The Bifrost Bridge, Chapter 1

Chapter I:

When the world was still young, men from the north, mighty men called Vikings, roamed the earth. The small kingdom of Norway stood firmly planted in the world of Midgard. In this kingdom, the king’s palace, or longhouse, was situated inside a wooden ring castle on a hill above the harbor village of Tunsberg, and at one point in time, there lived in the royal longhouse a beautiful, ten-year-old princess named Silje. Though Silje had long strawberry blonde hair, eyes as bright and blue as a robin’s egg and soft alabaster skin, it was more than her beauty, but her good nature and radiant smile that endeared her to everyone she knew.

One summer morning, Queen Lena bent over the sleeping princess and kissed her tenderly on the brow before whispering, “Wake up, sweetheart. It’s time for breakfast.” Silje opened her eyes and smiled at her mother. Climbing out of bed, she got dressed and followed the queen to the hearth. King Harald, standing nearby in discussion with his advisors about a royal visit, nodded and winked at his precious daughter as she passed by him. Silje smiled and nodded back.
“Do you want barley bread and goat cheese this morning?” asked the queen.

“Yes, Mama,” replied Silje.
Queen Lena sent orders to the servant at the hearth to serve breakfast. As Silje finished her meal, the queen asked her daughter, “What do you want to do this morning?”

“I want to feed the goats.”

“The goats will like that, and it will keep you busy and out of trouble. You distracted the woodworkers so much with your games yesterday that I doubt the new carvings will be completed for the solstice. Take this shawl with you in case it gets cold.”

“Yes, Mama,” replied Silje. She put on the shawl, gave the queen a big hug and kissed her goodbye.

“Have fun, sweetheart!” called Queen Lena, as Silje ran out across the ring castle yard to the stables.
Silje loved all animals, but she especially adored her new Northlands pony, Draumer. Brown in color and delicate in features, Draumer stood nearly 13 hands high and had turned a year old earlier in the spring. Silje loved to ride and groom her every day no matter how bad the weather conditions. After saying hello to Draumer and the other horses, Silje ran over to the goat pen and petted the goats. “Are you hungry, little ones? Do you want some hay?” asked Silje.

“Maaaa. Maaaa. Maaa,” cried the goats as they watched her pick up some hay.

‘Maybe I should take you out to the meadow so you all can enjoy some fresh grass,’ thought Silje.
Being a careless girl at times, the princess decided to take out the goats. Without telling anyone where she was going, Silje put a saddle on Draumur, opened the pen and shouted to the goats, “Follow me!”

The smaller animals followed her immediately out of the stable and onto a boardwalk. As she and Draumer led the goats down the long boardwalk her eyes scaled up the posts that made up the walls to the circular fence. The spiked wooden poles only allowed her to see the blue sky above. Leading the herd to the center of the ring castle limited her view even more because tall long houses and huts lined the boardwalk. Silje’s favorite place in the ring castle was at the very center where four boardwalks met together. The only other way to get a better view of things happening inside the ring castle involved climbing up to the various balconies on the inside of the circular fence. Silje knew she could go up to the balconies, but she avoided doing that because her parents were annoyed with her for distracting the watchmen a couple of days earlier.

Once Silje reached the middle where the four boardwalks meet, she veered the herd down another boardwalk toward the south gate for easy access to the trail down to Tunsberg and the meadow beyond. When they arrived at the castle gates, Silje signaled to the gatekeeper to open the castle gate for her by waving her arm. The gatekeeper bowed, and then climbed down a ladder from the balcony where he stood watch.

“Good morning, your highness,” said the guard with a deep bow.

“Good morning, Brynjar,” replied Silje.

“Do you have business down in Tunsburg, my princess?” asked the guard.

“No, I am taking the goats beyond to the meadow,”.

“Have you been granted leave for that purpose, your highness?”

“Yes, Brynjar,” replied Silje hoping she wouldn’t be questioned. “Queen Lena granted me permission to let the goats graze.” The soldier, wanting to please the beloved princess, challenged Silje’s request no further. He bowed again in respect and then operated a crank to unbar the gate for Silje and the herd.

