The First Nine Books Of The Danish History Of Saxo Grammaticus by Louis Moe
The Origins of The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus
By Brian Howard Seibert
© Copyright by Brian Howard Seibert
With Notes in [Square Brackets] by Brian Howard Seibert
From a Copyrighted Literary Work and Intellectual Property by Brian Howard Seibert
© Copyright by Brian Howard Seibert
“Scratch a Ukraine and you’ll find a Dane.
Scratch a Russian and you’ll still only find a Tartar.”
Napoleon (Interrupted)
INTRODUCTION:
Circa 1200 AD, Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), was given the task of writing the Gesta Danorum, the first full history of Denmark, by Arch-Bishop Absalon of Lund.
He wrote the latter half of his history quite faithfully while Absalon was alive and he then wrote the First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus, Books I to IX, after Absalon’s death, and the freedom he had then was palpable.
As was customary of the times, Saxo took the very little legend available to him and mixed it with myth to stretch the history of the Danish kings as far back as he could take it, so as to cement the present monarchy into the fabric of ancient Danish society, to reinforce the king’s raison d’etre of his contemporary Danish rule.
Saxo utilized Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic legendary sources to compile his ‘First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus in a hopelessly drawn out chronology that placed his centerpiece Book V as taking place in the time of Christ, thus placing the earlier Books I – IV in a Before Christ BC era, and those Books VI – IX that followed in an Anno Domini AD or CE era. Adding further to the confusion of having far too few kings reigning over impossibly long time periods, Saxo continually takes perhaps five pages of extant history and expands it into fifty pages per Book by adding Latin verbiage describing topics as disparate as witchcraft and the fabled warrior Starkad.
After reading Saxo’s Books III & IV on Prince Amleth of Denmark while researching the origins of Hamlet (see my paper titled ‘The Origins of Hamlet, Act One’) I went on to read his Book V, which covered the history of King Frodi ‘the Peaceful’ and his relationship with two Norwegian brothers, Erik and Roller Ragnarson, and I realised that Book V seemed to cover the founding of Kievan Hraes’ in the Ninth Century. So I became determined to take what I saw in Saxo’s Book V and, by placing it in its proper historical time of circa 800 CE, attempted to turn Saxo’s 50 page story into a 500 page novel just to see how the history lined up and, remarkably, it did! The Danish King Frodi ‘the Peaceful’ Fridleifson and his brothers in arms, Prince Erik and King Roller Ragnarson, successfully founded Kievan Hraes’ and in Saxo’s Book VI the tale goes on as the grandsons of King Frodi, the Princes and Grand Princes of Kiev struggle to take back the kingship of Denmark from usurpers. Three generations of Kievan Hraes’ royals, Prince Eyfur (Ivar-Igor), Prince Sveinald (Sviatoslav) and lastly Grand Prince Valdamar (Vladimir) ‘the Great’ leave the east to regain their western kingdom of Denmark as King Hardi Knut I (Fridleif), King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ Knutson (Frode) and King Canute ‘the Great’ Sweynson (Frode-Ingild) respectively, and every last one of them has to fight bitter battles to regain their forefather’s title as King of Denmark. They are the Knotlings or Knytlings of the Sagas and after writing a book about Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Erikson becoming Prince Oleg of Kiev, I wrote the stories of the Knytlings who followed him. It was the wealth and power of the Dan’Way or Dan’Par (Dnieper) trade route that fueled ‘The Great Viking Manifestation of the Middle Ages’.
There is extensive evidence that supports my theory that Saxo’s Book V details the historical founding of Kievan Hraes’ (Rus’) and Ukraine and further evidence that the Princes of Hraes’ returned to the west to rule over Denmark and even found Normandy! But first, we must dispel the modern notion that Saxo’s history is as fabled and fraudulent as Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ‘The History of the Kings of Britain’. We must keep in mind that Saxo Grammaticus was appointed and sponsored by both Church and Monarchy to write his ‘Gesta Danorum’ (Danish History) while being elevated to a position that provided for funding and travel in the research of his work, while Geoffrey was a cloistered monk who wrote his work in isolation, likely in his spare time.
There is also the ‘Teutonic Mythology’ by Viktor Rydberg, written in the 18th century, in which Viktor compares Saxo’s Book V to the mythology of Svipdag of Norway, and this has led modern experts to assume that Saxo’s work is more mythical than factual. This is not the case if Saxo’s Book V is put into its proper timeframe of circa 800 CE.
1. ACCORDING TO THE TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY OF VIKTOR RYDBERG
Presently ‘The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus’ is seen as complete mythology as testified by Sir Oliver Elton, who first translated Saxo’s Latin into English, when he introduces his translation by comparing Saxo’s history to the fraudulent English History of Geoffrey of Monmouth as follows:
“The gratitude due to the Welshman of the twelfth century, whose garnered hoard has enriched so many poets and romances from his day to now, is no less due to the twelfth-century Dane, whose faithful and eloquent enthusiasm has swept much dust from antique time, and saved us such a story as Shakespeare has not disdained to consecrate to highest use. Not only Celtic and Teutonic lore are the richer for these two men, but the whole Western world of thought and speech. In the history of modern literature, it is but right that by the side of Geoffrey an honourable place should be maintained for Saxo, and ‘awake remembrance of these mighty dead’.”
—Oliver Elton’
While Geoffrey of Monmouth took his ‘The History of the Kings of Britain’ as far back as ancient Greek and Roman times and justified his knowledge of Greek and Roman subjects by saying he was working from an ancient text, since lost, Saxo Grammaticus made no such attempts to go beyond Scandinavian history and limited himself to materials he could find in Scandinavia and attempted only to draw out the history far into the past as undoubtedly instructed by the Christian monarchs of his day. Had Saxo only written the Tale of Amleth, I would quite agree with Sir Oliver, as Saxo’s Books III & IV of the IX, covering the passed down Amleth story, seems indeed of little historical value, but there is much more to be found in Saxo’s history than just Hamlet. I believe Elton may have become convinced that Saxo was a fraud like Geoffry after reading ‘Teutonic Mythology’ by Viktor Rydberg, in which Viktor compares Saxo’s Book V to the mythology of Svipdag as follows:
“SVIPDAG’S SYNONYM EIREKR. ERICUS DISERTUS IN SAXO.
[My comments on his mythology are in square brackets]
“We have not yet exhausted Saxo’s contributions to the myth concerning Svipdag. In two other passages in his Historia Danica Svipdag reappears, namely, in the accounts of the reigns of Frode III. and of Halfdan Berggram, in both under the name Ericus (Eirekr), a name applied to Svipdag in the mythology also.
“Saxo’s account of King Frode is for the greater part the myth about Frey told as history. We might then expect to find that Svipdag, who becomes Frey’s brother-in-law, should appear in some role in Frode’s history. The question, then, is whether any brother-in-law of Frode plays a part therein. This is actually the case. Frode’s brother-in-law is a young hero who is his general and factotum, and is called Ericus, with the surname Disertus, the eloquent. The Ericus who is Frode-Frey’s general, again, resembles Svipdag in the fact that he marries Frode-Frey’s sister. This is another indication that Erik and Svipdag were identical in Saxo’s mythic sources.
“Saxo first brings us to the paternal home of Erik the eloquent. In the beginning of the narrative Erik’s mother is already dead and his father is married a second time. Compare with this the beginning of Svipdag’s history, where his mother, according to Grogalder, is dead, and his father is married again.”
[In Erik’s story, his father Ragnar is not married a second time. Norsemen could marry as many women as they wanted, so Erik’s mother could have been Ragnar’s fourth wife, who perhaps died during childbirth, as I have expanded the tale, and Kraka, Roller’s mother, may have been Ragnar’s third wife, because Roller is Erik’s older brother. It would be a good time to point out that Ragnar is most probably King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson and Kraka is likely Princess Aslaug ‘Kraka’ Sigurdsdottir, her father being Sigurd ‘Fafnirsbane’ of Volsunga fame.]
“The stepmother has a son, by name Rollerus, whose position in the myth I shall consider hereafter. Erik and Roller leave their paternal home to find Frode-Frey and his sister Gunvara, a maiden of the most extraordinary beauty. Before they proceed on this adventurous journey Erik’s stepmother, Roller’s mother, has given them a wisdom-inspiring food to eat, in which one of the constituent parts was the fat of three serpents. Of this food the cunning Erik knew how to secure the better part, really intended for Roller. But the half-brothers were faithful friends.”
[Princess Aslaug ‘Kraka’ was purported to have practised witchcraft and it was not the fat of three serpents, but the slavering venom of the snakes that imbued the meal with mind expanding powers. Nothing mythical here, just good old fashioned Aesir magic. And Erik and Roller leave their paternal home to kill King Frodi to avenge their father’s loss of Zealand to the Anglish Danes.]
“From Saxo’s narrative it appears that Erik had no desire at all to make this journey. It was Roller who first made the promise to go in search for Frode and his sister, and it was doubtless Erik’s stepmother who brought about that Erik should assist his brother in the accomplishment of the task. Erik himself regarded the resolve taken by Roller as surpassing his strength.”
[Erik was actually the first to offer to attack King Frodi of Denmark on Norwegian King Gotar’s behalf, but Gotar foiled Erik by sending another warrior, Hrafn, in his stead. It was after this warrior and his fleet were destroyed by Frodi’s Sea-King Spear Odd that Roller offered to go to the court of King Frodi and Erik insisted on joining him, so as not to be foiled by King Gotar again. Both brothers planned to avenge their father, King Ragnar, who had lost his kingdom of Zealand to the guardians of King Frodi of Jutland over a decade earlier. And both brothers were eager to go. It was their own idea and Kraka by no means imposed the task upon them.]
“This corresponds with what Grogalder tells us about Svipdag’s disinclination to perform the task imposed on him by his stepmother. This also gives us the key to Grogalder’s words, that Svipdag was commanded to go and find not only “the one fond of ornaments,” but “those fond of ornaments” (koma móti Menglödum). The plural indicates that there is more than one “fond of ornaments” to be sought. It is necessary to bring back to Asgard not only Freyja, but also Frey her brother, the god of the harvests, for whom the ancient artists made ornaments, and who as a symbol of nature is the one under whose supremacy the forces of vegetation in nature decorate the meadows with grass and the fields with grain. He, too, with his sister, was in the power of the giant-world in the great fimbul-winter.
“The land in which Frode and his beautiful sister live is difficult of access, and magic powers have hitherto made futile every effort to get there. The attendants of the brother and sister there are described as the most savage, the most impudent, and the most disagreeable that can be conceived. They are beings of the most disgusting kind, whose manners are as unrestrained as their words. To get to this country it is necessary to cross an ocean, where storms, conjured up by witchcraft, threaten every sailor with destruction.”
[This mythical and magic land Viktor Rydberg is talking about here is Denmark, a day’s sail south of Norway. The only difficulty in getting there is making it past Frodi’s sea-king Spear Odd and the Danish navy. Erik does this by using Spear Odd’s own sentinel system against the Danes, catching Frodi’s admiral off guard and destroying him. Nothing really mythical here, although Saxo had imbued the sea-king Odd with some magical powers:
‘And so, by leave of Gotar, the task of making a raid on the Danes fell to one Hrafn. He was encountered by Odd, who had at that time the greatest prestige among the Danes as a rover, for he was such a skilled magician that he could range over the sea without a ship (some translate it as ‘traverse the waters on a bone’), and could often raise tempests by his spells, and wreck the vessels of the enemy.’
It was common in the sagas for some characters to have the ability to raise winds when wanted, as in ‘Arrow Odd’s Saga’, where the Hrafnistamen and Arrow Odd himself had the ability to raise winds by holding out their arms. When Saxo writes ‘traverse the waters on a bone’ it is likely that he is working with Norwegian sources and tales that he does not fully comprehend, for when I hear ‘traverse the waters on a bone’, I think of skating upon frozen waters on the bone skates of the Finns, which may be an ability of Erik Disertus, if he is truly the son of King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’. In Saxo’s Book IX, Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson led Denmark in a war against the Finns and he could not defeat them until he and his men had learned the winter fighting skills of the Finns, how to ski on wooden snow skis and perhaps skate on bone ice skates. These skills he would have taught his sons, and Erik and Roller may have been adept at these sports. Saxo, being a cleric cut of later Danish cloth, probably didn’t even know what the sports were. By transference he likely passed the magic of ‘traversing the waters on a bone’ to Spear Odd.]
In my Book 2 of The Varangians Sagas, I have passed the skill back to Erik and he and his men use bone skates when they fight and slay the sons of Westmar on a battle on the ice. While feasting in King Frodi’s longhall, the king berates Erik for wasting huge cuts of meat requiring the slaughter of more cattle, but what Erik was really after was the shin bones of the cattle with which to make the Finnish bone skates for all twelve of his men. Saxo was probably working off of a Norwegian family saga, perhaps the ‘Saga of Prince Erik ‘Bragi the Old’ Ragnarson’, and, although earlier Norwegian audiences would have understood Erik’s men ‘traversing the frozen waters on a bone’, Saxo did not. So, while some of this might seem mythical and magical, for the most part it is not. Saxo seems to be writing about skills of which he knows nothing, which indicates he is working off of an existing prior saga.]
CARRYING ON WITH VIKTOR RYDBERG’S TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY:
“When Erik and Roller, defying the storms, had crossed this sea and conquered the magic power which hindered the approach to the country, they entered a harbour, near which Frode and Gunvara are to be sought. On the strand they meet people who belong to the attendants of the brother and sister. Among them are three brothers, all named Grep, and of whom one is Gunvara’s pressing and persistent suitor. This Grep, who is a poet and orator of the sort to be found in that land, at once enters into a discussion with Erik. At the end of the discussion Grep retires defeated and angry. Then Erik and Roller proceed up to the abode where they are to find those whom they seek. Frode and Gunvara are met amid attendants who treat them as princely persons, and look upon them as their court-circle. But the royal household is of a very strange kind, and receives visitors with great hooting, barking of dogs, and insulting manners. Frode occupies the high-seat in the hall, where a great fire is burning as a protection against the bitter cold. It is manifest from Saxo’s description that Frode and Gunvara, possibly by virtue of the sorcery of the giants, are in a spiritual condition in which they have almost forgotten the past, but without being happy in their present circumstances. Frode feels unhappy and degraded. Gunvara loathes her suitor Grep. The days here spent by Erik and Roller, before they get an opportunity to take flight with Gunvara, form a series of drinking-bouts, vulgar songs, assaults, fights, and murders. The jealous Grep tries to assassinate Erik, but in this attempt he is slain by Roller’s sword. Frode cannot be persuaded to accompany Erik, Roller, and Gunvara on this flight. [There is no attempt to persuade Frodi, by this time Erik and Gunwar are in love and are sneaking away, fleeing King Frodi]. He feels that his life is stained with a spot that cannot be removed, and he is unwilling to appear with it among other men. In the mythology it is left to Njord himself to liberate his son. In another passage Saxo says that King Fridlevus (Njord) liberated a princely youth who had been robbed by a giant. In the mythology this youth can hardly be anyone else than the young Frey, the son of the liberator. Erik afterwards marries Gunvara.”
[Again, there is little mythical in the tale to this point. It is more likely based on a prior Norwegian saga.]
“Erik is in Saxo called disertus, the eloquent. The Svipdag epithet Ódr originally had a meaning very near to this. The impersonal ódr means partly the reflecting element in man, partly song and poetry, the ability of expressing one’s self skilfully and of joining the words in an agreeable and persuasive manner (cp. the Gothic weit-wodan, to convince). Erik demonstrates the propriety of his name. Saxo makes him speak in proverbs and sentences, certainly for the reason that his Northern source has put them on the lips of the young hero. The same quality characterises Svipdag. In Grogalder his mother sings over him: “Eloquence and social talents be abundantly bestowed upon you;” and the description of him in Fjölsvinnsmal places before our eyes a nimble and vivacious youth who well understands the watchman’s veiled words, and on whose lips the speech develops into proverbs which fasten themselves on the mind.”
[Saxo calls Ericus ‘Disertus’ because Erik was given the byname ‘Bragi’ by his Norwegian King Gotar, which means great in speech as in the Bragarfuls of the past. This may also have been to connect Erik as being the author of Saxo’s Books Three and Four that precede Book Five, namely the tale of Amleth (Hamlet), whom Prince Erik may have been the original author of. After marrying Princess Gunwar, he would have joined the Old Fridleif-Frodi Skioldung line of Danish kings and would have added the byname ‘the Old’ to his titles making him Prince Erik ‘Bragi the Old’ Ragnarson, just one of his many names.]
“Toward Gunvara Erik observes the same chaste and chivalrous conduct as Otharus toward Syritha. As to birth, he occupies the same subordinate position to her as Ódr to Freyja, Otharus to Syritha, Svipdag to Menglad.”
[There was nothing chaste about Erik and Gunwar’s relationship. It was sexual and consensual. Erik was not a subordinate to Gunwar. He was a prince and she was a princess. When Erik was talking riddles with King Frodi in his court, Erik stated that he and his men left Rennes Isle, which is Rennesoy at the mouth of Stavanger Fjord, the third largest Fjord in Norway, over which lorded Vik-King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’, as told in Book IX of Saxo’s First Nine Books of Danish History. Viktor seems to believe Gunwar is a manufactured name and I agree that perhaps Hervor would have been more appropriate.]
