I was watching the news the other night, just after President Vladimir Putin of Moscow had attacked Kiev and President Joe Biden was on TV saying “We’lI put these sanctions on Russia and see how they’re working in a month or so,” and I thought “There may not be a Ukraine in a month,” and I lowered my head in disgust.  I had just finished a Post in which I compared Russian leader Vladimir Putin against the earlier leader of Kievan Rus’ (Ukraine), Prince Vladimir ‘the Great’ of Kiev (ruled 972-1015) and I was amazed how similar the Twenty First Century Russian President was with the Tenth Century Kievan Rus’ Prince:

1.  They had both attacked their immediate neighbours.

2.  They had both attacked the Crimea.

3.  They had both attacked Kiev.

4.  They had both sold their own brands of Caviar (Vladimir ‘the Great’ sold the Rus’ line of Khazar Vayar and Vladimir Putin his own brand of Gorbusha Putina Caviar).

5.  Prince Vladimir ‘the Great’ retired to the west and conquered England as King Canute ‘the Great’ in 1016 and ruled it until 1035.  President Vladimir Putin has guaranteed his rule of Russia to 2035.

President Volodymyr (Vladimir?) Zelensky has absolutely nothing in common with anything from the Tenth Century, no attacks, no conquests, no Caviar.  He doesn’t even have multiple wives!  Out of these three Vladimirs, I have to back this Zelensky fellow because he looks like the kind of guy who might have a sense of humour.  Also, it’s the right thing to do.

HOW TO DO IT:

1.  First thing I’m going to do is write my MP (or Congressman) requesting that my government fully support Ukraine (and no crappy sanctions and we’ll see how it goes in a month shite).  Please see the template letter I downloaded from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (I added a few demands to the end of the list).

2.  Then I’m going to donate.  I’ll ensure that I send my money to a genuine Ukrainian support charity (watch out for not-for-profit charity corporations that pay their CEOs and C-officers exorbitant wages before they forward whatever is left of your donation to Kiev) and I’ve even heard that some governments are matching their citizens donations so, that is what I’ll be looking for.

3.  Then I’m going to take Volodymyr Zelensky up on his offer to put me up for a few months while I become a foreign freedom fighter.  I was in the Loyal Edmonton Regiment for two years in the ‘70s and all we ever trained to fight back then were the Russians so, I’m good to go if they’ll have me.  I’m a fully trained NCO, Covid free and triple vaccinated.  Where do I sign up?

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Template of Letter of Support from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress:

Feb27 2022

Tracy.Gray@parl.gc.ca (Revise to email of your MP or Congressman as required)
House of Commons

Ottawa, Ontario

K1A 0A6 

Dear Tracy Gray, MP:

Re: Ukraine needs Canada’s help NOW!

As your constituent, I am writing to you to express my support for Canada helping Ukraine defend itself against brutal Russian aggression. Canada must help now!

Russia has declared war on Ukraine and is indiscriminately bombing civilians and hitting Ukrainian cities with rocket strikes. Putin and his regime are war criminals who must be stopped. The Free World must rally to Ukraine’s defence and stop the genocide that Putin has planned.

It is very important in this time of existential threat for Ukraine that we all speak out publicly against Russian atrocities.

I ask for your public support for:

• A no-fly zone over Ukraine to secure Ukrainian airspace and protect civilians from Russian air attacks;
• Providing anti-aircraft, anti-rocket and naval weapons systems to Ukraine immediately;
• A full trade embargo on Russia
• Removing Russia from the SWIFT International Payments System
• Facilitating the Ukrainian call for foreign fighters by assisting former Canadian soldiers who wish to volunteer for such aid.
• Planning for putting in place provisions for standing Canadian soldiers to volunteer for such service should it be required.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian people are courageously defending their homeland from Russia’s brutal and unprovoked attack. But they need our help now. I ask you to Stand With Ukraine.

Yours sincerely,

Brian Seibert

Brian Howard Seibert, B.A.

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“The VARANGIANS” Series:

‘The Varangians’ series of five books is about the Danish Varangian Princes of early Rus’ (Russia), based on The Nine Books of Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus and the Russian Primary Chronicle of Nestor.  The Russian monk Nestor asserts that Rus’ was founded by three brothers, Rurik, Sineus and Truvor, but the Danish names in Book 5 of Saxo’s work are Erik, Sigfrodi (King Frodi) and Roller, three brothers from Denmark and Norway.

Book One of the five book Varangians Series places the Saga of King Frodi the Peaceful from Book Five of The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1200) into its proper chronological location in history.  In 1984, when I first started the book, I had placed the main character, Erik’s (Hraerik’s) birth at circa 800 CE, but have since revised it to 810 to better fit with the timelines of the following books in the series.  Saxo had originally placed the saga at the time of Christ’s birth and later experts have placed the story at about 400 CE to correspond with the arrival of the Huns on the European scene but when Attila was driven back to Asia, the Huns didn’t just disappear, they joined the Khazar Empire north of the Caspian Sea and helped the Khazars control the western end of the famous Silk Road trade route.

