“The Horseman of Hel” by Gail Kimberly (1927-2011) is a strange Nothern. Nothing about it is like what readers expect in a tale of Canada in 1901. There are no fur trappers, gold miners or even sod farmers. There are monks and Vikings.Yup, you heard me.
Now Gail Kimberly I have never heard of before. She was an American writer of YA novels as Dayle Courtney, including The Trail of Bigfoot (1983), and a Gothic novel, Secret of the Abbey (1980) as by Alix Andre. She also sold stories to Roger Elwood anthologies between 1973 and 1975. One of these was “The Horseman of Hel” in The Berserkers (1974). After Roger threw in the towel, she sold to the dwindling Galaxy. She finished her career with “Child of Faerie” in Bruce Colville’s YA anthology A Glory of Unicorns (Scholastic, 1998).
Let’s get back to “The Horseman of Hel”, maple syrup and Odin worshipers. The story concerns Brother Bernard, one of the trappist monks who lives in silence at the abbey. The story begins with him seeing an evil figure on a horse watching the abbey. When he tells his superior, Dom Theophilus, about it, he is told to forget about it.
Bernard is in charge of the maple syrup business that pays all their bills and helps support the poor. He hauls the jugs of syrup and cakes of maple to Parson’s General Store. There he sees Freda Lyngvi, a startlingly beautiful Nordic girl. The monk has lustful thoughts that torture him, but he can’t help but be excited by talking with her. (He is allowed to speak to the people at the store.) He notices Old Mr. Parsons looks at her lustfully too.
On one trip he comes to the store and Freda is gone. Outside he finds her. Parsons got handsy so she left his employment. What can she do? Her brothers are all up North in the Bush logging. Bernard hides her in the barn while he plans to leave the order. They talk about his Jesus and her belief in Odin. Sneaking Freda into the church, getting ready to leave, the monk finds Dom Theophilus dead. Freda’s brothers are there. They have sacrificed the monk to Odin. Freda tells them not to hurt Bernard. The horseman shows up again, Odin called back from the mists.
The brothers are ready to go berserk and kill all the monks and then the townsfolk. Bernard makes a move. He slips off his sandals and sneaks towards the bell tower stairs. He bumps a pew but has a head start. He gets to the rope and rings the bell, warning the monks. The brothers recapture him. Freda is not pleased. She tells them to sacrifice Bernard too. The monks show up to see what is wrong and a battle breaks out, the monks arming themselves with candlesticks. The berserkers are too strong. The monks are put down.
Bernard sees all his brothers in defeat. He begins to sing in Latin. The other monks follow his lead. A light appears and banishes Odin, drives Freda and her brothers away. The Christians have won. Later, some of the facts are told to the police but not all of it. No one would believe…
Wow! And I thought colonial Canada was a little dull. Resurrected Vikings (both real and fake) are not that hard to find in the Pulps (Doc Savage’s Quest of Qui) and comics (Explorer Joe) but in 1970s horror/scifi paperbacks? I try to imagine why Kimberly sets “The Horseman of Hel” in 1901 Ontario but doesn’t really explore that setting outside of sugar maples. Vikings attacking churches is pretty traditional but not in Canada. I understand the anthology is about berserkers but neither that cover nor this story seem the right fit for me. Now,I haven’t read the rest of the book but a little Robert E. Howard Sword & Sorcery would fit the bill. With authors like R. A. Lafferty, James Blish, William F. Nolan, Adrian Cole, Barry N. Malzberg and David Gerrold I doubt that’s on the bill. Still Gerrold’s story “Skinflowers” has a rocking title….