The outer wooden gate swung open and Silje led the herd through the fence tunnel and down the trail on the steep hill. As the group passed through the village, Silje greeted everyone with hand waves and friendly words.
When they finally reached the edge of the evergreen forest, Silje led the goats along the woodland trail to the grassy meadow where Draumer and the goats ate grass while she picked fragrant, yellow primrose flowers and made a little crown out of them for her head. The thick needles of the fir trees surrounding the meadow gave Silje her own secret place to enjoy, and here she could play “Queen.” Before her play could begin, a magic squirrel ran down a tree and scampered over. The princess could always spot Ratatosk quickly because his amber colored eyes distinguished him from ordinary squirrels.

“Ratatosk, what are you doing here?” asked Silje. “I thought you were living up on the cosmic tree now.”

“I am! I am!” replied Ratatosk. “But I came down to learn some gossip, gossip, gossip!”

“Why down in Midgard, and why here in Norway?” asked Silje. It was hard for Silje to imagine why a creature that could travel across the universe would be interested in her father’s tiny kingdom.

“Because I heard something is going to happen here that’s big, big, big!” exclaimed Ratatosk.

“Well, the royal family of Denmark is sailing here,” replied Silje. “They come every year to celebrate the summer solstice with us. King Eric and Queen Inga are my uncle and aunt, and their daughter, Hanne, is my best friend. I cannot wait to see her!”

“Maybe that’s it; maybe that’s it,” agreed Ratatosk. “We’ll soon see. Right now, I’m going to go find some acorns!”

“It’s not going to be easy, silly squirrel,” called out Silje, as Ratatosk scampered off. “The forests around here are filled with ash and fir trees!” The princess giggled as she imagined Ratatosk would have to settle for berries and pinecones.
***
Meanwhile, in the depths of a forest not too far away, sharp claws shoved themselves into the air from under a moss-covered stone. Pushing the rock aside, a big fat ground troll climbed out of a hole and looked around. He quickly squinted his eyes in reaction to the sun. As a ground troll, he could remain in daylight without exploding or petrifying as mountain trolls.
While he stood there waiting for his eyes to become accustomed to the sunlight, he rubbed dirt into his skin so that he would not sunburn. He had come above ground today because he had grown just plain sick of eating porridge and had made up his mind to hunt above ground for some fresh meat. When he had finished with his dirt bath, he stuck his nose in the air and sniffed into the breeze.

“Molock smells meat, fresh meat, fresh goat meat,” growled the troll. Pulling his axe out of the hole, he waddled in the direction of the meadow where Princess Silje had gone to feed the goats.

***
In the meadow, the goats were lying on the grass enjoying the sunshine while Silje made a bouquet of flowers for the queen. She noticed the goats becoming restless, but she didn’t think much about it. She continued working on her bouquet, ignoring their skittishness. Thoughts of her cousin, Hanne, dominated her attention. The Danish princess had always been nice to her every summer, and she gave Silje the most genuine friendship she had ever known. The daughters of the Norwegian Baronesses had always been lovely too, but Silje knew they had to be friendly to their princess. Hanne, on the other hand, gave Silje her friendship without having to. Nothing gave Silje greater pleasure than spending time with her Danish cousin. Dancing at the solstice feasts and telling stories in front of the bonfires with Hanne was Silje’s favorite thing to do. She grinned with delight as she remembered dancing all night to the fast beat of the drums during the last Solstice celebration. A foul odor suddenly awoke the princess from her daydreams.

“What is that horrible smell?” she asked, pinching her nose.

All of the goats began running around her crying out. “Maaaa. Maaaa! Maaaa!”

Realizing that danger was near, Silje looked over at Draumer’s saddlebag and saw that she had forgotten to bring the horn to call the soldiers for help. Attached to the saddle were her bow and quiver, though, so she ran over to grab them and turned around to see a hairy troll staring at her.

“What do you want?” asked Silje.

“Molock wants meat, fresh goat meat!” growled the troll.

“Maaaa! Maaaa! Maaaa!” cried the goats.

“Don’t worry, little ones,” Silje replied nervously. Facing the troll she said, “Now listen, Molock. These are the king’s goats and you can’t eat them. Oh my, you smell terrible. Go take a bath and leave us alone.” Molock roared and held up his axe.

“Molock wants goat meat now!”

The troll waddled toward Silje, so she placed an arrow on her bow, took aim and loosed it right into Molock’s nose. Molock staggered backwards, but he didn’t fall down. He pulled the arrow out of his nose and began growling at her.

