THE SAGA OF PRINCE HELGI ‘ARROW ODD’ ERIKSON Has Been Added to The Site Under the New Heading The VARANGIANS / UKRAINIANS Book Series – The True History of ‘The Great Viking Manifestation of Medieval Europe’© and the below Post Covers CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Chantreuse Gudrid Halldisdottir of Norway
BOOK THREE: THE SAGA OF PRINCE HELGI ‘ARROW ODD’ ERIKSON
A Novel By Brian Howard Seibert
© Copyright by Brian Howard Seibert
WRITER’S UNCUT EDITION
(Contains Scenes of Violence and Sexuality Consistent with the Viking Period)
(May be Offensive to Some)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
18.0 WARLOCK SONGS (Circa 866 AD)
” There was in the (Greenland) settlement the woman whose name
was Thorbjorg. She was a prophetess (spae-queen), and was called
Litilvolva (little sybil). It was a custom of Thorbjorg, in the winter time,
to make a circuit, and people invited her to their houses, especially those
who had any curiosity about the season, or desired to know their fate.
From Eirik ‘the Red’s Saga
(866 AD) King Roller soon realized that his brother had not been able to entice King Frodi to follow him south to Ireland and away from Oddi’s flight westward. The ruler of the Hraes’ was after only one Viking and that was Arrow Odd. So, the former King of Norway sailed to Frankia and took command of his father’s trading stations on the northern coast. Using his brother’s two thousand Cataphracts and his own Norse Vikings, he headquartered himself in Rouen, planning to handle his end of the Nor’Way trade from Frankia, never to return to Norway. But a little bit of Norway was waiting for him there. His mother, Kraka, and Brak had sailed from Stavanger Fjord first to Flanders and then to Rouen in search of him.
“When you and Erik were about to fight the sons of Westmar,” Kraka began explaining to her son, “I received a dream from Odin warning me that you both were soon to die in your battle on the ice because it would snow that night before and the foot blades you had made would be useless for skating.”
“I remember you telling me that,” Roller confirmed. “Then you told father of your dream and he marked himself with a spear and sacrificed himself to Odin.”
“Well, I’ve just had a similar dream about young Oddi,” Kraka said. “I have been warned by the gods that he has taken a wrong turn and is in grave danger, but when I try to find out which gods warn me, I am blocked by a warlock. I have to warn Erik that he must sail inland if he is to protect young Oddi. And I don’t know what it means. My witchcraft is being blocked by a warlock named Tussock.”
“Ogmund Tussock is King Frodi’s foremost man and leader of the Hraes’ fleet in pursuit of Oddi’s fleet. Oddi is overwhelmingly outnumbered, but I think Erik had plans to keep his Tmutorokan fleet in between the two. Something must have separated them.”
“We must get a warning to Erik,” Kraka pleaded.
“Ogmund ‘Eythjofsbane’ Tussock has been steeped in witchcraft since birth,” Roller said. “His magic is purported to be very powerful.”
Later that night in his palace in Rouen, Roller was visited by the spirit of Princess Gunwar. “My son is still in danger,” she began. “He made a wrong turn and is sailing inland up a great river that leads to great lakes while Erik continues to follow the coast south and away from him. My brother, Frodi, is right on his tail and shall catch him soon unless Erik can get back between them. But we have to warn Erik to head inland now.”
“Kraka could, but there is a warlock named Tussock who is preventing her from sending Erik a dream.”
“Ogmund Tussock,” Gunwar whispered. “There is a corrupt chapter in Oddi’s future Saga devoted solely to Ogmund Tussock. Slide over and I’ll recite it to you,” Gunwar said as she joined Roller in bed. “It is one of the few Sagas of our family that has just barely survived the ravages of Christian kings and drunken skalds.” And the spirit of Gunwar spent the next few hours reciting sagas to Roller. She concluded her tales, saying, “And that is the story of Oddi and Ogmund in the Newfoundland up to now, but I’m afraid it will end much differently if we can’t get a warning to your brother, Erik.”
“Can you not visit Erik and warn him just as you are now visiting me?”
“I have no connection with Erik,” Gunwar explained, “other than being his wife in my past life. I am a Christian now and have no spiritual connection with my pagan husband.”
