Last Goth King

For this AU, Teja is a present-day metal musician of rather minor importance -- good solid session guitarist, member of about three underground projects in and around Philly.

He does both martial arts and metalwork on the side, as Teja would not be complete without all three of those; but if the alternative culture media notice him at all, it's as the boyfriend of artist, underground model and trans rights activist Miss Pyrrha Pandora. He sometimes provides Security at protests or fashion shows (which aren't always clearly separated).

It is spring in Gotland, the fields are tilled, and the livestock have young. There is more land under the plough now than in earlier years, as the homestead's children are growing up and can help till the earth, and the horses, pride and joy of the Goths living here, roam wide pastures with their young.

The barrow-hill by the sea is the only land not being worked now, circled by a fence to keep the sheep away, with a small gate for visitors to the special place where the kings from the south-lands lie in eternal slumber.

But with this barrow-hill, visiting goes both ways. As Teja opens the door, Bodhi and he are standing on the hillside, overlooking the fields and pastures, and the large longhouse in which Teja's friends live. It has been expanded since his last visit, and is almost a hall now, with out-buildings and stables and workshops, and many children about.

A group of them is sitting on the fence and staring at them as they appear.

"That is the king," an older boy with a hat explains to some of the younger ones, and they are awed, and slowly approach uphill.

[[Ctd. from here.]]

Teja opens the door, laden as he is.

His usually comfortable, creatively untidy room is still that -- there is even Ferdinand the cat, sprawling all over Teja's bed, fast asleep. There are simply two new doors, one of them leading to a kitchen that provides all the modern comforts and appliances as well as a space to comfortably sit and eat, the other leading to Egil's room in Loki's apartment on the 12th floor.

One better should not think about how that works.

Teja works into the night today.

He has sent his helper away much earlier, and closed the forge; but he has been thinking about the billet that delaminated the other day again this evening. He took it in his stride at the time, but it still irks.

He is in the forge now, re-smelting that metal, the smaller smelter set up by the forge-fire.

The door is standing ajar; but the cats are out hunting mice in the stables. Teja is observing the process, even though there is nothing to see at the moment. It is as if he was thinking himself into the smelter, willing it to work.

When he tears his mind away for a moment, he files upon a small piece of mokumegane which is smooth and lovely, but as yet not of any recognisable shape for either ornament or implement.-

This is not a good time to linger in the bar and maybe be spoken to by people that can be, occasionally, annoying.

So Teja picks up the one cat -- Myrrh --  that comes to greet him as he returns from Gotland with Pyrrha, orders dinner from a rat, to be served in his room in a while, and then offers his hand to Pyrrha, to walk upstairs with her.

The door opens as if out of a hillside; and below the hill, a farm nestles.

In it centre, there's a large long-house built from field-stones and large beams, thatched in reed and low-eaved; around it, there are outbuildings: baking oven, smithy, chicken coop, storage and the like. Cows, sheep and goats are grazing on the hills around; there are chickens and geese in the yard, and horses in a meadow.

Children are playing hide-and-seek among the buildings, and two tall burly men, one older and one younger, are hard at work at the smithy, mending sickles and scythes.

It is the early evening.

As if to mark the 100th anniversary of its author's death, Teja's canon is now available in English via Project Gutenberg, in the good contemporary Wolffsohn translation.

Volume One

Volume Two

Volume Three


First link is in German, sorry -- but the point is, canon in English for anybody who can put up with 19th century historical novel, which admittedly is hardly anybody any more.

Twins will not always do everything together.

This time, when Teja quietly slips into the homestead of his people, all but Gotho are making ready to leave, even though it is evening, to ride over to the farm of one Agilulf and one Martialis Romanus -- Teja remembers them, oh indeed he does! -- for a feast, but worrying about one of the twins, who is crying without pause, as she is teething. The other one, little Myrtia, already has two teeth; Valeria only has one tiny tip breaking through, and is crying in pain, even though Liuta gave her soft wood to chew on, and has a tincture to rub on the gums.

Teja, who cannot go with them, as there will be many who would know him by sight, offers to watch the crying child so she will not mar the feast; in the end, Gotho leaves but little Hilde stays with him, as one must at least pretend to be watching the teething baby.

Teja sings to them. Hilde, who would much rather stay with the king than go to a boring grown-up feast, snuggles beside them on the bed-bench, and soon falls asleep to the long, repetitive ballad of battles and hero-names.

Little Valeria yowls out her discontent for a long while, throwing her chewing wood, turning and flailing, showing the dead king just how much strength there can be in the tiny body of an eight-months-old child that wishes for something, or wishes for something to stop.

Finally, she quietens down, from the singing and the gentle rocking that goes with it, and chews her piece of wood, looking up at Teja with large fascinated eyes, the hard little skull with the soft bit of fluff sinking against his cheek.

But he is not allowed to stop, as then, she would start up again.

It is many hours, well into the night, until the homesteaders return, and Teja is singing the many, many stanzas of what would turn into the Lay of Hildebrand.

While he sings, all the words flowing freely from his memory, he muses how very odd this is, considering who he was and who he is elsewhere: - how should those that followed him into death have taken him in earnest, how will those he must keep the peace among still feel awe of him, if they saw him like this, singing to a sweet, now-happy and smiling baby, softly rocking her in his arm. And he feels he must be smiling, gently, his grim heart soothed by the trusting little person on his lap.

All grimness would be lost at that sight.

When his friends return, he stands; he hands the baby back to Gotho, will hear nothing of apologies, and promises to come again another day.

He wanders back up the barrow-hill and through his tomb into Milliways, still pondering.-

Teja is sitting by the door, turning the snake bracelet in his hands.

He is waiting for his friends to to turn up, so they may go visit his people together.