January 1st, 1056 AD Dear Diary, My name is Egil. I'm 18 years old. I'm a viking and I come from Scandinavia. I have 2 sisters and 2 brothers. My family is really poor. My dad is a boat builder. He only get 1 block of gold per week for his job. My mom baked bread. She only cooked 2 meals a day for all of us. My sisters, my brothers, and I also a job since we're grown-ups. My brothers and I have the same job as my dad. My sisters help my mom weave and spin cloth. My uncle died a few years ago because of the war between the British and the Vikings. My Aunt died a few years ago because of a dangerous disease. |
January 2nd, 1056 AD Dear Diary, Today, my dad come home for his job and he said “Today my boss told me that we’re going to move to Scotland.” Scotland is a country but it’s part of the United Kingdom. I was really excited when I heard what dad said because we can have more food, more gold, and more land. My dream is to swim in lakes of gold when I get back to Scandinavia from Scotland and no one is going to take my precious gold. Dad said we will leave tomorrow morning on a long ship. Long ship is a ship use for trading, shipping, exploration, and warfare. The long ship is long with a dragon head at the top. The long ship was powered by oars. I hope that we can get better jobs and have a better life in .When I heard what dad said, I went to sleep with excitement. I also feel a bit sad because I have to left everything behind. I feel a bit surprised when dad get new and free land. I was about to ask him about moving to Scotland but it was already 11 PM. |
January 3rd, 1056 AD Dear Diary, Today is the day that we start special journey to Scotland. Our family bring the most valuable stuff in our house including our axes, helmets, cloth that is made from wool and many other things. The chief of our village gather everyone in the center of the village. He told us to bring our stuff onto the long ship. The long ship was huge. It look like it could fit four family on that long ship.The two side of the long ship are cover with shields. I get my sword and my cleanest clothes. I don’t know if they will provide us meals during the journey so our family bring a few pieces of pork so we can eat during the journey. Our family carry all of our stuff in a big leather bag. My dad bring the leather bag to the long ship. When we come to the long ship, we saw about fifty people. Almost every family have a child. Most of the men are carpenters and berserk. Women are making meals for the whole day. The ship was full so we took off into the Atlantic ocean. The ship were fill with weapons like sword, shield, arrows, bows and many other fighting weapons. It’s like we will be fighting in Scotland. The tide were low the first two days but the third day was different. The tide was high on the third day. The wind was hard so we decided to pull our ship to the nearest shoreline but we are in the middle of the ocean. Water, water everywhere so our decided to keep going across the ocean. At first, I think he was crazy. How could we go across the ocean if the tide was high and the wind was hard. But it was our only choice because we can’t pull our ship into any shore and we can’t go back so we have to do it. Our chief told the vikings who paddle the long ship to try to balance the ship so it will not flip. Water are going onto the deck so men and women vikings each get a bucket and scoop the water out of the ship. We have to scoop for one hour until all of the water get out of the ship. When we finish we’re all exasperated (tired) so we rest for a while and then we continue to get over the hard wind and the high tide. Two hours later, the tide is low and the wind is soft. We all get together for a small feast on the deck. We ate like pigs even children are hungry. We were so hungry that we finish all the food in ten minutes. The food was delicious. We have fish, and bread with butter and honey. It was already dawn. It’s only four hours until night. A few vikings are hunting for fish, a few are sleeping, a few are fighting each other, and a few are talking. My dad and I are hunting for fish. We’re hunting many different kind of fish like cod, coal fish, salmon, haddock, flat-fish, horse mackerel, smelt, saithe, roach, rudd, bream, perch, and pike. We hunt about 30 fish. When we finished hunting, I ask my dad about why did the boss let him move to Scotland since he is just a normal boat builder. My dad said,”My boss let me go to a new land because I have done a good job on building some of the long ship so he send me to Scotland to build more boat for the vikings. You so good dad, I said. I wish someday I could be like you. How do you our life would be in Scotland, dad ask. I was speechless because I never thought about living in a new country. The moon was going up and we end our conversation. We try to make a tent using the sail. We sleep on animal skin blanket so it’s warmer. The next morning turn out pretty good. We ate breakfast and then we hunt some fish. We have about 270 fish on our boat. That amount of food could feed our whole ship for only 1 day and a half. So we need to hunt more fish. For the last few days we caught shrimps. Shrimps are nutritious food. We’re not far from Scotland. A week past and nothing seems unusual. Everything is just the same even the food and clothes. We have already travel for one week and six days. On the next day, there was a problem. The problem was huge and it was that we’re running out of food. Vikings are starving and they have to eat their own clothes and shoes. Some were so hungry they died. My whole family was panicking. Dad help them calm down. Dad and I go to the deck and hunt some more fish. But we ran out of luck. Dad and I could not hunt any fish. It’s like they are running away from our ship. Now I’m panicking. Dad couldn’t even help me calm down. The whole ship was panicking. Luckily, some vikings crew see land. They said it’s about 25 Km from where they are now. The vikings quickly get into their paddling position and paddle as fast and hard as they could so they can get on the land and eat some delicious food. It only took us four hours to reach the land. When we reach the land, vikings run around and find food. They are like a riot. One viking running here, one there, one there, it’s like the whole land is fill with vikings. Dad try to figure where we are now and he said happily We’re in Scotland. I feel such a relief because we will not be traveling around in the middle of the ocean. We were so tired that we slept until tomorrow morning. |
When we woke up, we saw a bunch of men standing around us, and looking at us with a curious look like they don’t know who we are. They look like Christian Monks. I woke my dad up and tell him about the monks. Dad tell the chef to woke everyone up so we can talk about what we will do next. The chef woke everyone up. Everyone was like What? Where are we? Who attacked us? But then dad explain the plan for everyone. The plan was pretty long. The plan was to attack the monasteries and then stole all the treasures and we will kill anybody who stop us. The plan sound a bit scary but that’s how the vikings stole treasures and valuable things. We will start the plan now, dad yell. Everyone grab a weapon and get into position. The chef point to the monastery and everyone charge toward the monastery. The fight does not go for too long because the vikings are much stronger than monks. When I walk up the monastery stair, I saw dead bodies lying everywhere and blood are spill on the floor, on the stair, and on the wall. The vikings go up the stair and stole a bunch of gold. The chef said, we will share the gold later now go back to our long ship. We will have some more fights soon so get ready. So that’s how my life work in England. Kill and stole. We also did some farming and trading at England too. Life at England wasn’t so bad after all, I tell dad. He just smile. We also start our own village in Scotland. We share our culture with the Scottish. |