“But I’m a pagan,” Roller protested.
“But you won’t be for long,” she warned. “You, too, shall convert to Christianity, just like me, and you shall build stone churches, just like me, and be a fine example of the faith, unlike me.” And Gunwar snuggled into him and smiled up at him and they caressed each other. They made love and they talked of how they had missed each other and they made love again. They were about to fall asleep in each other’s arms when Princess Gunwar saw the spirit of Queen Alfhild step out of the shadows of a corner of the chamber. “What are you doing here?”
“Who is it?” Roller asked.
“It is a pagan witch,” Gunwar said angrily.
“I see no one,” he said.
“She is pagan. She has no connection with you.”
“Don’t be angry with me,” Queen Alfhild complained. “I shall warn Erik. I thought I’d be open and tell you first.”
“You didn’t the last time your spirit slept with my husband,” Gunwar said angrily.
“The last time I slept with your husband was to warn him that the witch, Gotwar, was about to poison you and kill both you and your son, Oddi, before he was even born!”
Gunwar, being a spirit, knew that Alfhild was speaking the truth. She lowered her head onto Roller’s shoulder. “Thank you for that,” she said. “But did you have to sleep with him?”
“Men have a habit of waking up in the morning and forgetting what a woman has told them the night before. I slept with him so he would remember my dream visit. I left nothing to chance.”
“Again, thank you. We owe you so much,” Gunwar said sheepishly.
“Don’t play kiss my ass with me,” Alfhild said, haughtily. “I was the one who made your brother, Frodi, withhold his support from Gardariki and you died fighting the Huns alone. Saving your son was the least I could do. But you can thank me for trying to save him again now.”
“Thank you, my queen. If you don’t mind my asking, why are you helping save my son? He has slain your twelve grandsons.”
“It was eleven grandsons.”
“What?” Gunwar said in astonishment.
“He killed eleven of my grandsons. Hjalmar ‘the Brave’ killed eldest Angantyr. And if Hjalmar had just listened to Oddi, Oddi would have fought Angantyr and Hjalmar would have killed eleven of my grandsons and Hjalmar would be alive today. But he thought he was Oddi’s equal, that he could battle both Angantyr and your sword Tyrfingr together. Only Oddi could have matched that duo and then he would have only killed one of my grandsons.”
“One or eleven,” Gunwar said, “you would not be helping him now unless there was some other reason. I know you. What is it?”
“When I died, I saw Oddi’s spirit. Frodi was strangling the life out of me just as you and Erik conceived Oddi, and I saw his spirit enter you then enter him and it was a tiger. His spirit was a tiger, full of courage even in infancy, and it gave me the courage to fight back and I clawed Frodi’s face and I clawed and I clawed. I didn’t die like a pussy. I died a tiger. And when anyone sees your brother they can see what I did to him and are reminded of what he did to me. Oddi’s spirit, his tiger gave me that. One might not forgive a snake for killing Ragnar, but I cannot blame a tiger for killing Angantyr.”
Gunwar was in tears and she whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
“I shall sleep with your husband again. I’ll leave nothing to chance.” And Alfhild turned and returned to the corner she had come from and the shadows from whence she came.
“Is it Queen Alfhild?” Roller asked.
“She is gone,” Gunwar told her lover, wiping away a tear. “But she claims that she will warn Erik to go inland and protect Oddi. You must tell Oddi when you see him next that his spirit is a tiger! Queen Alfhild saw his spirit when he was conceived and she said it was a tiger!”
“I will tell him, but will Alfhild be able to bypass Ogmund Tussock?” Roller asked. “Kraka says he is a very powerful warlock.”
“I think she is in a better position for spiritual feats, for she is now a spirit and Ogmund is yet alive. Perhaps you should talk with Kraka about this and I shall return again, and you can tell me what she says.”
In the morning, Roller met with Kraka and asked her about Ogmund Tussock’s powers.
“Ogmund is said to be a ‘Caller of Spirits’ and has no power to help or hinder spirits,” Kraka began. “But he can call on other spirits to hinder a spirit willing to help Erik and Oddi. Do you have such a willing spirit?”