This ends Viktor Rydberg’s comparison between the mythological Svipdag and the legendary Ericus Disertus ‘Bragi the Old’ and I find it quite unconvincing. It is surprising that Doctor Rydberg never seemed to pull together the parental names of Ragnar and Kraka as perhaps being King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ and his wife, Princess Aslaug ‘Kraka’. Perhaps it was getting too close to the semi-historical. There is a difference between mythical and legendary in that mythical is typically about gods and legends are about men. I had the good fortune of studying Roman history in first year university and of studying the Khazars in second year, so when I was required to do a final research paper on Hamlet, I chose to do it on the origins of the story. And I learned that Hamlet was based, virtually verbatim, on Saxo’s Books III & IV hero, Amleth, a fanciful tale originating from the legendary Roman history of Lucius Junius Brutus. But I read on into Saxo’s Book V and I could see history unfolding in the Danes struggle to establish a trade route across Scythia that was already controlled by the Khazars of the Caspian and their confederate tribe, the Huns.
Viktor Rydberg takes 5 pages of Saxo’s 50 pages of Book V and turns all Saxo’s First Nine Books of Danish History from legend into myth. Granted, Saxo does write a certain amount of mythology into his legendary history, but there is still viable history to be gleaned from his writings because contemporary historical writings of the Arabs, Eastern Romans, Carolingians and English, as well as others, confirm that many of Saxo’s legends did exist if Saxo’s writings are put in a proper timeline and context. Much of Saxo’s legendary history happens much later than he dates it because his Danish sponsors are trying to extend the royal history as far back into the past as possible in order to reinforce the legitimacy of their present kings. So we must deal with this deception by attempting to put the legendary fragments into their proper historical sequence and glean as much true history as we conceptually can. If we do so correctly, then contemporary sources from Arab, Byzantine, Carolingian and English histories will blend in properly with the new Danish history in confirmation of a successful transposition.
Shortly, we can expect AI to assist us in tying together loose chronicles such as Saxo’s into dated and substantiated histories. But that is still in the future. Perhaps we should review the past by touching upon Saxo’s Nine Books of Danish History and seeing how contemporary sources substantiate some of Saxo’s histories.
2. THE FIRST NINE BOOKS OF THE DANISH HISTORY OF SAXO GRAMMATICUS
AND HOW THEY RELATE TO ‘THE VARANGIANS’ SAGA SERIES:
BOOK I:
Saxo started Book I with King Humble and then his sons, Kings Dan and Angul, founders of the Skioldung or Shielding line of kings, reigning well before the time of Christ. But from the start, Saxo’s history takes place circa the Current Era of CE or AD.
King Dan’s sons, Humble and Lother take over rule in succession followed by King Skiold Lotherson, who allied himself with the Saxons and may have fought in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest (circa 9 AD), helping to eradicate three of Emperor Augustus’ Roman legions. He ends up dueling the king of the Alemanni for the hand of the Saxon Princess Alfhild, and in winning her hand, blends Saxon and Danish dialects into the first Anglish language of Jutland, which the Angels would take with them to Britain and contribute to the Anglo Saxon dialect that has come to be known as English. Saxo explains how this came about in the preface of his histories.
But suffice it to say that: It was this Anglish that 80% of the Vikings spoke when attacking England during the Great Viking Manifestation of the Middle Ages!
King Gram Skioldson was next, and, after being slain by SWIPDAG, King of Norway, was followed by his sons, Guthorm and Hadding.
BOOK II:
Saxo’s Book II has King Hadding succeeded by his son, King Frode, who attacked London, and was followed by his sons, Halfdan, Ro and Skat, who were followed by Halfdan’s sons, Helge and Ro, with Ro being said to have founded Roskilde.
But Helge was famed for founding a daughter by the rape of Princess Thora of Thorey, and became even more famed when, a generation later, he unknowingly raped his daughter by Thora during a later attack upon Thorey and she bore him a son, Hrolf…Hrolf Kraki.
The first two books of Saxo’s history are perhaps based on ancient runic poems that Saxo has collected while researching ancient Danish history and may go back as far as circa 9 AD and earlier.
BOOKS III & IV:
Books III & IV of Saxo’s First Nine tell the tale of Amleth, which is the original version of Hamlet, so much so that even the name Hamlet is an anagram of Amleth.
It was while tracing the origins of Hamlet that I first read Saxo’s work and I further traced the Amleth tale down the riverways of Scythia to Constantinople and the old Roman tale of Lucius Junius Brutus who was, perhaps, the original Hamlet, playing the fool to survive under the rule of his usurping Uncle Tarquinius. I came to the conclusion that it was likely some famous Danish prince who had carried the tale up north to Denmark from those southern Roman lands, an eloquent Danish prince, a Bragning prince of Scandinavia.
TERTIARY CONCLUSION
The next two books of Saxo’s history are perhaps based on an old work, ‘Amleth, Prince of Denmark’, by Prince Erik ‘Bragi the Old’ Ragnarson, based on Roman writings about Lucius Junius Brutus that he may have come to know while visiting Constantinople. A prince of great eloquence would be required to reproduce such a notable work.
SAXO’S BOOK V AND HOW IT RELATES TO BOOK 2 OF THE VARANGIANS SAGAS:
Saxo’s Book V has just such an eloquent prince in Erik ‘Bragi the Old’ (Ericus ‘Disertus’), son of King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ and stepson of Princess Aslaug ‘Kraka’, mother of Erik’s brother Roller. The two sons of Ragnar set off for Leire to avenge their father’s loss of Zealand to King Frodi of Jutland and his guardians a decade earlier. Instead, both brothers fall in love with Frodi’s sister, Princess Gunwar, and end up helping the Danish king set up the Southern Way, the Dan’Way or Dan’Par, that would soon compete directly with King Ragnar’s Hraes’ Trading Company of Men and its Nor’Way trade route to Constantinople and Baghdad.
From an historical perspective, after Erik marries Gunwar, the two brothers and new brother-in-law first attack and defeat the Sclavs of the Dvina River, then King Olmar and the Slavs of Kiev and finally the enormous army of the Hunnish Khazars in a retreating struggle that causes the Hun army to perish in the vastness of Scythia due its own immense size.
By incorporating fragments of the Saga of King Heidrik ‘the Wise’, who likely may be Erik ‘Bragi’, we learn that a generation later an illegitimate son of King Frodi, the Hunnish Prince Hlod, challenges the Danes for control of trade by killing Princess Gunwar (Hervor) in battle, precipitating the famous Battle of the Goths and the Huns on the plains of the Don Heath. Following eight days of fierce fighting that has seen the Danish ranks swell with inspired warriors of the north, the Hun line breaks and Prince Hlod dies in battle.
We are witnessing the historical founding of Kievan Hraes’ by the three brothers, Rurik (Erik), Truvor (Roller) and Sineus (SigFrodi) as detailed in the Rus’ or Hraes’ Primary Chronicle.
I became determined to take what I saw in Saxo’s Book V and, by placing it in its proper historical time of circa 800 CE, attempt to turn Saxo’s 50 page story into a 500 page novel just to see how the history lines up and, remarkably, it does! The Danish King Frodi ‘the Peaceful’ Fridleifson and his brothers in arms, Prince Erik and King Roller Ragnarson, successfully founded Kievan Hraes’ and in Saxo’s Book VI the tale goes on as the grandsons of King Frodi, the princes and grand princes of Kiev struggle to take back the kingship of Denmark from usurpers. Three generations of Kievan Hraes’ royals, Prince Eyfur (Ivar-Igor), Prince Sveinald (Sviatoslav) and lastly Grand Prince Valdamar (Vladimir) ‘the Great’ leave the east to regain their western kingdom of Denmark as King Hardi Knut I (Fridleif), King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ Knutson (Frode) and King Canute ‘the Great’ Sweynson (Frode-Ingild), and every last one of them has to fight bitter battles to regain their forefather’s title as King of Denmark. They are the Knotlings or Knytlings of the Sagas and after writing a book about Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Erikson becoming Prince Oleg of Kiev, I wrote the stories of the Knytlings who followed him. It was the wealth and power of the Dan’Way or Dan’Par (Dnieper) trade route that fueled ‘The Great Viking Manifestation of the Middle Ages’.
THE LIKELY SUSPECTS OF SAXO’S BOOK V:
So who were the likely suspects, the eighth and ninth century characters who have populated the pages of Saxo’s Book V?
THE SKIOLDUNGS OR ANGELS OF JUTLAND, DENMARK:
King SigFrode (Sigfred or Sigfreddy), who ruled Angeland, Denmark from at least 777 AD to after 798 AD, would have been young King Frode’s grandfather. His reign would have overlapped the reign of King Ragnar Lothbrok Sigurdson in Zealand, Denmark. King SigFrode’s reign can be traced through Carolingian sources. His father was King Ongandan (Angantyr), a relatively rare name, who had been in conflict with Sigurd Hring, Ragnar Lothbrok’s father, so the bitter struggle between the two royal lines goes back generations.
The Sons of Gudfred came next. King Gudfred (Fridleif) may have sired at least five sons, as well as having at least five nephews. Several of them served as rulers or co-rulers of the Danes between 810 and 854. His sons are typically called “Sons of Gudfred” without mention of their names, apart from perhaps Horik I, who may have been Erik ‘Bragi’.
A Hemming is mentioned in the Royal Frankish Annals as son to an unnamed brother of Gudfred. Other nephews were Ragnvald, Håkon, Angantyr and Sigfred.
A rival royal branch led by Harald Klak (ruled 812-813 AD, 819-827 AD) claimed to be scions of a former King Harald. This Harald may have been a predecessor, co-ruler or short-lived successor of King Sigfred (SigFrode). Har ‘the Old’ or Harald may have been a place-maker name for unknown kings related to the Old Skioldung Line of Kings who were said to be descended from Odin (Har). We shall find more Haralds and Hargolds as we progress through Danish history.
So, historically, we have 5 Sons of Gudfred, 5 Nephews of Gudfred, along with a competing royal line all vying for the throne vacated by King Gudfred (Fridleif ‘the Swift’).
AND WHAT DOES SAXO’S LINEUP SAY?
Saxo’s Book IV ends with a King Frode ‘the Vigorous’, who destroyed ten captains of Norway, including a King Froger. This King Frode would correspond to King SigFrode (Sigfred) mentioned in the Carolingian sources above.
Saxo then notes a King Dan as coming next. This Dan may be a Halfdan also mentioned in Frankish sources as serving as an envoy to Charlemagne.
“After Dan, FRIDLEIF, surnamed the Swift, assumed the sovereignty.” is next in Saxo’s list. King Fridleif is credited with a defence of Zealand, the conquest of Dublin and a victory in Britain. This King Fridleif, meaning Fred ‘the Inheritor’ would correspond to King Gudfred ‘the Swift’, here ‘the Swift’ meaning ‘swift to flee from battle’.
Saxo’s Book V begins with: “After the death of Fridleif, his son FRODE, aged seven, was elected in his stead by the unanimous decision of the Danes. But they held an assembly first, and judged that the minority of the king should be taken in charge by guardians, lest the sovereignty should pass away owing to the boyishness of the ruler.”
Saxo also adds: “Frode had also given the supremacy of the sea to Odd; who was very closely related to the king. At this time a certain son of Frode’s brother held the chief command of naval affairs for the protection of the country. Now the king had a sister, Gunwar, surnamed ‘the Fair’ because of her surpassing beauty.” So young King Frode (Sigfred) and his unnamed brother were two of the unnamed ‘Sons of Gudfred’.
WHY THE SONS OF GUDFRED WERE UNNAMED:
Saxo further adds: “Gunwar had many suitors; and accordingly Grep, trying to take revenge for his rebuff by stealthy wiles, demanded the right of judging the suitors, declaring that the princess ought to make the choicest match. But he disguised his anger, lest he should seem to have sought the office from hatred of the maiden. At his request the king granted him leave to examine the merits of the young men. So he first gathered all the wooers of Gunwar together on the pretence of a banquet, and then lined the customary room of the princess with their heads—a gruesome spectacle for all the rest.” The perhaps as many as thirty young suitors were all princes of Europe who had their lives ended in Liere by the “Sons of Gudfred”, who would forever be unnamed in the Annals of Europe. Only later would Horik I be named, but he was likely Erik ‘Bragi’, the brother-in-law who had arrived in Liere later and had slain the men involved in the princely murders.
RETURNING TO SAXO’S BOOK V AND PROOF OF ITS HISTORICITY:
Later in Saxo’s Book V (Circa 831 AD) we learn that King Frodi had decided to attack the Sclavs [Scandinavian Slavs? Goths?] settled along the Dvina River in Northern Scythia. While defeating the Sclavs, King Frodi may have acquired the byname Angantyr, for in my writings it is here that King Frodi is called ‘the Hanging Tyr’ (Angantyr)) for having thieves hanged with a wolf, a very brutal type of execution whereby a thief and a wolf would both be hanged by their feet together and left to fight it out.
Next King Frodi attacked King Olmar and his Slavs (of Kiev?), defeating them in a bloody river battle that proved the superiority of the Viking longship over the Slav monoxyla and left the Dnieper strewn with corpses.
When the Danish army eventually encountered a huge army of Huns that was heading west to meet them, the Hun host is too large for the Danes to even entertain fighting. Prince Erik ‘Bragi’ tells King Frodi that they must retreat and draw the Hun army back north across the vastness that is Scythia and cause the Hun host to perish of its own vast size. King Frodi would, of course, baulk at this because his own father, King Fridlief ‘the Swift’, had earned his byname for swiftly retreating before an army of Charlemagne’s Franks only a few decades earlier. But out of necessity they do retreat and the Huns do perish and the Danes acquire a Roman byname of Dromitai, meaning ‘those who run fast’.
This is explained somewhat by Romilly Jenkins Byzantine interpretation:
“These sentences give good sense if we abstract the words (a Greek phrase), for we then get left with the ordinary aetiological explanation of the two names of the Rus’, ‘Rhos’ and ‘Dromitai’: they are called ‘Rhos’ after the name of a mighty man of valour so called [Hraegunar ‘Lothbrok’], and ‘Dromitai’ because they can run fast [King Fridlief ‘the Swift’].”
Jenkins, Romilly: Studies on Byzantine History of the 9th and 10th Centuries
The Danish army returned to Kiev unopposed. Here he (King Frodi) passed seven most happy years of peace, begetting a son Alf and a daughter Eyfura. Prince Erik and Princess Gunwar apparently had no children and I describe them as establishing a mythical city of Gardariki (Erik’s Keep) in the legendary Land of Tmutorokan.
In my Book 2 writings of The Varangian Sagas, I combine Saxo’s Book V with The Saga of King Heidrik ‘the Wise’, who I posit as being Prince Erik ‘Bragi/Disertus, the Wise Speaking’ Ragnarson. To that end, in my writings, when Prince Hlod reaches adulthood, he begins making demands for a share of Tmutorokan and the wealth of the Hraes’ Trading Company and the Dan’Way and Nor’Way trade routes. Prince Erik learns that there is a secret connection between the Khazars and the Eastern Roman Empire and he sets out for Constantinople to remind Emperor Theophilos of their mutual trade agreements and support. But he leaves his famed sword Tyrfingr with Princess Gunwar because he doesn’t want it to fall into Roman hands. In Constantinople he is seized and imprisoned and then sent off for execution in the court of King Louis ‘the Pious’ in Ingelheim:
This helps explain an incident in the Frankish capital of Ingelheim in 839 AD:
“…along with his envoys the Emperor sent also
some men who called themselves and their own
people Rhos; they asserted that their king,
Chacanus by name, had sent them to Theophilos
to establish amity.”
Prudentius, Bishop of Troyes; Annales Bertiniani (839)
Bishop Prudentius also stated that the Rhos had requested assistance in bypassing an eastern horde that was blocking their return to their king. Prince Erik ‘Bragi’ had perhaps modified the sealed message sent with the embassy and was to be welcomed and assisted, not executed, but King Louis soon learns that the Rhos are Vikings, the same Vikings attacking his northern coasts, so he has them imprisoned anyway. The Bishop of Troyes never does expand upon the outcome of this encounter between King Louis and ‘Swedish Vikings’ in Ingelheim, so I have taken the literary liberty of allowing Prince Erik a clean escape back into his northern lands with the help of his brother, King Roller of Norway, for, ‘bare is the back of the brotherless’. It is to be noted that the eastern horde blocking the way in this time period were likely the Magyars on their way west to establish themselves in Pannonia as the present day Hungarians.
In the above quotation, the people the Greeks called Rhos are the Danish and Norwegian Hraes’ of Kiev and their king is called Chacanus, Greek for Kagan, because King Frodi had wrested control of Kiev from the Khazar Kagan and may have inherited his eastern title along with his eastern realm.
The term Hraes’ is from the following poetic quotation:
“And his shield was called ‘Hrae’s Ship’s Round’,
And his followers were called the Hraes’.”
Eyvinder Skald-Despoiler; Skaldskaparmal?