“Run, little ones!” shouted the princess.

Leaping onto her pony, Silje rode at all haste up the woodland trail, herding the goats toward home and hoping for a miracle. She winced as Molock howled in anger and desperation behind her. Spurring Draumur faster, she rounded one of the goats that had tried to stray and pushed them as quickly as possible, lest they become food for Molock. Even though trolls didn’t waddle fast they could waddle for long periods without tiring, and Silje knew that there were places in the land with hidden passages. On this occasion, Molock knew a shortcut underground to the castle. As Silje rode into the village, she yelled out to a passing farmer.

“Blow your horn! A troll is chasing us!”

The farmer saluted and blew his horn to sound the alarm. The castle guards heard the alarm and saw Silje riding fast toward the ring castle. They alerted the king and queen, who ran to the castle gate balcony. They were there waiting for Silje when, all of sudden, up out of the ground near the castle road popped the troll waving his axe in the air.

“Hurry, Silje, hurry!” shouted the king and queen.

Molock closed in fast. He would have caught one of the goats if he hadn’t fallen down. The fall knocked the breath out of him, giving Silje, Draumer, and the goats just enough time to enter the tunnel before the troll could get to his feet.

"Close the gate!" cried King Harald.

The gates swung closed and locked. Silje jumped off Draumer and ran up the balcony steps to her parents who hugged her tightly. Furious as he looked up at the locked gate, Molock dropped his axe onto the ground and swam across the moat.

“Molock wants meat!” howled the troll, digging his claws into the wood of the castle gate as he began climbing it.

“There is no meat here for you, troll,” replied King Harald. “Go back home and leave my kingdom in peace.”
Silje called down to the troll, “Leave us alone, Molock!”

“No! Molock wants meat!” he growled, as he continued climbing up the gate.

“Archers, take aim!” shouted King Harald.

“Wait a minute, dear,” said Queen Lena, softly. “You know how I feel about violence. I don’t want to see anyone killed.”

“Our home is being attacked by a troll! What would you have me do?” implored King Harald.

“Well, you can start by giving the troll a bath. He smells awful,” replied Queen Lena, holding a handkerchief up to her nose.
King Harald laughed and ordered the soldiers to bring buckets of soapy water from the big laundry pots up to the gate balcony to pour on smelly Molock as he climbed the wall. So that is what the soldiers did. They poured buckets and buckets of soapy water on the troll until he finally fell into the moat below.

Crawling out of the moat, the troll wiped soapy water out of his eyes. He then shook his fist at the people above and shouted, “Molock wants meat!”

“Well, if the creature wants meat, let’s feed him.” said Queen Lena.

“Not the goats!” cried Silje.

“Of course not,” replied Queen Lena. “There’s more than one way to feed a troll.” Upon the king’s command, the soldiers brought a large tray and began throwing pieces of meat to him. The troll grabbed the meat and stuffed it into his mouth as fast as he could.

Suddenly, he stopped eating and spit the meat out of his mouth and growled, “Molock doesn’t like dried fish meat!”

“You said you wanted meat, and we have provided meat, along with a good bath. Now take the meat and go home,” replied King Harald.

“Molock wants fresh goat meat,” grumbled the troll. Knowing he wouldn’t get any goats from the king, he picked up his axe and waddled away shouting, “Molock will have revenge!”

Everyone, except Queen Lena, cheered as the troll waddled away. Looking puzzled, the queen asked the king, “What do you think he meant about having revenge?”

“It is hard to know with these beasts, Lena,” replied King Harald. “If we are lucky, we will never see it again.”

“Let’s hope so,” agreed Queen Lena. “However, there is another problem.” She turned to her daughter and said, “Silje, we need to talk. In the future, you must ask permission to leave the ring castle and you must always have an escort go with you in case there is trouble again.”

“Yes, Mama. I’m sorry,” Silje agreed.

“And I want you to always keep a horn with you so you can let us know about trouble from a distance,” added King Harald.

“Yes, Papa,” replied Silje.

“We just want to protect you from danger, Silje,” reminded the queen as she gently hugged her daughter.
Once the excitement over the troll died down, everyone went back to his or her duties. With the royal Danish family expected any time now, there was a lot to do. King Harald gave an order to Brynjar to seek out and seal up the tunnel Molock had used before the royal visit.