Valhalla Knows Where We Are Going

Valhalla Knows Where We Are Going
by Sydney Webb
11 November 2001

"When two great historical figures live contemporaneously there are often legends of the two meeting. So it is with Arnold the Saxon and St Clare of Siena. What makes the contemporary historian suspect there might be a grain of truth in the tales concerning this twain is that the encounter is described in not entirely contradictory accounts by both Submissive and Christian chroniclers."

--Jon-Jussi Lord Swalk, *Dead Water -- A History*

The woman boarded the carriage at Périgueux. She had been escorted to the vehicle by a gentlewoman, who had paid her fare. Two men had also joined the carriage at Périgueux, they spoke among themselves as the woman toyed with her rude jewelry and spoke quietly to herself. It was only after the men had alighted at Trélissac, the next stop, that Arnold realized that what he had supposed were mutterings were actually prayers in Latin, the Christian holy language. He should not have been surprised. The woman wore a veil, the sign of a monk, that signified those who had been set apart to minister to their fellow Christians.

What did surprise Arnold was when she put away her beads and began quietly singing, again in the holy language. Singing in a holy language. He could not control his curiosity. "Four-and-ninety pardons good lady but what is that song?" He spoke in Frankish, which was the lingua franca of the region.

She replied in the same language, "Why do you call me good? The One who lives Above, He alone is good. Please call me Clare."

"And likewise call me Arnold."

"I know not the name of the song. It was taught to me by a Berber who thought it might have come from fabled Timbuktu. In Frankish it would sound something like this," she closed her eyes briefly in thought and then opened them again to sing with her trained soprano's voice.

"We are going, Valhalla knows where we are going
But we're on our way
We will get there, Valhalla knows how we will get there
We know we will.
It will be hard we know
And the road will be muddy and rough
But we're going, Valhalla knows where we are going
We're on our way." FN1
Arnold didn't know whether to be appalled or delighted. He decided to stick with his previous curiosity. "Your song seems to have a moral. A moral that life is a highway and we must ride it life-long."

Clare smiled, "Say not a highway, for the way is narrow. Rather a long and winding road, that leads to His door. And we are a pilgrim people, journeying hopefully, with faith and in charity."

"A pilgrim people? An interesting choice of words. For I have just returned from Pilgrimage.

"To Tromsø?"

"Yes, I made the Midsummer Pilgrimage. And then I voyaged even further, to Lappland, to visit the school of Tevos Tevosson."

"Tevos is a Lapp?"

"Was. He has gone to Valhalla. And the folk of the North call themselves Sami."

Let me guess," asked Clare, "the name Sami means 'people', no?"

She was quite knowledgeable, thought Arnold, despite her triple handicap of being Italian, Christian and a woman.

Clare smiled again, "That sounds like quite a pilgrimage. I have sung for you -- do you have a song, a school song perhaps?"

Arnold was stern, "We of the House of Submission do not sing of holy matters. But yes, I have an óthr, a sacred poem.

He chanted slowly, whether because he had difficulty remembering or was just making it up as he went along Clare was never sure.

Hear the tale of true godliness
Hear of Tevos son of that name
Tevos, father, strong and mighty
Tevos his son of greater fame.
Proud the Sami, long owning land
Rememb'ring times ere Norsemen came
Norse were foeman seeking pasture
Land in Tevos' ancient domain.
Proud King Tevos sent his first-born
To parley with the Viking horde
Prince Tevos rode to meet the foemen
Bearing neither dagger nor sword.
Haughty Norsemen saw a savage
Thought that Tevos could be ignored
Yet the Sami prince did jolt them
With Ragnar's writ, the holy word.
"Odin Allfather did make us
With Him as Father -- each a son
Neither are we Sami, Viking
Children, equals, so all are one."
Wise Prince Tevos made Submission
So peace with Vikings had begun
One the men of southern fjord
And the Sami of northern sun.
One the God and One the Truth
One the View and One the Eye
One the kindred human people
In Odin's holy unity.
Having completed his recitation Arnold asked Clare, "And can you state the moral of my óthr?"

"Can it be," she asked, answering his query with one of her own, "that in a very real sense we are all Sami Tevos Junior?"

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