On the day Niles first opened the workroom door, the three Norns cast his fate.
In the religion of the ancient Norse people, including those who settled Iceland, there were three female beings called the Norns. They were not gods and they were not human. They lived in a hall by the well of fate, which lies beneath the tree of life in the realm Asgard, home of the Norse gods. Believers think the Norns created and controlled peoples’ fates; therefore, they are the most monstrously powerful characters in the ancient Norse religion. No one prayed to the Norns, because they could not be swayed. The Norns had complete control over everyone’s fates.
Upon entering the workroom, Niles found a switch and turned on the LED fixtures. In the bright light he saw a partially complete wooden boat. His heart raced; he had never seen anything so beautiful. At that moment, the Norns had reached out and changed the course of Nile’s life.
The unfinished hull sat upside down on a kind of mold made of plywood forms affixed to a long skinny table – later he learned that table is called a “strongback”. It looked like the skeleton of a boat. Niles approached the craft and saw the keel that ran down the entire center-line of the boat. He touched the few cedar planks that were beginning to form the vessel’s skin. He went to bow and inspected the stem, an elegantly bent and carved piece of white oak. Then he walked to the stern and saw how the transom, which was shaped like a wine glass, was affixed to the keel with a piece of wood cut from the trunk of a tree where a limb had grown. The grain of the wood flowed around the bend of the piece, giving it amazing strength. Thin pine battens ran the length of the mold adding to the skeleton like nature of the structure.
Next Niles took in the workroom, which was completely different from the rest of the barn. The barn was generally dark, dusty, greasy, and cluttered. He often found the skeletons of a dead cats in there. In one corner of the barn’s main floor Jon kept the tools he used to work on equipment and maintain the farm’s buildings. Those tools were stored on a long bench and randomly hung from the walls; in the barn the goal was to efficiently do what needed doing.
The workroom was different – a place where one did what he loved to do.
The boat was surrounded by the instruments of its creation – woodworking tools. These devices were kept in an orderly fashion and meticulously clean. The LED bulbs lit the workroom like a hospital’s surgery. Along one wall, planks sat on horizontal racks. A massive workbench occupied the opposite wall. It would have taken at least four men to move that bench. It had two wooden vises, one on the long side and another on the end. The top of the bench had four rows of holes running in neat ranks along its length. Hundreds of tools were stored above and around the workbench. There were at least ten different wood planes, each one designed for a unique purpose. A score of chisels; the smallest with a blade only an eighth of an inch wide; the largest was almost twenty inches long with a blade three inches across. Both the planes and the chisels were so sharp you could shave with them. Saws of assorted sizes hung together next to hammers and mallets. What seemed like hundreds of clamps hung from clever racks attached high on the wall. The number and variety of the hand tools dazzled Niles. A table saw, band saw, drill press, thickness planer, joiner, grinder, and lathe sat between the unfinished boat and the lumber racks. A dust collection system hung from the ceiling with white plastic pipes running down to each machine. The room smelled of freshly cut wood.
The main area of the barn smelled of mold and rotting hay.
Niles did not know exactly what he was looking at, but he wanted to, and the Norns said he would.
While he studied the tools, a kitten entered the room and rubbed against his leg. It had predominantly white fur with random black spots. One spot ran down from between his eyes to the tip of its nose like an upside-down exclamation mark. A black patch sat on top of his head like a toupee. Niles picked up the beast and scratched it behind its ears. At that moment the boy and kitten looked into each other’s eyes and came to an understanding. The Norns were at it again.
Jon came into the workroom and said, “Well, I thought you were lost.”
Niles said, “Langafi, what is this place?”
“Let’s eat.”
“Can I keep this kitten?”
“That’s up to your mother. It looks like the kitten wants to keep you. Leave it here.”
They went into the house.
Jon opened a can of Tomato soup and prepared grill cheese sandwiches, a strange lunch for such a hot and muggy day.
Niles fired questions at him like a machine gun.
“Are you building that boat?”
“Yes.”
“When will it be done?”
“In the fall.”
“Have you made other boats?”
“Many.”
“Will it have a motor?”
“No. It’s a sailboat.”
“How did you learn to make boats?”
“My father and afi taught me. Afi is grandfather in Icelandic. Please take a breath so we can eat. I’ll show you some books after we wash the dishes.”
Again Jon’s used a combination of English and Icelandic words. Although as they talked, the old language began to take over.
Niles ate like he was starving because he wanted to learn about the boat and the workroom.
After they finished eating, cleaned the dishes, and put them away, Jon said, “Let’s go on the porch and look at a few things.”
Niles ran outside and sat on the bench swing that hung from the porch’s ceiling while Jon went into the living room and came out with an old leather bound photo album. He sat next to Niles and opened the book. It was packed with snapshots from Iceland when Jon was a boy. Next to each picture was a label explaining the date and location of the picture plus the names of the people in the photograph. Whoever recorded the descriptions used a fine pen and wrote in perfect cursive script. Jon explained that he had started the album in Iceland and brought it to America when he emigrated at the age of 21. For a while, he pointed at the pictures and commented on the people. Niles saw his ancestors for the first time in those septa tone images. He began learning their names and about their lives. Many images included boats like the one in the barn.
After forty-five minutes, Jon said, “I need to take a nap. That’s what happens when you get old. You can stay here and look at the pictures. Be careful with them; they’re precious”
With that he went inside.
Niles sat on the bench. As he gently swung, he became lost in the album. Meanwhile the kitten came out of the barn, jumped onto his lap, and fell asleep. Birds chirped and a warm breeze swayed the branches of the nearby willow tree.
Niles looked at the kitten and said, “I’ll call you Uhtred.” That was his great-great grandfather’s name.
After an hour, Jon came out on the porch and sat back down on the swing. He carried two books; one was a collection of sagas written in Icelandic, and the other was an Icelandic to English dictionary..
Jon asked, “Would you like to learn more about my old country?”
Niles said, “Sure Langafi.”
Jon began reading in his native tongue. Niles listened intently. The going was slow because every time Niles didn’t understand a word, he had to look it up. For most seven year-olds this process would feel like going to the dentist; the sooner it was over the better. But Niles enjoyed hearing the stories; he even liked looking up the words.
As the old man and the boy swung back and forth, hummingbirds visited the feeder for a sip of sugar water. High above them dozens of white pelicans soared on the thermals created by the sun warming the newly ploughed fields. The lilacs at the edge of the porch surrounded them with the smell of spring. In the western sky dark clouds were steaming east at an alarming rate.
That day the Norns wove boats, Iceland and a kitten named Uhtred into Nile life.
However, the Norns are often very cruel; tragedy loomed just around the corner.