Original story by Nick Marlow
Once upon a time far up north, on a small island called Elbaf, there was a little village which many generations of the proudest and most famous Viking warriors called their home. Each year after the raids are done, the Vikings have a festival to thank the gods for the good raids and the good harvest. They celebrate it with games and banquets. This year is a very important year for one special young Viking warrior. This young special Viking warrior named Loki just turned 10 and it is his first year to participate at the festival games.
His father Ragnar is known throughout the village for making a record that can´t be broken in the next 1000
years. He carried a 750 kg tree 5 meters before he let it drop. Loki wants to give his best at the games to carry on the legacy of his family. The minutes till the first game starts are countable at the fingers of one hand, and Loki is shivering. “You don’t have to be afraid of failing Loki.” Said his father Ragnar “I am sure you will do great.” Loki smiled and said “I am not shivering because I am afraid, I am shivering because I can´t wait anymore to finally show what I can do!” Ragnar started to laugh “Gegyahahahaha! You sure are my son! Gegyahahaha!” Even though Loki was confident he knew the competition was tough and wouldn’t be easy to beat, especially not Hapfjord son of Rollo, who has trained with Loki the whole last year. Hapfjord was Lokis best friend and rival at the same time. Loki went to Hapfjord and said “Good luck my friend, may the better one of us win” and Hapfjord replied with a smile “Good luck to you too, you will need it” Loki smiled at Hapfjord and both started laughing “Gyahahahahahah” Then the horn was blown and the games begun. The first challenge was to make an axe sharp enough to chop a pile of wood with it. Loki took the grindstone and started to sharpen his axe. He knew he had to sharpen the axe correctly otherwise the blade would not be able to chop wood.
Loki was nearly done when another participant was finished already and went to chop the wood. Loki was surprised how he was able to sharpen the axe so fast, but he started laughing as he saw that the blade of the axe broke because it was sharpened incorrectly. Loki was done sharpening his axe at the same time as Hapfjord and both made their way to chop the wood.
It was very close but Hapfjord finished with his pile 5 seconds earlier than Loki. Loki was angry with himself
that he didn’t do better. He congratulated Hapfjord and said “Well done Hapfjord, but there are still 2 more games to go.” Hapfjord replied “I told you that chopping wood would be important but you spend so much time on carrying trees around like your father that you forgot that that is only one game of five. You should have trained more balanced and prepared for every game.” Now Loki was angry at Hapfjord for him speaking so arrogantly “We will see how unbalanced I trained in the next game”
Angry at each other they went over to the next game. The next game was Iron ball throwing, whoever could throw the iron ball the furthest, would win the game. The iron ball was heavy, Loki guessed it at around 20 kg. Hapfjord messed up his throw, it seemed he was still angry at Loki and could not keep his cool. Loki threw his iron ball much further than Hapfjord did and said to Hapfjord “Seems like my training isn’t that unbalanced” Hapfjord went angrily to the next game. Even though Loki won he felt not like he won at all. He had a stomachache and wondered why he felt so bad. Ragnar, Lokis father came to him and said “Are you alright? It seems like you got into a fight with Hapfjord.” And Loki said “Yes and now I am not feeling well and I am not having fun at the games.” “Having a fight with a friend is a big problem. You shouldn’t let these games ruin your friendship.” Said his father calmly. So Loki went to the next game which was archery. As he arrived he saw Hapfjord struggling with
the bow, and Loki said “REMEMBER OUR TRAINING HAPFJORD, YOU ARE A GOOD ARCHER I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!” Hapfjord looked happily at Loki and took his shot. Hapfjord hit the bullseye and was very happy and celebrated. Now it was Lokis turn to shoot. He still felt bad and couldn´t concentrate. Then he heard Hapfjords voice shouting “REMEMBER THAT WE TRAINED TOGETHER, YOU CAN DO THIS EASILY I BELIEVE IN YOU!” and suddenly Loki didn’t feel bad anymore at all, since he knew Hapfjord had forgiven him and he took the shot. Loki hit the bullseye aswell and was very happy. Loki went to Hapfjord and said “It looks like we both won one game each and got as many points in the last game.” “But there can only be one winner” said Hapfjord in a sad voice, but Loki had a splendid idea. He went to the referee and asked him if they could share the trophy and both be champions. The referee laughed and agreed to Lokis request. He shouted “This year we have two winners! Loki son of Ragnar and Hapfjord son of Rollo scored the same
amount of points and can call themselves champions!�
As they got the trophy both of them knew it wouldn’t be the same of only one of them had the trophy and they promised to never fight again.
Original story by Nick Marlow