Landfall of the Black Jarl
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Landfall of the Black Jarl There is enough information in the following pages and links to enhance Your knowledge of Jotunheim and Gor, and to make Membership enjoyable. Browse Our Website often. |
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Views of The Great Hall of Jotunheim - The present Great Hall of the Lands of the Bluetooth
The Great Halls
"The hall of Ivar Forkbeard was a longhouse. It was about one hundred and twenty feet Gorean in length.
Its walls formed of turf and stone, were curved and thick, some eight feet or more in thickness.
It is oriented north and south. Thls reduces its exposure to the north wind, which is partlcularly important
in the Torvaldsland winter. A fire, in a rounded pit, was in its center. It consisted, for the most part, of a
single, long room, which served for living, and eating and sleeping. At one end was a cooking compartment,
separated from the rest of the house by a partition of wood. The roof was about six feet in height, which
meant that most of those within, if male, were forced to bend over as they moved about. The long room,
besides being low, is dark. Too, there is usually lingering smoke in it. Ventilation is supplied, as it is
generally in Torvaldsland, by narrow holes in the roof. The center of the hall, down its length, is dug out
about a foot below the ground level. In the long center are set the tables and benches. Also, in the center,
down its length are two long rows of posts, each post separated from the next by about seven feet, which
support the roof. At the edges of the hall, at ground level, is a dirt floor, on which furs are spread. Stones
mark sections off into sleeping quarters. Thus, in a sense, the hall proper is about a foot below ground level,
and the sleeping level, on each side, is at the ground level, where the walls begin. The sleeping levels,
which also can accommodate a man'sgear, though some keep it at the foot of the level, are about eight
feet in length. The hall proper, the center of the hall, is about twelve feet in width."
"Svein Blue Tooth was the High Jarl of Torvaldsland, in the sense that he was generally regarded as the
most powerful. In his hall, it was said he fed a thousand men. Beyond this his heralds could carry
the war arrow, it was said, to ten thousand farms."
"The hall of Svein Blue Tooth was of wood, and magnificent. The interior hall, not counting rooms leading
from it on various sides, or the balcony which lined it, leading to other rooms, was some forty feet high,
and forty feet in width, some two hundred feet in length. It, on the western side, was lined with a great,
long table. Behind this table, its back to the western wall, facing the length of the hall, facing east, was
the high seat, or the rightful seat, the seat of the master of the house. It was wide enough for three or four
men to sit together on it, and, as a great honor, sometimes others were invited to share the high seat.
On each side of this high seat were two pillars, about eight inches in diameter, and some eight feet high,
the high-seat pillars, or rightful-seat pillars. They marked the seat, or bench, which might be placed between
them as the high seat, or rightful seat. These pillars had been carved by craftsmen in the time of
Svein Blue Tooth's great grandfather, and bore the luck signs of his house. On each side of the high
seat were long benches. Opposite, on the other side of the table, too, were long benches. A seat of honor,
incidentally, was that opposite the high seat, where one might converse with the host. The high seat,
though spoken of as "high," was the same height as the other benches. The men of Torvaldsland, thus,
look across the table at one another, not one down upon the other. The seat is "high" in the sense of being
a seat of great honor. There was, extending almost the length of the hall, a pit for a "long fire" over which
food was prepared for retainers. On the long sides of the hall, on the north and south, there were long tables,
with benches. Salt, in its bowls on the tables, divided men into rankings. Those sitting above the salt were
accorded greater prestige than those sitting below it. If one sat between the salt and the high seat,
one sat "above" the salt; if one sat between the salt and the entrance to the hall, one sat "below" the salt.
At the high-seat table, that at which the high seat sat, all counted as being "above the salt." Similarly, at
the tables parallel to the highseat table, smaller tabies flanking the long fire on both sides, the tables
nearest the high seat counted as being above the salt, those farthest away being below the salt. The division,
was made approximately at the third of the hall closest to the high seat, but could shift, depending on the
numbers of those in attendance worthy to be above the salt. The line, so to speak, imaginary to be sure, but
definitely felt as a social reality, dividing those above from those below the salt, was uniformly "drawn"
across the width of the hall. Thus, it was not the case that one at a long side table, who was above the salt,
would be farther away from the high seat than one at one of the center tables, who was "below" the salt.
In Ivar Forkbeard's hall, incidentally, the salt distinctions were not drawn; in his hall all being comrades in arms,
all were "above the salt." Svein Blue Tooth's holdings, on the other hand, were quite large and complexly organized.
It would not have seemed proper, at least in the eyes of Svein Blue Tooth and others, for a high officer to sit
at the same table with a fellow whose main occupation was supervising thralls in the tending of verr. Salt,
incidentally, is obtained by the men of Torvaldsland, most commonly, from sea water or from the burning of
seaweed. It is also, however, a trade commodity, and is sometimes taken in raids. The red and yellow salts
of the south, some of which I saw on the tables, are not domestic to Torvaldsland. The arrangements of tables,
incidentally, varies in different halls. I describe those appointments characterizing the hall of Blue Tooth.
It is common, however, for the entrance of the hall to be oriented toward the morning sun, and for the high
seat to face the entrance. None may enter without being seen from the high seat. Similarly, none are allowed
to sit behind the high seat. In a rude country, these defensive measures are doubtless a sensible precaution.
About the edges of the hall hung the shields of warriors, with their weapons. Even those who sat commonly at
the center tables, and were warriors, kept their shields and spears at the wall. At night, each man would sleep
in his furs behind the tables, under his weapons. High officers, of course, and the Blue Tooth, and members of
his family, would retire to private rooms.
The hall was ornately carved, and, above the shields, decorated with cunningly sewn tapestries and hangings.
On these were, usually, warlike scenes, or those dealing with ships and hunting. There was a lovely scene of
the hunting of tabuk in a forest. Another tapestry, showing numerous ships, in a war fleet, dated from the time
of the famine in Torvaldsland, a generation ago. That had been a time of great raids to the south.
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