When King Frodi’s Danes started their ninth century ‘Southern Way’ incursions into the rivers of present day Russia, they ran into the Khazar Khaganate that was controlling Silk Road trade there and cooperation looked promising when he married King Hun’s daughter, Princess Hanund.  But she cheated on him and he sent her back to Khazaria in disgrace and things got ugly, fast.  Two Norwegian princes, Hraerik and Hraelauger Hraegunarson, sons of the famous Hraegunar Lothbrok, visited Frodi’s court in Liere with a dangerous plan to protect their own Nor’Way trade route to Khazaria, but that plan changed when Prince Hraerik fell in love with and married Princess Gunwar, King Frodi’s sister.

When news arrived in Liere that the Huns planned to attack Denmark, Prince Hraerik convinced King Frodi to assemble a Varangian Army of the North and lead a pre-emptive strike against the Khazar Empire.  Following the capture of Kiev, the three brothers, Frodi, Hraerik and Hraelauger established the Hraes’ (Rus’) Trading Company and built an empire that exists in many forms to this very day, including Russia, Normandy, Great Britain and L’Anse Aux Meadows in America.  The wealth of the Hraes’ Trading Empire they created powered the prolific Viking expansion in Medieval Europe that still fascinates us today.

Book One, “The Saga of Hraerik ‘Bragi’ Hraegunarson,” recreates Book Five of Saxo’s work to illuminate the origins of the name Rus’ and how it evolved from Hraes’ in ninth century Russia and how the name Varangians originally meant Va Rangers or Way Wanderers of the Nor’Way.  The book examines the death of Princess Gunwar (Hervor) at the hands of the Hunnish Prince Hlod and how it drives Prince Hraerik ‘Bragi the Old’ Hraegunarson to write a famous poem of praise that both saves his head and rallies the northern kingdoms to fight the infamous Battle of the Goths and the Huns on the Don Plain of Gardariki (Gnita Heath of Tmutorokan).

Book Two, “The Saga of Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Hraerikson,” recreates Arrow Odd’s Saga of c. 1200 to illustrate how Arrow Odd was Prince Helgi (Oleg in Slavic) Hraerikson of Kiev, by showing that their identical deaths from the bite of a snake was more than just coincidence.  The book investigates the true death of Hraegunar Lothbrok by poisoned blood-snakes and how his curse of ‘calling his young porkers to avenge the old boar’ sets up a death spiral between swine (Sveinald) and snakes (Gorm ‘the Old’) that lasts for generations.  It then goes on to depict the famous Battle of the Berserks on Samso, where Arrow Odd and Hjalmar the Brave slay the twelve berserk grandsons of King Frodi on the Danish Island of Samso, setting up a death struggle that takes the Great Pagan Army of the Danes from the ravaged coast of Norway to England and on to Helluland in Saint Brendan’s Newfoundland.

Book Three, “The Saga of Ivar ‘the Boneless’ Hraerikson,” reveals how Ivar the Boneless Ragnarson was actually Prince Eyfur (Igor in Slavic) Hraerikson of Kiev and then King Harde Knute of Denmark.  By comparing a twenty year lacuna in the reign of Prince Igor in the Russian Chronicles with a coinciding twenty year appearance of a King Harde Knute I (Hard Knot) of Denmark in European Chronicles, Prince Igor’s death by sprung trees, which reportedly tore his legs off, may have rather just left him a boneless and very angry young king.  Loyal Danes claimed, “It was a hard knot indeed that sprung those trees,” but his conquered English subjects, not being quite as polite, called him, “Ivar the Boneless”.

Book Four, “The Saga of Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson,” demonstrates how Prince Sviatoslav ‘the Brave’ of Kiev was really Prince Svein Eyfurson of Kiev, who later moved to Norway and fought to become King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark and England.  But before being forced out of Russia, the Swine Prince 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 that seemed to herald the coming of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse with the 666 Salute of the Army of the Impalers.  The campaign was so mortifying that the fifteen thousand pounds of gold that the Emperor of Constantinople paid him to attack the Army of the Impalers 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 would set out to destroy them, claiming that, “true Christians will never read this saga”.

Book Five, “The Saga of Valdamar ‘the Great’ Sveinson”, establishes how Grand Prince Vladimir ‘the Great’ of Kiev was also known as Prince Valdamar Sveinson of Gardar, who supported his father, Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’, in attacks upon England and later became King Canute ‘the Great’ of England and also King Knute ‘the Great’ of Denmark and Norway.  Unlike his father, he came to the aid of a Roman Emperor, leading six thousand picked Varangian cataphracts against Anatolian rebels, and was rewarded with the hand of Princess Anna Porphyrogennetos, a true Roman Princess born of the purple who could trace her bloodline back to Julius and Augustus Caesar.  She was called Czarina, and after her, all Rus’ Grand Princes were called Czars and their offspring were sought matrimonially by European royalty.

Conclusion:

By recreating the lives of four generations of Russian Princes and exhibiting how each generation, in succession, ascended to their inherited thrones in Denmark, the author proves the parallels of the dual rules of Russian Princes and Danish Kings to be cumulatively more than just coincidence.  And the author proves that the Danish Kings Harde Knute I, Gorm ‘the Old’ and Harald ‘Bluetooth’ Gormson/Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ were not Stranger Kings, but were Danes of the Old Jelling Skioldung Fridlief/Frodi line of kings who only began their princely careers in Rus’ and returned to their kingly duties in Denmark with a lot of Byzantine Roman ideas and heavy cavalry and cataphracts.