Olaf had served under King Fairhair and had no desire to get caught-up in the family feud between his sons. Unfortunately, for Olaf, King
Bloodax planned to smite Olaf and his family. Olaf had not submitted himself exclusively to Bloodax, and Bloodax was not about to let that crime go unpunished.
For Olaf to escape the wrath of
Bloodax, he knew his family would have to flee their home and travel to the distant land. It was not likely Olaf could find any place close to settle his family and members of his clan. The French in the south had grown stronger and no longer would welcome anyone of Viking descent. England, Scotland, and Ireland had also built defenses up against the Vikings. Olaf had the misfortune of living at the end of the Viking era when neighboring countries growing weary of Viking raids built stronger defenses against them.
It was the wrong time of the year to start an ocean voyage. The Atlantic Ocean and North Sea became extremely rough during the fall and winter months. However, it still offered Olaf’s clan the best chance of survival. If Olaf and his clan attempted to stay,
Bloodax would certainly catch them and slay his clan.
Several days ago, Olaf ordered his clan to prepare both of their war vessels for an extended voyage and permanently leave their homes. All preparations were now complete and everyone was ready to board the vessels and set sail the next morning. Normally, the night before a voyage, Olaf and his clan would throw a huge party. There would be plenty of drinking and good times. This night was different. Everyone felt emptiness and a growing fear of the future. No one, not even Olaf, could predict where would finally end up.
Olaf came back inside his house as others from his clan arrived and entered the great hall for a final breakfast together. It was a small meal since nearly everything was packed and on board one of the boats. Even the children knew something big was up. They were much quieter than usual. The only sounds came from the cries of the few infants that were part of the clan. Once the boys reached two or three, they knew not to cry. Viking men did not cry.
Olaf and his clan sat down and started breakfast. They were only eating for about 10 minutes when several of Olaf’s scouts returned with bad news. Olaf had been sending out scouts for several days to keep an eye on King
Bloodax and his gang of marauders.
“Olaf, King
Bloodax is only several hours away by water. They are making great haste to get here.”
Olaf roared to his fellow clansmen, “We need to board the boats immediately. Jon, take your crew and burn the town and destroy the livestock. We need to be under way in less than an hour.”
Immediately everyone began scurrying about the hall taking whatever was not already on the boats.
Olaf sat down with the scouts and received the rest of the report. One of them looking at Olaf and said, “We could see a fleet of two heavily
armed boats and almost a dozen boats about the same size as our own or smaller. It looks like there are several chieftains in full armor with steel axes and swords. There may even be a few archers in some of the boats.”
Olaf knew from the report that his clan’s only chance for survival was to get immediately underway. If they could get far enough out to sea,
Bloodax would be unable to find him. Even if Bloodax could see Olaf’s boats, he wanted as much as a lead on them as possible. The larger war vessels would never catch his faster boats. However, the fleet of smaller boats might be able to catch up and slow his boats down enough for the rest of Bloodax’s fleet to catch up.
Olaf finally got everyone aboard the two boats. As they began to row out to sea, they watched as their village burned to the ground. Olaf had everything either destroyed or taken in one of the two boats. Olaf did not plan to leave
Bloodax anything of value.
Stoneax
’s fleet had traveled about 2 miles from the shoreline when one of the lookouts spotted Bloodax’s fleet. It was only several miles from their boats. Olaf hoped Bloodax would not spot them. However, Olaf knew that the clearly visible flames from the burning village would be sufficient for Bloodax to know that Stoneax was already out to sea. Bloodax would fan his small and faster vessels out to search for Olaf. It would not take Bloodax long to find Olaf and his two boats. At almost the exact moment Olaf considered Bloodax’s next move, he saw Bloodax’s fleet turn straight for him.
Olaf immediately ordered all sails raised and to increase the pace of his rowers. Immediately the drum beat quickened and the men increased the pace of their rowing. Olaf would not surrender without a fight. He ordered his men to rig special nets equipped with pig’s bladders filled with air. His warriors would throw the nets overboard when and if
Bloodax’s ships were able to close the gap on him. The nets would foul up the rowing of the men on the enemy boats.