I have used this quotation to speculate that the Rus’ of Kievan Rus’ are actually Norwegian Hraes’ that follow King ‘Hrae’ Gunar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson of Zealand and Stavanger Fjord. “Hraes’ Ship’s Round” is the name of the shield, the kenning for it being a ship’s round, which Gunar Sigurdson took shelter behind when he fought a Greek Fire breathing Roman bireme, a full generation after King Sigurd of Volsunga had slain the Roman dragonship Fafnir, and Gunar earned himself the prename ‘Hrae’ from the roaring sound that the bronze Greek Fire tubes made when breathing fire and the byname ‘Lothbrok’ from the shaggy breeches he wore to protect himself from the flames.
The Kievan Hraes’ or Rus’ are called ‘Rhos’ by the Eastern Romans and Greeks and perhaps Rauningi (Hraeningi) and Raesir (Hraesir) by Scandinavians. Another northern name for them is Varangians, which is Norse for Way Wanderers [Va + Rang, the Rang River in Iceland meaning Wandering River]. Originally one had to make the great crossing from Varanger Fjord on the north cape of the Nor’Way to the White Sea of the Biarmians in order to call oneself a Varangian, but later it came to denote those who wandered the Dan’Way as well.
CARRYING ON WITH SAXO’S BOOK V:
“When King Hun heard that King Frodi had disbursed his army, he then raised another Hunnish host and returned to Scythia from the east. King Frodi recalled his forces and, trusting in their strength, they engaged the Huns. Such a carnage broke out on the first day of this combat that the three chief rivers of Rus’ were bestrewn with a kind of bridge of corpses, and could be passed and walked over. So when the battle had been seven days prolonged, King Hun fell.”
The above battle may be likened to the Battle of the Goths and the Huns of The Saga of King Hedrik ‘the Wise’ except that it happens a few years after King Frodi’s first victory and not a generation later as happens with King Hedrik. In my Book 2, I tend to follow the generation later timeline. Both battles are so large and costly that it is difficult to see them happening a few years apart. That is why I have King Frodi pass seven most happy years of peace in between the two battles in which he begets a son Alf and a daughter Eyfura. In this longer interval I also follow Prince Erik’s escape from King Louis ‘the Pious’ in Ingelheim with his personal combat with King Alrik of Sweden in which Alrik is slain and Erik severely wounded. The Norwegian prince takes over as Swedish king and Alrik’s son, Prince Bjorn, survives by playing a fool and throwing rocks at kites that fly over the barrow of his father. But Erik succumbs to his wound and lapses into a coma and when he awakens from it, Prince Bjorn of the Barrows is the new Swedish king. He condemns Erik to death once he is fully recovered. In this script, it is Prince Bjorn who plays the part of Hamlet and it may be the spark that inspires Prince Erik ‘Bragi the Old’ to write about Amleth in the Books III & IV that precede Saxo’s Book V.
As he is recovering, Prince Erik learns that his wife, Princess Gunwar, had converted to Christianity, changing her name to Hervor, and had been slain by Prince Hlod on the dusty plains of the Dunheath near Gardariki and, in his grief, the night before he is to be executed, he writes a drapa in honour of his princess. On hearing the drapa, King Bjorn is so impressed he offers to spare Erik if he but writes a similar drapa of praise about himself. This is when ‘Bragi the Old’ writes his Head Ransom Drapa as later described by a kinsman thus:
Prince Arinbjorn, Egils Saga
BOOK 2 OF THE VARANGIANS TRANSITIONS TO BOOK 3:
The Varangians Book 2 ends with The Battle of the Goths and the Huns and The Varangians Book 3, The Saga of Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Erikson takes over the rest of Saxo’s Book V.
The Saga of Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Erikson is based on The Saga of Arrow Odd which is a legendary saga that was recorded by an Icelander in the 13th century but originates from a much earlier period. It is a saga about a death foretold:
“Venom-filled snake shall sting you
From below the skull of Faxi.
The adder will bite from below your foot,
When you are terribly old, my lord.”
Witch Heid, Saga of Arrow Odd
The same death foretold was accorded Prince Oleg of Kiev in the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle and he too died from the bite of a serpent that crawled from beneath the skull of his horse circa 912 AD. This seems to fit in well with Prince Helgi’s timeline as the son of Prince Erik. And the names Oleg and Helgi both mean Holy, leading me to believe they were one and the same person.
Prince Helgi was almost literally born on a battlefield and his life became one with battle as he took on the slaver fleets of the Danes. He fought and killed many of King Frodi’s foremost men and defeated them in battles both at sea and on land, but his greatest and most hated enemy was Ogmund Tussock. Prince Helgi partnered up with Swedish Jarl Hjalmar ‘the Brave’ and the two warriors slaughtered the twelve grandsons of King Frodi, the sons of his daughter, Princess Eyfura, during the famous Holmganger on Samso (read my post Reconstructing the Samso Cycle of Saxo Grammaticus) and this was more than King Frodi could take.
Saxo continues:
“After this Frode gathered together a host of all his subject nations, and attacked Norway with his fleet, Erik being bidden to lead the land force.
“In this war the Danes suffered such slaughter that out of 3,000 ships only 170 are supposed to have survived. The Northmen, however, were exterminated in such a mighty massacre, that (so the story goes) there were not men left to till even a fifth of their villages.”
The only Norwegian likely to have profited from King Frodi’s attack on Norway in 865 AD may have been King Harald ‘Fairhair’ Halfdanson, who may have sided with the Danish King Frodi. Leaving his last name be, the Hrafnsmal poem in his honour includes the lines:
“The highborn king [Haraldr] who took the Danish wife rejected the Holmrygir and the maidens of the Hordar, every single one from Hedmark and the family of Holgi (Helgi?).”
“How generous is [he] to those who guard [his] land, the excellent war-hastener [Warrior] to his men of skills?”
“Strife-displayers [Warriors] are greatly enriched, those who cast dice at Haraldr’s court. They are endowed with valuables and handsome treasures, with Hunnish metal and an eastern bondwoman.”
It would appear that King Harald ‘Fairhair’ took a Danish wife over his own Hordaland maidens and his men were rewarded with Hunnish gold and eastern bondmaidens (concubines?). King Frodi of Kiev had just defeated the Huns, so he likely had Hunnish metal and, being a slaver of monstrous proportions, he would have had access to innumerable eastern Slav concubines. He may have enticed Harald to join him in crushing Norway and allowed him to clean up and become the first full King of Norway (at least up to Halogaland, which was purported to have been named after Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ and was defended by him).
Saxo continues:
“This it was that chiefly led Frode to attack the West, for his one desire was the spread of peace. So he summoned Erik, and mustered a fleet of all the kingdoms that bid him allegiance, and sailed to Britain with numberless ships.”
This is circa 866 AD and this is the attack of The Great Heathen Army on England.
According to the contemporary John Asser, writer of ‘Asser’s Life of King Alfred’:
“The same year (866 AD) a great fleet of heathen came to Britain from the Danube, and wintered in the kingdom of the East Saxons, which is called in Saxon East Anglia; and there they became in the main an army of cavalry.”
But the Danes from the Scythian Danube were not after the Kings of Britain. They were after Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ of Norway, who had holdings in East Anglia, as well as a wife in Ireland, and his uncle, King Roller of Norway. Prince Helgi fled to Helluland and the Newfoundland of Vinland, while his Uncle Roller fled to Frankia, the only land strong enough to take on King Frodi of Denmark and Kievan Hraes’, and there Rollo founded Normandy and became its duke.
As further proof that the Danish Great Heathen Army that attacked England in 866 AD originated out of Kievan Hraes’ (Rus’) and Denmark and was led by King Frodi ‘the Third’ Fridleifson of Kievan Hraes’ (Rus’) and Anglish Jutland in Denmark, a royal from ‘the Old Fridleif/Frodi Line of Danish Kings, is the following reference to the Great Heathen Army as being the ‘Scaldingi’ (Skioldungs) as stated in the ‘History of Saint Cuthbert’ chronicle of that time:
“Chapter 12 of the HSC, after reporting once more on the crushing and slaying of the Northumbrian Kings Ælla and Osberht in 867 AD, says that ‘the Scaldingi slew nearly all the English in the southern and the northern parts [of England]’.”
Here the Scaldingi are the Skioldungs, the followers of the Skioldung King Frodi and, in the true fashion of the slavers that they had become, the Hraes’ Danes likely enslaved all captured English and transported them east to Kiev for sale in the slave markets of Baghdad. They did not slay nearly all the English as stated in the above Chronicle; they sold them. The English monarchy of the time did not want it known that their subjects were being enslaved by Aesir Pagans and sold in Baghdad to Muslim infidels.
Also, according to the near contemporary Dudo of St. Quentin, writer of ‘Gesta Normannorum’:
“[Chapter] 5 Rollo is expelled from his native Dacia by an evil king”
“But in the region of Dacia there was, in those days, a certain old man [King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’], most opulent with an abundance of all goods, and surrounded on all sides by a crowd of innumerable warriors, a man who never lowered the nape of his neck before any king, nor placed his hands in anyone else’s hands in committing himself to service. Holding almost the entire realm of Dacia, he claimed for himself the lands bordering on Dacia [Romania] and Alania [Scythia], and by force and power he subjugated the populace to himself through very many battles. For, of all the easterners, he was the mightiest due to his superior strength and the most distinguished due to his cumulated surplus of all the virtues. But when he died, his two sons, vigorous in arms, well-versed in warfare, in body most fair, in spirit most hardy, survived him. Truly the older of them was called Rollo [King Roller Ragnarson], but the other, the younger, Gurim [Prince Erik ‘Bragi the Old’ Ragnarson].”
Dudo’s chronicle goes on to tell us how the evil King of Dacia drove Duke Rollo out of Dacia [Kievan Hraes’] and Rollo fled to Scania and then onward to Frankia. Perhaps this is how Rollo earned his byname ‘the Walker’, a more polite version of ‘the Swift’, or ‘Dromitai: one who flees from battle’.
There are some who claim that Dacia was also a name for the Danes of Denmark, but this is a twelfth century fabrication of Latin Christians who sought to remove Orthodox Christianity from all western history, so volatile had the Great Schism between the two branches of Christianity become.
In William of Jumieges chronicle, ‘History of the Dukes of Normandy’, written a generation after Dudo’s contemporary piece, William repeats Dudo’s history of Rollo and the evil King of Dacia who drove him out of the east and William explains exactly what is meant by Dacia:
“Europe, intersected by a great number of rivers and divided into several provinces, is bounded at its extremities by the waters of the sea. One of its provinces, the most extensive, which contains an innumerable population and which is also richer than the others, is called Germania. In this region is the river Ister, which rises at the summit of Mount Athnoe, and which, being increased in profusion by the waters of sixty rivers, and flowing violently from the south towards the east, separates Germania from Scythia, as far as the places where it empties into the Scythian sea, and is called the Danube. In this vast area, which extends from the Danube to the shores of the Scythian Sea, there are scattered and inhabited fierce and barbarous nations, who are said to have rushed forth in various ways, but always with the customs of the barbarian peoples, from the island of Scanza, which is surrounded on all sides by the waters of the ocean, just as swarms of bees come out of their hives, or swords come out of their sheaths. For there is the vast country of Alania, the immense region of Dacia, and the extremely extensive region of Getia. Dacia is situated in the middle of the other two regions, and defended, as a city might be, by the high mountains of the Alps, which envelop it as with a crown. The immense folds of this vast country are inhabited by fierce and warlike peoples, namely the Getae, also called Goths, Sarmatians, Amacsobes, Tragodites, Alans and many other tribes who still reside in the vicinity of the Palus-Meotis [the Sea of Azov, where the Ukraines and russians are now fighting as I am writing].”
FINALLY THE END OF SAXO’S BOOK V:
“After the triumphs in Britain and the spoiling of the Irish they went back to Denmark; and for thirty years there was a pause from all warfare.”
The thirty year pause is a reference to Christ’s time on earth. This is, of course, Christian fiction introduced by Saxo’s sponsors. There was no pause for peace as the English were fighting for their lives after King Frodi returned to Kiev in the east. Fragments of the Great Heathen Army stayed behind and conquered great swathes of England while Frodi’s chief, Ogmund (Guthrum) set up the New Danelaw.
But there was twenty years of peace for Prince Helgi as he laid low in Frankia with his uncle, Duke Rollo of Normandy. But in 885 AD, Prince Alf sailed to Frankia and got wind that Duke Rollo ‘the Walker’ (unlike King Fridleif ‘the Swift’) was actually King Roller of Norway, one of the sovereigns who had helped Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ escape the wrath of King Frodi. The Danes of Kiev once again raised a fleet and King SigFrodi, as a Viking called Sigfried, attacked Paris. He couldn’t take the newly walled city and had to return to the east after his army was ravaged by plague.
But Prince Helgi knew he would be back. So Arrow Odd, known as Ohthere to King Alfred, and Otter to others, Mysing (Gray Mouse) to even others, would soon become known as ‘Sea-Cow’ to the Danes of Kiev. He filled a fast slim warship with northern gold, walrus and narwal ivory and headed east with a dozen picked warriors disguised as merchants. On the main quay of Kiev his men unloaded their wares and the valuable ivory did not go unnoticed and when King Frodi arrived to collect his tithes Prince Helgi pierced him through with a narwal tusk. At least that is what is told in my Book 3 of ‘The Varangians’.
And Saxo goes on:
“The wound killed him; and his end was unworthy of such majesty as his. So ended Frode, the most famous king in the whole world.”
And so ends Saxo’s Book V, a book made up of mythology, according to Doctor Viktor Rydberg, but it is only about 5 pages of the 50 that is alluded to as being mythical. The other 45 pages seem to cover a very important event in human history: The founding of Kievan Hraes’, present day Ukraine, and Novgorod Hraes’, present day Belarus, in circa 830 AD, 400 years before the founding of Moskva in present day russia.
But before Saxo’s Book VI begins, Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ almost ends the Frodi/Fridleif Skioldung line of kings by, according to Arrow Odd’s Saga, slaying King Frodi’s heir, King Alf Bjalki of Kiev, after beheading his son, Prince Vidgrip, prior to battle. In the battle against King Alf for Kiev, much witchcraft was used that was very similar to the witchcraft later used in the Battle of Hjorungavagr, namely the five arrows of death used by the spirit of Thorgerder Helgibruder and of the Goddess Irpa.
And in my Book 3 of ‘The Varangians’, circa 912 AD, Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Erikson returned to the main quay of Kiev and was attacked by Princess Hervor Angantyrsdottir and was cut on the ankle by her father’s sword, Tyrfingr, below the scorn-skull atop the forestem of the longship Fair Faxi. A few hours later he died from the poison of the ‘blood snake’, but before he died Hervor promised to be his Valkyrie on his death ride to Valhalla. Two days later she died from the radiation of the blade, Tyrfingr, and the two royals rode Fair-Faxi to Valhall in a fiery ship cremation down the Danepar River.
Coincidentally it is in circa 912 AD that Prince Helgi’s uncle, Duke Rollo of Normandy, is forced to hand over his rule to his son, Prince William, due to his extreme age and decrepitude. This would seem to align with Rollo’s birth as Roller Ragnarson circa 810 AD.
Put into its proper place and time, Book V certainly is potentially historical, especially when combined with the Chronicles and Sagas of its time. The above extensive evidence supports the theory that Saxo’s Book V details the historical evidence of the founding of Kievan Hraes’, however, it does not prove the founding of Ukraine by Danes. But as more and more Chronicles become available in translation, more and more evidence surfaces.
Saxo begins Book VI with:
“After the death of Frode, the Danes wrongly supposed that Fridleif, who was being reared in Russia, had perished; and, thinking that the sovereignty halted for lack of an heir, and that it could no longer be kept on in the hands of the royal line, they considered that the sceptre would be best deserved by the man who should affix to the yet fresh grave of Frode a song of praise in his glorification, and commit the renown of the dead king to after ages by a splendid memorial. Then one HIARN, very skilled in writing Danish poetry, wishing to give the fame of the hero some notable record of words, and tempted by the enormous prize, composed, after his own fashion, a barbarous stave. Its purport, expressed in four lines, I have transcribed as follows:
‘Frode, whom the Danes would have wished to live long, they bore long through their lands when he was dead. The great chief’s body, with this turf heaped above it, bare earth covers under the lucid sky.’
“When the composer of this song had uttered it, the Danes rewarded him with the crown.”
Saxo adds:
“Now the Danes had long ago had false tidings of Fridleif’s death, and when they found that he was approaching, they sent men to fetch him, and ordered Hiarn to quit the sovereignty,”
but Hiarn rather liked being king so he fought two pitched battles with Prince Fridleif, losing both, and finally losing his life in personal combat with the true king.
Here, King Fridleif was raised in the East as Prince Ivar or Ingvar of Kiev, likely not the son, but the grandson of King Frodi. Referencing the Ioachim Chronicle, Vasily Tatishchev claimed that Ivar’s mother was the Swedish princess Efanda. But his mother was more likely the Danish Princess Eyfura, daughter of King Frodi, who may have had a thirteenth son later in life with Prince Erik (Rurik). Prince Ivar’s Danish name may have even been Eyfur, the masculine of his mother’s name Eyfura.
