RUSSIAN FURY IN BUCHA CHAPTER 2 THREE DAYS ON A BUS
Tomorrow is the Second Anniversary of Russia’s illegal and dispicable attack upon Ukraine. President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people have shown great courage and resolve in driving back Mad Vlad Putin’s maniacle Three Day Special Operation of February 24th, 2022.
SUPPORT UKRAINE !!!
Princess Hervor Angantyrsdottir in Defense of Kiev
A Novel By Brian Howard Seibert
© Copyright by Brian Howard Seibert
WRITER’S UNCUT EDITION
(Contains Scenes of Violence and Abuse Consistent with War)
(May be Offensive to Some)
EXPERIENCES OF A BELARUS JOURNALIST
DURING ONE MONTH’S EMBEDMENT WITH
THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN UKRAINE
BY L. MOKVELDSKA
War-Correspondent of “Da Minsk”
TRANSLATED BY
B. SEIBERT
Correspondent of “SeiberTeck.Com”
ANOTHER DOTCOM COMPANY
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTOMCMXVII MMXXIV
RUSSIAN FURY IN BUCHA
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: CROSSROADS ON THE WAY TO BUCHA
CHAPTER 2: THREE DAYS ON A BUS
CHAPTER 3: THE BATTLE OF VOKZAL’NA STREET
CHAPTER 4: TBD
CHAPTER 2: THREE DAYS ON A BUS
We were all shaken by the burnings we had witnessed at the crossroads, and the screams of the poor raped and murdered woman kept reverberating through my mind all night long. Overhead, rockets were flying towards Kyiv from the border of Belarus all night long and the bright flashes I saw on the southern horizon bore witness to the onslaught Lukashenko had allowed to be launched from our sovereign land. It was heartbreaking to watch this indiscriminate bombardment of the capital of Ukraine, the historic capital of Kievan Rus’ and, for all intents and purposes, of Belarus as well. Sometimes, as I lay awake watching the flights of rockets on their murderous way, I could hear Russian officers crying in their sleep as, no doubt, the woman’s screams were replaying through their minds too.
I was haunted by the words of Vladimir Putin’s soap box speech last night, his failed attempt at a declaration of war against Ukraine. Russia is a security council member of the United Nations which has a protocol that must be followed in the legal declaration of war and Putin’s speech was so far removed from this protocol that it might as well have originated from the mouth of an illiterate devil child. And Putin’s ramblings about Mother Russia having to take care and control over Ukraine as if Moskva Rus’ was the elder sibling of Kievan Rus’ was quite historically inaccurate. The babblings of a Slav leader who didn’t even know his own county’s history. Even the staunchest Slavophile now had to admit that Scandinavians of one nationality or another had played a large part in the founding of first Bela or Novgorod Rus’ and then second of Kievan Rus’ and finally, hundreds of years later, of Moskva Rus’. It is detailed quite clearly as such in our own Rus’ Primary Chronicle written by the contemporary monk Nestor in the sacred caves of Kyiv. It was only hundreds of years after the founding of both Novgorod and Kievan Rus’ that the Moskva Rus’ came into prominence only after the terrible Mongols of the Golden Horde had completely destroyed Kyiv. I promised myself that night to look further into the latest Normanist theories of Kievan Rus’ when I had a little time on my hands. But right now I was in the middle of a short three day war with very little likelihood of having free time.
All of the officers around me had expected the bus to be ordered forward at some time in the night so as to advance under cover of darkness, but as morning crept in from the east, we had not moved a meter. The attack had stalled. Hostomel had been partially taken and the airport there had been occupied and an Antonov 124 had been destroyed in its hanger, but that was all. The Ukrainians were steadfastly defending Bucha, the staging area for the attack on Kyiv, and there was no Plan B to go around the city. I learned from our political officer that Bucha was to be taken and our armour was to be assembled for an attack on Irpin and next The Canadian Village on the outskirts and then an armoured drive into the heart of Kyiv to accept the Ukrainians’ surrender. Only light resistance had been expected, but the Ukrainians had been waiting on an attack for several weeks and were well dug in and fighting fiercely. So we spent all day parked alongside the road as rockets continued to scream overhead and convoys of trucks and tank haulers passed by on their way to the front. I found myself with time on my hands.
