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By Root 2468 0

his friend had received from Caoilinn. At first Harold had only given him a general idea of the interview; but it was his wife who, after a long walk with the Norseman, reported back, “She as good as called him a cripple and threw him out.” Freya had been furious. “Whatever her reason,” she had declared, “she had no cause to behave so cruelly.” And it soon became obvious to Morann that his friend had been seriously hurt. He had even wondered whether to go and see Caoilinn himself. But Harold had been so definite in saying that the affair was over that Morann had concluded that there was nothing to be done.

The Norseman had only shrugged.

“It would be a pity to destroy what she built up.”

Morann wondered if perhaps the two of them had made it up and that Harold had a stake in the business; but the Norseman explained that this was not the case, that Caoilinn and he had never spoken and that even now, she was behind the ramparts of Dyflin.

“You are a generous man,” Morann marvelled.

To his relief, when he explained the matter to King Brian, the king was not angry but amused. “This is the Ostman who hit my fellow over the head in Dyflin? And now he wants me to save a lady’s farm?” The king shook his head. “It is more, perhaps, than I should have done.” He smiled. “Men with great hearts are rare, Morann. And they are to be cherished. In times of danger, keep big-hearted men about you. Courage brings success.” He nodded approvingly. “What sort of place is this Rathmines and where exactly?” Morann gave him an account of Caoilinn’s estate and its handsome hall. The situation, he explained, was close by Dyflin, and her herd of cattle was large. “The cattle will all be hidden in the hills by now,” Brian remarked.

“Where your men will sooner or later find them,” Morann pointed out.

“No doubt.” Brian nodded thoughtfully. “Very well,” he continued briskly, after a short pause. “I will stay at Rathmines myself. The estate will supply me and my personal household. The sooner Dyflin is given to me, the sooner I leave and the more of this lady’s livestock will be left. Those are my terms, Morann. Will you agree to them?”

“I will,” said the craftsman. And he rode ahead with Harold to prepare the house at Rathmines. Caoilinn’s son might not have relished having Brian Boru in the house, but he could see the merit of the deal. “You can thank Harold if you have any livestock at the end of this,” Morann told him.

Brian kept Morann with him at Rathmines until nearly the end of October. During that time, Morann had the chance to see how the great warlord conducted himself—his ordered camp, his well-trained men, his patience, and his determination. Then Brian sent him back to the King of Tara with some messages.

“This game will play out peacefully in the end,” he remarked to the craftsman as he was leaving. But Morann was not so sure.

The message did not come until December—in the form of a single horseman arriving on a cold, grey day at the gates of Glendalough. Over his shoulder was slung an empty leather satchel which he laid on the abbot’s table as he announced: “I have come for the book.”

The prince’s book: the present for Brian Boru. Christmas was approaching. It was due.

“Unfortunately,” said the abbot with some embarrassment, “it is not quite ready. But when it is,” he added, “it will be very fine.”

“Show it to me,” said the messenger.

Osgar had been working hard. By the end of October he had prepared the vellum, laid out the book, and copied the entire Gospels in a perfect hand. The decorated capital letters came next. He had left spaces for each of these and in the first ten days of November he planned a schema: while each letter would be treated differently, certain details—some purely geometric, others in the form of serpents, birds, or extended human figures—would subtly repeat themselves or balance each other in an exotic counterpoint, thus producing a hidden, echoing unity to the whole. He also intended to add little decorations to the text, as the spirit moved him. Finally, there would be four, full-page illuminations.