But first there is a story I must relate regarding Prince Ivar of Kiev:
One night I asked the spirit of Prince Erik ‘Bragi the Old’ to tell me who exactly Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ had been. Erik ‘Bragi’ came to me in a dream and he said, ‘Ivar the Boneless is Prince Igor of Kiev’, and I responded with ‘That’s the craziest thing I have ever heard!’, but Prince Erik persisted and repeated that ‘Ivar the Boneless is Prince Igor of Kiev’, so I researched Ivar the Boneless. It was said in the Sagas that he had no bones in his legs. Then I researched Prince Igor of Kiev, hoping to find a similar nickname, but I could find none.
‘Show me,’ I pleaded the next evening with Erik. ‘Show me.’ He came to me in a dream again and repeated ‘Ivar the Boneless IS Prince Igor of Kiev.’ So I researched further and read The History of Leo ‘the Deacon’ and Leo relates how Emperor John Tzimiskes tells Ivar’s son Svein what had happened to his father: ‘on his campaign against the Germans, he was captured by them, tied to tree trunks, and torn in two.’
But Prince Erik said, ‘Prince Igor of Kiev IS Ivar the Boneless.’ Perhaps he did not die from this Roman form of execution. The Sagas also said he fought while borne into battle upon a shield so perhaps he was maimed by the attack. This Roman based execution was called “Death by Sprung Trees”, but it is easily botched. Slip knots tie down the trees and if they aren’t released at exactly the same time, or if the victim is wearing chain mail armour, as likely the prince was, only the lower legs might be torn away. This may have been the creation of Ivar the Boneless.
“When I was working in Gurguri, Pakistan, installing and starting
up a gas plant I had designed and built in Canada, the Pakistani
engineers who were helping called the local Pashtun people
Germans. I asked them why they would call the Pashtuns Germans?
They said it was because the Pashtuns were offspring of the army
of Alexander ‘the Great’. Perhaps Emperor John Tzimiskes of
Constantinople, but originally of Armenia, was also referring to the
Pashtuns or Hazaras of Afghanistan as Germans. Interestingly, the
gas plant I started up had been purchased by Magyar Oil Limited (MOL)
of Hungary, the offspring of the same Magyars that had blocked
the Dnieper River off from Prince Erik of Gardariki.”
Comments on: ‘The History of Leo ‘the Deacon’ as read by B H Seibert
In 914 AD, Prince Ivar (Igor) of Kiev “attacked the Drevlians, and after conquering them, he imposed upon them a tribute larger than Oleg’s” (the prior Kievan Prince Helgi). Igor was attacked while collecting even more tribute from the Drevlians. This is quoted from the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle and we have found in the Byzantine Annals of Leo the Deacon what perhaps happened next.
Prince Ivar may have been collecting excessive tribute to finance a military campaign to reclaim his maternal grandfather’s throne in Liere, to reclaim King Frodi’s realm in Denmark. Prince Ivar (Igor) of Kiev disappears from the Russian Chronicle from 916 to 935 AD and a royal suddenly appears in Denmark as King Harde Knute ‘the First’, who reigns from 916 to 936 AD. He is the first of the famous Knotling line of Danish kings. He is also called Hardegon of Northmannia which may indicate that he conquered York and Northumbria in England, the home of King AElla, the ruler of York, who just happened to have killed Prince Ivar’s paternal grandfather, Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’.
The Angels of northern England learned to fear Ivar the Boneless as he was borne about on a shield while fighting to conquer them. He became known to the Anglish as a cruel tactician who captured York, perhaps even kidnapping King AElla’s granddaughter, Princess Blaeja, and taking her as his queen to Denmark. He named their son Gorm, meaning snake or serpent. When he returned to Kiev in 936, he had a son with his wife there, Princess Helga (Olga), and he named him Svein, meaning swine, thereby setting up the greatest vengeance cycle ever. It was known in Viking times that the swine and snake were mortal enemies. If snakes were taking over a Viking farmstead, the farmer set his swine loose in the fields and they destroyed the snakes.
Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ led a 943 AD expedition up the Kura River and captured Bardha’a, the capital of Arran. The Hraes’ allowed the locals to stay in the city, but according to the Arab chronicler Ibn Miskawaih, the local people broke the peace and Ivar ‘the Boneless’ and his warriors stayed in Bardha’a for several months plundering adjacent areas and garnering much booty.
The city was relieved by an outbreak of dysentery among the Hraes’ and Ibn Miskawaih records that the Hraes’ “indulged excessively in the fruit of which there are numerous sorts there. This produced an epidemic among them . . . and their numbers began thereby to be reduced.” When a Muslim army approached the city the Hraes’ sallied forth, their prince, Ivar ‘the Boneless’ riding out on a donkey, but they lost 700 warriors and retreated back into the Bardha’a fortress, where they were besieged. Finally they fled the fortress under cover of darkness, carrying on their backs all they could of their treasure, gems, and fine raiment, boys and girls as they wanted, and made for the Kura River and their ships and escaped back to Tmutorokan. Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ led the escape, no doubt still riding the donkey, as he had no legs, but the disease took its toll and he died shortly afterward. The Muslim army may have been composed of many Pashtun soldiers, giving rise to the Armenian born Eastern Roman Emperor John Tzimiskes’ belief that it was while on his campaign against these Germans that Prince Ivar (Igor) of Kiev lost his life.
But shortly before he lost his life, Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ of Kiev may have posed as King Hagrold (Gold Harald) of Dacia in order to save the life and rule of a young prince of Normandy, the western holding of the Hraes’ Trading Company. He posed as King Hagrold (Gold Harald) of Dacia instead of Prince Ivar (Igor) of Kiev or King Harde Knute of Denmark so that he could attack the Franks with impunity without putting his Dan’Par trade route at risk.
According to the near contemporary Dudo of St. Quentin, writer of ‘Gesta Normannum’:
“[Chapter] 40 The two Bernards enlist the aid of Richard’s relative, King Hagrold of Dacia, against King Louis:
Following the assassination of the great Duke William, King Louis kidnapped his son Richard, and kept him hostage in Paris. Meanwhile, King Louis tarried in Rouen, setting Norman affairs in order as though he were lord, pretending that he was indeed the king and advocate of the Normans.
“The Norman magnates sent warriors of rather influential nobility and wealth to Hagrold [Gold Harald], King of Dacia, so that he would hasten to assist his relative Richard, son of the great Duke William, because the king of the Frankish nation was claiming for himself the monarchy of all Normandy, taking away by force every honor from the boy Richard, even though the boy had been plucked from Louis’ chains.
“Truly Hagrold, the magnanimous King of Dacia, honorably received the Norman ambassadors, for love of his close relative Richard and, having constructed ships and filled them with victuals and warriors, came as quickly as he could with an incredible multitude of young recruits to the shores near the salt-works of Corbon, where the Dives with a rapid motion casts itself into the tempestuous sea. Moreover, the men of Coutances and Bayeux, hearing of the arrival of King Hagrold, came to serve him for love of the boy Richard. Immediately did the report swiftly penetrate the regions of Francia, announcing that an inestimable multitude of pagans was come to the Norman shores. King Hagrold, hearing of the arrival of the King of Francia, sent word for Louis to come to meet him at a conference.
“But the meeting turned into a battle and the Franks, their spears and lances broken by the fighting, struggled against drawn swords. Yet, at length, surrounded by the copiously flowing and destructive company of the men of Coutances and Bayeux, and also of the pagans, they were slaughtered, torn to pieces, as sacrificial animals are by wolves. Thus, accosted in battle by a deadly shock, twice nine most noble counts from King Louis’ side fell prey to death, perishing as Mars vented his rage, nor would there be any hope either of life or flight for those left behind. But King Louis, perceiving himself to be forsaken by the protection of the Franks and knowing the risk of battle, to avoid having to fight, sought refuge in flight.
“Indeed King Hagrold, seeing King Louis from a distance, pursued him with a speedy horse, flying straight through the center of the host on a winged steed. King Louis, on the other hand, fled this way and that, for in his hands he merely held the reins of the bridle, which had itself slipped from his horse’s head. Moreover King Hagrold soon made for Louis, who was hampered as described, and, grasping Louis’ sword by the shining hilt, ripped it from the king’s side and out of its hollow sheath, and committed Louis to his own Dacian warriors, with the provision that he neither escape nor be killed. But he himself, rejoicing in the king’s capture, returned quickly to the battle field and threw down to destruction whatever Franks had been still upholding themselves by their arms, and thrust the men of the Frankish nation, mangled by blows, down to the Lower World. But having obtained victory and arms and spoils, the Normans, able to survey the battlefield untroubled, had borne away the lifeless men of their nation for burial.
So what does Dudo mean by Dacia?
According to the almost as near contemporary William of Jumieges, writer of ‘History of the Dukes of Normandy’, following is the location of Dacia:
“CHAPTER II.
“Of the three parts of the world, of that in which Dacia (Romania) is situated, and of the position of this country.
“Europe, intersected by a great number of rivers and divided into several provinces, is bounded at its extremities by the waters of the sea. One of its provinces, the most extensive, which contains an innumerable population and which is also richer than the others, is called Germania. In this region is the river Ister, which rises at the summit of Mount Athnoe, and which, being increased in profusion by the waters of sixty rivers, and flowing violently from the south towards the east, separates Germania from Scythia, as far as the places where it empties into the Scythian sea, and is called the Danube. In this vast area, which extends from the Danube to the shores of the Scythian Sea, there are scattered and inhabited fierce and barbarous nations, who are said to have rushed forth in various ways, but always with the customs of the barbarian peoples, from the island of Scanza, which is surrounded on all sides by the waters of the ocean, just as swarms of bees come out of their hives, or swords come out of their sheaths. For there is the vast country of Alania, the immense region of Dacia, and the extremely extensive region of Getia. Dacia is situated in the middle of the other two regions, and defended, as a city might be, by the high mountains of the Alps, which envelop it as with a crown. The immense folds of this vast country are inhabited by fierce and warlike peoples, namely the Getae, also called Goths, Sarmatians, Amacsobes, Tragodites, Alans and many other tribes who still reside in the vicinity of the Palus-Meotis (Sea of Azov).”
Please keep in mind that in Dudo’s time, the son of King Hagrold, Prince Svein ‘the Old’ of Kiev, attacked and conquered ancient Dacia (present day Romania), which may have initiated the connection of Kievan Danes with Dacia. All chroniclers of the time would have been familiar with Roman Dacia while very few of them were likely familiar with Kievan Hraes’. So, call them Danube Danes as Asser did, or Dacian Danes as Dudo had, their campaigns in the east were as powerful and profound as their incursions in the west. These were the Varangians of the Hraes’ Trading Company who traded and fought with both the Eastern Roman Empire and the western Holy Roman Empire with equal ease and effectiveness.
BACK TO SAXO’S BOOK VI, PART II, AND HOW IT RELATES TO BOOK 5 OF THE VARANGIANS, THE SAGA OF PRINCE SVEIN ‘THE OLD’ IVARSON:
“Meantime his (Fridleif/Ivar’s) wife Frogertha (Helga/Olga) bore a son FRODE, who afterwards got his surname from his noble munificence. And thus Frode, because of the memory of his grandsire’s prosperity, which he recalled by his name, became from his very cradle and earliest childhood such a darling of all men, that he was not suffered even to step or stand on the ground, but was continually cherished in people’s laps and kissed. Thus he was not assigned to one upbringer only, but was in a manner everybody’s fosterling. And, after his father’s death, while he was in his twelfth year, Swerting and Hanef, the kings of Saxony, disowned his sway, and tried to rebel openly. He overcame them in battle, and imposed on the conquered peoples a poll-tax of a coin, which they were to pay as his slaves. For he showed himself so generous that he doubled the ancient pay of the soldiers: a fashion of bounty which then was novel.”
Here, Prince Frode was raised under the regency of his mother Frogertha, just as Prince Sveinald (Sviatoslav) of Kiev was raised under the regency of his mother Helga (Olga) circa 945 AD.
Prince Svein ‘the Old’ Eyfurson (aka Sveinald) was born circa 942 AD and ruled the Hraes’ (Rus’) state from 960 to 972. Paternally, he was a direct descendant of Danish royalty from the Old Fridlief-Frodi line of Danish kings, likely a half-brother of Gorm ‘the Old’ of Denmark. Maternally he was the son of the Swedish Princess Helga (Olga) of Kiev.
Acting as regent for her son, Helga campaigned against Hraes’ enemies and had many forts erected. She was the first Hraes’ ruler to convert to the Christian religion from the Norse pagan one, circa 957 or 959, and is rumoured to perhaps even have had a relationship with Roman Emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos VII of Constantinople, her sponsor in conversion to Christianity, perhaps conversion being a requirement prior to any marriage to a Byzantine emperor.
Prince Sveinald remained a staunch pagan his whole life and began successful military campaigns as he came of age, following in the footsteps of his father as a warrior of the Aesir faith. In 965, he used the fervour of his pagan warriors to crush the Khazar Empire, which had been a cornerstone in the defense of the Tmutorokhan Hraes’. This was a mistake. From the time of King Frodi of Kiev, the Khazars had always been beaten, but were always allowed to carry on, providing a steppe empire that kept the eastern steppe hordes at bay. When Prince Sveinald switched his attention from the east to the west and attacked Bulgaria, nomads began wandering into his realm from the east, across the Volga River.
In his 968 attack on Bulgaria, Prince Sveinald even hired Pecheneg nomads as mercenary cavalry to augment his Hraes’ troops. The Byzantines had even paid him gold to attack the Romanians, but when he defeated them all he refused to turn over the conquests to Byzantium. Prince Sveinald decided to move his capital from Kiev to the warmer city of Pereyaslavets at the mouth of the Danube River, claiming that it was more at the center of his empire. His mother, Queen Helga, protested the move and is said to have died a few days later. Perhaps the staunchly pagan prince could not afford to have a Christian queen proselytizing behind his back in Kiev. The Byzantines protested the move with equal vehemence, feeling that the only way Pereyaslavets might be at the center of his empire would be if Byzantium was added to that empire. In 970, Prince Sveinald crossed the Danube and laid siege to Adrianople, but was soundly defeated by a Byzantine counterattack. The prince was forced to abandon his Bulgarian conquests and give up his Crimean territories. According to the Slavic Chronicle of Nestor (aka Hraes’ Primary Chronicle), in 972, Prince Sveinald made his way back to Kiev, but, as Prince Sviatoslav, he was attacked on his way back and was killed by the very same Pecheneg nomads that his defeat of the Khazars had allowed to filter into his realm. The Pecheneg chieftain even had Sviatoslav’s skull crafted into a drinking goblet. A fitting end for a pagan prince who had violently terminated the Christianization of Kiev. Or so wrote the Nestorian monks who were charged with recording the earliest Hraes’ history. Nice touch…the skull being turned into a cup part. Who could question such a definitive ending? However, this little tale was lifted out of Byzantine history when over a hundred years earlier King Krum of Bulgaria killed the Roman Emperor Nicephorus I in battle and made a golden cup out of his skull. What the Nestorian monks missed was that Sveinald and Sviatoslav were the same person.
It is more likely that the Prince Sveinald that returned to Kiev in 972 then apportioned out his empire to his three sons: to Prince Ivar (Yaropolk) he gave Kiev and the surrounding Poljane lands, to Prince Helgi (Oleg) he gave Chernigov and the lands of the Drevjane and to Prince Valdamar (Vladimir) he gave Novgorod. It is likely that Prince Svein ‘the Old’ then gathered up his personal wealth and retainers and headed north to re-establish the holdings of his father, Prince Eyfur (Ivar the Boneless) of Kiev aka King Harde Knute I of Denmark.
When Prince Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson arrived in Liere, his half-brother, King Gorm ‘the Old’ Ivarson was dead, had died a decade earlier, but his son, King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ Gormson, was alive and ruling over Denmark. By rights of Scandinavian Aesir accession, Prince Sveinald, as Gorm’s brother, had royal priority over Gorm’s son Harald, so he covertly passed himself off as a distant relative, ‘Gold Harald’, and was welcomed to the court of King Harald ‘Bluetooth’. But Harald ‘Bluetooth had just converted to Christianity and may have been a little too Christian for the warrior prince from Kiev. It was in the Danish court that Svein met Haakon Sigurdson, the Lade-jarl ruler of Norway. Haakon agreed to speak with King Harald on Gold Harald’s behalf and presented Svein’s claim upon the throne and his offer to split the kingdom of Denmark so that each might rule a half of it.
From Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla Saga (The Saga of the Kings of Norway):
“Thereafter Earl Hakon went out to sea, and sailed outside the coast, and came to Denmark. He went to the Danish King, Harald Gormson, and was well received by him, and staid with him all winter (A.D. 969). At that time there was also with the Danish king a man called Harald, a son of Knut Gormson, and a brother’s son of King Harald. He was lately come home from a long viking cruise, on which he had gathered great riches, and therefore he was called Gold Harald. He thought he had a good chance of coming to the Danish kingdom.”
