IVAR the BONELESS was PRINCE IVAR (Igor) of KIEV and his son

SVEIN ‘the OLD’ IVARSON was PRINCE SVEINALD (Sviatoslav) of KIEV

I have just posted a first draft of Chapter 7,  ‘VLAD THE IMPALER AND THE BATTLE OF RAMNIC’ of “The Saga of Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson” Book to the website SeiberTeck.com under the Book Heading of that name.

Army of the Impalers by Aman

Book 4, Chapter 7, VLAD THE IMPALER AND THE BATTLE OF RAMNIC (Circa 965-966 AD): 

Finished at last!  Finished at last!  Gawd Almighty, finished at last!  What?  There’s more?  Here’s the rest!.  Chapter Seven starts with Prince Hraerik’s arrival in Wallachia and his surprise conquest of the city of Slatina.  He grazes the ten thousand rams and ten thousand bulls he has brought there and he starts factories in the city to fabricate the special armour and helmets he needs to defeat the Army of the Impalers.

When the Hraes’ army learns that their reinforcements consist of a one hundred year old warrior skald and twenty thousand head of livestock, they begin to grumble so, Prince Svein arranges to have his grandfather, Prince Hraerik, share a few words with the troops.  The Prince has brought some special weapons with him, some old and some new, his hundred year old sword, Tyrfingr, and the latest entertainment weapon from Cathay…fireworks.  He talks of his many battle victories that have guaranteed him a seat near Odin in Valhall, giving the example of the Battle of Iskorosten three years prior, where Hraes’ legions had besieged the city for six months and he came out to help them and personally reduced the city to ashes in six hours.  Then he challenges anybody in the army to a duel to the death against him and Tyrfingr and next orchestrates a ten minute demonstration of powerful Cathayan fireworks.  The three new Hraes’ legions discover that the one thing in the world they fear more than the Army of the Impalers is a one hundred year old warrior skald.

The Hraes’ legions continue up the Olt River and lay siege to the city of Ramnicu Valcea, the home of Count Vladimir of Wallachia, great great great grandfather of Count Vlad Dracul ‘the Impaler’.  The legions cut off supplies to the city and confirm that the Army of the Impalers, some 40,000 strong, are indeed within the city walls.  But they are not coming out, preferring to let their Ghost Cohort play ‘Impalement Games’ with the Hraes’ and Romans outside the walls, but the Impalers don’t use a three fingered salute (no reading between the lines for them).  Prince Hraerik is still building his weapons in Slatina so, he is in no hurry to engage them.

One night, a fire breathing Roman bireme slips out from the walled harbour of Ramnic and bellows out Greek fire on a hundred of the Hraes’ dragon ships that are anchored along the riverbank.  Prince Svein wants the ship destroyed, but Prince Hraerik tells him he wants the ship captured.  He wants his alchemists in Gardariki to be given a chance to duplicate the Roman uberweapon so he can use it against them in the future.  But complications arise.

When the new weapons arrive from the city of Slatina, twenty thousand horned helmets, Prince Hraerik is ready to engage the Army of the Impalers, but they aren’t ready to come out and play, so, one night Hraerik arranges a demonstration of the new Cathayan entertainment weapon and fireworks are set off over the City of Ramnic, but they are of the weapon variety and burning sulphur drops down upon the city roofs from the explosions above and many of the buildings burn.  The Army of the Impalers comes out to fight the next day and what was expected to be a full day’s battle is over in an hour.

Who wins?  You’ll have to read it to see, but the Wallachian campaign is the one time that Vikings sport tattoos and the Battle of Ramnic is the one time Vikings actually wear horned helmets!

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.