I googled Kievan Rus’ and found the usual Normanist claims and publications but I wanted to find something new and original. I found an obscure website that had published a Book Series called The Varangians that was newly protected by a Canadian Copyright document. With The Canadian Village on the outskirts of Kiev soon to be in the direct line of attack, I just had to look. The saga series is based on the author’s research on the Danish Varangian Princes of early Hraes’ (Kievan Rus’) as depicted in The Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus (circa 1200 CE) and on the Rus’ Primary Chronicle of Nestor (circa 1100 CE) as well as numerous other Scandinavian Sagas.
According to the author the ‘Great Viking Manifestation of the Middle Ages’ wasn’t a Viking thing at all. It was a Royal Danish manifestation enabled by trade and profits made from the sale of northern furs, walrus ivory and human flesh in the slave markets of Baghdad and Constantinople. The Hraes’ (Rus’) Trade Empire extended from The Silk Road of Cathay in the east to The Leviathan Road of the Newfoundland in the west and from Sindbad’s Whale Road to India in the south to Erik ‘the Red’s Walrus Road to Greenland in the north. And he has written his own Nine Books of Danish History in the form of The Varangians/Ukrainians Saga Series in which he claims:
Book 1 of The Varangians Saga Series (Circa 800 – 822 CE) tells the story of the Danish King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson’s establishment of the Nor’Way trade route via the Barents Sea and the Volga River through Scythia to the Middle East and of his battle with a Roman bireme Greek-fire breathing dragonship in order to extend Danish trade to Constantinople. As intellectual property he claims that the name Varangians comes from Vay, meaning Way, and Range, meaning to Wander, which combined makes Way Wanderers or Wanderers of the Nor’Way. The work is based mainly on part of Saxo’s Book 9 of Danish history.
In Book 2 (Circa 828 – 841 CE), two of King Ragnar’s sons by Princess Aslaug (Kraka) are Princes Erik (Rurik) and Roller (Rollo) who forge an alliance with King Frodi ‘Angantyr’ Fridleifson of Danish Jutland when Erik marries his sister, Princess Gunwar, and the three royals establish the Kievan Hraes’ State and the Dan’Way trade route via the Dnieper River to Constantinople and Baghdad. That the three brothers of Saxo’s Book 5, Erik, Roller and Frodi were the founding Varangian brothers, Rurik, Truvor and Sineus mentioned in the Russian Primary Chronicle. This work is based mainly on Saxo’s Book 5 of Danish history.
In Book 3 (Circa 839 – 912 CE), Prince Erik (Rurik) has a son by Princess Gunwar Fridleifsdottir, Prince Helgi (Oleg) Erikson of Norway, who becomes a champion of the north in his struggles to stop the slavers of the Hraes’ from kidnapping northern Europeans to sell in the slave markets of the east. In a string of running battles that go from Denmark to England and even Saint Brendan’s Newfoundland and then back again to Kievan Hraes’ and Greece, Prince Helgi manages to kill King Frodi and then later his son, King Alf, before dying himself from the bite of a blood-snake that crawls out under the skull of his ship Fair Faxi. This work is based mainly upon The Saga of Arrow Odd. The author claims that the Danish Great Heathen Army that attacked England in 867 AD originated out of Kievan Hraes’ (Rus’) and the Dnieper/Danube River Basin as stated in Asser’s contemporary biography Life of King Alfred ‘the Great’.
In Book 4, (Circa 896 – 945 CE) Prince Erik (Rurik) has another son, this time by Princess Eyfura Frodisdottir, Prince Eyfur (Ivar/Igor) Erikson, who loses his legs in an incident of ‘Sprung Trees’, but the maiming does not stop the young prince from returning to Denmark with an army to reclaim the usurped throne of the Danes from one King Hiarn who was elected in his stead by the Danish people. Prince Eyfur becomes known in Denmark as King Harde Knute (Hard Knot) but is called Ivar ‘the Boneless’ by his English subjects. The author claims that Prince Fridleif ‘Hiarnsbane’ Frodeson of Book Six of Saxo’s Danish History was Prince Eyfur/Ivar ‘the Boneless’ Erikson/Eyfurason and that he returned to Denmark from Hraes’ and killed the elected King Hiarn of Denmark and reclaimed his grandfather’s throne as king of the Anglish Danes of Jutland. The author claims as an intellectual discovery that Prince Ivar (Igor) of Kiev was the first of three Hraes’ (Rus’) princes to reclaim their Danish thrones in the west following successful reigns in the east.