Snorri’s story is a bit confused because it is King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ Gormson who is ‘a brother’s son’, or nephew, of Prince Sveinald of Kiev. Harald ‘Bluetooth’s father, King Gorm ‘the Old’ Harde-Knuteson had taken over as King of Denmark after King Harde-Knute I returned to the east as Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ of Kiev to resume a relationship with his first wife, Princess Olga of Chernigov, leaving Young Gorm ‘aka the Englishman’ and his mother, Princess Blaeja of York, to rule in Denmark. In 942 AD Princess Olga gave Prince Ivar a son whom he named Svein ‘the Old’, setting up a rematch between King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ and King AElla of York, the Battle of the Boar and the Snake King. But young Prince Sveinald (Svein meaning Swine) was a full generation behind his older brother Gorm (meaning Snake), so the battle would play out between Svein, who called himself ‘Gold Harald’, and his nephew, King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ Gormson.
Sturluson’s Heimskringla Saga, in Olaf Tryggvason’s Saga section, goes on:
Ch. 8. “… There was great friendship between Earl Hakon and Gold Harald, and Harald told Hakon all his intentions. He told him that he was tired of a ship-life, and wanted to settle on the land; and asked Hakon if he thought his brother King Harald would agree to divide the kingdom with him if he asked it. “I think,” replied Hakon, “that the Danish king would not deny thy right; but the best way to know is to speak to the king himself. I know for certain so much, that you will not get a kingdom if you don’t ask for it.” Soon after this conversation Gold Harald spoke to the king about the matter, in the presence of many great men who were friends to both; and Gold Harald asked King Harald to divide the kingdom with him in two equal parts, to which his royal birth and the custom of the Danish monarchy gave him right. The king was highly incensed at this demand, and said that no man had asked his father Gorm to be king over half of Denmark, nor yet his grandfather King Hordaknut, or Sigurd Orm, or Ragnar Lodbrok; and he was so exasperated and angry, that nobody ventured to speak of it to him.”
Again Snorri’s story is a bit confused, as Gold Harald seems to say he is now a brother of King Harald ‘Bluetooth’, and asks ‘King Harald to divide the kingdom with him in two equal parts, to which his royal birth and the custom of the Danish monarchy gave him right’. The only right Gold Harald (aka Sveinald) would have would be if he was King Gorm’s brother, not King Harald’s nephew or brother. Sigurd Orm above would be Sigurd Snake-Eye, another son of Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’, but in my research it would be Erik ‘Bragi’ Ragnarson who would be the father of King Harde-Knute ‘the First’, also known as Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ of Kiev.
“Gold Harald was now worse off than before; for he had got no kingdom, and had got the king’s anger by proposing it. He went as usual to his friend Hakon, and complained to him of his fate…
“Earl Hakon, upon great reflection, told King Harald “I have considered it night and day ever since, and find it most advisable that you retain and rule over the whole of your kingdom just as your father left it; but that you obtain for your relation Harald another kingdom, that he also may enjoy honour and dignity.”
“What kind of kingdom is that,” said the king, “which I can give to Harald, that I may possess Denmark entire?”
“It is Norway,” said the earl. “The kings who are there are oppressive to the people of the country, so that every man is against them who has tax or service to pay.”
So Earl Hakon persuaded Gold Harald to attack King Harald ‘Grafeld’ and take Norway from him. Hakon set up a meeting between King Harald ‘Grafeld’ of Norway and King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ of Denmark and then advised Gold Harald to gather his ships and men to attack the Norwegian king at the agreed upon meeting place.
“Harald Grafeld went to Denmark in the summer (A.D. 969) with three long-ships; and Herse Arinbjorn, from the Fjord district, commanded one of them. King Harald sailed from Viken over to Limfjord in Jutland, and landed at the narrow neck of land where the Danish king was expected. Now when Gold Harald heard of this, he sailed there with nine ships which he had fitted out before for a viking cruise.
“Gold Harald came to the neck of land at Limfjord, and immediately challenged Harald Grafeld to battle; and although Harald had fewer men, he went immediately on the land, prepared for battle, and drew up his troops. Before the lines came together Harald Grafeld urged on his men, and told them to draw their swords. He himself advanced the foremost of the troop, hewing down on each side.
“The most of King Harald’s men fell with him. There also fell Herse Arinbjorn.”
It is interesting that Herse Arinbjorn, who falls fighting against Prince Svein, is the same Prince Arinbjorn who says the following about Svein’s grandfather, Prince Erik ‘Bragi’:
“That’s what my kinsman Bragi the Old did when he had to face the anger of King Bjorn of Sweden. He made a drapa of twenty stanzas overnight and that’s what saved his head.”
Prince Arinbjorn, Egils Saga
But Sturluson’s Heimskringla Saga, in Olaf Tryggvason’s Saga section Chapter 14, goes on with this terrible treason on the part of Earl Hakon:
“Soon after Harald Grafeld’s fall, Earl Hakon came up to Gold Harald, and the earl immediately gave battle to Harald. Hakon gained the victory, and Harald was made prisoner; but Hakon had him immediately hanged on a gallows. Hakon then went to the Danish king, and no doubt easily settled with him for the killing his relative Gold Harald”.
This may be what Earl Hakon told King Harald ‘Bluetooth’, but I doubt if this is what actually happened. It is more likely that the Earl made up that little betrayal to protect Svein ‘Gold Harald’ from any future attack from King Harald ‘Bluetooth’, for Prince Svein and Earl Eirik, Hakon’s son, had become blood brothers by then. I suspect that Earl Hakon then adopted Svein as his foster son. Historically, Hakon is said to have had a natural son, Svein, but some historians believe that no such son existed. They are likely correct and this Svein was a foster son, a ‘Gold Harald’. Prince Svein of Kiev may have bided his time in Norway by re-establishing his family’s Nor’Way trade route for twelve years.
Meanwhile, back in Kievan Hraes’, young Prince Ivar (Yaroslav) attacked and killed his brother, Prince Helgi (Oleg), in Chernigov and headed north to Novgorod to do the same to Prince Valdamar (Vladimir) so that he could be sole ruler of the Hraes’. Young Valdamar fled to his father in Lade, Norway in 977 and sought sanctuary with Jarl Haakon there, having barely escaped from his older brother. Prince Helgi had not been so lucky and Ivar became the sole ruler of Kievan Hraes’. With the aid of his father and Jarl Haakon, Prince Valdamar assembled a Varangian army and returned to Novgorod and reclaimed his territory. By 980 he had defeated his brother Ivar, and two Varangians, likely Prince Svein and his blood brother Jarl Eirik Haakonson, killed Ivar for his sin of fratricide. Prince Valdamar was the new sole ruler of all Kievan Hraes’.
King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ of Denmark must have got wind of all this happening and figured out that Jarl Svein Hakonson was actually ‘Gold Harald’ who seemed to have survived his ‘hanging’ at the hands of Jarl Hakon. Harald ‘Bluetooth’ faked his own kidnapping in order to gather up gold jewelry from the women of Denmark and he paid the Jomsvikings of Wolin to attack Jarl Hakon of Lade and his sons in Norway.
In 986, a Danish fleet, augmented with Jomsviking mercenaries, set out against Jarl Hakon’s pagan kingdom of Norway and, with a warning from Prince Valdamar, Prince Svein helped Earls Haakon and Eirik defeat the Jomsvikings at the Battle of Hjorungavagr. Prince Svein ‘the Old’ then took their Norwegian and Hraes’ fleet to Denmark and drove King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ out of Liere and took back his hereditary rule over Denmark as King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’. The son of Gorm ‘the Old’ died soon after and the Battle of the Boar and the Snake ended, this time, in the Swine’s favour.
BACK TO SAXO’S BOOK SIX, PART III, AND HOW IT RELATES TO BOOK 6 OF THE VARANGIANS, THE SAGA OF GRAND PRINCE VALDAMAR ‘THE GREAT’ SVEINSON:
Saxo’s above description of the third Prince of the Hraes’ seems quite apt, as the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle describes young Prince Valdamar (Vladimir) ‘the Great’ as follows:
“He had three hundred concubines at Vyshgorod, three hundred at Belgorod, and two hundred at Berestovo in a village still called Berestovoe. He was insatiable in vice. He even seduced married women and violated young girls, for he was a libertine like Solomon.”
Now Prince Valdamar was not only wanton, but was somewhat of a warrior, for he did not buy all his concubines, having acquired many of them through warfare. The prince first marched against the Lyakhs of south-eastern Poland, attacking the cities of Peremyshl, Czerwein, Belz and other towns there. The Hraes’ just knew them as the Cherven towns and the campaign started in the early spring, just after the Hraes’ trading fleet had sailed down the Dnieper River. They pillaged each town for three days and took half the people into slavery and offered them ransoms that very few could afford. Prince Valdamar then went through all the young women of the towns and selected those he wanted added to his covey of women in Kiev and then half the people were marched to slaver knars and were taken for slave training in Kiev and Tmutorokan. Then Prince Valdamar conquered the Yatvingians, the Radimichi and the Bulgars in similar fashion, always adding to his covey of concubines with each new victory.
Then in 986 AD, as stated above, Prince Valdamar helped his father Svein fight the Jomsvikings at the Battle of Hjorungavagr and, afterwards, his father became King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ of Denmark.
In 988 AD, Prince Valdamar came to the aid of Roman Emperor Basil II, leading six thousand picked Varangian cataphracts against Anatolian rebels, and was rewarded with the hand of Basil’s sister, 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.
Even though Prince Valdamar had converted to Christianity and his father, King Sweyn remained staunchly Aesir Pagan, they worked well together and supported each other in ruling their respective lands. Their Hraes’ trade route ran from Vinland in the west to Ireland and through Denmark and the Baltic to Kiev and on to Baghdad and Constantinople and beyond. The father son trade team was invincible and King Sweyn waged a decades long war against England that essentially became a thinly disguised raiding operation that harvested English captives and sent them off to the east as slaves, garnering great profits for the Danish king and his grand prince son.
The English countered this slave operation by converting a grandson of Harald Fairhair, Olaf Tryggvason, to Christianity and supporting him in a return to his homeland of Norway, where he began an attack upon Jarl Haakon and his sons in 995 AD that resulted in the death of Haakon. Olaf Tryggvason became King of Norway and Christianized and ruled the land for five years until King Sweyn helped Eirik Haakonson ambush and kill King Olaf at the Battle of Svolder on the western Baltic in 1000 AD. Saint Olaf had brought Christianity from England to Norway and Sweyn and his allies, staunch pagans, sent it back. In 1002, King Aethelred ‘the Unready’ ordered the massacre of all Danes in England, called the Saint Brice’s Day massacre. King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’, Jarl Eirik Haakonson, and Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ led a long series of vengeance attacks on England dragging the war out from 1003 to 1012, continuing to use England as a source of captives for the Hraes’ slave trade in Baghdad and Constantinople. It was a very dark decade for the Saxons, Angles, Britons, and Welsh of England as tens of thousands of their citizens were enslaved and sent off to the slave schools in Kiev. In 1013, the Danish King Sweyn and Hraes’ Grand Prince Valdamar led a full scale invasion of England and they drove King Aethelred ‘the Unready’ into exile in Normandy and Sweyn was crowned King of England by Christmas. Early into 1014 King Sweyn died, likely poisoned, and Prince Valdamar took over the reign. Things appeared to be going well, so Valdamar sent half his troops back to Kiev to assist in some trouble with Pechenegs. But the English didn’t like Valdamar’s eastern name nor his Orthodox religion, so they brought back King Aethelred and rebelled and drove King Valdamar out of England.
Grand Prince Valdamar returned to Kievan Hraes’ and the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle saw fit to describe his ending as follows:
“6523 (1015). While Vladimir was desirous of attacking Yaroslav, the latter sent overseas and imported Varangian reinforcements, since he feared his father’s advance. But God will not give the devil any satisfaction. For when Vladimir fell ill, Boris was with him at the time. Since the Pechenegs were attacking the Russes, he sent Boris out against them, for he himself was very sick, and of this illness he died on July 15. Now he died at Berestovo, but his death was kept secret, for Svyatopolk was in Kiev. But at night his companions took up the flooring between two rooms, and after wrapping the body in a rug, they let it down to the earth with ropes. After they had placed it upon a sledge, they took it away and laid it in the Church of the Virgin that Vladimir himself had built.”
Back in 972 AD it was Prince Valdamar’s father, Prince Sviatoslav, who was given a death that befitted the death of Roman Emperor Nicephorus I, whereby the emperor’s skull was turned into a cup. Now it seems that Prince Valdamar has been given a death befitting Roman Emperor Nicephorus II, who was killed on the second floor of his Byzantine palace and his body was wrapped up in a rug and lowered down to the earth by ropes and taken off to a church in Constantinople by sledge. The Nestorian monks that wrote the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle seem to be following a pattern here, whereby they kill off anybody who leaves Kievan Hraes’. Evidence is now being uncovered that suggests the following sequence of events is more likely to have taken place:
That in late 1014 AD Prince Valdamar returned to Hraes’ to raise an army to facilitate his reconquest of England and in January of 1016 AD he led this army south through Hraes’ where his Black Sea fleet may have been augmented by Roman dromon bireme ships borrowed from his brother-in-law, Emperor Basil of Constantinople, and that, for this favour, Prince Valdamar trained his army by attacking Khazars in Scythia for the Romans. Valdamar needed these large ships to defeat the new English ships (Cogs) that had been built to defeat Viking longships quite effectively. Valdamar would become famous in Scandinavia for his incredibly large ships.
It seems that Prince Valdamar’s eldest son, Prince Svein (Slavic: Boarus), left Kiev in the hands of his brother, Prince Sviatopolk, and helped his father raise said army and then led them south, not against Pechenegs as described in the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle, but against said Khazars and that he was assisted in this by his adopted brother, Prince Godwin of Sussex (Slavic: Gleb), who had come with Prince Valdamar in his retreat from England. Saints Boris and Gleb of Kievan Rus’ are likely Prince Sveinald of Kiev, grandson of King Sweyn, and Prince Godwin, son of Wolfnoth Cild of Sussex:
From Wiki: Gleb (Ukrainian: Гліб) is a Slavic male given name derived from the Old Norse name Guðleifr, which means “heir of god.” It is popular in Ukraine due to an early martyr, Saint Gleb, who is venerated by Eastern Orthodox churches and is the Ukrainian form of the Old Norse name Guðleifr, which was derived from the elements guð “god” and leif “inheritance, legacy”.
From Wiki: Godwin was born c. 1001, likely in Sussex. Godwin’s father was probably Wulfnoth Cild, who was a thegn of Sussex. His origin is unknown but ‘Child’ (also written Cild) is cognate with ‘the Younger’ or ‘Junior’ and is today associated with some form of inheritance. In 1009 Wulfnoth was accused of unknown crimes at a muster of Æthelred the Unready’s fleet and fled with twenty ships [the new larger and taller ships]; the ships sent to pursue him were destroyed in a storm.
From Franklin and Shepard 1996: 200:
“The Byzantine historian John Skylitzes tells of a certain Sphengos, prince of the Rus, who cooperated with a Byzantine naval expedition against ‘Khazaria’ in [January of] 1016. ‘Sphengos’ is probably a Greek enunciation of a Scandinavian name such as Svein or Sveinki”.
When Prince Sveinald ‘Boarus’ Valdamarson returned to Hraes’ from helping his father in his war on England he was slain by his brother, Sviatopolk, who did not want to give up his throne in Kiev. Prince Godwin ‘Gleb’ Wulfnothson of Sussex may have returned with him and is said to have also been slain, but this is likely false, as Godwin survived, perhaps warned of the death of Svein by Prince Ivar (Yaroslav). The writers of the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle continue killing off every prince that leaves Hraes’. Even the evil Prince Sviatopolk is killed off as he is driven out of Hraes’ by Prince Yaroslav. His bones supposedly grow soft as he rides to Hungary and sanctuary, but the disease kills him of course.
At any rate, Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’, returned to England as King Canute ‘the Great’, converted from Orthodox Christianity to the more acceptable Latin Christianity of the Anglo-Saxons, and defeated King Edmund Athelredson at the Battle of Assandun on October 18, 1016 AD. King Edmund escaped the battle and King Canute agreed to share the kingdom with him. But Canute captured Edmund five weeks later in a siege and may have exiled Edmund and 800 of his retainers, including at least two of his sons, to Kievan Hraes’.
In 1018 AD King Boleslaw of Poland, with German assistance, attacked Kiev, possibly in an effort to free King Edmund and his sons. A contemporary historian, Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg, described the Kievan Hraes’ populace of that time as being composed of ‘Swift Danes’ and their ‘Runaway Slaves’, meaning Slavs, a description meant to be an insult to the Danish rulers of Kiev in that it refers to the Roman reference to the Hraes’ two centuries earlier as Dromitai, ‘those who run fast’, as in ‘run from battle’. Prince Ivar (Yaroslav) Valdamarson and his Danes fled Kiev before the attack for the safety of Novgorod according to the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle. The ‘Swift Danes’ insult is carried forward to Valdamar’s son, King Harald ‘Harefoot’ Canuteson, of England, the Harefoot meaning ‘one who flees fast’ and not the ‘fleet of foot’ as it is often interpreted. King Edmund and his retainers may have already been sent on to serve in the Varangian Guard of Emperor Basil in Constantinople, but King Boleslaw may have saved two of Edmund’s sons, Edmund Junior and Edward ‘the Exile’, as they were rescued and sent to safety in the Hungarian royal court that Prince Sviatopolk later fled to.
