Dr. Laird opened up the envelope. There was money inside. He sighed and handed it back. “He knows I can’t take cash, Zelda.”
I held the envelope in my hands, because I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Dr. Laird turned to Hanna and said to keep the same schedule next week.
“But can you get Gert to call me, Zelda?”
“I will tell him,” I said, and Dr. Laird smiled and told me to take care.
* * *
Gert was parked across the street. I got in the car and gave him the envelope. I told him what Dr. Laird said, about the check and about not being able to take cash and to call him as soon as possible.
“What’s the difference if it’s cash or check?” Gert asked, and I told him I didn’t know, and he said he was asking a rhetorical question.
I started reading the article Dr. Laird had given me.
“What’s that?” Gert asked.
“There was ‘a very monumental discovery that will change how we look at Vikings forever,’ ” I said, reading from the top of the page.
“Is that right?” Gert said. “You want to tell me about it?”
So I told him all about the female Viking warrior grave and the DNA tests, about the powerful implications and the small military planning figures they found in the grave, and I started to wonder what Kepple would think about the female Viking.
When we got home I went to my computer, turned it on, went to Kepple’s website, where he has a Contact Form, and began typing him a letter.
Dear Dr. Kepple,
First, I am sorry for not remembering to call you a doctor on my last letter to you, but I thought that doctors helped sick people and then I learned that you can be a doctor if you know a lot about things like Vikings.
The reason I am writing is that there is an article I think you should read about a Viking grave in Sweden. Dr. Laird gave me the article to read (he is the kind of doctor who helps sick people, and also people like me who aren’t sick but are different).
The article says that a famous Viking skeleton was actually a woman, and that she was a very high-ranking warrior. You should Google it to find out more.
Thank you and have a nice day.
Skál,
Zelda
I clicked SEND and the computer made a zooming noise, like an airplane taking off, and a message appeared that said: “Thank you. Your message has been submitted.”
I had sent him five letters already and so far Dr. Kepple has never written back.
I hoped that this time Mom would tell Odin to make sure he did.
chapter four
I thought all night about what Dr. Laird had said, about being the hero of my own legend. I stood in front of the mirror and did not see a hero reflected back to me at first.
According to Kepple’s Guide to the Vikings, Viking tribes had four types of people: earls, free men, another kind called slaves which don’t exist anymore, and warriors. Earls were leaders who had great hoards of treasure and had warriors who followed them. Most of the free men were farmers and people called merchants, who sold things. But warriors were free men too, and in order to become powerful, they went to do battle and defeated villains and found treasure.
When warriors defeat enough villains, act with a lot of bravery, win enough battles, and have enough treasure, then people sing songs about them and they become heroes. Gert was a hero for the football team in high school, because he was brave and defeated villainous teams who were supposed to be more powerful, and he won the biggest treasure in football, which is the State Championship. You can still go on the Internet and read sagas written about how Gert scored three touchdowns in the championship game, even though his knee was hurt.
His teammates were warriors and free men, but Gert was the hero.
Most people think that only men can be warriors. According to Dr. Laird’s article, women can be warriors too, and powerful.
“If a woman warrior can achieve high status, we have to start questioning a lot of assumptions we have about Viking social conventions,” the article said.
I read the article over twice to make sure I understood what it was saying. Before, people thought only men could be warriors who became legendary and heroic, and that women were not allowed to be heroes. But the Viking warrior in the article was a woman, and the things buried in the grave showed that she was also a hero and powerful in battle.
The Vikings called their legends sagas. According to Kepple’s Guide to the Vikings, the term saga means “what is said.” It also means “story.” There are a lot of different sagas that are famous. All Viking sagas are about kings or warriors. My favorite Viking saga is a legendary one called the Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, since it has a powerful king who is also a woman, named Þornbjörg. She kicks many asses and is so strong in battle that people don’t care that she is a woman.
My favorite part of the article was about the strongest kind of woman warrior, called a skjaldmær. They are not Valkyries, but are almost as strong. Women don’t get chosen to be warriors very often in Viking legends. Girls at age twelve who were very strong and fit and could do battle with the same strength as the boys could become skjaldmær, which let them become warriors.
I was not a king, so I wondered if I could be a skjaldmær. But first I would need to have a legend.
Once Dr. Laird asked me why I liked Vikings. I told him three reasons:
One, they are brave.
Two, they are strong and people have to think twice before trying to hurt them.
Three, Viking heroes stand up for people who can’t defend themselves.
I told Dr. Laird that I wanted to be all of those things. People look at me and do not think that I am brave or strong and that I am the one who needs protection. My legend will show people that, even if you are not gargantuan, you can still be strong and brave and help others in your tribe.
I opened up Kepple’s Guide to the Vikings and began making a list of the things that all of the sagas had.
THINGS LEGENDS NEED
A hero who is skilled in hand-to-hand combat
A powerful weapon for the hero to use
The hero must win the love of a fair maiden in danger
Every hero needs a wise man
Pillaging rival villages for treasure
The hero must defeat a villain who threatens the tribe
Then I thought about what each thing meant.
A HERO WHO IS SKILLED IN HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT
Because I am not very big and powerful, I decided that in order to defeat villains I would have to become stronger. I had seen Gert doing push-ups and sit-ups in the living room and decided to add both of those exercises to my routine before bed.
I would also need to study martial arts. On the pad of sticky notes beside my computer I wrote, “GOOGLE GLÍMA,” which is what the Viking hand-to-hand combat style is called, and stuck it on the wall so I would not forget.
A POWERFUL WEAPON FOR THE HERO TO USE
I did not have any weapons. All of the great heroes of the sagas had special weapons that helped them defeat the villains. For example, Prainn, the draugr, had a sword called Mistilteinn, which was always sharp, no matter how many heads it cut off. There was also Mjölnir, which was a hammer that belonged to Thor that always came back to his hand when he threw it.