The Viking’s New Clothes

An was a simple Viking.

He didn’t know that he was a Viking, he thought viking was something he did. He went viking with a few friends… and they all thought they were pirates.

They travelled the high seas in their shoddy longboat, stealing whatever they could find along the way, whether it be on land or sea.

They were notorious, they thought. And they dressed well.

Well, they thought they dressed well compared to the other people they came into contact with, who were usually peasants.

Eirik wore a brown woollen tunic over a pale blue linen shirt, and brown trousers held up by a sash.

Harald wore only a pale green linen shirt with grey trousers held up with a leather strap.

The Mighty Magnus wore an open leather shirt with a white linen shirt underneath that strained with his muscled frame, and leather trousers again held up with a leather strap.

And An, the smallest of the group, wore only a woollen shirt and woollen trousers which kept falling down as he didn’t have anything to hold them up.

They all wore thick, lined boots, and the traditional helmets when they went a-viking, two of them with two horns on either side, one with one, and one with no horns at all. They grabbed whichever they could, it didn’t matter which helmet they wore. They meant nothing to them, Size meant nothing to them either.

They were dressed very shoddily indeed.

One fine Summer’s morning, they were in their longboat heading towards the land of the Angles when they came across a ghost ship, or so they thought.

It was another longboat, bereft of crew.

The ship was in a better state of repair than their own, so they decided they would take it. They tied it to their own ship, and decided to head back to their home.

If they’d have thought on, they’d have checked the ship was empty, but they didn’t. Hidden, beneath a rug was Ulf, the only survivor of a great battle that had taken place. The rest of his crew had been captured.

Ulf was a great leader and had only been left behind as the pirates who had captured his crew thought he was dead. He’d been knocked unconscious in the battle, and when he came to, he realised he was alone. He had no idea how long he had been at sea, but stayed under the rug to be protected from the elements.

He realised where he was being taken, and decided to let the terrible foursome know they had a new passenger.

“Greetings!” He said, in a bold and menacing voice, causing An and the others to jump, startled.

They looked to ‘their’ new ship, and saw a really well dressed man standing in front of them: crisp white shirt, leather vest, leather trousers and boots, leather belt and sash, and a two-horned helmet. He had the rug over his shoulders as well, which looked like a cape, and a long plaited beard. The sun was behind him, which made him appear to them as a dark figure, although they could make out his features.

Ulf thought the four young sailors had seen him, and were rescuing him, and he thanked them. As a reward, he asked them to join his crew, and help him to find his missing shipmates.

“One thing, however,” Ulf said, looking  at the four standing in front of him, “We need to make you look like warriors rather than have you running around as you currently do. Join me, and I will dress you all well. Feed you all well. You will live like kings, as I do. We kings must be remembered for lots of reasons, lots of right reasons, and how we look is the most important reason of all. We must not be laughing stocks. We must be men who strike fear into the hearts of everyone who sees us. Join me, and I will supply you all with the finest new clothes you could ever wish for.”

And so, in the next few days, An, Eirik, Harald and Magnus joined Ulf on his longboat, and headed off to Angleland once again, only this time they were dressed as warriors…

This is another post for Sideview’s Weekend Theme, which this week is ‘Enterprises that require new clothes’.