People of the Dawn by Jan Fridegård

Author:Jan Fridegård
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780803219809
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 1990-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

Holme felt his hesitation transform into a rage, which flowed out into his arms. His sledgehammer rose up and fell with a mighty blow against the nearest leg of the bell tower. It snapped like a straw, and the bells groaned, but the tower remained standing on its two other legs. Then the sledgehammer fell again, and the tower teetered to one side while the chieftain and those close by leaped out of the way. It quickly toppled over and the bells hit the ground with a muffled clang. The thralls laughed and began hacking wildly at the prostrate tower with their axes.

At the chieftain’s signal, some Christian warriors advanced toward the thralls but soon had to retreat before the dense, wild group of axes, clubs, and spears. Seeing this, the chieftain gave a new order for someone to get the warriors who hadn’t arrived yet from the fortress. The Christian priests hurried into the temple, followed by women and children; the doors were shut and the bar thrown before the thralls could stop it. While some of them followed the retreating warriors, deriding them, Holme’s sledgehammer resounded against the church door and soon smashed it to bits. The thralls pressed in after him and the heathen priests urged them on with loud yells from the shrine.

One of the Christian priests headed straight down the aisle for Holme, carrying a cross in front of him while he called on his god in a loud voice. He barred the way, and Holme lowered his sledgehammer before the unarmed man. But one of the thralls stepped forward and hacked the priest down with his axe. He fell in the aisle, his cross beneath him, gasped a few more words to his god, and then lay still.

When the other priest saw that their lives were in danger, he opened a small door behind the altar and let the terrified women and children crawl out. He waited until last, and no one cut him down, although he witnessed the thralls’ axes smash savagely into the benches and Holme’s sledgehammer fall on the altar with a deafening crash. The holy relics bounced high into the air and landed in the hands of thralls, who fondled them curiously. Then they were on top of him, the point of a spear thrusting through the door as he made his escape.

After the thralls had demolished everything in the church, they gathered again in the open area outside the shrine. It was almost deserted; most of the Christians had run for shelter with the chieftain. The farmers stood to the side, ignoring the victorious thralls’ taunting yells. The warriors from the fortress came at a run, and the chieftain opened the gate as they approached. There weren’t as many of them as there were thralls, but they were well-armed, seasoned men.

The chieftain talked with them a moment and pointed toward the band of thralls. The warriors turned around and looked at the emaciated, wild throng that stood mutely waiting.

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