In Book 5 (Circa 943 – 976 CE), King Harde Knute’s son in the west was King Gorm ‘the Old’, signifying his blood as being from the Old Frodi/Fridleif Skioldung line of Danish kings and his son in the east was Prince Svein ‘the Old’ (Sveinald/Sviatoslav) of Kiev, but when King Gorm dies of grief after the death of a son, the Danish Crown goes to his second son, King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ Gormson, instead of to Gorm’s brother Svein, as per the Viking rites of succession. Prince Svein went to Norway and made a claim on the Danish throne so King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ sent an army of Jomsvikings north to kill his uncle, but the Norwegians won the Battle of Hjorungavagr and Svein became King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ of Denmark. The author claims as an intellectual discovery that Prince Svein (Sviatoslav) of Kiev was the second of three Hraes’ (Rus’) princes to reclaim their Danish thrones in the west following successful reigns in the east.
In Book 6 (Circa 968 – 990 CE), Svein’s son in the east, Grand Prince Valdamar (Vladimir) ‘the Great’ rules Kievan Hraes’ and expands slave trade in the east, keeping seven hundred concubine wives for himself in Kiev as an example that Caliphs and Emirs in the east would follow. Business was so good that King Sweyn stepped up Viking raids in Ireland, England and Frankia to accommodate sales. The Normans of Frankia even began direct sailings to the Newfoundland and established a trade route to the Valley of the Mound Builders along the Mississippi River all the way to the gold of the Mayans.
In Book 7 (Circa 986 – 1014 CE), the Saxon King Athelred ‘the Unready’ of England panicked and in 1002 AD he ordered the murder of all Danes in Britain in what was called the Saint Brice’s Day Massacre. King Sweyn and Prince Valdamar began a war against England that dragged on over a decade and could only be described as a harvesting of the English people for the slave markets of Baghdad and Constantinople. Finally, once King Sweyn had decided that the English had paid enough for their slaughter of Danes, he conquered Britain and was declared King of England on Christmas Day of 1013, but five weeks later he was dead, likely poisoned. His son, Prince Valdamar, was with him when he died and was proclaimed king, but he had sent half his Hraes’ troops back to Kiev after his father’s victory so, when the English called King Athelred back from banishment in Normandy, Valdy didn’t have sufficient forces to hold the island nation and he returned to Kievan Hraes’ in defeat.
In Book 8 (Circa 1014 – 1035 CE), officially, Prince Valdamar (Vladimir) ‘the Great’ of Kiev died in 1015 AD and Prince Canute ‘the Great’ returned to attack England that same year. During the conflict King Athelred died of disease and his son, Prince Edmund ‘Ironside’ was declared king. Prince Canute ‘the Great’ defeated the younger prince at the Battle of Assandun on October 18th, 1016 and they agreed to share the kingdom together, with the surviving king inheriting the whole. There are many different versions of how King Edmund died five weeks later, including one in which he didn’t die, but was sent to Kiev with eight hundred of his men as prisoners. In 1024 they were sent off to Constantinople to join the Varangian Guard and when they refused to lay down their swords before being received by the Emperor they were pursued and eventually slaughtered to the last man. King Canute ‘the Great’ ruled England into 1035 AD and died of old age while fighting the Normans in Rouen. The author claims as an intellectual discovery that Prince Valdamar (Vladimir) of Kiev was the third of three Hraes’ (Rus’) princes to reclaim their Danish thrones in the west following successful reigns in the east.
The website had no Synopsis for Book 9, stating only that it was yet a work in progress. Still, it just doesn’t get any more Normanist than this. Imagine, Kievan Rus’ founded by the Danes! Seeing that Normandy was founded by the Danes as well, it can’t possibly get any more Normanist. And still the bus had not moved.
