The Northern League: To Furthest North

(This is the third and final (?) part of the series begun here and continued here, part of the Great History of the League of Desmond.)

The League had become, after its long flight from Roman persecution, a shamanistic cult among the Germanic barbarians of the north. It remained in roughly this form for the next eight-hundred and eighty-one years. This time is quite well documented (due to the annal-keeping tradition established by the League's transitioning member, Roman historian Andromicus Desmondus), and may be explored further at some later date; but suffice it to say that the League moved steadily north; partially through cultural diffusion, partially through individual migrations - and by the year 868 AD, League shamans were even so far north as the wintry land of Norway.

Now, by this time, the League was very much a secret society. Having never been particularly open (fearing to release precious shamanistic secrets), the League was driven slowly underground by the spread of Christianity. Christianity would wait another century and a half to take a strong hold in Norway, but by this time Germany had long been Christian, and it took the most stubborn and inflexible mind to deny that it would eventually engulf all of Europe. The League of this time never lacked for stubborness or inflexibility.

As such, it was no surprise when the League shaman accompanying Ingólfur Arnarson frowned on his bold plan to sail to a distant, uninhabited island and establish a settlement. He feared a split from tradition; a foolhardy venture; a separation from Norwegian gods in a land far from Norway. But he reluctantly accompanied Ingólfur and his settlers to their destination - blessing their stop in England en route for supplies and captives - and was the second man among them to set foot on Iceland's cold earth.


Thus, the League of Desmond was a part of Iceland from its very beginning. Many great stories are still remembered of its time there - the pagan heroes which nobly roamed Iceland in search of treasure and glory for the next two hundred years. Even after the election of the first Icelandic bishop, pagans (such as the League of Desmond) were still allowed to worship secretly; and so the stories of the great heroes of the League of Desmond, though not identified as such in public records, are yet hallowed in the annals of the League. Indeed, it is from this noble branch of the League that Desmond and Kessler spring - but that is a tale for another time.

(Author's note: The first paragraph abbreviates ~3 entries that I was going to write. I may return to the period later, but I wasn't (and am not) particularly inspired by it. This gets to the point of the miniseries. You may recall that League members also ventured east. The beginning of that tale will appear today or tomorrow; abbreviated, to avoid lameness.)