EN085.12 Medeasblik
Ott 2025
N. At All Burgs 3
2. Frana and the Magy
Battle of Medeasblik
85.12 What became of the Magy:
After the mother was killed, he had the Lamp and the maidens brought to his ship, as well as all the spoils that were to his liking. Then he sailed up the Flee Lake, as he wanted to abduct the burgmaid of Medeasblik or Staveren to install her as mother. But they had been forewarned. The navigators of Staveren and of the Alderga were eager to confront him, but the great fleet was out on a distant voyage. Now they set to work and sailed with their small fleet to Medeasblik, where they hid in a creek within the shadow of the trees.
Although it was a clear, sunlit day when the Magy reached Medeasblik, his men failed to notice us as they heedlessly set about storming the burg. So, when all his boats had landed, our navigators came [086] out from the creek and shot their arrows with turpentine torches at his fleet. They were so well aimed that many of the ships were instantly engulfed in flame. The watchmen on board the ships tried to shoot back but found no mark.
When at last a burning vessel drifted towards the Magy’s ship, he commanded his skipper to evade. But that skipper was the Dane who had slain the Finn. He replied: “You sent our honored mother to the bottom of the sea to announce your coming. This you may have forgotten in all your busy doings, so I will see that you keep your word.” The Magy tried to ward him off, but the skipper, a true Frya and strong as an ox, took him by the head with both hands and hurled him overboard into the raging waves. Then he hoisted his brown shield aloft and sailed straight to our fleet, delivering the maidens to us unharmed. But the Lamp had gone out, and no one knew how it had happened.
When news reached the remaining ships that the Magy had drowned, they sailed off, as their navigators were mostly Danes. When the fleet was far enough away, our navigators turned and rained their burning arrows down upon the Finns, [087] who, seeing how they were betrayed, ran about wildly, having no longer any among them willing or able to command. In this hour, a sortie of the guards hastened forth from the burg. Those who did not flee were slain, and those who fled found their end in the quagmires of the Creil Woods.[1]
Postscript
As the navigators lay waiting in the creek, a quipster from Staveren was among them, who said: “If our hiding in this creek ends up saving her from her burg, Medea may laugh!”[2] Thus, the maidens named the creek ‘Medea-mei-lakkia’.[3]
Notes
- ↑ 'Creil Woods' (KRÍLINGER WALD) — or: thicket wood; compare 96.31 and 206/11.
- ↑ HÍR UT — can have a double meaning: ‘from out of here (this small creek)’ or ‘out of this (plan)’.
- ↑ The old name for the West-Frisian coastal city Medemblik (or the creek after which it would have been named) was ‘Medemolacha’.
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Chapters M, N and O: Sandbach 1876