's back.

Night fell quickly and darkly. The Norsemen devoured their prepared meat and poured ale and drifted into sleep, with full stomachs.

The next morning arrived. The men headed to the monastery to complete their raid. They were wearing dome-shaped helmets, not the horned ones depicted in films, television shows, and books. With them, they carried metal swords, knives, spears, maces, wooden bows, and arrows. The Norse also carried large, round, wooden, colourful shields, used for deflecting the enemy's attempts to stab them.

They climbed the tall, grassy green hill, up to the monastery.

The monastery was made of stone and had high, vaulted ceilings and arched windows. The glass in the windows was so clear that the sun beaming through it was blinding, especially at midday, when the sun is at its highest point in the sky.

The altar was lined with white, lit candle sticks in silver holders with handles that looked a bit like tea cups or coffee mugs.

When the Norsemen entered the monastery, what they saw were men, women, and children worshipping and then completing chores such as washing clothes and preparing food.

Most monasteries in this era only allowed men to become members. This monastery was no exception, but with one difference. On the property where the monastery stood, there was a separate place of worship just for women and children.

When the Norsemen entered the monastery, the entire place fell into deep silence and everyone stopped what they were doing, immediately. People immediately started fleeing for their lives. Some not all.

The raiders looked all around the monastery for things of value. They were able to find gold chalices, jewels, and several rare books that were likely written and illustrated by hand.

Some of the men who lived in the monastery tried to fight the Norsemen, in fistfights. The Norsemen slaughtered them with swords.

Suddenly, one of the Norsemen took his spere and stuck the end of it in the flame of the lit candle. He then touched the end of his spere to the floor of the monastery. Flames spread around the floor and eventually up the walls. The monastery was now on fire.

Suddenly, amongst the chaos, the child wanders up the same hill Norsemen had earlier, to the monastery.

A blond-haired, blue-eyed woman sees the toddler and shouts, "Gwenivere."

The toddler runs toward the woman and shouts, "Mommy."

"I thought I had lost you," the woman said.

Amongst the raid, there was light that day.

Gwenivere was reunited with her mother.

It is important to note that not all men were killed. Many of whom survived were taken as slaves. Their hands were placed behind their backs, just as if someone were being arrested by police officers today. Instead of handcuffs, their hands were bound with rope, likely woven from sheep's wool.

The Norsemen, with their loot in hand and accompanied by their newfound slaves, headed back to their ship as the monastery smouldered.

It is estimated that the Norsemen took seven slaves. They specifically took ones who were literate and skilled at illustrating books. This could have been because they wanted people to document their raids in far-off, new lands.

The men piled into their vessel and used their paddles to push off the beach and back out to sea.

The journey back to the Faroe Islands took five days. The same as it took for them to get to England. They arrived to women and children waving at them from wooden docks. Their wooden homes looked weathered and the roofs were made from grass, used to insulate the home from the harsh conditions of Scandinavia.

Five of the slaves did not survive the journey. Many of the slaves were frail and in poor health, being on a ship and malnourished only added to their condition.

The two who did survive were named Hobart and Rune. The two men were tasked with cooking, cleaning, child care and creating books of the Norsemen's runic language. The Norsemen's language was not written, except for the runes, it was more of a spoken language.

Bjorn, Hogar, and the others never returned to Holy Island ever again. They returned home to the Faroe Islands.

Vagar, on the other hand, returns frequently, in secret. He returned to see how well Gwenivere was growing up.