The next morning I got up early, having been unable to sleep, and I decided to leave the relative safety of the bus and check out the status of the surrounding locals. I realised that my task would be difficult, dangerous, and full of responsibility, for I had to find out and communicate to the public the truth about events, which would be related as beautiful or horrid, according to the interests of my informants. It was dangerous, because I might meet with the same fate that seemed to have been inflicted on so many civilians already.
Dressed in my sporting attire, and carrying some necessaries in a knapsack, I started early, going towards Bucha along a canal. As I came to the city boundary I had a moment of doubt, but it lasted for a second only. In order to divert my thoughts I walked somewhat more briskly, but was stopped suddenly by a Ukrainian police officer. I was astonished to see that official there still, for the Russians must be quite near and—as I had been told—small patrols had advanced frequently to this point. My papers were found to be in order, and the man seemed very happy to meet a journalist.
“It is a pity, sir, that you did not arrive a day sooner, then you might have witnessed the great barbarity of the Russians. If you walk on a little farther along the canal, you will see three persons hanging from a tree near the bank; one of these is a boy of fourteen. Nobody was allowed on the road, and as a Russian patrol met these three persons, they concluded immediately that they were Ukrainian terrorists, strung them up on a tree without a trial of any sort and, in addition, shot a bullet through the head of each of them. Horrible!… horrible!”
“Yes,” I replied, “it is bad, very bad, but is it really all true?”
“True? True, sir? You go and look for yourself! And let me tell you one thing—there are no terrorists here!”
I asked him how things were farther on along the canal, but he knew nothing. He was stationed here, he said, and was going to stay as long as possible. As soon as the Russians arrived, most people fled, and those who had stayed on were no longer allowed to leave. So he lacked all information, and only understood that fierce fighting was going on, as was confirmed by the incessant thunder of artillery guns. Hostomel was, moreover, not so very far away, and frequently we could distinctly tell, by their whistling sound, in which direction the shells flew.
After a few encouraging words I walked on along the solitary, deserted road, leaving the canal on the right, until a by-way took me to the bank of the Bucha River. I entered a deserted inn. After shouting for a long time, the inn-keeper appeared, looked shyly at me, remaining constantly close by the door of his room. His attitude showed that he was prepared to fly at the slightest suspicious movement on my part; but as soon as I had convinced him that I was a Belarus journalist, he became more friendly, and called his wife and daughters, so that I might tell them all I knew. They were very desirous to know why the war was happening, but when I told them I had no idea, I started in my turn to ask them what they thought of my intention to go farther.
“Go farther, sir? But … but … sir, don’t do that! The Russians shoot every civilian whom they set eyes on.”
“Oh, go on!” I answered. “I don’t think that I need fear anything of the kind. I am in any case a Belarusian journalist!”
“Belarus or not, it does not matter. Whosoever one be, every civilian is shot down by them.”
“Are they at a great distance from here?”
“Not at all! If you step outside, you can see them standing, ten minutes from here. But I do not understand how you ventured to come here….”
Well, I did not quite fancy the prospect of being shot like a dog, and as I had not yet come into touch with the Russians, it was difficult to say whether these people exaggerated or not. But just opposite was the Bucha River, and I made up my mind to go there for further information.
Ukrainian soldiers and inhabitants of the city bustled about along the opposite river-bank. I shouted as loudly as possible; and when at last I succeeded in drawing their attention, I made them understand that I wanted to be pulled across in the little boat, which in ordinary times might have served as a ferry. A short consultation took place now on the opposite side, after which a soldier, who clearly possessed a strong voice, came as near as possible to the waterside and, making a trumpet of his two hands, roared:
“Not allowed!”
“Why not?”
“We are expecting Russians!”
“So am I; I am a Belarusian journalist!”
“Not possible! Not allowed!”
And at the same moment he turned round and joined the others.
So I was left there. The Ukrainians refused to pull me across in case of impending attack; the Russians supposedly coming my way intended, it was said, to shoot me down as soon as I ventured to get near. But to retrace my steps … that is a thing I had never done yet. For a few moments I stood there undecided, but then made up my mind to see what was going to happen, and went on, in spite of the warnings of the kind-hearted innkeeper and his family, who called out to me to return.
