The first snowfall came in the middle of Blotmonath, or Blood Month, named for the slaughtering of the animals that could not be fed through the winter, and the subsequent preserving of the meat. The men finished the new hall as billows of fresh snow gathered on the ground, and the families that had crowded into Sigurd"s hall split their numbers between the buildings.
Hakon spent the fleeting daylight hours helping the people in whatever tasks he could find. In return, they taught him to fish through holes cut in the ice, and to hunt wearing long wooden boards they called skis on his feet. He learned the art of ale-making from some of the older women, and how to make sleds from the children. When the bay near Sigurd"s estate froze, the men taught him how to tie horse-bone skates onto his