Bloodax
’s fastest ships came within several hundred yards of Olaf’s ships after 6 hours of hard rowing. The medium size boats were still several miles from Olaf with the larger vessels no longer visible over the horizon. The smaller boats hoped to slow Olaf down enough to allow the larger boats time to close the gap.
Olaf ordered several archers to the sterns of his two boats while the rest of the crew continued to row at the fast pace of the drummer. If
Bloodax’s smaller boats were able to slow Olaf’s boats down, it would only be a matter of hours before the larger boats could catch up and crush Olaf and his people.
Bloodax
’s smaller boats quickly pulled within the range of his archers. Olaf’s archers and Bloodax’s archers exchanged several volleys of arrows. When the battle commenced, a heavy squall overtook them forcing Olaf to lower his sails. The waves grew in intensity making it impossible for the archers to continue their exchange of arrows. Bloodax’s smaller ships had a much more difficult time in the raging storm, as the ship’s crews focused on the weather more than the battle. The smaller boats further closed the gap. Men on Bloodax’s boats prepared to board Olaf’s ships. Olaf retaliated by ordering the nets overboard. It took only several minutes before the netting tangled up Bloodax’s boats. They lost their ability to navigate the rough waters and several of them ended up capsizing. Olaf continued to monitor the advance of Bloodax’s other boats and saw the squall hampering them as well.
Olaf began to weigh the risk of putting on some sail versus continuing his battle of attrition with
Bloodax’s fleet. He knew it was only a matter of time before the chase was back on. The squall would clear and the remaining small Bloodax boats would again renew their assault. Olaf’s son suddenly came up with an idea and presented it to him. He suggested folding the sails and raising them such that the wind would strike only half of the sail area. Olaf liked the idea and gave orders to carry out his son’s idea.
Olaf’s crew quickly placed the reefed sails into position and continued to row the boat at a hard pace. The small ships lost ground to Olaf and were almost a mile behind. Olaf than witnessed some of
Bloodax’s ships discontinue the chase and pickup survivors from the capsized boats. He knew Bloodax would force them to pay a price for giving up the chase. Bloodax would have left them to drown and he would have continued the chase.
After several hours,
Bloodax’s boats disappeared off the horizon. It looked like Olaf had a clear shot for the mouth of the Fiord and an opportunity to head out to the North Sea. So far, Olaf’s escape had been successful. However, Olaf knew the dangers facing his clan and himself were only beginning. The North Sea had claimed the lives of many a Norseman. This time of year, the seas could be particularly rough. Olaf was hoping to cross the North Sea to the Northern tip of Scotland and get fresh water and supplies. He knew that most likely a landfall in Scotland would result in a fight and more danger to his clan. The inhabitants of Scotland had gotten increasingly more capable at repelling Viking raids. Olaf was hoping to avoid a fight, but there was much hatred of Norsemen on Scotland’s north coast.
Olaf’s fleet made it successfully out of the Fiord and immediately entered the choppy seas between the North Sea and the English Channel. There was no clear pattern to the waves as Olaf ordered his boats to head in a Northwesterly direction. The winds were picking up making the boats unwieldy to handy under sail. The winds forced Olaf to order the sails lowered and his men to slow their rowing down to a more sustainable pace.
Several of the men were nearing exhaustion because of their race with Bloodax. Olaf seeing the pain in their eyes and their weary bodies ordered the most exhausted men to rest while the remaining men continued at the oars. He only gave these men an hour rest before ordering them back to relieve the others. It would take a while before his crew was ready for a more normal schedule.
It took several days for Olaf to reach the north shore of Scotland. It was a rough cruise and his men received little rest. As they approached the shore, Olaf had his best lookouts scanning the shore for hostile activity. For the most part the coast was clear. As they approached the shore, his men spotted a small creek. Olaf decided to sail into the creek in search of fresh water and supplies.
