The Gaut Mysteries - A synopsis
When Gaut Bjornsson and his twin brother Ase are twelve and so, legally, men, a Viking raider visits Kuli, the island in the Sudreys (Hebrides) where their family, originally from Norway, live. The twins, on watch-duty, give the alarm but are spotted; Ase is killed and Gaut, wounded in the leg, vows vengeance on the raider, Thorkil. His uncle Swein is visiting Kuli; since Gaut has shown some skill in carving wood Swein, who is a master-carver, takes him home to Norway to teach him to carve both wood and stone. Gaut learns eagerly, but never forgets his duty of vengeance.
Six years later Gaut sails on his first viking-voyage; after varied fortunes in raids round the Irish Sea the voyage ends, for Gaut, when he is knocked out and left for dead in a raid on Mann. Waking, he finds himself the captive, and slave, of the Manx farmer whose land he had raided. Beaten and half-starved, he is disinclined to listen to the preaching of the local priest, who hopes to turn him from his heathen sinful ways; only when the priest hints that conversion could lead to freedom does he agree to be baptised.
As a nominal Christian, he is not freed, but he is treated better, as he and the Manx come to see each other as human beings rather than enemies. With the daughter of the house, Mairi, it is more than that; he falls in love with her but knows that, while he is her father's slave, he can never tell her so.
Shortly after Mairi's betrothal to the son of a neighbouring farmer, Thorkil comes on a raid. Gaut, asked by his master to fight, replies, "Only if I'm free." Somewhat to his surprise, the ploy works; free, he challenges Thorkil to fight, to avenge his brother Ase, and with the valley as prize. Thorkil agrees; they fight, Gaut kills Thorkil but is badly wounded.
A month later Gaut's brother Torke, who has only recently learned that Gaut was not killed as he had supposed, arrives with a ship-load of warriors to free him. This is not now necessary, but Gaut leaves Mann, returning to his family on Kuli and, away from the Manx Christians, reverting to heathendom.
The following year the brothers, and their ship-mates, join Olaf Tryggvasson in his raiding of the England of Ethelred "Un-rede", a season culminating in the battle of Maldon. After more raiding the Vikings are paid off with a massive Dane-geld; on their way home three of the ships, Gaut's among them, carry out a raid on Whitby abbey. This has more, and better, defenders than expected; over a dozen Vikings are left behind, dead or wounded, when the rest retreat to their ships and sail away.
The wounded include Gaut, who has lost an eye; only when the bandages are removed does he recognise the monk who has been tending him with such loving care as the one whom he himself had wounded in the attack. This example of active Christian love, forgiving an enemy who has done real harm, so impresses Gaut that he asks for baptism again, and this time he means it.
Recovering from his injuries, he carves a stone cross as a thank-offering, then goes to Yorwik (York), where he spends the winter as assistant to a woodworker, Lothin. He has a daughter, who fancies Gaut, but he feels nothing for her; the invitation, in the spring, from a Manx trader, to come to Mann to carve the new King's Hall being built, is welcome not only in itself, but because it enables him to avoid being expected to marry Lothin's daughter.
On Mann, his carving brings him the favour of the King, and he settles to life in the King's Hall. He makes no attempt to seek out his former master, but meeting him by chance in the autumn, he learns that Mairi's husband has died, leaving her with a baby daughter. No longer a slave, but now an honoured master-craftsman, high in the King's favour, he can ask for Mairi's hand. She accepts, and they are married; the story ends with the birth of their son Michael, who will be brought up as a Christian warrior, defending the weak, and seeing all men, Norse or Gael, Christian or heathen, as equally human beings, children of the one Father.
