Read The Norse King’s Daughter Online
Authors: Sandra Hill
The Norse King’s Daughter (29 page)
Abayah
—long loose robe with built-in head cover.
Asgard
—home of the gods, comparable to heaven.
Augustaion
—public, ceremonial square in Constantinople.
Azan
—call of faithful to prayer.
Berserker
—an ancient Norse warrior who fought in a frenzied rage during battle.
Birka
—Viking Age trading center in Sweden.
Blood eagle
—a method of punishment whereby a sword was placed on the victim’s spine to hack all the ribs away from the backbone down as far as the loins, then the lungs pulled out as an offering to Odin.
Braies
—slim pants worn by men.
Chalmys
—in ancient Greece, a cloak clasped on one shoulder, leaving the weapon arm free.
Chamberlain
—high steward, person in charge of managing a household, sometimes a high official at court.
Chiton
—gown or tunic without sleeves, worn by both sexes in ancient Greece.
Christogram
—symbol for Christ using Greek letters.
Concubine
—a woman who cohabits with a man who is not her husband.
Danegeld
—in medieval times, especially Britain, a tribute or tax paid to Vikings; in other words, you pay or we plunder.
Danelaw
—northern, central, and eastern parts of Anglo-Saxon England in which Viking law prevailed.
Dynatoi
—border warlords similar to later-day samurai soldiers.
Drukkinn
(various spellings)
—drunk, in Old Norse.
Ealdorman
—a royal official who presided over shire courts and carried out royal commands within his domain. Comparable to later earls.
Ell
—a linear measure, usually of cloth, equal to forty-five inches.
Eparch
—next to the emperor, the most important official in Constantinople; alternately called the prefect; served as chief magistrate, chief judge, chief of police, supervisor of immigration, and trade commissioner.
Fillet
—band worn around the head.
Garderobe
—latrine or privy.
Gunna
—long-sleeved, ankle-length gown for women, often worn under a tunic or surcoat, or under a long, open-sided apron.
Hectare
—unit of land measure equal to 2.471 acres.
Hedeby
—market town where Germany is now located.
Hersir
—local military commander who owes allegiance to jarl or king.
Hird
—a permanent troop that a chieftain or nobleman might have.
Hnefatafl
—a board game played by the Vikings.
Houri
—beautiful woman, often associated with a harem.
Housecarls
—troops assigned to a king’s or lord’s household on a long-term, sometimes permanent basis.
Jarl
—high-ranking Norseman similar to an English earl or wealthy landowner, could also be a chieftain or minor king.
Jihad
—religious duty or holy war deemed a sacred duty by Moslems.
Jomsvikings
—elite group of Viking warriors who banded together as mercenaries, often for noble causes, and lived together in military fortresses.
Jorvik
—Viking Age York, known by the Saxons as Eoforwic.
Khopesh
—type of curve-bladed sword, a sickle sword.
Komvoskoini
,
or
chotki
—prayer beads.
Léine
—a long, full shirt down to the knees, resembling an undertunic, often of a saffron-yellow color.
Logothete
—chief minister, the person who introduced important visitors to the emperor during public sessions.
Loki
—blood brother of Odin, often called the trickster or jester god because of his mischief.
Midden
—refuse dump.
Miklagard (various spellings)
—Viking name for Constantinople.
More danico
—Norse practice of multiple wives.
Muezzin
—person or persons who call the
azan
.
Nithing
—one of the greatest of Norse insults, indicating a man is less then nothing.
Norns of Fate
—three wise old women who destined everybody’s fate according to Norse legend.
Norselands
—early term referring not just to Norway but all the Scandinavian countries as a whole.
Norsemandy
—tenth-century name for Normandy.
Northumbria
—one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms bordered by the English kingdoms to the south and in the north and northwest by the Scots, Cumbrians, and Strathclyde Welsh.
Parapet
—low wall along edge of roof.
Patriarch
—the bishop of an ancient see, such as Constantinople, in the Greek Orthodox religion.
Paximadi
—very hard Byzantine bread, often carried by ancient armies because it lasted so long.
Pennanular
—a type of brooch, usually circular in shape, with a long pin crossing it in back for attachment to fabric.
Pladd
(or
brat
)
—large length of fabric like a blanket, which was fastened on the shoulder with a brooch; a mantle of sorts, looped under the sword arm for better maneuverability, and secured at the waist with a leather belt. Men usually wore it over the
léine
or long shirt, which left the legs exposed.
Porphyry
—hard, purplish-red rock that contains large crystals of feldspar.
Portage
—act of carrying a boat overland from one navigable waterway to another.
Praetorion
—the building that housed government offices, including that of the eparch.
Sagas
—oral history of the Norse people, passed on from ancient history onward.
Sennight
—seven days; one week.
Skald
—poet or storyteller.
Straw death
—to die in sleep upon a rush mattress, shameful for Vikings.
Tagmata/tagmatic
—troops that were assigned to the emperor. These were separate from the Varangian guardsmen.
Tamarisk
—a tree or shrub with feathery needles and numerous small pink flowers, also known as salt cedar.
Thane
—a member of the noble class below earls but above freemen, usually a landowner.
Theme/thematic
—Byzantium was divided into separate military districts called themes, which had their own native garrisons and governor generals.
Thing
—an assembly called to discuss problems and settle disputes, similar to a district court.
Thralls
—slaves.
Tun
—252 gallons, as of ale.
Valhalla
—hall of the slain, Odin’s magnificent hall in Asgard.
Valkyries
—female warriors in the afterlife who did Odin’s will.
Wergild
(various spellings)
—a man’s worth.
Transylvania, Pennsylvania, 2012
Welcome to my world, sweetling . . .
“I
need to taste you,” Vikar said, and almost immediately wished he’d bitten his tongue, except his fool fangs had come out in anticipation of—
what else?
—a taste.
Son of a troll! How he hated these fangs! They were embarrassing, really. And inconvenient. In fact, they seemed to have a mind of their own. Like another part of his body.
But wait. Something strange was happening here. The air fair crackled, and he could swear his skin tingled. Tingled, for the love of a cloud! Every hair on his body was standing at attention, like bloody antennae.
The woman backed up a bit, but he was between her and the door to his castle office where he’d yanked her after seeing her alarm on first viewing his fellow VIK members. There was a telling silence on the other side of the door now, as if all twenty-seven vangels in residence so far were attempting to listen in on how he would handle this latest disaster.
He wasn’t sure if she sensed the same chemistry in the air, or if it was his rude behavior that frightened her. Probably both.
“Taste . . . taste . . . ?” she sputtered, her green eyes sparking anger at him. “In your dreams, buster. I’m here for an interview, and nothing else. I don’t appreciate your manhandling me, either.”
“I ‘manhandled’ you for your own safety. The tasting must be done, for your own safety.”
“ ‘For your own safety,’ ” she mimicked him. “That’s a new line, right up there with ‘I have to have sex or my blue balls will fall off.’ ”
She has a mouth like a
drukkinn
sailor. I like it.
“You have a coarse tongue, m’lady.”
“Yeah, well,
m’lord
, you put
your
tongue, coarse or otherwise, anywhere near my private parts, and you will be very sorry.”
“What? That is not what I meant.”
But, now that you’ve planted the picture in my mind, I wonder if it fits in with Trond’s “near sex” idea?
“You missay me. ’Tis your blood I must sample in order to—”
“Whoa! The only taste you’re going to get is of the mace I’m going to blow your way.”
“A gun and mace? What are you, some kind of bounty hunter?” He was fairly certain she referred to the eye-blinding substance, not the medieval ball and chain weapon. So he put both hands up in mock fear.