The Spear of Destiny Read Free

over to the
     Doctor.
    The sound of gunfire was replaced
     by the familiar grinding sound of dematerialisation, and Jo felt
     relief rush over her. She turned round and perched on the edge
     of the console.
    ‘Yes, that was rather close,’ said
     the Doctor. ‘Still, it proves one thing.’
    ‘Which is?’
    ‘That the spear is something
     unusual. No one would go to such lengths to protect it if it was
     just an old piece of wood and a lump of gold.’
    ‘Maybe Moxon is just very
     protective of his collection.’
    ‘Sub-machine guns? That’s taking
     museum curation a bit far, don’t you think?’
    ‘I suppose so,’ said Jo. ‘Anyway,
     where are we going?’
    The Doctor smiled. ‘A very good
     question.’
    ‘With a very good answer, I
     hope.’
    ‘We can’t steal the spear
now
, but we can
     steal it in the past. We are therefore travelling back to its
     only other confirmed location in space–time.’
    ‘Which is?’
    ‘Didn’t you read the notice by the
     case?’
    Jo shook her head. ‘Too busy
     trying to understand Futhark.’
    ‘Well, do you still have the
     leaflet from the museum?’
    Jo fished in her back pocket and
     pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. She found the short
     description of the spear.
    Ceremonial
     spear. Found in Gamla Uppsala, Sweden. Believed to
     have been used in festivals around the vernal
     equinox, second century
AD
. Inscription upon the head
     reads
GUNGNIR
. In
     Norse mythology, Gungnir was the magical spear of
     Odin.
    ‘You’re taking us to see the
     Vikings?’ asked Jo incredulously.
    ‘I know! Wonderful, isn’t it?’
     said the Doctor with a grin.
    ‘That’s not the word I’d use,’ Jo
     said. ‘Hey, wait a minute, how do you know where to go?’
    ‘
Where
is easy,’ said the Doctor. ‘Just
     look at your leaflet. Uppsala, central Sweden. Or Old Uppsala to
     be exact. Centre of power of Swedish kings for over a thousand
     years till the Christians turned up. That’s
where
.
When
is a little harder. We
     know we should head for the spring equinox … Nice of the Vikings
     to date things around astronomical phenomena. Makes life so much
     easier.’
    ‘But in which year?’
    ‘Well, there I’m guessing a
     little. In the British Museum there is a rune stone that bears
     the only other known reference to Gungnir. It refers to a
     ceremony in Old Uppsala and mentions the passing of a second sun
     across the heavens. Scholars have always assumed that to be a
     reference to Halley’s Comet, whose
only
known appearance in the second
     century was in 141 AD –
     according to the old Julian calendar that was on the
     twenty-second of March, the very next day after the equinox. So
     that’s when, and where, we’re going.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Jo. ‘I see.’
    ‘Good.’
    ‘I have just one question.’
    ‘Fire away!’
    ‘Oh, Doctor, please. Not after
     that business at the museum.’
    The Doctor held up his hand.
     ‘Sorry. What’s your question?’
    Jo swallowed. ‘So, listen. This
     spear. The magical spear of Odin. I might have got this wrong,
     but wasn’t Odin a god?’
    ‘That’s what they say.’
    ‘Well, doesn’t that worry you at
     all?’
    ‘On the contrary. Rather fun, I’d
     say.’
    ‘Fun?’ asked Jo, eyeing the spear
     by the doorway nervously. ‘Do you really think the owner of
     Gungnir was a god?’
    The Doctor smiled again. ‘I
     suppose,’ he said, ‘that we’re about to find out.’

5
    With an almighty groaning the
     central column of the TARDIS came to rest. They had
     landed.
    ‘Of course, the Vikings are much
     misunderstood.’
    ‘Is that right?’ asked Jo.
    ‘Come on, you must have done some
     history at school.’
    ‘Doctor, we did the Romans. Every
     year. Ask me about the Punic Wars and I’m your girl.’
    ‘Some other time maybe,’ said the
     Doctor. ‘The point is that people often see the Vikings as
     violent marauders and nothing else, when the truth of the matter
     is that by and large