IVAR the BONELESS was PRINCE IVAR (Igor) of KIEV and his son SVEIN ‘the OLD’ IVARSON was PRINCE SVEINALD (Sviatoslav) of KIEV and KING SWEYN FORKBEARD of DENMARK

I have just posted a first draft of Chapter 2,  ‘PRINCESS HELGA AND THE CHURCH OF SAINT IVAR’  (Circa 946-952 AD) of “The Saga of Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson” Book to the website SeiberTeck.com under the Book Heading of that name.

Princess Helga (Olga) of Kiev

Book 4, Chapter 2, PRINCESS HELGA AND THE CHURCH OF SAINT IVAR:  With the siege of Iskorosten over and Prince Mal dead, rebuilding the town became a priority for Princess Helga while Prince Hraerik ‘Bragi’ continued his translation of the Kama Sutra into Norse.  Queen Silkisif told Helga that she had buried Ivar’s body instead of burning it as required for plague victims and the two royals hatched a plot to build a church and convert to Christianity so that they could share Ivar in heaven.  Helga said: “If you can share Hraerik with me on earth, I can share Ivar with you in heaven!”  But to dedicate the church to Ivar, they learn that they’ll require permission from the Patriarch of Constantinople or from the Roman Emperor Constantine himself.  Silkisif told Helga that she would have to go to Constantinople and sleep with the Emperor.  Helga did as instructed and got the documents required to have the church dedicated to Ivar, but in the process, the Emperor fell in love with her.  She convinced him to personally baptise her in the Hagia Sophia and he sponsored her and gave her the baptismal name of Helene and became her godfather.  She then had the patriarch inform Constantine that, as godfather, sex with Helga was now forbidden.  When Helga returned to Kiev, Constantine openly wept as he saw her off at the main quay of the Golden Horn harbour of Constantinople.

Back in Tmutorokan, the two women had the church dedicated to Ivar ‘the Boneless’ Hraerikson by Bishop Rodgeir of Cherson using the documents Helga had received from Emperor Constantine.  The bane of western Christendom was now considered a saint in the east as the schism between Orthodox and Latin Christianity grew. 

Prince Hraerik and young Prince Svein sailed north to Europe to garner support and Hraerik soon arrived in Liere to visit with his daughter-in-law, Queen Mother Blaeja and his grandson, King Gorm and wife, Queen Thyra.  He introduced young Svein to his nephews, Gorm’s sons, Canute and Harald.  Blaeja told Hraerik that she had always feared why Ivar named her son Gorm and as soon as she learned that Ivar had named his son in the east Svein, she knew what was up.  “It’s the curse of Hraegunar Lothbrok!” she told him.  She also learned that her long dead grandmother was going to be a ‘Spiritual Assassin’ for Hraerik.

Emperor Constantine did not give up on Princess Helga and kept sending gifts and alms to her in Kiev.  Finally, she told him that he was no longer her godfather, as she had fallen away from the Christian faith and would have to return to Constantinople to be re-baptised.  Emperor Constantine is left anxiously awaiting her return.

Book Four, “The Saga of Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson,” demonstrates how Prince Svein ‘the Old’ (Slavic: Sviatoslav ‘the Brave’) of Kiev later moved to Norway and fought to become King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark.  But before being forced out of Russia, he sated his battle lust by crushing the Khazars and attacking the great great grandfather of Vlad the Impaler in a bloody campaign into the Heart of Darkness of Wallachia against the Army of the Impalers and their 666 salute.  The campaign was so mortifying that the fifteen thousand pounds of gold that the Emperor of Constantinople paid him to attack them seemed not nearly enough, so Prince Svein attacked the Eastern Roman Empire itself.  He came so close to defeating the greatest empire in the world, that later Danish Christian Kings would call his saga, and the sagas of his kin, “The Lying Sagas of Denmark” and set out to destroy them.