Olaf had one of the boats sail into the creek approximately 100 yards in front of the other boat. He felt that was close enough for the trailing boat to assist the leading boat and reduce the risk of a shore-based attack.
The first boat slowly pulled into the mouth of the creek. Olaf ordered the drums silent to minimize the chance that anyone on shore would hear them. Olaf’s men rowed the boat about 50 yards into the mouth of the creek where arrows suddenly pelted their boat. The shields hanging on both sides of his boats partially shielded the crews from the storm of arrows. Unfortunately, several arrows made it through the shields and struck two of Olaf’s men.
The second boat seeing the attack quickly began heading for the shore just north of the creek’s mouth. They landed on the shore without incident. Olaf’s second in command, Leif Johanson, took most of the men leaving only a skeleton crew to guard the women, children, and the boat.
Leif’s men headed towards the north shore of the creek where archers were continuing their attack on Olaf’s boat. Olaf’s men took cover inside their boat waiting for a pause in the attack. The boat was slowly drifting back out of the creek. Leif’s men crept up on the Scottish archers and struck them like lighting, moments after they released a volley of arrows. The archers didn’t have time to load more arrows or even grab their swords. The Vikings slew the 10 Scottish archers attacking the drifting boat.
Another Scottish group waiting closer to the creek’s edge and preparing to attack the boat heard the commotion behind them. They turned to help their comrades not knowing that the raiders had already killed them. They ran up the slope right into the center of Leif’s band. Leif had approximately 20 men with him against about 50 Scotsmen. Leif ordered his men to slowly retreat. Olaf seeing the action ashore ordered his boat to attack the creek’s shoreline. Another 30 men from Olaf’s boat jumped ashore while the remaining men rowed the boat back out into the creek.
Olaf’s squad led a loud charge up the slope to help distract the
Scotsmen. The two groups were now almost equal in size. The Scotsmen did not realize this and started their retreat further inland. Once the fighting calmed down, Olaf counted 10 of his men killed and another 10 injured. The Scotsmen had almost 20 killed with another 5 injured and left behind. Olaf feared losing any more men. He had started out with over 100 men and now was down to just short of 80 healthy men.
Since Olaf had frequented Scotland, he had picked up the language. This skill proved useful in interrogating the wounded hostages.
Olaf roared at the hostages, “I don’t want to hurt any more of your people. We just need to get fresh water and food. If I help you get back to your people, will you talk to them and help us strike a truce?”
One of the injured Scotsmen stared back at Olaf in disbelief and replied. “You have just landed on our country and murdered 20 of our people. They won’t listen and talk peace. They will slaughter you pigs and have their way with your women!”
“If they attack again, we will kill more of them. I don’t believe either of us wants that.”
“Maybe, but they will destroy you! Right now, they’re gathering more soldiers to destroy you. They won’t be deterred by you holding us.”
Olaf turned to Leif and whispered to him to take some men and load fresh water onto the ships and organize a defense further down near the creek. The Vikings broke off into several teams gathering supplies and building a defense.
Olaf then turned towards his wounded prisoners and said. “You have the power to prevent more killing. Please leave, you are free to go.”
Olaf didn’t expect the prisoner release to stop the Scotsmen from organizing another attack. He hoped that it might buy him several hours giving him time to take on fresh water. They could always sail further north along the coast until they found a friendlier location to take on food. Olaf did not want to risk losing more men. He needed them for the trip across the great ocean.
Olaf’s crew had just about completed taking on fresh water when several lookouts warned of the advance of the Scottish army. They looked better equipped than the first group. There were at least 200 soldiers including archers, swordsmen with shields, and about 50 more mounted soldiers. They were advancing quickly. Olaf’s small band would stand little chance against this army. He wondered how they were able to organize such a large group so quickly. Unbeknownst to Olaf, the army was part of a contingent that organized to attack an English army further south. Olaf just had the misfortune of stumbling upon it.