This story is of my travels to the Kingdom of Vinland.
My name is Hanbortz, a Roman-Cuman from the Roman province of Cumania. I served the Ceasar 10 years. Once I left his service my wife left me and my son was entered into a monastery by her father. Her family being of nobility I was unable to do anything and instead decided to travel.
Meeting with metchants we headed first to Constantinople. There we were but two days before cargo was loaded and we set sail again.
Next we arrived at the Catholic island of Malta, ruled by the Monks Hospitalar. There we remained a week. In that time I witnessed a procession of the Knights Hospitalar, the warrior monks. I also got to observe the peoples of the island. They very much reminded me of the Varangians that I had met years ago. They were loud and spoke fast. Were it not for the rulership of the monks I would not have been surprised to see many of them drunk by midmorning. They would only start drinking wine after the sun had begun setting.
When we set sail again we sail to Hispania. There we stopped at several ports. Here I also saw much of the people. Like those of Malta they were loud. But they seem to express their emotions much more easily. They also seemed to like bright colours and would wear them even if they were likely to get dirty. At the last port we stopped we were at a city that boasted that the last of the Hussassin Muslims were living there. These Muslims had long ago attempted to kill the Ceasar and with the Mongol Khan's assistance were driven from their fortresses.
Form there we sailed to Briton. We arrived in the city of London. There I parted ways with the ship and its crew. I was able to do this as soon after my arrival I met with a group of young boys. Several of them could speak Greek and once I was introduced to their families I was invited to stay with them for a while. Their fathers were all merchants.
While I was in London I felt a strange sensation. For a while I could not understand what it was. Then one day I was talking with one of the merchants(I had learned the English language by then) and he said it must be because I am not at home. I though about it and finally realized the problem, I was being stared at wherever I went.
While in the Roman Empire it is nothing to see blonde slavs, olives skinned Greeks and dark haired turks all in the same street in their own clothes, but to these Britons I was sight to behold. My embroided kaftans and pointed hat seemed to attract more attention than it did in Malta or Hispania. Someone even tried to buy them from me.
A few week later I was hurringly taken to one of the trading house. When I arrived I noticed that there were soldiers outside of the house. When I arrived inside I was told that the King had come to see me. I was brought before him and had to entertain him. As I spoke he mentioned a place called Vinland. Later I would enquire from the merchants about this Vinland and they told me about a kingdom that existed far west of the islands of Briton. Over the next few weeks I began enquiring about how to journey to this Vinland.
Once I discovered a boat that was bound to a island called Iceland from where I could find a ship to Vinland, I secured passage aboard the vessel and sold all the rings and ornaments I had to ensure I could afford passage to Vinland. It was at this time that I discover how poor the Britons were. While I sold my items quickly they prices they fetched were quite high. Some would say that this means the Britons were rich, but if they are willing to pay such price for trinkets, I would say their lives are poor indeed.
When the I left, the Briton the families that had hosted me came to see me off as if I were one of them. One of the girl even asked me if I would return and marry her. I declined her request and afterwards asked her father when he apologized for her actions not to be harsh to her.
The ship I was on was crewed by Norsemen. These men reminded me of also of the Varangians. But only in the way their face were formed. These men were calm, and while they made jokes, they were quick to return to their work.
Arriving at Iceland, I discovered that I was too late to join a fleet of ships setting out for Vinland. It seemed that once a year, entire fleets of ships bearing people from many kingdoms set out from Iceland to Vinland with the hope of starting a new life.
I spent the next year in Iceland. In this time I was hired by a small group of people from Frankia to train their boys as soldier. As the year passed my students went from a few dozen to nearly 200 boys and men.
When the time came to leave we boarded our ships and left. New ships had been built specially for traveling to Vinland.
It took the ship several weeks to reach Vinland. In that time all kept to themselves. That captain made it clear that people were to keep to themselves as much as possible to avoid fights.
When we arrived in Vinland, we were all relieved to stop living as monks. Coming off from the boats I notice there were many establishments close to the docks that had sent heralds to attract the new arrivals. Many of these place were of a questionable nature.
The boys and men I had trained left with their families immediately after arriving, off to serve some noble on the borders of the Kingdom of Vinland.
As time went on I sold my service training a group of men a rich merchant had gathered in order to protect him on a journey south. As the months passed I saw more of the people of Vinland. Most were Norsemen, Franks and Britons. There were also the Skraelings, as they were called by a Briton I met. They had dark, thick hair and a tanned skin.
I planned to stay in Vinland for a while and travel with the merchant on his journey. Apparently there is a kingdom to the south where gold is as abundant as rock.
(These is the only surviving pages from a dairy found in the foundations for the White Library. The remaining pages were ruined by the the firebomb that burnt the library down during the Western Syndiclist Revolutions)