Carl's Golden Age

Carl helps his Goths against the Vandals:

"...a blue-cloaked spearman who rode through the sky on a mount that was not a horse." (Time Patrol, pp. 368-369)

He takes the chief's daughter, Jorith, as his leman and becomes "...a great trader." (p. 370) There are ten years of peace with amber, furs, honey and tallow from the North, also wine, glass, metalwork, cloth and pottery from the South and West. However, two years after Jorith's union with Carl, she dies immediately after bearing their son, Dagobert.

This is the period that the Wanderer's Goths look back to. Their chiefs after Winnithar are of divine descent:

Winnithar;
Jorith with Carl;
Dagobert;
Tharasmund;
Hathawulf.

We follow five generations from 300 to 372, a fictional history in a single novel - "The Sorrow Of Odin The Goth" fills 133 pages of Time Patrol. Winnithar and his wife Salvalindis do not join the general migration south but:

"When the wagons had creaked away, the Wanderer sought those two out, one last time; and was kind to them, for the sake of what had been and of her who slept by the River Vistula." (p. 384)

"...what had been..." The ten years of peaceful trade are already a memory.