“I do,” Roller said with trepidation.
“Who is it?” she asked, and she saw him hesitate, so she added, “I do have to know this if I am going to help you.”
“It’s Queen Alfhild,” he replied.
“Queen Alfhild? King Gotar’s daughter?” and she laughed. “She cannot be trusted. Her father tried to kill Erik. Erik killed her father. And Oddi killed her twelve grandsons. She cannot be trusted! Why would she help Oddi?”
Roller let his mother go off for a bit, then said, “She says Oddi’s spirit is a tiger and she cannot blame a tiger for killing a man because that is what they do. She claims she is square with Erik. And she is pissed at King Frodi. It is he she wishes to harm. And her spirit claims to have saved Oddi once before.”
“So, what is her beef with Frodi?”
“Oh…I don’t know…she claims he murdered her. Strangled her in her bed for sleeping with his captains. She says she is the one who tore up Frodi’s face, just before she died.”
“That’s why he wears a mask?” Kraka asked. “I thought he had leprosy,” she mused. “He’s debauched so many women, I thought he had caught something. Still, Alfhild is not to be trusted. You are not sleeping with this spirit, are you?”
“I am not,” said Roller. “She is just a vengeful spirit that has contacted me through my dreams,” he lied. “She wishes to avenge herself upon King Frodi.”
“Well…we must help her, or Ogmund will sense her presence in his affairs and will send a spirit he knows up against her. We shall have to block Ogmund’s prescience with Warlock Songs.”
Kraka had Roller search the Danish community of Northern Frankia for a spae-queen who specialised in contacting the spirit realm. Kraka was a witch and a healer, but the spirit realm was not her specialty and controlling spirits and warlocks could get quite involved and taxing. There was a woman whose name was Thorbjorg who lived just outside of Rouen. She was a prophetess and was called ‘Litilvolva’. It was a custom of Thorbjorg, in the wintertime, to make a circuit of the Frank trading stations of Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ to visit with those who had any curiosity about the season or desired to know their fate. Roller invited the spae-queen to his palace and prepared for her a fine welcome, as was the custom whenever a reception was accorded a woman of this kind. A high seat was prepared for her, and a cushion laid thereon in which were poultry-feathers. She arrived in the evening, accompanied by a troupe of fine young women known as chantreusses, and she was dressed in a blue mantle, with strings for the neck, and it was inlaid with gems down to the skirt hem. On her neck she had glass beads. On her head she had a black hood of lambskin, lined with ermine. In her hand she had a staff, with a knob thereon that was ornamented with gold and inlaid with gems. Around herself she wore a girdle of soft hair and therein was a large skin-bag in which she kept the talismans needed to gain her wisdom. She wore hairy calf-skin shoes on her feet, with long and strong-looking thongs with great knobs of latten at the ends. On her hands she had gloves of cat-skin, and they were white and hairy within. When she entered the palace, all men thought it their duty to offer her greetings, and these she received according to how agreeable the men seemed to her. Roller took the wise woman by the hand, introduced her to Kraka and Brak, who were sharing his high seats, and he led her to the highchair prepared for her. He requested her to cast her eyes westward to his brother on the other side of the Atlantean Sea and to distract a warlock who was after Arrow Odd. She remained silent while he explained that a spirit would be contacting his brother, but the warlock must be distracted for the night or he would interfere with the planned dream seance.
During the evening the tables were set and food was made ready for the spae-queen. There was prepared for her porridge of kid’s milk, and the hearts of all kinds of living creatures thereabouts were cooked for her. She had a brazen spoon, and a knife with a handle of walrus tusk, which was mounted with two rings of brass, and the point of it was broken off. When the tables were removed, Roller advanced to Thorbjorg and asked her how she liked his palace and if she had everything she needed to distract the warlock. She asked him if he knew who the warlock was and Roller told her all about King Frodi’s new foremost man, Ogmund ‘Eythjofsbane’ Tussock. Then preparations were made for her which she required for the exercise of her enchantments. She begged Roller to call over to her the young women who she had brought for singing and chanting and who were acquainted with the lore needed for the exercise of the enchantments, and the chants that were known by the name of warlock-songs. They were led by a lean pretty girl who introduced herself as Gudrid. “I am not skilled in deep learning, nor am I a wise-woman, although Halldis, my foster-mother, taught me, in Norway, the lore which she called warlock-songs.”
