Princess Mary and King Haakon. Part 1, Birth

In the land of Norway there lived a king. He was a great king, loved by his kin and feared by his enemies. He was Haakon. Amongst Norsemen he had no equal. No man could beat him at wrestling, no man could drink like him and no man was a better hunter. He was admired and loved but he was unhappy. He was unhappy for he had no son. King Haakon and his wife had been married for nearly twenty years but had never borne a child.

So the news that King Haakon’s wife had fallen pregnant was greeted with great joy. The next nine months were a time of dreaming and imagining for the proud parents in waiting and finally the time came when the child could wait no longer…

The agony of childbirth was drowned by the thunder that crashed across the dark waters outside King Haakon’s long house. Haakon sat by his wife as she laboured, gently blowing on her sweating brow. She yelled again just as the door burst open. In from the storm blew a young hunter. “Eric is missing on the mountain!” he spat through his sopping wet beard. “We need your help, we need all the men we can get.” Haakon looked at the young man and then looked at his wife.

“Go to him.” She whispered. Haakon grabbed his cloak and ran out into the night.

On the mountain it was dark and the rain made climbing dangerous. The men moved on, their faces illuminated by the lightning, frozen like the carved wooden animals on the walls of the long house. Eventually they found the young boy, cold, wet and very pleased to see his friends. He had twisted his leg between two rocks and could not walk. He would need to be carried off the mountain. But with every moment that passed the storm became more terrible, until the men were sure that Thor himself was walking on the peaks above them! “It is too dangerous to carry on.” shouted Haakon over the thunder. “We must take shelter and wait ‘till morning.”

“But Haakon, your wife? The child?” protested one of the men.

“No, we cannot go on. We must find shelter.” Replied the king. Slowly the men staggered into the shelter of a shallow cave and huddled down under their sodden cloaks.

Now in that long, cold, wet night Haakon had a dream. He was standing on the shore outside his long house, a baby in his arms. As he looked up from the child’s face he saw a ship drawing up to the beach. Out of the ship stepped a man. The man walked up the beach and stood in front of the king. Leaning over he looked at the baby and drawing himself close to Haakon he whispered, “Beauty is yours. But for a price.” With those soft words Haakon was suddenly awake. The storm was still raging around them but now he knew he had to be with his wife, he knew this was no ordinary night.

He ran and ran, down the mountain, slipping and stumbling until he burst out of the forest and onto the beach. He was sure he could hear his wife calling him over the thunder. Crashing into the house Haakon knew all was not well. The other women turned away and busied themselves, only one met his eyes and stepping forward she said. “My king. You have a child. A girl!” Taking the baby in his arms he moved towards his wife but the woman touched him on the arm as he passed, causing him to stop. “The child was strong my king, too strong. Your wife is dead.”

With tears in his eyes the old king turned away and stepped out through the door into the dark, stormy night. Drawing the child under his cloak to keep her dry, he walked out onto the beach. Looking out over the dark waters he remembered his dream and the man who whispered those words to him. “You have a great future my child, but a future that I fear is not on these shores.” The great king said to his daughter. “But we will wait my Princess. Yes, we will wait. We will wait and see what the future holds for you Princess. Princess Mary!”