In 1024 AD, according to the contemporary Roman History of John Skylitzes, King Edmund may have attempted to escape from service in Constantinople with his retainers and return to England, when it was recorded that a relative of Vladimir’s named Chrysocheir, meaning Gold Hand or Edmund, with a company of 800 men were slaughtered after refusing to lay down their arms in Constantinople. Here is contemporary Byzantine historian John Skylitzes interpretation of the event:
“Anna, the emperor’s sister, died in Russia, predeceasing Vladimir, her husband. Then a man named Chrysocheir, a relative of his, embarked a company of eight hundred men and came to Constantinople, ostensibly to serve as mercenaries. The emperor ordered him to lay down his arms and then he would receive him but he was unwilling to do this and sailed through the Propontis. When he came to Abydos he gave battle to the commander there whose duty was to protect the shores and easily defeated him. He passed on to Lemnos where, beguiled by offers of peace, they were all slaughtered by the navy of the Kibyrrhaiote, the commander of Samos, David of Ochrid, and the Duke of Thessalonike, Nikephoros Kabasilas”.
It must be remembered that later, King Harald ‘Hardruler’ Sigurdsson of Norway was also sent into exile in Kievan Hraes’ and then the Varangian Guard in Constantinople from which he escaped successfully.
From Wiki:
“In the view of M. K. Lawson, the intensity of Edmund’s struggle against the Danes in 1016 is only matched by Alfred the Great’s in 871, and contrasts with Æthelred’s failure. Edmund’s success in raising one army after another suggests that there was little wrong with the organs of government under competent leadership. He was “probably a highly determined, skilled and indeed inspiring leader of men”. Cnut visited his tomb on the anniversary of his death and laid a cloak decorated with peacocks on it to assist in his salvation, peacocks symbolising resurrection.”
King Canute may have exiled King Edmund to the east until he got his planned Great Northern Empire established, intending to resurrect King Edmund in Wessex as one of the kings under Emperor Canute’s command. Valdamar would need legitimate kings subject to him if he was to be seriously considered as a true Emperor or Caesar to compete with the Czar title that his son, Ivar (Yaroslav) carried by blood. Also, King Edmund’s young wife was renowned for her beauty, so King Canute would have kept her close, as a hostage, and Canute, both as Saxo’s Ingild and Nestor’s Vladimir, was renowned for his wantonness.
Grand Prince Valdamar (Vladimir) ‘the Great’ of Kiev, took over as King Canute ‘the Great’, of England in 1016 AD, adding Denmark to his rule in 1018, after his half-brother Harald II died and then adding Norway to his rule in 1028. His rule was supported by the Pope, even though he had two wives and innumerable concubines. Canute’s natural death is also under historical dispute, as Saxo’s version of his death is far from natural.
FROM SNORRI STURLUSON’S HEIMSKRINGLA SAGA:
“139. HERE BEGINS THE STORY OF CANUTE THE GREAT.
“During this time Canute the Great, called by some Canute the Old, was king of England and Denmark. Canute the Great was a son of Svein Haraldson Forkedbeard, whose forefathers, for a long course of generations, had ruled over Denmark. Harald Gormson, Canute’s grandfather, had conquered Norway after the fall of Harald Grafeld, Gunhild’s son, had taken scat from it, and had placed Earl Hakon the Great to defend the country.”
Snorri calls Canute ‘the Great’, Canute ‘the Old’, likely meaning from ‘the Old’ Fridleif-Frodi line of Danish kings, the Skioldungs or Shieldings, but he could just mean Old King Canute, for everything about Canute was old, his contemporary portraits, his actions, even his death. This is because he was Valdamar ‘the Great’, the son of Prince Svein ‘the Old’ of Kiev, aka King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark. Prince Svein ‘died’ or left Kiev circa 972 AD and Prince Valdamar’s birth was circa 958 AD (as per Wiki), so, by his death as Canute ‘the Great’ in 1035 AD, he would have been 77 years old, Canute ‘the Old‘ indeed. Had his lineage been son of King Svein Haraldson, son of Harald Gormson, as Snorri states above, he would have been born circa 995 AD (as per Wiki) and would have been 41 years old when he died, hardly old at all.
“157. OF KING CANUTE’S SHIP THE DRAGON.
“Canute the Great was at last ready with his fleet, and left the land; and a vast number of men he had, and ships frightfully large. He himself had a dragon-ship, so large that it had sixty banks of rowers, and the head was gilt all over. Earl Hakon had another dragon of forty banks, and it also had a gilt figure-head. They had also many other huge ships remarkably well fitted out, and grand.
“160. BATTLE IN HELGA RIVER [Against the Norwegians and Swedes].
“Now, as Canute saw that the Swedes and Norwegians had quitted the harbour, he went into it with as many ships as it could hold; but the main strength of the fleet lay without the harbour [because his larger ships had to be anchored out at sea]. In the morning, when it was light, a great part of the men went on shore; some for amusement, some to converse with the people of other ships. [At this point King Olaf destroys a dam he has built upriver as a trap.] They observed nothing until the water came rushing over them like a waterfall, carrying huge trees, which drove in among their ships, damaging all they struck; and the water covered all the fields. The men on shore perished, and many who were in the ships. All who could do it cut their cables; so that the ships were loose, and drove before the stream, and were scattered here and there. The great dragon, which King Canute himself was in, drove before the stream; and as it could not so easily be turned with oars, drove out among Olaf’s and Onund’s ships. As they knew the ship, they laid her on board on all quarters. But the ship was so high in the hull, as if it were a castle, and had besides such a numerous and chosen crew on board, well armed and exercised, that it was not easy to attack her. After a short time also Earl Ulf came up with his fleet; and then the battle began, and King Canute’s fleet gathered together from all quarters. But the kings Olaf and Onund, seeing they had for this time got all the victory that fate permitted them to gain, let their ships retreat, cast themselves loose from King Canute’s ship, and the fleets separated.”
So, thanks to the large size and high decks of Canute’s ships, that made it almost impossible for Viking ships to attack, the King of England won the day. But Valdamar brought more than double decker warships back from the east with him; he also brought high decked merchant galleys with him to help extend his trading empire west with direct sailings from England and Normandy to the Newfoundland. But direct sailings across the Atlantean Ocean, and weeks at sea with poor diets brought problems of its own. Combined with the presence of the disease of Syphilis in the native population of the Newfoundland was added a new and unknown disease called Scurvy and they were causing many of his sailors to lose their feet. Greenlanders were disparagingly calling his Hraes’ traders in the west ‘One Footers’.
Chapter 13 of Erik ‘the Red’s Saga describes a Hraes’ trader of the Newfoundland as follows:
“One morning Karlsefni’s people beheld as it were a glittering ‘spectacle’ above the open space in front of them, and they shouted at it. It stirred itself, and it was a being of the race of men that have only one foot, and he came down quickly to where they lay. Thorvald, son of Eirik the Red, sat at the tiller, and the One-footer shot him with an arrow in the lower abdomen.”
“Then they journeyed away back again northwards, and saw, as they thought, the land of the One-footers. They wished, however, no longer to risk their company.”
“Now, when they sailed from Vinland, they had a southern wind, and reached Markland, and found five Skrœlingar; one was a bearded man, two were women, two children. Karlsefni’s people caught the children, but the others escaped and sunk down into the earth. And they took the children with them, and taught them their speech, and they were baptized. The children called their mother Vœtilldi, and their father Uvœgi. They said that kings ruled over the land of the Skrœlingar, one of whom was called Avalldamon, and the other Valldidida. They said also that there were no houses, and the people lived in caves or holes. They said, moreover, that there was a land on the other side over against their land, and the people there were dressed in white garments, uttered loud cries, bore long poles, and wore fringes. This was supposed to be Hvitramannaland (whiteman’s land). Then came they to Greenland, and remained with Eirik the Red during the winter.”
The above caves or holes that people lived in are apt descriptions of the sod-walled longhalls reconstructed at L’Anse Aux Meadows, the Viking settlement in Newfoundland. The men in white garments bearing long poles and wearing fringes are knights. The above detailed descriptions have been in Erik ‘the Red’s Saga for over a thousand years and people still don’t understand their meaning.
Some modern historians even jokingly point out that “ancient Greeks, at one point, had ‘One Footers’ of their own”, but this was likely at a time when the Greeks had long sailings of their own, when they circumvented the continent of Africa. The Greeks stated that the tribes of Africa were so violent and inhospitable that the Greeks couldn’t trade for fresh food and always had to take full provisions with them when they sailed around Africa. And long sailings caused Scurvy back then, just as it later did with the Hraes’, and the Spanish sailors after them, and the British sailors after them, who were all called One Footers as well, until the British found a cure for Scurvy and are called Limeys to this day, the Vitamin C in limes being used to prevent Scurvy.
Chapter 13 of Erik ‘the Red’s Saga, in describing the Land of the One Footers, may also have been using a derogatory term for the Hraes’ traders of the Newfoundland who had caught the STD Syphilis, which may have been prevalent in the local Indigenous population which had become essentially immune. Once contracted by the newcomers, Syphilis presented rather benign first and second stages, but the third unavoidable stage appeared between one to thirty years later and killed the victims, usually by attacking the shins and lower limbs, and perhaps combined with Scurvy, it attacked one foot in particular, giving them the byname ‘One Footers’.
SO HOW DID CANUTE DIE?
Following a period of illness, Canute died on November 12, 1035, at Shaftesbury while on an inspection tour of England; his remains were buried at Winchester. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the writer reported jaundice as the cause of death.
BUT SAXO SAYS OTHERWISE:
“Canute sailed with a large fleet to Normandy to call Richard to account for having broken his marriage, displaced his sister, and acted unduly cruelly against his wife, and punish him for having insulted the sacred rights of marriage.”
“Richard fled to Sicily, and thus hastened to pre-empt his attack by making his escape.”
“However, Canute fell ill as a result of the severe hardships [of war] he had endured, and when he saw that his strength was waning and that he was about to die, he summoned his nobles and ordered them not to return home until they had brought the war to an end. They would undoubtedly gain victory, he said, when they took the stretcher with his body on their shoulders, and thus carried him as a chief at the head of the army. And when the enemy had fled, in order that he might gain so much more fame in his grave, they were to bury his body in the ground of Rouen.”
“The Normans eagerly seized this proposal and gave them a place in their city to bury him.”
Canute’s death, natural or otherwise, would be followed by a struggle for the English throne that would eventually lead to the deaths of the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge (Sept 25, 1066) near York and the English King Harald Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings (Oct 14, 1066) and the final conquest of England by the Norman Prince William Longsword, a great great grandson of Ragnar Lothbrok.
QUINARY CONCLUSION:
Also, put into its proper place and time, Book VI certainly is potentially historical, particularly when combined with the Chronicles and Sagas of its time. The above extensive evidence supports the theory that Saxo’s Book VI details the return of the Princes of Kiev to the west as the rightful rulers of Denmark including the founding of Normandy by Rollo of Dacia, also known as King Roller of Norway. Again, as more and more Chronicles become available in translation, more and more evidence shall surface.
RETURNING TO SAXO’S HISTORY, BOOKS VII & VIII:
In Saxo’s Book VII, he carries on with the descendants of Ingild and seems to build up a list of kings that supports his history as going back to the time of Christ. But he does add in an interesting anecdote as follows:
“At this period, Rothe, a Ruthenian rover, almost destroyed our country with his rapine and cruelty. His harshness was so notable that, while other men spared their prisoners utter nakedness, he did not think it uncomely to strip of their coverings even the privy parts of their bodies; wherefore we are wont to this day to call all severe and monstrous acts of rapine Rothe-Ran (Rothe’s Robbery). He used also sometimes to inflict the following kind of torture: Fastening the men’s right feet firmly to the earth, he tied the left feet to boughs for the purpose that when these should spring back the body would be rent asunder.”
Saxo hereby connects ‘Death by Sprung Trees’ to the Ruthenians or Kievan Hraes’. After a rather long list of kings, Saxo ends Book VII by setting up the misunderstandings that led to the Battle of Bravalla.
In Saxo’s Book VIII, he begins with: “STARKAD was the first to set in order in Danish speech the history of the Swedish war, a conflict whereof he was himself a mighty pillar; the said history being rather an oral than a written tradition. He set forth and arranged the course of this war in the mother tongue according to the fashion of our country; but I purpose to put it into Latin, and will first recount the most illustrious princes on either side. For I have felt no desire to include the multitude, which are even past exact numbering. And my pen shall relate first those on the side of Harald, and presently those who served under Ring.”
Saxo seems to imply that he is working off of a Danish oral account or perhaps poem that he is putting into Latin prose. The historicity of the battle is subject to debate to this day.
The Battle of Bravalla was a legendary battle of circa 750 AD between King Sigurd Hring of Sweden, supported by Vaster Goths, and his uncle, King Harald Wartooth of Denmark, supported by the Oster Goths. Sigurd Hring won the battle, but only after King Harald committed himself to Odin and was killed. Saxo reports that “about 12,000 of the nobles of Ring fell upon the field. But on the side of Harald about 30,000 nobles fell, not to name the slaughter of the commons.”
Saxo also tells us tales of King Gorm, who was famous for his explorations and his son, King Gotrik or Godefride, who was famous for his wars with King Charlemagne of the Franks. “Gotrik won a glorious victory over the Saxons. Then gathering new strength, and mustering a larger body of forces, he resolved to avenge the wrong he had suffered in losing his sovereignty, not only upon the Saxons, but upon the whole people of Germany. He began by subduing Friesland with his fleet.”
Saxo ends Book VIII with: “After Gotrik had crossed Friesland, and Karl had now come back from Rome, Gotrik determined to swoop down upon the further districts of Germany, but was treacherously attacked by one of his own servants, and perished at home by the sword of a traitor. When Karl heard this, he leapt up overjoyed, declaring that nothing more delightful had ever fallen to his lot than this happy chance.”
This King Gotrik or Godefride sounds a lot like the King Godfrid from our list of likely suspects for Saxo’s Book V who we described as: King Gudfred of Angeland, Denmark followed next, identified by Saxo as Fridleif ‘the Swift’, and ruled from 804 – 810 AD. He may have earned his byname ‘the Swift’ for fleeing the wars he waged with Charlemagne, King of the Franks. He was killed by a relative for abandoning his wife prior to another military engagement with Charlemagne…
SENARY CONCLUSION
Just as the first two books of Saxo’s history are perhaps based on ancient runic poems that Saxo has collected while researching ancient Danish history, so too are Books VII and VIII. The books also add in a number of questionable kings in order to push the prior books further back into history, thus lengthening the timeframe of Saxo’s current rulers of Denmark.
SAXO’S BOOK IX:
Saxo’s final book of his Nine Books of Danish History begins to transcend legendary history into contemporary history with:
“After Gotrik’s (Gudfred’s) death reigned his son OLAF (one of the 5 unnamed sons of Gudfred?); who, desirous to avenge his father, did not hesitate to involve his country in civil wars, putting patriotism after private inclination. When he perished, his body was put in a barrow, famous for the name of Olaf, which was built up close by Leire (Zealand).
“He was succeeded by HEMMING, of whom I have found no deed worthy of record, save that he made a sworn peace with Kaiser Ludwig (Louis ‘the Pious’); and yet, perhaps, envious antiquity hides many notable deeds of his time, albeit they were then famous.”
For Saxo’s emergence into contemporary history we shall consult with Wiki:
“Horik I (this is perhaps Erik ‘Bragi the Old’) or Hårik (died 854) was a king of the Danes. He was co-ruler from 813, and sole king from c. 828 until his violent death in 854. His long and eventful reign was marked by Danish raids on the Carolingian Empire of Louis the Pious, son and successor of Charlemagne.
“Horik’s father (father-in-law) was King Gudfred, known for his successful raids and wars against Charlemagne’s Frankish empire and against the Obodrites. If the later author Notker of Saint Gall can be trusted, his mother may have been disowned by Gudfred in the early 9th century. In 810, Gudfred was assassinated by a housecarl, or, in Notker’s version, by one of his sons as revenge for the treatment of his mother. His nephew Hemming succeeded him. Gudfred had at least five sons. It is unknown why kingship descended on a side-branch of the dynasty, though Hemming was possibly older than his cousins. The new king made peace with Charlemagne in 811.
“Hemming’s reign as king was short-lived and he died in 812. After his demise, a violent civil war broke out. Another dynastic branch, Harald Klak and Ragnfred, gained power during the conflict. The party of the five sons of Gudfred, of whom only Horik is known by name, sought refuge with the Swedes during the unrest. Harald and Ragnfred entertained good relations with Charlemagne.”
