“Good. What is your plan?”
“I’ll take an electronic cram in the Gothic language. I can read it already, but want to speak it fluently, though doubtless my accent will be odd. I’ll also want a cram on what little is known about customs, beliefs, et cetera. That’ll be very little. The Ostrogoths, if not the Visigoths, were still on the bare fringes of Roman awareness. Surely they changed considerably before they moved west.
“So I’ll begin well downtime of my target dates; somewhat arbitrarily, I’m thinking of 300 AD. I’ll get acquainted with people. Next I’ll reappear at intervals and learn what’s been going on in my absence. In short, I’ll keep track of events as they march toward the event. When it finally comes, I shouldn’t be caught by surprise. Afterward I’ll drop in here and there, from time to time, and listen to the poets and storytellers, and get their words on a concealed recorder.”
Everard scowled. “Um-m, that kind of procedure – Well, we can discuss the possible complications. You’ll move around a fair amount geographically too, won’t you?”
“Yes. According to what traditions of theirs got written down in the Roman Empire, the Goths originated in what’s now central Sweden. I don’t believe that numerous a breed could have come from that limited an area, even allowing for natural increase, but it may have furnished leaders and organization, the way the Scandinavians did for the nascent Russian state in the ninth century.
“I’d say the bulk of the Goths started as dwellers
along the southern Baltic littoral. They were the easternmost of the Germanic peoples. Not that they were ever a single nation. By the time they reached western Europe, they were separated into the Ostrogoths, who took over Italy, and the Visigoths, who took over Iberia. Gave those regions fairly good government, by the way, the best government they’d had for a long while. Eventually the invaders were overrun in their turn, and vanished into the general populations.” “But earlier?”
“Historians make unclear mention of tribes. By 300 AD, Goths were firmly established along the Vistula, in the middle of what’s currently Poland. Before the end of that century, the Ostrogoths were in the Ukraine and the Visigoths just north of the Danube, the Roman frontier. A great folk migration, apparently, over the course of generations, because they seem at last to have abandoned the North entirely; there, Slavic tribes moved in. Ermanaric was an Ostrogoth, so that’s the branch I mean to follow.”
“Ambitious,” Everard said doubtfully. “And you a new chum.”
“I’ll gain experience as I go along, uh, Manse. You admitted yourself, the Patrol is shorthanded. Moreover, I’ll be acquiring a lot of that history which you want.”
He smiled. “You should, at that.” Rising: “Come on, finish your drink and let’s go eat. We’ll need a change of clothes, but it’ll be worth the trouble. I know a local saloon, back in the 1890’s, that sets out a magnificent free lunch.”
300-302
Winter descended and then slowly, in surges of wind, snow, icy rain, drew back. For those who dwelt in the thorp by the river, and soon for their neighbors, the dreariness of the season was lightened that year. Carl abode among them.
At first the mystery surrounding him roused fear in many; but they came to see that he bore neither ill will nor bad luck. The awe of him did not dwindle. Rather, it grew. From the beginning, Winnithar said that for such a guest to sleep on a bench, like a common thane, was unfitting, and turned a shut-bed over to him. He offered Carl the pick of the thrall women to warm it, but the stranger made refusal, in mannerly wise. He did accept food and drink, and he did bathe and seek the outhouse. However, the whisper went about that maybe these things were not needful for him, save as a show of being mortal.
Carl was soft-spoken and friendly, in a somewhat lofty way. He could laugh, crack a joke, tell a funny tale. He went forth afoot or ahorse, in company, to hunt or call on the nearer yeomen or join in offerings to the Anses and in the feasting that followed. He took part in contests such as shooting or wrestling, until it had become clear that no man could best him. When he played at knucklebones or board games, he did not always win, though the idea arose that this was because he chose not to make folk afraid of witchcraft. He would talk to anybody, from Winnithar to the lowliest thrall or littlest toddler, and listen with care; indeed, he drew them out, and was kindly toward underlings and animals.