The young women gathered about Thorbjorg and formed a ring round about the highchair prepared for her enchantments. Then Gudrid started by singing a weird-song in a beautiful and excellent manner. No one there seemed to have ever before heard such a song in a voice so beautiful as now. The spae-queen thanked her for the song and then all the young women started into the warlock-songs. The girls would chant, holding hands and dancing around Thorbjorg and then one sang solo a warlock-song that told the battle tale of the Teutoburg Forest and then they all chanted and danced and another girl sang another warlock-song that regaled the battle tale of Bravalla and then they all chanted and danced and yet another girl sang yet another warlock-song that recalled the tale of The Battle of the Goths and the Huns. And they planned on performing their chants and their songs all night long and into the dawn. Thorbjorg sensed that while it was late evening in Frankia, it was afternoon on the far western ocean. But they kept up their enchantment. “Many spirits,” said she, “are present under its charm, and are pleased to listen to the songs, who before would turn away from us, and grant us no such homage. And a warlock in the west has now been drawn to our chants and is enthralled by our songs and now many things are clear to me which before were hidden both from me and others. And I am able to say that Ogmund shall never prevail over Arrow Odd and he knows and fears this truth. Also, the epidemic of cold and fever which has long oppressed us will disappear quicker than we could have hoped. And thee, Gudrid, will I recompense straightway, for that aid of thine which has stood us in good stead; because thy destiny is now clear to me, and foreseen. Thou shalt make a match here in Frankland, a most honourable one, though it will not be long-lived for thee, because thy way lies out to a new land called Iceland; and there, shall arise from thee a line of descendants both numerous and goodly, and over the branches of thy family shall shine a bright ray. And so, fare thee now well and happily, my daughter.” Afterwards some of Roller’s lieutenants went up to the wise woman, and each enquired after her what he was most curious to know. She was also liberal of her replies, and all the while the chanting and the songs carried on. Thorbjorg invited Roller over for a telling, but he refused, excusing himself and going off to bed. But he saw Kraka joining her with some questions, volva to volva.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” Gunwar said. She was already lying in his bed.
“It may be after midnight here, but where Erik and Oddi are, Thorbjorg assures me it is only early evening. They’ll be chanting and singing downstairs all night long. I don’t think we’ll be getting much sleep,” he said as he sat down beside her and pulled his boots off. “Which begs me ask, shouldn’t I be sleeping when you pay me a dream visit?”
“Maybe you are sleeping,” Gunwar teased, glancing about the chamber nervously for any sign of Queen Alfhild. Roller doffed his clothes and slid under the silk sheets beside her. He said, “I’ve missed you my whole life.”
“You probably say that to all your spirit women,” Gunwar teased some more. “There are certainly enough of them about tonight. Thorbjorg is good. Really good.”
“Back in Norway, when you first came to me, you talked about stopping up the flow of time.”
“Don’t go back there, by the way. Don’t ever go back. There is a new king there now…a King Harold ‘Fairhair’ of The Vik, who claims to be the first king to lord it over all of Norway, over all the provinces, Stavanger included. He claims to have demoted you to Earl of Northmore, or some ungodly province up the coast. But he’s a boot-licker of my brother Frodi, just cleaning up the slaughter my brother caused. Promise me you’ll never go back to Norway?”
“I promise. Have you been drinking?”
“Because if you go back, King ‘Finehair’ will further demote you to Earl of Noheadanymore. He’s one lying, boot-licking mother-coupler.”
“Do all spirits talk like you?” Roller asked.
“Just the ones that want to stop up the flow of time.”
“Tell me more about that. You said then that our family sagas will be destroyed by Christian kings. And now you’re telling me that I will soon be a Christian. I’m conflicted. How many family sagas do we have?”
