Cursed Blessings

Chapter Four

Chapter 4
         So, my father took my mother as his queen.  My father knew this would cause discomfort to some people since it went against the tradition of a man dividing his age in half and adding seven years to determine the suitable age of his bride.  He was forty-five, she was seventeen.
         It wasn’t long after that another king who had made a bid for my mother’s hand discovered that she had wed another.  He was angry enough to go war with my father.  This battle would be the one to claim the life of King Sigmund.
         My mother told me the story of his death and how I came to know a king in Denmark as my father.  The mists in her eyes as she started her story betrayed the emotions that she still harbored for the man who sired me, even after fifteen years.
         I entered her rooms and saw her sitting on her couch.  Her hair hung down her back and her emerald eyes stared out the open window.  The spring had come early and the fields were green, the air was crisp and the sounds of nature drifter into the room.
         I walked over and sat next to her.  I had been taught that silence was golden at the appropriate times and I figured this to be one of those times, so I sat in silence with my mother.  When she began speaking, it became clear to me that I should not interrupt her because I knew she was going to tell me of her past.  That was not something she often spoke of.
         She began, “It was the summer of my seventeenth year when I married your father.  He was a striking man with a commanding presence.  You do favor him so.
         “Later that year, just before the winter months were upon us, another king who had wanted me for his bride was riding to our lands for war.  Because winter was approaching and war is not fought in that season the King had sent most of his army to their homes to be with their families.  The only warriors to remain had already made our city their home.  We were not prepared, but our fighters marched anyway.  All were valiant men.
         “Sigmund gave orders for me and my handmaid to be escorted through the forest to avoid capture should the battle be lost, which it was.
         “As the army advanced on the city, leaving the fallen where they fell, our escort circled back around to the battlefield to find the King.  When we found him he said to me, ‘You will have my son.  He will be a strong fighter.  Give to him my broken sword so that he can forge it anew.  It shall be called Gram.’  I promised him to do this and then he died.
         “My maid and I changed clothes and names in case we should be discovered by our enemy.  By the hand of Odin we were delivered to this place that you have always known as home.
         “The King asked of us one question only, ‘In the dark of night, how do you know that the hours are giving way to the light of the morning?’
         “Being disguised as the Queen my handmaid knew that it was she the King addressed first and gave her answer as this, ‘When I was a child I would rise just before the dawn to light the fires and still I awaken at the same hour.’
         “Then he turned and asked of me the same question.  My answer was, ‘My father gave me a ring of red gold which grows cold upon my finger at the time of the approaching dawn.’
         The king seemed amused by our answers, but was not fooled by our ruse.  He said to us, ‘It is a strange house that has a king’s daughter to light the fires in the morning and an even stranger house that is so rich the father of a maid can afford red gold.  It is for certain that this Queen is the maid and the maid, the Queen.  Both of you will be safe in this kingdom.’
         “We eventually grew fond of one another and wed.  He married me knowing that I was pregnant with another king’s son, and he has treated you as his own.  He is very proud of you.  I want you to always respect and honor him as he deserves.  Do not forget him when you become a great hero.
         “Soon you shall be a man and make us all so proud and your adventures will take you far from here.
         When she finished her story she gave to me a box that contained the broken sword of my father.  She smiled at me with tears in her eyes and held me close.  She was a mother.  She would never let go of her boy.  And I still hold her in my heart.