I am your leader while my husband the king is away. He has been gone some time, well over a year, nearly two. He has gone over the sea in one of our fine ships. He has left me here to look after you and be in charge of you, and I am impressed with the way we have got on. We have run our village Haithabu in exactly the way that he told us to. And he, the king, King Guthrum, is happy that you are in my hands. Now you children, some of you are very young and you will not remember how many years I have been here. You know me as Thora. I am named after the god Thor. My parents called me after him. But I am known to you as Thora Blue-eye. Everyone has a name to remind us of where we have come from and what we are like. So you may call me Thora and some of you call me Blue-eye. I don't mind. But my husband King Guthrum has gone for a long time.

Now we live here in Haithabu in Denmark and we have work to do. I try not to think of the king too often. I miss him very much and I'm waiting for news of him. But we have jobs to do, we have things to get on with. Now some of you have got skills and gifts that I particularly need. We are good at many things.