Saxo continues on:
“After these men there came to the throne, backed by the Skanians and Zealanders, SIWARD, surnamed RING (Sigurd Hring). He was the son, born long ago, of the chief of Norway who bore the same name(Sigurd Hring), by Gotrik’s (Gudfred’s) daughter. Now Ring (Ole), cousin of Siward (Sigurd), and also a grandson of Gotrik (Gudfred), was master of Jutland. Thus the power of the single kingdom (Denmark) was divided; and, as though its two parts were contemptible for their smallness, foreigners began not only to despise but to attack it. These Siward (Sigurd) assailed…for he chose to put up with a trouble at home that he might the more easily cure one which came from abroad. Wherefore Ring (Ole) desiring his command, seized the opportunity, tried to transfer the whole sovereignty to himself, and did not hesitate to injure in his own land the man who was watching over it without; for he attacked the provinces in the possession of Siward (Sigurd), which was an ungrateful requital for the defence of their common country. Therefore, some of the Zealanders who were more zealous for Siward (Sigurd), in order to show him firmer loyalty in his absence, proclaimed his son Ragnar as king, when he was scarcely dragged out of his cradle.
“When Ring (Ole) heard that Siward (Sigurd) was returning, he attacked the Zealanders with a large force, and proclaimed that they should perish by the sword if they did not surrender; but the Zealanders were so few that they distrusted their strength, and requested a truce to consider the matter. Young King Ragnar was present at the assembly, and said: “The short bow shoots its shaft suddenly…You need cunning to trap a fox.” By this sound counsel he dispelled the wavering of his countrymen. Soon afterwards, Siward (Sigurd) joined battle with Ring (Ole) and attacked him. He slew Ring, but himself received an incurable wound, of which he died a few days afterwards.”
Then Saxo tells us: “He was succeeded on the throne by RAGNAR.” This Ragnar is Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson, the father of Prince Erik ‘Bragi’ and Prince Roller of Book V. Saxo has accidently looped us around almost a thousand years in his history by placing King Frode III in the time of Christ to placate the contemporary royalty of Denmark of his day! The Christian kings of Denmark wanted a long and drawn out history and Saxo could not deliver it without error. Or was it an error?
King Ragnar’s first act as king was to wrest Stavanger Fjord of Norway out of the Swedish hands of a perverse King Fro (Frey?), who had put the wives of King Siward of Norway’s kinsfolk in bonds in a brothel, and delivered them to public outrage. Many Norwegian matrons and shieldmaidens joined with King Ragnar in his attack upon the Swedes and among them was shieldmaiden Ladgerda, who had fought in front among the bravest with her hair loose over her shoulders. All had marvelled at her matchless deeds, for her locks flying down her back betrayed that she was a woman. After the battle, Ragnar had his men to stop in Gaulardale, as the valley was called and, went to the dwelling of the maiden alone. There he was met by beasts, a bear and a dog, and he thrust one through with a spear, and caught the other by the throat, wrung its neck, and choked it. Thus he had the maiden as the prize of the peril he had overcome. By this marriage he had two daughters, whose names have not come down to us, and a son Fridleif. Then he lived three years at peace.
But Zealanders asked their King Ragnar to return to rule from Denmark and Princess Ladgerda refused to leave her beloved Gaulardale so Ragnar left Ladgerda and returned home. Meantime Herodd, the King of the Swedes, had captured two adders that had grown to be fire breathers and the vipers scorched the country-side with their pestilential breath. The king proclaimed that whosoever removed the pest should have his daughter in marriage. Ragnar, learning of the proclamation, obtained a woolen mantle and some thigh-pieces that were very hairy, with which he could repel snake bites. And when he had landed in Sweden, he deliberately plunged his body in water, and, wetting his outfit, to make it the less penetrable, he let the cold freeze it. Thus attired, he took leave of his companions, exhorting them to remain loyal to Fridleif, and went on to the palace alone. As he went on, an enormous snake glided up and met him and another, equally huge, crawled up, following in the trail of the first. They strove now to buffet the young man with the coils of their tails, and now to spit and belch their fire and venom stubbornly upon him, but Ragnar, trusting in the hardness of his frozen dress, foiled the poisonous assaults not only with his arms, but with his attire, and, singlehanded, in unweariable combat, stood up against the two gaping creatures, who stubbornly poured forth their venom upon him. For their teeth he repelled with his shield, their poison with his dress. At last he cast his spear, and drove it against the bodies of the brutes, who were attacking him hard. He pierced both their hearts, and his battle ended in victory.
After Ragnar had thus triumphed the king scanned his dress closely, and saw that he was rough and hairy; but, above all, he laughed at the shaggy lower portion of his garb, and chiefly the uncouth aspect of his breeches; so that he gave him in jest the nickname of Lothbrok. He also received the prize that was appointed for the victory. By Queen Thora he begot two nobly-gifted sons, Radbard and Dunwat. These also had brothers—Siward, Biorn, Agnar, and Iwar. But, all too soon, Thora, the bride of Ragnar, perished of a violent malady.
Next he married Swanloga (Aslaug) and she gave him the sons Ragnald (Roller?), Hwitserk, and Erik.
Then for a little interval he rested from wars, and chanced to fall deeply in love with a certain woman of low birth. The son born of her was of his own line and he named the boy Ubbe.
Saxo’s historical coverage of Ragnar Lothbrok’s deeds is significantly different from Icelandic historical versions, but the main generational struggle I would like to focus on here is that of his conquest of York and King AElla’s retaking of the city. Saxo tells us:
“He (Ragnar) lifted up his arms against Britain, and attacked and slew in battle its king, Hame, the father of Ella (AElla), who was a most noble youth. Then he killed the earls of Scotland and of Pictland, and of the isles that they call the Southern or Meridional (Sudr-eyar), and made his sons Siward and Radbard masters of the provinces, which were now without governors. He also deprived Norway of its chief by force, and commanded it to obey Fridleif, whom he also set over the Orkneys, from which he took their own earl.”
Later Saxo tells us:
“But this bitter sorrow was driven out of him (Ragnar) by the sudden arrival of Iwar, who had been expelled from the kingdom (York, City of the Boar). For the Gauls had made him fly, and had wrongfully bestowed royal power on a certain Ella, the son of Hame. Ragnar took Iwar to guide him, since he was acquainted with the country, gave orders for a fleet, and approached the harbour called York. Here he disembarked his forces, and after a battle which lasted three days, he made Ella, who had trusted in the valour of the Gauls, desirous to fly. The affair cost much blood to the English and very little to the Danes.”
Even later Saxo tells us:
“Meanwhile, Ella betook himself to the Irish, and put to the sword or punished all those who were closely and loyally attached to Ragnar. Then Ragnar attacked him with his fleet, but, by the just visitation of the Omnipotent, was openly punished for disparaging religion. For when he had been taken and cast into prison, his guilty limbs were given to serpents to devour, and adders found ghastly substance in the fibres of his entrails. His liver was eaten away, and a snake, like a deadly executioner, beset his very heart. Then in a courageous voice he recounted all his deeds in order, and at the end of his recital added the following sentence: “If the porkers knew the punishment of the boar-pig, surely they would break into the sty and hasten to loose him from his affliction.” At this saying, Ella conjectured that some of his sons were yet alive, and bade that the executioners should stop and the vipers be removed. The servants ran up to accomplish his bidding; but Ragnar was dead.”
King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ had lorded over Zealand, Denmark and Stavanger Fjord, Norway and York, England, aka Eboracum, the City of the Boar, hence his poetic allusions to himself as the boar-pig and to his avenging sons as porkers. Ragnar was cursing AElla with a cycle of vengeance that would make his death most famous. And that was what all Vikings sought, a death most famed. So Saxo takes us further into this cycle:
“Iwar went towards England, and when he saw that his fleet was not strong enough to join battle with the enemy, he chose to be cunning rather than bold, and tried a shrewd trick on Ella, begging as a pledge of peace between them a strip of land as great as he could cover with a horse’s hide. He gained his request, for the king supposed that it would cost little, and thought himself happy that so strong a foe begged for a little boon instead of a great one; supposing that a tiny skin would cover but a very little land. But Iwar cut the hide out and lengthened it into very slender thongs, thus enclosing a piece of ground large enough to build a city on. Then Ella came to repent of his lavishness, and tardily set to reckoning the size of the hide, measuring the little skin more narrowly now that it was cut up than when it was whole. For that which he had thought would encompass a little strip of ground, he saw lying wide over a great estate. Iwar brought into the city, when he founded it, supplies that would serve amply for a siege, wishing the defences to be as good against scarcity as against an enemy.”
It was about this time that Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Erikson and the Hraes Trading Company had started harvesting walrus herds for their ivory tusks, which the Arabs had claimed were 200 times as strong as elephant ivory tusks, leading me to believe that the Hraes’ were also trading narwhal tusks in Baghdad. Land claims by the hide were common in England at this time, but I suspect that Iwar, or Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ of Kiev may have used a walrus hide, which were famed for use in making ship ropes. The walrus hide could be cut much finer than a cattle hide, but was so thick, it could be laid upon its side and cut even thinner again and perhaps again, allowing Prince Ivar to circumnavigate the whole Castle of York and surroundings with his strip of hide in his Hide of Land claim.
Saxo takes us even further into this vengeance cycle:
“Meantime, Siward and Biorn came up with a fleet of 400 ships, and with open challenge declared war against the king. This they did at the appointed time; and when they had captured him, they ordered the figure of an eagle to be cut in his back, rejoicing to crush their most ruthless foe by marking him with the cruellest of birds. Not satisfied with imprinting a wound on him, they salted the mangled flesh. Thus Ella was done to death, and Biorn and Siward went back to their own kingdoms.”
Here again it becomes apparent that a twelfth century cleric is unfamiliar with ninth century Viking practices, for the ‘Death of the Blood Eagle’ was far more involved than just carving a eagle outline into the skin of one’s back. The timing of these actions by Iwar, Siward and Biorn Ragnarsons likely corresponded with the Danish invasion of Britain by the Great Heathen Army of the Danube Danes of King Frodi (SigFrodi) of Kievan Hraes’, for the sons of Ragnar not mentioned here, namely Princess Aslaug’s sons, King Roller and Prince Erik, as well as a grandson in Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Erikson, were all likely involved in the generational vengeance cycle as well. In my Book 3 of ‘The Varangians’ I have compounded the death of AElla with the rape of his daughter, Princess Blaeja, by Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’. This is my own fictional addition, my literary contribution, to a vengeance cycle that extends even into future generations.
However, Saxo continues:
“Thus SIWARD, by the sovereign vote of the whole Danish assembly, received the empire of his father. But after the defeats he had inflicted everywhere he was satisfied with the honour he received at home, and liked better to be famous with the gown than with the sword. He ceased to be a man of camps, and changed from the fiercest of despots into the most punctual guardian of peace. He found as much honour in ease and leisure as he had used to think lay in many victories. Fortune so favoured his change of pursuits, that no foe ever attacked him, nor he any foe. He died, and ERIK, who was a very young child, inherited his nature, rather than his realm or his tranquillity. For Erik, the brother of Harald, despising his exceedingly tender years, invaded the country with rebels, and seized the crown; nor was he ashamed to assail the lawful infant sovereign, and to assume an unrightful power. In thus bringing himself to despoil a feeble child of the kingdom he showed himself the more unworthy of it. Thus he stripped the other of his throne, but himself of all his virtues, and cast all manliness out of his heart, when he made war upon a cradle: for where covetousness and ambition flamed, love of kindred could find no place. But this brutality was requited by the wrath of a divine vengeance. For the war between this man and Gudorm, the son of Harald, ended suddenly with such slaughter that they were both slain, with numberless others; and the royal stock of the Danes, now worn out by the most terrible massacres, was reduced to the only son of the above Siward.”
The above Erik Child is part of contemporary history as per Wiki:
“Horik II (died after 864), also known as Hårik or, in late sources, Erik Barn (Danish: “Erik the Child”), was King of the Danes from the fall of Horik I in 854 to an unknown date between 864 and 873. During his reign the Danish kingdom showed tendencies of breaking up. After his demise under unknown circumstances, Denmark entered a long period of obscurity, until the rise of the Jelling dynasty in the 10th century.
“His predecessor Horik I (Perhaps Erik ‘Bragi the Old’?) had a long reign of more than 40 years. By the mid 9th century he was old by the standards of the time, and younger relatives began to create trouble. One of them, Guttorm, attacked Horik in 854. In the brief civil war that followed, the branches of the royal family were nearly wiped out. The Frankish Fulda Annals and the Vita Ansgari make clear that only a single royal child was left alive, also called Horik (Old Norse, Hárikr). In later historiography he is hence known as Erik the Child.”
As one can see, Saxo is now moving from legendary history into a more contemporary and verifiable history, and he continues with:
“This man (Erik) won the fortune of a throne by losing his kindred; it was luckier for him to have his relations dead than alive. He forsook the example of all the rest, and hastened to tread in the steps of his grandfather; for he suddenly came out as a most zealous practitioner of roving. And would that he had not shown himself rashly to inherit the spirit of Ragnar, by his abolition of Christian worship! For he continually tortured all the most religious men, or stripped them of their property and banished them. But it were idle for me to blame the man’s beginnings when I am to praise his end. For that life is more laudable of which the foul beginning is checked by a glorious close, than that which begins commendably but declines into faults and infamies. For Erik, upon the healthy admonitions of Ansgarius, laid aside the errors of his impious heart, and atoned for whatsoever he had done amiss in the insolence thereof; showing himself as strong in the observance of religion as he had been in slighting it. Thus he not only took a draught of more wholesome teaching with obedient mind, but wiped off early stains by his purity at the end. He had a son KANUTE by the daughter of Gudorm, who was also the granddaughter of Harald; and him he left to survive his death.”
This Kanute may herald the appearance of Harde Knut I, who is likely Prince Ivar (Igor) of Kiev; he gained the byname of Hard Knot, because it was a hard knot, indeed, that took his legs from him. This was the return of Ivar ‘the Boneless’ from Kiev to reclaim the Danish throne of his grandfather, King Frodi ‘the Peaceful’. Prince Ivar of Kiev was still an Aesir Pagan, for it was only much later that his grandson, Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ of Kiev, converted himself and all Hraes’ to Christianity.
Saxo goes on:
“While this child remained in infancy a guardian was required for the pupil and for the realm. But inasmuch it seemed to most people either invidious or difficult to give the aid that this office needed, it was resolved that a man should be chosen by lot. For the wisest of the Danes, fearing much to make a choice by their own will in so lofty a matter, allowed more voice to external chance than to their own opinions, and entrusted the issue of the selection rather to luck than to sound counsel. The issue was that a certain Enni-gnup (Steep-brow), a man of the highest and most entire virtue, was forced to put his shoulder to this heavy burden; and when he entered on the administration which chalice had decreed, he oversaw, not only the early rearing of the king, but the affairs of the whole people. For which reason some who are little versed in our history give this man a central place in its annals. But when Kanute had passed through the period of boyhood, and had in time grown to be a man, he left those who had done him the service of bringing him up, and turned from an almost hopeless youth to the practice of unhoped-for virtue; being deplorable for this reason only, that he passed from life to death without the tokens of the Christian faith.”
From Wiki, concerning Enni-gnup:
“Gyrd and Gnupa were kings of Denmark in the 10th century according to Sweyn II of Denmark and Adam of Bremen. They were the sons of the Swedish chieftain Olof (or Olaf) the Brash who had conquered Denmark and they ruled together according to Swedish tradition.
“Gnupa is mentioned on the two Sigtrygg Runestones raised near Schleswig by his wife Asfrid for their son Sigtrygg. Likewise a Danish king Chnuba is named by Widukind of Corvey’s Saxon chronicles as having been defeated and forced to accept baptism in 934, and Olav Tryggvason’s Saga tells of Gnupa’s defeat by Gorm the Old. However, this chronology would contradict that of Adam of Bremen, who places the succession and subsequent defeat of Sigtrygg during the tenure of Archbishop Hoger of Bremen (909–915/7). The late and legend-influenced Gesta Danorum of Saxo Grammaticus names a nobleman Ennignup serving as guardian for a young king Knut at some time prior to king Gorm the Old and it has been suggested he may be a confused representation of Gnupa.”
There is no doubt that Saxo is, at this point, confused. He goes on to say”
“But soon the sovereignty passed to his son FRODE. This man’s fortune, increased by arms and warfare, rose to such a height of prosperity that he brought back to the ancient yoke the provinces which had once revolted from the Danes, and bound them in their old obedience. He also came forward to be baptised with holy water in England, which had for some while past been versed in Christianity. But he desired that his personal salvation should overflow and become general, and begged that Denmark should be instructed in divinity by Agapete, who was then Pope of Rome. But he was cut off before his prayers attained this wish. His death befell before the arrival of the messengers from Rome: and indeed his intention was better than his fortune, and he won as great a reward in heaven for his intended piety as others are vouchsafed for their achievement.”