The terrible thunder of the artillery guns on both sides vibrated through the air. In the distance I noticed a couple of men, probably Ukrainian soldiers, but a bridge was nowhere to be seen. After a few minutes, however, I reached a spot where the Bucha makes a short curve, and had scarcely walked round it, when I saw, only a couple of hundred yards away, the bridge in question, across which a long train of vehicles were passing, loaded with evacuees and their possessions.
On the other side hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers were in defensive positions. From time to time the entire scene was hidden by the smoke from numerous burning houses quite near the river. I walked in the most casual way, in an unconcerned attitude with my laptop tucked under my arm, looked calmly at some of the houses I passed, and which were for the greater part destroyed. The walls were pierced by shrapnel, the rooms generally burnt out; in the front gardens lay all sorts of furniture, dragged out of the house and then smashed to pieces as if to make firewood.
The road was all strewn with straw, some of it burnt. I approached the bridge and the soldiers looked at me as if they were amused, but I went up to them in the same unconcerned manner and asked them to take me to their commanding officer.
“What do you want with him?”
“I am a Belarus journalist, and want to ask the commander’s permission to conduct an interview with him.”
“Oh, you are a Belarusian; then come along.”
They took me to two officers who stood near the bridge, and told them that I “pretended” to be a Belarus journalist. Having proved this by my papers, the officers gave me an escort of three men, who conducted me to the bridge-commander, on the other side of the Bucha River.
I had to walk along the very edge of the unstable bridge in order to avoid the wheels of the passing cars, which shook the whole bridge and made the rather loose boards clatter. In the meantime, at no considerable distance, some shells fell in the river, fired at the bridge from the north. Yet, I did not mind it at all, as all these new experiences stunned me, so to speak; the incessant hellish noises of the artillery batteries, the burning houses, the smoke swooping down, the excited soldiers….
The Ukrainian Army commanding officer met me on the other end of the bridge, shook my hand and led me to a large picnic table that was covered in maps and lead markers that depicted the positions of his troops. “We are expecting a Russian attack very soon,” the commander said, offering me a seat at the near bench of the worn wooden picnic table. “I am Captain Zmurko of the Loyal Kyivan Regiment and we are here to hold this bridge for one more day at all costs.”
“I am Reporter Lerik Mokveldska of Da Minsk newspaper,” I introduced myself, “and I would like you to grant me an interview.”
“It is not allowed, I am afraid,” the Captain said. “Besides, my officers want you shot as a Russian spy, mostly because Belarus has allowed Putin to attack us from your sovereign lands.”
“That is Lukashenko’s doing, not ours,” I said. “No loyal Belarusian supports the Russians against our friends, the Ukrainians. The Bela Rus and the Kyivan Rus have been like brothers for over twelve hundred years, while the Moskva Rus have barely even existed for eight hundred years and half that under the auspices of the Mongols!” I added, ramping up my rhetoric.
“I know,” the Captain replied. “I have a brother in Minsk who married a fine Belarusian woman. Are you the Mokveldska who broke the story on the security police rapes last year?”
“I got top reporter of the year for breaking that one,” I admitted.
“My brother emailed me your piece,” Zmurko began. “He just scanned it and sent it to me. No words or explanation, likely because he felt he was being watched. I fear my sister-in-law may have been raped.” He paused and poured me a tumbler of juice. “She was heavy into the protest movement. I’ll learn more about it next year when our army marches into the Baby Kremlin and I rip Lukashenko’s nuts off him.”
“He lost his balls long ago, my friend,” I told him. “All Russian lap dogs are neutered.”
The captain laughed at this, then asked, “If you’re not a Russian spy, then why are you risking your life to be here?”
“Officially I’m here to report on the success of Vladimir Putin’s three day Special Operation to make your President Zelensky his latest Russian lap dog. Unofficially, Da Minsk learned that the Russians have planned a three day terror campaign against Ukraine and I am here to secretly record and report on war crimes and atrocities committed by the Moskva Rus against our brothers, the Kyivan Rus.”
“Those Moskva punks! Those young Turks!” the Captain cursed.
