Book 7, Chapter 20.0, The Sainting of King Olaf of Norway (Circa 1032 AD), Excerpts:
(1032 AD) Prince Svein, the son of King Canute ‘the Great’ Sweynson, had just come of age and Canute appointed him King of Norway after the death of Olaf Haraldson at the Second Battle of Stiklastad. His mother, Aelfgifu, had foregone being Queen of England, but would not be deprived of Norway and insisted on being called Queen of Norway, at least until young Svein found himself a suitable wife. Queen Aelfgifu held the most sway in the country and the people of Norway conspired against her from the very beginning. King Svein and Queen Aelfgifu had been living in Denmark for a number of years and Danish people suddenly had a great superiority given them within the country, to the great dissatisfaction of the people; and when conversation turned that way, the people of the rest of Norway accused the Trondheim people of having principally occasioned King Olaf the Holy’s fall, and also that the men of Norway were subject, through them, to the ill government by which oppression and slavery had come upon all the people, both great and small. They insisted that it was the duty of the Trondheim people to attempt opposition and insurrection, and thus relieve the country from such tyranny; and, in the opinion of the common people, Trondheim was also the power center of Norway at that time, the Viken having long been under direct control of the Danish kings.
When the Trondheim jarls heard the remarks of their countrymen, they could not deny the truth in them, and, in light of the growing sentiment to gain sainthood for King Olaf ‘the Stout’, that depriving King Olaf of life and rule had been a great mistake. The jarls began to hold consultations and conferences with each other, and the leader of these was Einar ‘Thong-Shaker’. Such too was the case with Kalf Arnason, who began to admit what errors he had been drawn into by King Canute. All the promises which Canute had made to Kalf had been broken; for he had promised him the earldom and the highest authority in Norway: and although Kalf had been the leader in the battle against King Olaf, and had deprived him of his life and kingdom, Kalf had not received any higher dignity than he had before. He felt that he had been deceived, and therefore messages passed between the brothers Kalf, Fin, Thorberg, and Arne, and they renewed their family friendship.
King Canute had promised many things to many people and had acquired hostages from all, sons and brothers who were being fostered in England for better teaching and training, but ultimately, for better control. He didn’t trust the Norse and Danish jarls and he wanted to put his own sons in place as kings to further his plans of a Great Northern Empire. In order to be a true Emperor, a true king of kings, it helped to be born of the purple, or at least married into it, and an Emperor had to rule over true kings, so by having his sons rule over legitimate kingdoms in his name, he met all the parameters that King Conrad ‘the Second’ was having so much trouble meeting in his Holy Roman Empire of the Germans. He planned on continuing to be the King of England while being Emperor of the Great Northern Empire, ruling over the Kings of Denmark, Norway and Gotland. He planned on clearing pathways for his eastern sons, those born of the purple, to follow the long tradition of the Knytling Kings to retire as rulers in the west once they have put in their time in as Princes of the Hraes’ Trading Company, the trading empire that had financed all the Knytling efforts for generations.
I have just posted a first draft of Chapter 20.0, The Sainting of King Olaf of Norway (Circa 1032 AD), of Book Seven of ‘The Lying Sagas of Denmark’ Series, “The Saga of King Canute ‘the Great’ Sweynson” to the website SeiberTeck.com under the Book Seven Heading.
The summer after the Second Battle of Stiklastad there was much talk about King Olaf’s sanctity, and people began to change the way they talked of their former Christian king. There were many who now believed that King Olaf must be a saint, even among those who had persecuted him with the greatest animosity, and would never in their conversation allow truth or justice in his favour. People began then to turn their reproaches against the men who had principally excited opposition to the king; and on this account Bishop Sigurd, in particular, was targeted. He acquired so many new enemies that he found advisable to go over to England and visit with King Canute for a time. Then the Trondheim people sent men with a message to the Uplands, to Bishop Grimkel, desiring him to come north to Trondheim. Bishop Grimkel had been Olaf’s tie to Norway when he had gone east into Hraes’, and since that time Grimkel had been preaching in the Uplands. When the message came to the bishop he made ready to go, and it contributed much to this journey that the bishop considered it as true what was told of King Olaf’s miracles and sanctity.
