Heort the Swift and Ivarne Errarthdottir

I don't know whether the original tale about her exists or not. I know my
idea is perhaps too romantic (Briton-Celtic?) for Heortling standard, and maybe
such romantic man in my tale cannot become the
Great King, (or Ivarne trained her husband as often Ernalda did her husband?)
And I can say I don't like such kind of women though I admit a romance needs
a heroine such like her...

That event which this tale speaks was:

"before Heort fought for Hengall the Second Son in "I fought, we won,"
before he went to the Arrowmound and fought Gagarth,
before he was considered to be dead and took a funeral while he was still alive,
before he became a friend of the ruler of Shadow Plateau,
before he bestowed peace to Hidden Kings of Kodigvari,
or before he became the Highking of surviving Vingkotling with Andrin's support at the Grizzly Peak."

He was called Heort the Swift,
because of his swiftfoot and hunting skill while other hunters scarcely
managed to have games. He met the Silver Stag.

Vela the Matchmaker taught him when he asked her who was the girl
who had disturbed his dream since his initiation to adulthood, she didn't answer, but
taught him to trace the way of that noble animal.

(Heort's mother was Drenyan Red-haired, her childbirth was helped by Vinga Orlanthdottir herself,
his clan was the legendary Winter Deer clan belonged to Koroltes in modern "Grazeland".)

Ivarne was a Kodigvari? in Storm Age, a daughter of tragic King Errarth, she
was known for her brilliant beauty, even foreigners and outlaws heard
about that living goddess of beauty, and many marriage suitors came to her
clan hall, but her father refused all of them because she knew
nobody of them suited to her and her father didn't want to part with his
daughter. Some of them bore a grudge to her and one of them tried to
win her by any possible means. His name was Koschei the Saltheart of
Koroltes.

He went to the tula of Vadrudi and sought help from them as one of their
cousin, some of them also heard about her beauty and tried to make her their own, but they knew
they could not acquire such noble birth of Kodigvari, and others were defeated by
the Fyrd of King Errarth before the king fell to the tragic doom, Koschei
was persuaded by them
to seek help from other people, one of Vadrudi, the warped figure of Undra
the Killingblow went with Koschei to the place of Sorcerer. From the beginning,
Undra wanted to trick Koschei but Koschei didn't notice his blackheart.

Who knows evil sorcerer's desire? They are all the entities of wretched and
disfigured soul, and one of them, Strugnat the Icesculptor filled his desire
by freezing and collecting beauty of living things, like Silver Stag or
Golden Alynx. But he didn't have good collection of beautiful woman when the two visited to his hut.
And he needed a lot of ice and frost for his horrible arts, and befriended
to Vadrudi by freezing some of their enemies because they already intermingled with Hollri and ice giants,
but soon even most violent Vadrudi
started to loath his evil and disgusting habit and wanted to kill without any trouble.
Koschei and Undra showed Ivarne's portrait and the Evil Sorcerer soon fell in love with her, and the
two men spoke the sorcerer how they were humiliated by her father Errarth,
Strugnat suggested to help their revenge if they give him her body.
Koschei and Undra admitted his suggestion.

The Trio disguised with evil sorcery as a band of entertainers, and visited
to the stead of Tragic King Errarth's Tribal Hall. Strugnat showed good
entertainment and music. Already Tragic King Errarth was poisoned and his
only enjoyable things were only good music, entertainment and the beauty of
his daughter, Errarth enjoyed their performance and asked them what they
wanted. The evil Sorcerer asked the Tragic King to listen to his tale.


"Do you heard about the tale of "Heler and Ui"?"
"Of course we know, it is a tragic tale, we know how the demon enslaved the
friend of Orlanth to the Sky by the power of Predark."
"But we know another story, in this story, Heler and Ui were lovers, and
they are now very happy."
"How can he be happy? He is enslaved in the Crystal!"
Ivarne tried to stop that conversation but was barriered by the sudden very
cold breeze.

"Because we know he wanted to become freezing and preserve his beauty
eternally, he was called most beautiful man in Storm tribe, he didn't
need to be worried about becoming old and ugliness, or destroyed by
killingblow of enemies! and now everybody always can see his beauty in the
frozen pillar, do you want to see that?"

Errarth made a slight nod but soon noticed the trick of Sorcerer, but it was
too late, Undra and Koschei blew chilling wind to the Clan Hall and stopped all of
weaponthanes, evil Strugnat kissed the lip of Ivarne and fleezed, and
Undra carried her frozen body during coldwind blowing.

Firstly, Strugnat was killed in the escape route, because Koschei stung
him from his back, but Ivarne's frozen body didn't melt down, for Undra
tricked him the magic would lose the effect if the caster die, but the two
didn't know how they could recover her, or why she wanted to be frozen...

Next, Undra was killed by the sword of Koschei, for Undra laughed at him and
spoke his desire to carry back her as his trophy, but Koschei also nearly
killed by the fatal blow of Vadrudi's axe and died when Errarth's Thanes
came to him.


"Oh, what a tragedy seized us!" Tragic King Errarth mourned as usual.
Even his most powerful godi could not recover her from frozen Coffin for already the World
gradually went to mad, and Heroes were busy for fighting with enemies.
Errarth died in horrible and very unhappy state because he was betrayed by his kinsmen.

Of course, some of Winter Deer clan elder knew well this story, but none of
them watched the Ice Tomb after the Last Royal Betrayal in the Sword and Helm, Heort found it for
Silver Stag guided him to there, he was shocked by her beauty and swore to
himself to bring her back to the living World.

He tried to awake her from slumber several times by many magical means and
adventures, and gradually he dissolved the ice which surrounded her, but she
didn't wake for long time, sometimes, he nearly abandoned the idea to awake her, but the echo
of Ernaldelan Temple urged him to try again,

"She is not dead, she sleeps."

He met one of his ancestor's soul, Koschei Saltheart and made him apologize
to her his past deed, he sought magical portion which was used for sorcery
petrification, he hunted Vadrudi Undra and killed him in the Blowing Place,
and his hardest quest was to seek her lost homeland and made a shrine for
her father, tragic king Errarth. But she still slept. He dived to her soul itself by crossing their breath
and asked to her.

"Why do you sleep so long? What makes you do so?"
"Because Elmal is still wounded at the top of Orlanth's mother, there is
only wasteland while Kodigvari still rule us and reign us by eating our
deads. Can you fix this? When will Orlanth return to us?"
"I promise you to try to fix it, but that work needs your help."

Then Heort sang a song for the beauty of her friend in enslavement, White
Stag now dancing in the Forest, simple pleasure to sow and plow Winter Deer's
farm and finally, how Orlanth's Wind had blown over the Plain, beautiful
river running.

"Do you come with me?" Heort asked to her.
"I'll go with you." Ivarne woke up and replied to his question.

Next:"I fought, we won."

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