“I am also here to warn you that, while it may seem like the Russians are slowly encircling Kyiv, I have been told by one of their political officers that they are actually making for a staging area to consolidate their armour for a big push through Bucha and Irpin to The Canadian Village on the outskirts of Kyiv, where they feel defences may be weakest, and from there they’ll make a drive to Maidan Square and call for the surrender of the Ukrainian government.”
“Where is this staging area?” the captain asked. And he seemed to ask it in a way as if he were testing me, as if he already knew where it was.
“The Russian never told me that part. Perhaps he didn’t really know.” I must have passed his test, for the captain smiled and agreed with me.
Then I leaned forward and told him in a lowered voice that I’d overheard a conversation between officers that orders had come down that Ukrainian civilians were to be used as human shields in their drive to the Maidan.
“Fock!” the captain cursed and he dropped a hand onto the table, smacking a map and sending lead markers flying. “Now I really have to hold this bridge one more day at any cost!”
“What happens after one more day?” I asked.
“We shall see,” he answered. “Now I must tend to my bridge as Horatio did, back in Roman times. If any Ukrainians suspect you of being a spy tell them to contact Captain Danas Zmurko of the LKRs and I will vouch for you. Any army unit can get me on our radios.”
We bid our farewells and three soldiers again escorted me across the bridge and I spent the late afternoon retracing my steps back to the bus, which still had not moved. That evening a mess truck stopped by the bus with a hot supper for all aboard and I was very hungry and was glad I had not gotten lost and missed the meal, for we all restocked our diminishing knap sack supplies with rolls and potatoes and energy bars and we topped up our jugs of water. The toilet at the back of the bus was beginning to reek a bit so many ate by the side of the road, but I’d had enough of the cold for one day so I sat at my seat on board the bus and ate my supper alone. It was another fitful sleep that night and that poor woman’s screams returned to the minds of many as we all tossed and turned all night long.
The next day I decided to stay on the bus and study further this wild Canadian theory that it was a line of Danish royals who had set up the Nor’Way and Dan’Way trade routes through Scythia and had founded both Novgorod and Kievan Rus’ circa 800 AD and this ‘Old’ line of Danish royals, the Skioldung Fridlief-Frode line slowly evolved into the Knytling or Knot King line of Danish royals. I spent a good part of the day studying the theory of Danish princes ruling in Kievan Rus’ until it was their turn to rule as king in Denmark, leaving behind their own sons as princes to rule Rus’ until it became their turns to rule Denmark. At the time I remained unconvinced and still, the bus had not moved.
One of the great benefits of my publishing the reports on the Russian Fury in Bucha two years after the event is that it gives me the opportunity to add later bits of information that I’ve uncovered into the mix of the original story. Just prior to publishing this chapter, the Ukrainian Army lost the town of Avdiivka to Russian forces due to a shortage of artillery shells and it was their first loss in a long time. American arms aid was being held up in Congress by Republican Russophiles and European aid in artillery shells was running at half speed, so the Kingdom of Denmark stepped up to the plate and announced:
‘Denmark to donate all its artillery to Ukraine
The Kyiv Independent reported, “Denmark has decided to deliver all the artillery rounds from its stockpiles to Ukraine, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the Ukrainian Lunch at the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 17.
Artillery shells are among the most crucial military supplies for Ukraine, as they are used daily in high numbers on the Ukrainian battlefields.
“If you ask Ukrainians, they are asking us for ammunition now, artillery now. From the Danish side, we decided to donate our entire artillery,” Frederiksen said.
“There is still ammunition in European stocks. This is not a question of only production because we have the weapons, we have ammunition, we have air defense that we don’t have to use ourselves at the moment that we should deliver to Ukraine.”
Frederiksen did not specify how many artillery shells Denmark has in its stockpiles.
“Russia does not want peace with us. They are destabilizing the Western world from many different angles — in the Arctic region, the Balkans, and Africa – with disinformation, cyberattacks, hybrid war, and obviously in Ukraine,” she said.
The EU has said that it would be able to deliver only half of the promised 1 million shells by the March deadline, while defense assistance from the U.S., including artillery support, is held up by domestic political disputes.’
In retrospect perhaps there is more to this Danish founding of Kievan Rus’ than the Danes are perhaps letting on.
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' 