Eaters Of The Dead

Ahmad describes the Oguz as atheist “nomads” who live in felt tents. They rarely bathe and resent Ahmad and his Muslim entourage, who wash before praying. Ahmad describes the cultural differences between his Islamic home and the Oguz community. Ahmad finds Oguz attitudes toward women, marriage, and sex to be strange. He also describes Oguz burial practices. Ahmad’s party travels through the Turkish regions, encountering different tribes, staying in tents, and paying bribes when they need to. One local ruler, Etrek ibn-al-Qataga, threatens to kill or kidnap them, although Ahmad offers Etrek many gifts. Eventually, Etrek allows them to pass. The party crosses the Volga River and arrives in the land of the Bulgars. 

Ahmad describes his first encounter with the Vikings, whom he refers to as Northmen or Norsemen. The Norsemen set up camp on the bank of the Volga. Ahmad is surprised by their physical size and their tendency to always wear their weapons. Their swords are bigger than those Ahmad knows, and their skin is tattooed. The Norsemen live together in large wooden houses and often have sex in view of the other occupants. To Ahmad, the Norsemen seem to be “the filthiest race that God ever created” (20).

Wyglif, the Norse leader, is ill. The Norsemen elect a young man named Buliwyf to be their next leader. A feast is thrown to honor Ahmad and his delegation, though Ahmad is disgusted by the food. When Ahmad asks God to forgive him for the drunken lechery he witnesses, the Norsemen laugh at him, believing their Gods favor such behavior. Through a translator, Buliwyf tells Ahmad to sing a song. Ahmad sings passages from the Koran but feels uncomfortable speaking holy words in front of the Norsemen.

Wyglif dies and is mourned with many days of drinking and feasting. During this time, a man named Thorkel plots to dethrone Buliwyf. He accuses Ahmad of conspiring with Buliwyf to kill Wyglif. When Ahmad tries to depart, the Norsemen insist that he stays for the funeral. Wyglif’s body is placed in a longboat alongside many treasures. A girl volunteers to be burned with Wyglif and is killed by an elderly woman known as “the angel of death” (23) after a long ceremony. The Norsemen push the boat into the water and set it on fire to send the former chief to paradise.  

At a feast in honor of Wyglif, Ahmad is told by his interpreter that Thorkel plans to kill him and banish Buliwyf. Ahmad is told to bide his time, so he waits through a storm which lasts two days. The day after the storm, a mist arrives. Ahmad is surprised that the Norsemen fear the mist. The interpreter explains that a fear of mist and fog is common to all seafaring people because it makes the sea so much more dangerous.

A boat appears through the mist, carrying a young noble, Wulfgar, who is related to Buliwyf. Wulfgar is the son of Rothgar, a king in a nearby land, and has come on Rothgar’s behalf to ask Buliwyf for help. The interpreter is too scared to name the menace that threatens Rothgar’s people. The old woman known as the angel of death is summoned. She performs a ritual and tells Buliwyf that he must assemble a group of 11 warriors and go with them to help Rothgar. The old woman also says that Buliwyf must take Ahmad with him as the 13th member of the group. Ahmad protests that he is not a warrior, but the Norsemen insist that he must go. 

One of Ahmad’s new companions, Herger, knows “some of the Latin tongue” (29), and so Ahmad relies on him in the absence of his translator. The party travels past Bulgar, where Ahmad was sent by the Caliph, but the Norsemen refuse to stop. They sail up the Volga then travel over land to the mountains, and through the mountains until they enter a thick forest. Ahmad is confused by the long nights in the north and amazed by the Aurora Borealis.

The journey continues through the forest for many more days. Though the Norsemen never complain about the cold or rain, Ahmad grumbles. One night, Buliwyf and Ahmad discuss religion. Buliwyf is intrigued by Ahmad’s ability to write. Ahmad teaches Buliwyf the Arabic for “Praise be to God” (32). Later, Ahmad asks Herger to explain the Norsemen’s spiritual connection to the forest; Herger says that not everything can be explained.

Weeks pass and the Norsemen become annoyed when they run out of alcohol. Ahmad, who does not drink for religious reasons, is amused. When they eventually find a village with alcohol, the Norsemen stop for two days and drink copiously. Eventually, they reach the sea and take another boat. Ahmad documents Viking culture, including attitudes toward sex and slaves. The Editor questions the accuracy of Ahmad’s observations and his tendency to classify different communities of Norsemen under one single Viking culture. The warriors stop in Buliwyf’s homeland, Yatlam, to pay homage to his parents, but find that the town has been burned and its inhabitants killed. When Ahmad asks who killed them, Herger points to the forests and the mists. Buliwyf retrieves a giant sword. The warriors sail up the Volga.