EN108.28 Rhine
Ott 2025
R. Apollania
6. Apollania’s Notes
Along the Rhine
108.28 Before a Burgmaid takes up her post, she must travel through the land for a full year, accompanied by three elder Burg Lords and three old Maidens. This, I, too, have done.
[109] My journey was along the Rhine, the Eastern bank upstream and along the other side downstream. The further upstream I came, the poorer the people appeared to me. Jetties had been built out from the banks to catch sand, which was filtered on sheepskins to win gold. But the girls wore no crowns made of that gold. There were more people there in the past but, since we lost Skeanland (with its iron), they go to the mountains to delve ore, from which they produce iron.
Above the Rhine, between the mountains, I saw ‘Marsata’ (lake-dwellers), which are people who live upon the lake. Their houses are built on pilings for protection against wild beasts and evil people. There are wolves, bears, and terrible black lions.[1] And they are the ‘Swetsar’ — or neighbors —[2] of the Near Greeklanders, the Kelta-Followers, and the savage Twiskers, all eager to rob and plunder. The Marsata make their livelihood by fishing and hunting. The skins are prepared by the women and tanned with birch bark. The small skins are soft like Maidens’ felt. The Burgmaid at New Fryasburg had told us that they were good and simple [110] people, though had I never heard her speak, I would not have thought they were Fryas at all but savages, so uncultured did they seem to me. Their pelts and herbs are traded by the Rhine-dwellers and exported by the navigators.
All along the far side of the Rhine it was the same, down to Lydasburg. This burg had a great lake where people also lived in houses set upon pilings. Those were not Frya’s folk, but black and brown men who had served as rowers to help the sea voyagers come home. They were obliged to stay there until the next departure of the fleet.
Finally, we arrived at the Aldergamouth.[3] At the southern head of the harbor stands the Waraburg, a stone building where a variety of shells, horns, weapons, and clothes are kept, brought home from distant lands by the navigators. A quarter's distance from there is the Alderga,[4] a great lake surrounded by barns, houses, and gardens — all richly ornamented. In the lake, a great fleet lay ready, with flags of many colors. On Frydays, the shields were hung about the decks. Some shone like the sun. The shields of the ‘Witking’ — or sea king — and his watch-by-night were gilt-edged.
Behind the lake, a canal had been dug, [111] which flowed past the burg Forana, and further through a narrow mouth into the sea.[5] This was the way out for the fleet, and the Flee was the way in. On both sides of the canal are beautiful houses, painted in bright colors. The gardens are surrounded by evergreen hedges. I saw women there wearing tunics of animal skin, fine as paper. As in Staveren, the girls were adorned with golden crowns upon their heads, with rings around their arms and ankles.
South of Forana lies Alkmarum. This is a ‘mere’ — or lake — wherein lies an island on which the black and brown men abide, like they do at Lydasburg. The Burgmaid of Forana told me that the burg lords visit the island-dwellers daily, to teach them what true freedom is and how people ought to live amicably with one another in order to gain the blessings of Wralda’s spirit. If any of them were interested and able to understand, he would remain as a guest until he was fully educated. That was done to elevate the foreign folks and to win allies everywhere.
I said I had once been in the Saxonmarks, at the burg [112] Mannagardaforda, though there I had seen more poverty than the wealth I found here.
She explained: “When an eligible man in the Saxonmarks comes to court a girl, she asks him: ‘Can you protect your house against the banished Twisklanders? Have you not killed one yet? How many aurochs have you caught and how many bear and wolf skins have you brought to the market?’ From this it comes that among the Saxmen, who leave the farming to their wives, not even one in a hundred can read or write. The result is that no one has a motto written on his shield, but merely the distorted image of some beast he has slain. And the end result is that they have become very brave, but nearly as dumb as the animals they capture and as poor as the Twisklanders against whom they make war.
“Earth and sea were made for Frya’s folk. All of our rivers run to the sea. Lyda’s and Finda’s folk will wipe each other out, and it will be up to us to populate the empty lands. In exploring the seas [113] lies our prosperity.
“Thus, if you wish for the highlanders to take part in our wealth and wisdom, this advice I shall give: Make it custom for the girls to ask their suitors, before they say ‘yes’: ‘What have you seen of the world? What can you tell your children about foreign lands and distant peoples?’ If they do so, the boldest young men will come to us. They shall become wiser and richer, and we shall no longer have need of those wretched outsiders.”
The youngest of the Maidens who were with me on the journey hailed from the Saxonmarks. When we returned to our burg, she asked leave to go back to her home. There, she later became Burgmaid, and that is why so many Saxmen now voyage with the navigators.
Notes
- ↑ ‘black lions’ (SWÁRTE LÁWA) — unclear what animal is meant; lions are unlikely to be found in high mountains and black lions are very rare, but other types of big cats, e.g., panthers, have black variants.
- ↑ ‘Swetsar’ — or: ‘neighbors’ (SWETSAR JEFTHA PÀLENGGAR) — implied etymology of ‘Switzerland’.
- ↑ The original says 'Alderga', but from the context it is clear that this must be 'Aldergamouth'.
- ↑ ‘quarter's distance’ (FJARDÉL) — lit.: ‘four(th)-part’; precise meaning uncertain.
- ↑ ‘narrow mouth’ (ÉGA.MVDA) — implied literal meaning of EGMVDA, Egmond; see 210.19.
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Chapter R6: Sandbach 1876