When Prince Hraerik led the great merchant fleet back north through Kiev in the fall, Prince Ivaraslav thanked him for the gold he paid him out of profits from the sale of Polish slaves in Constantinople and Baghdad over the summer. Then Ivar took him on a short side-trip up the Ros River to show him the towns he was building for the Polish captives that had ransomed themselves the prior year. “For their ransoms I gave them land,” Ivar started, “but they are indentured to the land just as the turf is and are not allowed to leave it. I call them serfs and I am providing them with Slav wives and half their children will be indentured to the land and half will be sold to the Hraes’ Trading Company as slaves. Misty and I came up with the idea to keep the slave schools of Kiev full at all times. What do you think of it?”
“But if the Poles have paid their ransom for freedom, why would they want to stay here?” the Prince asked.
“Their lands in Poland are gone. King Boleslaw gave them my lands to settle and we have taken those lands back. They are mine. Their ransoms paid for half their freedom and half their land. I own the other half and they’ll have half their children and I shall own the other half. Prince Mstislav is building towns along the Seim River east of Chernigov under the same conditions. This will reduce the tribute we take from the Slavs each year and hopefully keep them at peace.”
“And you call them serfs?”
“They serve me by working the turf,” Ivar said.
“Your serfdom sounds a lot like slavery to me,” Hraerik told him, and he could feel Princess Gunwar turning over in her grave with this.
“I know!” Ivar said, very pleased with himself. “It sounds like slavery, yet it isn’t.”
When Prince Hraerik stopped in at Chernigov to drop of Witch Nadege he got the same sales pitch from Prince Mstislav. “It sounds like slavery, but isn’t!” He didn’t have time to sail up the Seim with his grandson, but he told him he was happy to see him working so closely with Ivar again. It was a little awkward meeting with Witch Nado again, after the spiritual sex they’d had before, but witches knew that sex was a part of witchcraft and often had to participate in rituals that involved warlocks and he noticed that both Nado and Nadege were treating him as one of their own. He realized then that he was slowly becoming a warlock, not just a normal warlock, but a rather famous one. He had killed a khan from the future and the witches and warlocks of the Aesir and Vanir religions were slowly learning of it and paying him homage. Even the goddess Irpa had wanted to have sex with him before she allowed him to save Witch Hallveig and this was not required by her, but rather desired by her. And both Nado and Nadege were there in spirit and they saw Irpa’s lust for their Prince.
“I’ll be back in the spring to pick you up,” he told Nadege and he picked her up and kissed her deeply.
Please Note: This website is about Vikings and Varangians and the way they lived over a thousand years ago. The content is as explicit as Vikings of that time were and scenes of violence and sexuality are depicted without reservation or apology. Reader discretion is advised.
‘The VARANGIANS’ Series (AKA ‘The Lying Sagas of Denmark’ Series):
‘The Varangians’ series (‘AKA ‘The Lying Sagas of Denmark’ series) of five (seven) books is about the Danish Varangian Princes of early Rus’ (Ukraine), based on The Nine Books of Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus and the Rus’ Primary Chronicle of Nestor. The Rus’ 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 (Hraegunar Lothbrok’s son) 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 (kenning for swords) 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 (Ivar in Danish, 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 or Knytling) 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’. And the Danish ‘Knytling’ line of kings carried on for ‘the Old’ Fridleif/Frodi line of kings.
Books Four, Five and Six, “The Saga of Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson“, “The Saga of Valdamar ‘the Great’ Sveinson” and “The Saga of Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ Ivarson” demonstrate how Prince Sviatoslav ‘the Brave’ of Kiev was really Prince Svein Ivarson 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 Seven, “The Saga of Canute ‘the Great’ Sweynson”, 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, later 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.
SeiberTeck: 'The Varangians Series' 