Birth Edda

And so this is my beginning. I was not as wise then. I still used the terms of Our People. That was what we called ourselves. The People. The others were simply that: Utars. Though I later learned to call them the Syrdbeorn. But that’s another story.

I was born in Wesselm. My father was a blacksmith. A calling I always wanted to favor. A calling I believe I excelled in. I never had a chance, then. I’m getting ahead of myself.

We called ourselves and different tribes The People. Outsiders called us Savages. I now know why: we were simple. A blacksmith was the height of our technology. Shaping metal into forms similar to true blades was an amazing feat.

We knew about The Time Before. We knew of The Blue Lands. We just didn’t speak of it. It wasn’t Now. We called ourselves “Those That Wield Our Own Weapons.” There were rumors of “Those That Wield Our Fathers Weapons.” But they were the Utars, who I later called The Syrdbeorn.

Our weapons were simple weapons, but weapons we could make: sword, spear, dirk, arrow. Our Fathers’ Weapons were foreign to us, but I know their names now: shotgun, pistol, rocket. The Syrdbeorn were called that, the Sorrow-Born, because they knew not how to make Our Fathers’ Weapons, nor the necessary part of Our Fathers’ Weapons: what the informed call “Ammo.” Yet they clung to them. They sought the dead ways instead of embracing the living ones.

I had always wanted to be a blacksmith, a Metal Shaper. It was said by the elders that they were touched by The Metal Ones. But my other calling came.

After 6 Winters, I was capable of Our Weapons. After 10 Winters, I had beaten our Chief Hunter routinely in fair combat. But Chief Hunter was not a task I wanted to do. The Elders did not like a babe in charge. And I am thankful. That gave me time to do what I loved: shaping Metal.

Then the Utars came.

A babe of 12 Winters, using but swords and dirks is no match against Utars with Weapons of Our Fathers.

I’ll keep it short. Most of my loved ones, dead. Us strong, enslaved. The seeds of vengeance were planted.