Eaters Of The Dead

The warriors march up the hill to Rothgar’s hall. They notice odd footprints in the mud and repeat the word “wendol.” They pass a farmhouse and discover that the inhabitants have been decapitated and the bodies have teeth marks. Outside, they find a stone idol in the shape of a pregnant woman’s torso and Buliwyf smashes it. At Rothgar’s hall, Hurot, the warriors are annoyed by their delayed entrance and Buliwyf is unimpressed with Rothgar’s governance. Ahmad is impressed by the monumental size of Hurot, but Rothgar himself seems frail. Rothgar laments the violence in his kingdom and Buliwyf promises to help. 

At the feast that night, Rothgar’s son Wiglif arranges for an attack on Buliwyf, but Buliwyf kills the attacker. Ahmad is asked to entertain the Norsemen and tells an old story from Baghdad about a miser’s tattered slippers which at first pleases his hosts, but then upsets them. Herger makes a joke at Ahmad’s expense, restoring the jovial mood.

The next day, people set up defenses under Buliwyf’s direction. A local elderly woman also known as the angel of death predicts that the mist will arrive that night. Buliwyf organizes a feast but tells his warriors to prepare for battle. Ahmad learns that “wendol” refers to “black fiends who murder and kill and eat the flesh of human beings” (50). The wendol disappeared into the northern mists generations ago but have returned for an unknown reason. Buliwyf and his warriors pretend to sleep inside Hurot Hall. The wendol surround Hurot and break inside. Ahmad fights alongside Buliwyf and his warriors, but is knocked down by a wendol. Suddenly, the wendol vanish into the night. Three of Buliwyf’s warriors are dead but the only trace of the wendol is a severed arm, cut free by Buliwyf with his sword Runding. 

Ahmad is surprised that Buliwyf and his men seem pleased only for the warriors who died in battle, because they were afforded glorious deaths and immediate passage to the afterlife. The Norsemen are afraid: They know the wendol will return with a vengeance. Herger speculates that the wendol will return as Korgon, the name for “the glowworm dragon which swoops down through the air” (56). Buliwyf directs the construction of more defenses. Ahmad helps, pausing only to “have [his] way with a slave woman in the Northman’s fashion” (57). Ahmad thinks about the stark differences between the women in Baghdad and the women in the North.

At the feast that night, Buliwyf and his warriors drink heavily, believing that the mists will not return due to the direction of the wind and the advice of the angel of death. The next day, Ahmad learns that Wiglif has told his father that Buliwyf plans to kill Rothgar and take the throne. Ahmad tells this to Herger, who tells Buliwyf. Herger and Buliwyf make a plan: They goad Wiglif’s friend Ragnar into challenging Herger to a duel. At the moment Ragnar is about to kill Herger, Herger moves suddenly and cuts off Ragnar’s head, proving to Wiglif that Buliwyf and his men are as cunning as they are strong. Herger believes that Wiglif will not spread any more conspiracies against Buliwyf, but he laments the loss of a fighting man. 

At night, the mist returns. Buliwyf oversees the creation of a moat filled with stakes and the townspeople soak themselves and their buildings in water. Ahmad begs not to be drenched; Herger douses him anyway but offers Ahmad a drink of mead “to ease the chill” (64). Ahmad accepts. Ahmad and Herger swap stories and jokes to stay awake during watch. Their conversation is interrupted by the sighting of the Korgon, a long line of fires lit in the distance. The fires are carried by the wendol and look “like the undulating body of a dragon” (66) from afar. The wendol head down from the mountain toward the town.

When the wendol arrive, the battle begins. The town’s defenses provide some protection, and the soaked buildings are slow to catch fire. The fighting rages on through the night, and Ahmad wakes up in the morning as a dog licks his face. He surveys the battlefield, covered in the bodies of men, women, and children. Two of Buliwyf’s men are dead and others are wounded. Ahmad’s wounds are tended to, and he tries to match the Norsemen’s stoicism despite his pain. Herger reveals the latest plan. Rather than waiting for another assault, Buliwyf and the warriors will attack the wendol in their home. 

Buliwyf and his remaining warriors ride to where the wendol live. They follow a trail of blood into the hills to at a vast, misty stretch of land which the Norsemen call the “desert of dread” (72). As they cross the soggy desert into the “land of the wendol” (73), the horses become skittish and the Norsemen are nervous, though none will admit it. They pass giant bear skulls mounted on spikes; the wendol worship bears. They find a giant rock carved into the shape of a pregnant woman’s torso, coated in the blood of human sacrifices. Ahmad learns that this is the mother of the wendol, a deity who dictates their cannibalism.

The men advance with their swords drawn. They arrive at a ledge overlooking the wendol encampment: The wendol live in a valley of ramshackle huts arranged around a large fire. The wendol are “creatures of the night” (74) who sleep during the day. After some mead, the warriors leave behind their horses and descend into the encampment. They rush into the huts but find no one inside, only human bones littering the floors. The warriors burn down the huts and return to the kingdom of Rothgar. Buliwyf and his men are sad that the wendol have outwitted them.