“We only have two right now, and one of them isn’t about us, but Erik has written them both, so that’s kinda family. He has written a Saga about us…you, me, Frodi and Alfhild, you know, two Norwegian brothers going to the terrible court of Danish King Frodi to kill him, but your brother falling in love with me and joining him instead to help build the Southern Way and Erik’s Hraes’ Trading Company of Varangians. Then our crushing of the Slavs of Kiev and our victory over the Khazars of Atil Khazaran and, of course, my famous death in battle at the hands of my Hun nephew, Prince Hlod, little focker, and how Erik writes a drapa about my death that so inspires the mad King Bjorn of the Barrows that he spares my husband’s life if he can just write such a poem for him. And for the big finish, the great Battle of the Goths and the Huns.”
“And what is the other saga he writes?”
“A silly tale of some Danish Prince called Amleth or Hamlet or something. He writes as Bragi ‘the Old’…’Bragi’ for the byname that Alfhild’s father, King Gotar, gave him…another mother-coupling king of The Vik, what a prick…and ‘the Old’ because he married me, married into ‘the Old’ Skioldung line of Danish kings. It was inspired by Prince Brutus ‘the Mad’ of Rome, but it’s really about King Bjorn ‘of the Barrows’ Alrikson who played the mad kites-man to survive in Sweden until he could take back his kingdom from Erik.”
“If we have two now, how many will we have later?”
Over the next two hundred years…maybe a dozen. But there will be dozens of variations on each of them and our family lines go way into the future, but those tales aren’t told as sagas. They’re called Tales of Bygone Years.”
“So, what are the names of the rest of the sagas?”
“Erik writes another one called The Saga of Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson. And Arrow Odd writes The Saga of Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Erikson, but it’s all poetry, beautiful poetry; my son, a poet! But there are many variations of it that are prose with his poems inserted and Erik writes a prose version as well. Then there’s The Saga of Ivar ‘the Boneless’ Erikson, but that’s the Anglish version. The Danish version is called The Saga of King Eyfur ‘Harde Knute’ Frodison, meaning Frodi’s grandson, of course, and the Hraes’ version is called Bygone Tales of Prince Igor of Kiev. But in Gardariki it’s called “The Saga of Prince Eyfur ‘the Boneless’ Erikson. Next in line is The Saga of King Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson in Gardariki which is called Bygone Tales of Prince Sviatoslav of Kiev in Hraes’ and The Saga of King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ Knuteson in Denmark and Angleland. Finally, Erik writes The Saga of Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ Sveinson in Gardariki, which is done as Bygone Tales of Grand Prince Vladimir ‘the Great’ of Kiev in Hraes’ and The Saga of King Canute ‘the Great’ Sweynson of both Angleland and Denmark and even Norway.”
“How can you remember all that?” Roller exclaimed. “And you’ve been drinking. Are there any about me…here?”
“Here they don’t call them sagas. They’re annals and they’re boring and are taken as serious history and yours will be The Annals of Duke Rollo ‘Longsword’ of Normandy and there will be many stories of you and your off-spring,” and Gunwar kissed him softly.
The two lovers could hear the chanting still going on as they made love into the early hours until Duke Roller fell asleep and in the morning Gunwar was gone.
Chapter 19.0: NEW IRELAND, NEW SCOTLAND, NEW ANGLELAND of BOOK 3: THE SAGA OF PRINCE HELGI ‘ARROW ODD’ ERIKSON shall follow on next Post.
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 / UKRAINIANS or The Nine Books of Saxo’s Danish History Per Brian Howard Seibert
BOOK ONE: The Saga of King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson
King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson’s third wife, Princess Aslaug, was a young survivor of the Saga of the Volsungs and was a daughter of King Sigurd ‘the Dragon-Slayer’ Fafnirsbane, so this is where Ragnar’s story begins in almost all the ancient tales (except Saxo’s). In our series, we explore this tail end of the Volsungs Saga because King Sigurd appears to be the first ‘Dragon-Slayer’ and King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ would seem to be the second so, it is a good opportunity to postulate the origins of Fire Breathing Dragons and how they were slain. King Ragnar would lose his Zealand Denmark to the Anglish Danes of Jutland, who spoke Anglish, as did the majority of Vikings who attacked England, which spoke both Anglish and Saxon languages, sometimes mistakenly called a common Anglo-Saxon language. The Angles and Saxons of England never really did get along, as shall be demonstrated in the following books. King Ragnar assuaged the loss of Zealand by taking York or Jorvik, the City of the Boar, in Angleland and Stavanger Fjord in Thule from which he established his Nor’Way trade route into Scythia.
BOOK TWO: The Saga of Prince Erik ‘Bragi’ Ragnarson
Book Two of the Nine Book The Varangians / Ukrainians Series places The Saga of Prince Erik ‘Bragi’ Ragnarson from Book Five of The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1200 AD) about King Frodi ‘the Peaceful’ into its proper chronological location in history. In 1984, when I first started work on the book, I placed Prince Erik’s birth at circa 800 CE, but it has since been revised to 810 CE to better reflect 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, just north of the Caspian Sea, and helped the Khazars control the western end of the famous Silk Road Trade Route. Princes Erik and Roller, both sons of Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’, sail off to Zealand to avenge their father’s loss, but Erik falls in love with Princess Gunwar, the sister of the Anglish King Frodi of Jutland and, after his successful Battle Upon the Ice, wherein he destroys the House of Westmar, Erik marries Gunwar and both brothers become King Frodi’s foremost men instead, and the story moves on to the founding of Hraes’ and Gardar Ukraine.
BOOK THREE: The Saga of Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Erikson
Book Three, The Saga of Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Erikson, recreates Arrow Odd’s Saga of circa 1200 AD to illustrate how Arrow Odd was Prince Helgi (Oleg in Slavic) Erikson 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 Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ by poisoned blood-snakes in York or Jorvik, the ‘City of the Boar’, and how his curse of ‘calling his young porkers to avenge the old boar’ sets up a death spiral between swine and snake that lasts for generations. The book then illustrates the famous Battle of the Berserks on Samso, where Helgi ‘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 Denmark to ravage Norway and then England and on to Helluland in Saint Brendan’s Newfoundland. A surprise cycle of vengeance manifests itself in the ‘death by snakebite’ of Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’.
BOOK FOUR: The Saga of Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ Erikson
Book Four, The Saga of Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ Erikson, reveals how Ivar ‘the Boneless’ Ragnarson was actually Prince Eyfur or Ivar (Igor in Slavic) Erikson of Kiev and then King Harde Knute ‘the First’ of Denmark. By comparing a twenty year lacuna in the reign of Prince Igor in The Hraes’ Primary Chronicle with a coinciding twenty year appearance of a King Harde Knute (Hard Knot) of Denmark in European Chronicles, Prince Igor’s punishment by sprung trees, which reportedly tore him apart, 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’. The book expands on the death curse of Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ and the calling of ‘his young porkers to avenge the old boar’ when Ivar leaves his first son, King Gorm (Snake) ‘the Old’, to rule in Denmark and his last son, Prince Svein (Swine) ‘the Old’ to rule in Hraes’, further setting up the death spiral between the swine and snake of the ‘Lothbrok’ curse.
BOOK FIVE: The Saga of Prince Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson
Book Five, The Saga of Prince Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson, demonstrates how Prince Sveinald (Sviatoslav in Slavic) ‘the Brave’ of Kiev was really Prince Svein ‘the Old’ 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 then 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 and included the famed 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 close to defeating the greatest empire in the world, but lost and was forced to leave Hraes’ to his three sons. He returned to the Nor’Way and spent twelve years rebuilding Ragnar’s old trade route there.
BOOK SIX: The Saga of Grand Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ Sveinson
Book Six, The Saga of Grand Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ Sveinson, establishes how Grand Prince Valdamar (Vladimir in Slavic) ‘the Great’ of Kiev, expanded the Hraes’ Empire and his own family Hamingja by marrying 700 wives that he pampered in estates in and around Kiev. Unlike his father, Svein, 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 of Constantinople, 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 Hraes’ Grand Princes were called ‘Czars’ and their offspring were earnestly sought after, matrimonially, by European royalty.
BOOK SEVEN: The Saga of King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ Ivarson
In The Saga of King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ Ivarson, Prince Svein anonymously takes the name of Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ in Norway and befriends the Jarls of Lade in Trondheim Fjord in Norway as he expands the Nor’Way trade route of his grandfather, Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’. He had come close to defeating the Eastern Roman Empire, and still felt that he was due at least a shared throne in Constantinople. He used the gold from the Nor’Way trade to rebuild his legions and his Hraes’ cataphracts and though his brother, King Gorm ‘the Old’, was dead, his son, Sweyn’s nephew, King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ Gormson had usurped the throne of Denmark and had hired the famed Jomsvikings to attack Prince Sweyn in Norway, setting up the famous Battle of Hjorungavagr in a fjord south of Lade. King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ would emerge from that confrontation and then he would defeat King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway in the Battle of Svolder in 1000 AD, in an engagement precipitated over the hand of Queen Sigrid ‘the Haughty’ of Sweden. Later he attacked England in revenge for the following St. Brice’s Day Massacre of Danes in 1002 AD and he fought a protracted war with the Saxon King Aethelred ‘the Unready’ that could only be described as the harvesting of the English for sale as slaves in Baghdad and Constantinople. With the help of his son, Prince Valdamar of Kiev, and the legions and cataphracts of Hraes’, he conquered England on Christmas Day of 1013, but victory was not kind to him.
BOOK EIGHT: The Saga of King Canute ‘the Great’ Sweynson
Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ Sveinson of Kiev, who had supported his father, King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ of Denmark in attacks upon England left his ‘Czar’ sons in charge of Hraes’ and took over as King Valdamar of England, but the Latin Christian English revolted against his eastern name and Orthodox Christian religion and brought King Aethelred back from exile in Normandy and Valdamar had to return to Hraes’ and gather up the legions he had already sent back after his father’s victory. His half brother was ruling in Denmark and his sons were ruling in Hraes’ so, in 1015 AD Grand Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ of Kiev was written out of Hraes’ history and in 1016 the Latin Christian Prince Canute ‘the Great’ returned to England to reclaim his throne. He defeated Aethelred’s son, King Edmund ‘Ironside’ of England, at the Battle of Assandun to become King Canute ‘the Great’ of England and later King Knute ‘the Great’ of Denmark and Norway as well. But that is just the start of his story and later Danish Christian Kings would call his saga, and the sagas of his forefathers, The Lying Sagas of Denmark, and would set out to destroy them, claiming that, “true Christians will never read these Sagas”.
BOOK NINE: The Saga of King William ‘the Conqueror’ Robertson
The Third Danish Conquest of Angleland was seen to herald the end of the Great Viking Manifestation of the Middle Ages, but this, of course, was contested by the Vikings who were still in control of it all. Danish Varangians still ruled in Kiev and Danes still ruled the Northern Empire of Canute ‘the Great’, for the Normans were but Danish Vikings that had taken up the French language, and even Greenland and the Newfoundland were under Danish control in a Hraes’ Empire that ran from the Silk Road of Cathay in the east to the Mayan Road of Yucatan in the west. “We are all the children of Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’,” Queen Emma of Normandy often said. Out of sheer spite the Saxons of England took over the Varangian Guard of Constantinople and would continue their fight against the Normans in Southern Italy as mercenaries of the Byzantine Roman Empire. They would lose there as well, when in the Fourth Crusade of 1204, the Norman Danes would sack the City of Constantinople and hold it long enough to stop the Mongol hoards that would crush the City of Kiev. It would be Emperor Baldwin ‘the First’ of Flanders and Constantinople who would defeat the Mongol Mongke Khan in Thrace. But the Mongols would hold Hraes’ for three hundred years and this heralded the end of the Great Viking Manifestation. The Silk Road was dead awaiting Marco Polo for its revival. But the western Mayan Road would continue to operate for another hundred years until another unforeseen disaster struck. Its repercussions would be witnessed by the Spanish conquerors who followed Christopher Columbus a hundred and fifty years later in the Valley of the Mound Builders.
Conclusion:
By recreating the lives of four generations of Hraes’ Ukrainian 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 Hraes’ Ukrainian 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 Hraes’ and returned to their kingly duties in Denmark with a lot of Byzantine Roman ideas and heavy cavalry and cataphracts.
SeiberTeck: 'The Varangians Series' 