This Frode is a confused version of King Harde Knute aka Prince Ivar (Igor) ‘the Boneless’ of Kiev and he accepted baptism in England solely to marry Princess Blaeja of York, the granddaughter of King AElla. He planned to outdo his father, Prince Erik ‘Bragi’, and his uncle King Roller ‘Duke Rollo’, in the vengeance cycle of his grandfather, King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’. While annually maintaining the Hraes’ Trading Company trade routes, both the Nor’Way and the southern Dan’Way marine routes, he was known as Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ in England, King Harde Knute Frodison in Denmark and Prince Ivar (Igor) Rurikson in Kievan Hraes’. He had an English Princess Blaeja for a wife in the west and he had a Swedish Princess Helga (Olga) for a wife in the east, and, if he played his cards right, they were far enough apart to never meet in the middle. But what he never wanted the English to learn was that he was the grandson of King Frode ‘the Peaceful’ of Denmark, for King Frodi (SigFrodi) had led the Danube Danes or Hraes’ Great Heathen Army west to ravage England a generation earlier. That is why his Danish coins were minted with Harde Knute on one side and Frode on the other, while his English coins of York had only Harde Knute on both sides. He wanted his Danish subjects to know him as Harde Knute from the Old Fridleif-Frode line of kings and his English subjects to know him as King Harde Knute and fear him as Ivar ‘the Boneless’. Either Saxo did not know this, or the Great Schism, the split between Orthodox and Latin Christianity, was making this hard to learn about.
But Saxo carried on:
“His son GORM, who had the surname of “The Englishman,” because he was born in England, gained the sovereignty in the island on his father’s death; but his fortune, though it came soon, did not last long. He left England for Denmark to put it in order; but a long misfortune was the fruit of this short absence. For the English, who thought that their whole chance of freedom lay in his being away, planned an open revolt from the Danes, and in hot haste took heart to rebel. But the greater the hatred and contempt of England, the greater the loyal attachment of Denmark to the king. Thus while he stretched out his two hands to both provinces in his desire for sway, he gained one, but lost the lordship of the other irretrievably; for he never made any bold effort to regain it. So hard is it to keep a hold on very large empires.”
Once Prince Gorm came of age, King Harde Knute returned to Kievan Hraes’ and his wife Helga to put the second part of his elaborate vengeance plan into action. It looks like Nestorian monks are not the only ones who like to kill off their royals when they leave for other parts of their kingdoms. Danish clerics are just as adept in using their pens as swords to pass their kings into posterity. While back at home in the east as Prince Ivar (Igor) of Kiev, Ivar fathers a second son, this time with Princess Helga (Olga), and he names this boy Svein ‘the Old’, Svein meaning Swine or Boar, mortal enemy of snakes, and ‘the Old’ meaning from the Old Fridleif-Frode line of kings.
Saxo continues with:
“After this man his son HARALD came to be king of Denmark; he is half-forgotten by posterity, and lacks all record for famous deeds, because he rather preserved than extended the possessions of the realm.”
This would be the famous King Harald ‘Blue Tooth’ who preserved the realm by building a number of Ring Fortresses all over Denmark and Skane. More of Saxo’s confusion shows up below when he claims that another Gorm came after his son Harald. This would be King Gorm ‘the Old’, who was named such by his father, King Harde Knute I, Gorm meaning Snake, and ‘the Old’ meaning from the Old Fridleif-Frode line of kings. Harde Knute made sure that he passed King Frodi’s crown onto his son before he left, because the situation for princes in Denmark was becoming untenable, so rife with sedition had Zealand become.
Still further, Saxo goes on:
“After this the throne was obtained by GORM, a man whose soul was ever hostile to religion, and who tried to efface all regard for Christ’s worshippers, as though they were the most abominable of men. All those who shared this rule of life he harassed with divers kinds of injuries and incessantly pursued with whatever slanders he could. Also, in order to restore the old worship to the shrines, he razed to its lowest foundations, as though it were some unholy abode of impiety, a temple which religious men had founded in a stead in Sleswik; and those whom he did not visit with tortures he punished by the demolition of the holy chapel. Though this man was thought notable for his stature, his mind did not answer to his body; for he kept himself so well sated with power that he rejoiced more in saving than increasing his dignity, and thought it better to guard his own than to attack what belonged to others: caring more to look to what he had than to swell his havings.”
Saxo finally goes on to describe Gorm’s wife, Thyra, and his sons by her, Kanute and Harald ‘Blue Tooth’, which ends his ‘The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus’ and takes us from legendary history into a more contemporary and verifiable history. His Books X to XVI are considered to be more historical in nature.
You will have to read further in ‘The Varangians’ series to learn what happens between King Gorm ‘the Old’ of Denmark and Prince Svein ‘the Old’ of Kievan Hraes’.
SEPTENARY CONCLUSION
Book IX of Saxo’s history moves us from a legendary into a semi-historical timeframe. Saxo’s sources of this time resume into the Carolingian time and can be traced to Carolingian sources such as Adam of Bremen and others. We are actually taken into a period just prior to the family chronicle that may have provided the detailed story of Prince Erik ‘Bragi the Old’ Ragnarson, however, after King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ and King Gorm ‘the Old’ we are taken into the accepted reigns of King Harald ‘Bluetooth and his son, King Svein ‘Forkbeard’ and his grandson, King Canute ‘the Great’. There is no return of eastern Princes, which would be deemed more acceptable to both church and monarchy.
May I quote Wace when he says:
“The story of the Normans is long and hard to put into romanz. If any one ask who it is that tells it and writes this history, let him know that I am Wace, of the isle of Jersey, which is in the western sea, appendant to the fief of Normandy. I was born in the island of Jersey, but was taken to Caen when young; and, being there taught, went afterwards to France, where I remained for a long time. When I returned thence, I dwelt long at Caen, and there turned myself to making romances, of which I wrote many.
“In former times, they who wrote gests and histories of other days used to be beloved, and much prized and honoured. They had rich gifts from the barons and noble ladies; but now I may ponder long, and write and translate books, and may make many a romance and sirvente, ere I find any one, how courteous soever he may be, who will do me any honour, or give me enough even to pay a scribe.”
FINAL CONCLUSION:
Suffice it to say that there is a lot more viable and verifiable history going on within the pages of ‘The Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus’ than modern historians are willing to allow. It was over forty years ago that I first saw in Saxo’s Book V the founding of Kievan Hraes’ (Ukraine), and, as I have uncovered more and more contemporary historical evidence supporting this theory over the decades of hard research, I have become more and more convinced that this theory is correct. Turning the 50 pages of Saxo’s Book V into a 500 page historical fiction of the founding of Kievan Hraes’ in the first book of ‘The Varangians’ gives one an insight into how such a powerful trade empire might have been built. And adding other sagas and chronicles into the mix, such as The Saga of King Hedrik ‘the Wise’, Arrow Odd’s Saga, the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle and the Anglo Saxon Chronicle certainly carries ‘The Varangians’ Saga Series forward through the Middle Ages.
Interestingly, just as Saxo saved King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ to his Book IX, so too did I write my Book 1, The Saga of King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson lastly, for, as expected, it turned out to be the hardest one to fathom. Only Book 9 of my ‘The Varangians’ Saga Series is left to be written and, hopefully, I shall soon be afforded time to work on it, but this series is a living one, subject to change as more history is uncovered. I would never presume to have gotten it all right in so short a time as can be counted in decades, but half right is still better than the hodge podge of history that presently defines ‘The Great Viking Manifestation of the Middle Ages’.
I have written ‘The Varangians’ Saga Series in a manner and style that might have been written by Erik ‘Bragi the Old’ Ragnarson, that is to say, in a fashion acceptable to an Aesir Pagan Prince, including the witchcraft that dominated the Aesir religion of conquest and the sexually explicit sequences one would expect of a slaver society. I have no illusions that my style might be equal to a skald such as Erik ‘Bragi’, but I judge writers to also be great when they can turn Historical Fiction into Historical Fact and that, surprisingly, is just what I believe I have done.
A Copyrighted Literary Work By
Brian Howard Seibert
© Copyright by Brian Howard Seibert
The title of the Copyrighted Literary Work ‘The VARANGIANS Saga Series’ was maximized to include the short form titles of the related Sagas included (but not limited) in the work as follows:
BOOK ONE: The Saga of King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson (Circa 800 – 822 CE)
BOOK TWO: The Saga of Prince Erik ‘Bragi’ Ragnarson (Circa 828 – 841 CE)
BOOK THREE: The Saga of Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Erikson (Circa 839 – 912 CE)
BOOK FOUR: The Saga of Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ Erikson (Circa 896 – 945 CE)
BOOK FIVE: The Saga of Prince Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson (Circa 943 – 976 CE)
BOOK SIX: The Saga of Grand Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ Sveinson (Circa 968 – 990)
BOOK SEVEN: The Saga of King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ Ivarson (Circa 986 – 1014 CE)
BOOK EIGHT: The Saga of King Canute ‘the Great’ Sweynson (Circa 1014 – 1035 CE)
BOOK NINE: The Saga of King William ‘the Conqueror’ Robertson (Circa 1036 – 1066+)
With Copyrighted Intellectual Property in the Work By Brian Howard Seibert
© Copyright by Brian Howard Seibert
The Copyrighted Intellectual Property of the Work ‘The VARANGIANS Saga Series’ includes (but is not limited to) the following series of related ideas:
As well as making claim to a Literary Copyright, I, Brian Howard Seibert, lay claim to an Intellectual Property Copyright on a series of discoveries/ideas based upon four decades of research and evaluation that concludes that it was Danish kings and princes who founded what has come to be known as the Kievan Hraes’ (Rus’) state with intellectual claims as follows:
BOOK ONE: The Saga of King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson is based upon Book Nine of The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus and upon The Saga of the Volsungs. Because Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ is the earliest and most legendary of the Hraes’ kings and princes, I waited until I had completed Book 8 before attempting Book 1 and, as Saxo, himself, saved Ragnar to the last of his Nine Books of Danish History, I am guessing he did the same for similar reasons. I am glad I waited, but many of my Book 1 theories remain from very early on in the research process and from them I hypothesized the following intellectual property discoveries:
1.1 That the famed shield called “Hrae’s Ship’s Round” mentioned in the Elder Edda was the shield that ‘Hrae’ Gunnar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson took shelter under while attacking the Greek fire Breathing Byzantine bireme, Fafnir, and that the Hrae prename came from the roar of the pneumatically propelled Greek fire emulsion flame that flew from the firetube of the bireme.
“And his shield was called ‘Hrae’s Ship’s Round’,
And his followers were called the Hraes’.”
Eyvinder Skald-Despoiler; Skaldskaparmal
1.2 That the Rus’ were called ‘Dromitai’ by the Romans, meaning ‘men who run fast’, as an insult for the Rus’ retreat back up the riverways of Rus’ before the much larger army of the Khazars (Huns) in Saxo’s Book 5. This ‘men who run fast’ insult was continued forward when in 1018 AD Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg called the citizens of Kiev ‘Swift Danes and their Runaway Slavs’ after the Rus’ abandoned Kiev before the armies of the Germans and Poles. It was further carried on into 1040 AD when the English began calling their King Harald, successor of Canute, ‘the Harefoot’, meaning ‘the Swift’ as an insult and not ‘fleet of foot’ as is often surmised.
“These sentences give good sense if we abstract the words Áŋœřȧȿ … ßàþõ, for we then get left with the ordinary aetiological explanation of the two names of the Rus’, ‘Rhos’ and ‘Dromitai’: they are called ‘Rhos’ after the name of a mighty man of valour so called, and ‘Dromitai’ because they can run fast.”
Jenkins, Romilly: Studies on Byzantine History of the 9th and 10th Centuries.
1.3 That the name Varangians comes from Vay, meaning Way, and Range, meaning to Wander, or Way Wanderers. In my early studies I learned that the Rang River in Iceland meant the Wandering River and Vay speaks for itself. Varangers were initially Wanderers of the Nor’Way as can be seen in the Varanger Fjord of the Northern Cape of Norway where the trading fleets gathered to catch the right wind to take them into the White Sea, which was the original Varangian Sea of the Sagas and Chronicles.
1.4 That the name Nor’Way comes from the original Northern Way trade route name for transportation and commerce of goods conducted across Norway’s North Cape and into the White Sea and the riverways of Northern Hraes’.
BOOK TWO: The Saga of Prince Erik ‘Bragi’ Ragnarson is based upon Book Five of The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus and upon The Saga of King Heidrek ‘the Wise’ (aka Hervor’s Saga) by an unknown contemporary author. This was the first discovery. While preparing a University research essay on the origins of the play ‘Hamlet, Prince of Denmark’ by William Shakespeare, I read Books Three and Four of Saxo’s Nine Books of Danish History which contain the Tale of Prince Amleth, a story almost identical to the 16th century play that was compiled by Saxo in the 12th century. Reading on to Book Five of Saxo’s work I found a tale of two Norwegian brothers, Erik and Roller Ragnarson, who join their brother-in-law, King Frodi of Denmark, an Angle king of Jutland, in establishing a trading empire in Scythia that culminates in the famous Battle of the Goths and the Huns and the total victory of the Danes. Having studied Roman History in first year university and Khazar History in second, I came to the conclusion that this tale was about the 9th century entry of Varangians into Scythia and their conquest of Kiev from Khazar domination. In 1984 I set about turning Saxo’s 50 page Book Five History into a 500 page Historical Research Novel to investigate how well Saxo’s work, which he had placed in the time of Christ, would fare in 9th century Kievan Scythia. It did very well, and from it I hypothesized the following intellectual property discoveries:
2.1 That the Ragnar father and Kraka mother characters of the two Norwegian brothers in the saga were none other than King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson and Princess Aslaug ‘Kraka’ Sigurd-Fafnirsbanesdottir.
2.2 That Erik ‘the Eloquent’ Ragnarson was also known as King Heidrek ‘the Wise’ and Prince Rurik of Novgorod and perhaps Prince Horik of Jutland.
2.3 That King Roller Ragnarson of Norway later became Duke Rollo ‘the Walker’ of Normandy and that the byname ‘the Walker’ is a politer form of ‘Dromitai’ or ‘the Swift’.
2.4 That the three brothers of Saxo’s Book V, Erik, Roller and Frodi were the founding Varangian brothers, Rurik, Truvor and Sineus mentioned in the Russian Primary Chronicle.
2.6 That King Frodi ‘the Peaceful’ Fridleifson had assumed the Khazar title of Kagan of Kiev after taking the city from the Huns and that his brother-in-law, Prince Erik ‘Bragi’ Ragnarson, had assumed the title of Kagan-Bek.
2.7 According to the near contemporary Dudo of St. Quentin, writer of ‘Gesta Normannorum’:
“[Chapter] 5 Rollo is expelled from his native Dacia by an evil king”
“But in the region of Dacia there was, in those days, a certain old man [King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’], most opulent with an abundance of all goods, and surrounded on all sides by a crowd of innumerable warriors, a man who never lowered the nape of his neck before any king, nor placed his hands in anyone else’s hands in committing himself to service. Holding almost the entire realm of Dacia, he claimed for himself the lands bordering on Dacia [Romania] and Alania [Scythia], and by force and power he subjugated the populace to himself through very many battles. For, of all the easterners, he was the mightiest due to his superior strength and the most distinguished due to his cumulated surplus of all the virtues. But when he died, his two sons, vigorous in arms, well-versed in warfare, in body most fair, in spirit most hardy, survived him. Truly the older of them was called Rollo [King Roller Ragnarson], but the other, the younger, Gurim [Prince Erik ‘Bragi the Old’ Ragnarson].”
Dudo’s chronicle goes on to tell us how the evil King of Dacia drove Duke Rollo out of Dacia [Kievan Hraes’] and Rollo fled to Scania and then onward to Frankia. Perhaps this is how Rollo earned his byname ‘the Walker’, a more polite version of ‘the Swift’, or ‘Dromitai: one who flees from battle’.
This discovery added February 16th, 2025.
BOOK THREE: The Saga of Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Erikson is based upon Book Five of The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus and upon The Saga of Arrow Odd by an unknown contemporary author. Prince Helgi (Oleg) of Kiev (ruled c. 879-912) of the Chronicle corresponds with Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ Erikson, of ‘Arrow Odd’s Saga’ fame, and was the bane of King Frodi and then his son, King Alf of Kiev. Prince Helgi (Oleg) ruled Kiev until his death from the poisonous bite of a snake that struck out from under the skull of a horse he had owned just after he had given it a kick, the same death that Arrow-Odd experiences in the Norse Saga. In the book I have hypothesized the following intellectual property discoveries:
3.1 That King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’s death by poisonous snake bites was derived from the kenning for death by cuts of poisonous blood-snakes (swords) by twelve swordsmen so that no one person could be blamed for the death of the most famous Viking.
3.2 That Prince Helgi (Oleg) ‘Arrow Odd’s death by poisonous snake bite was derived from the kenning of death by a poisonous blood-snake (sword) under the skull of Faxi (the skull above the forestem of the longship ‘Fair Faxi’).
3.2a That Prince Helgi (Oleg) ‘Arrow Odd’s death by poisonous snake bite was an analogy for death from the STD Syphilis, which Helgi may have brought back with him from the Newfoundland. Once caught, Syphilis presented rather benign first and second stages, but it was the third unavoidable stage that appeared up to thirty years later that killed the victim, usually by attacking the shins and lower limbs, and in Helgi’s case, one foot in particular. This discovery added October 19th, 2023.
3.3 That Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ was the sea cow that killed King Frodi in Kiev because King Frodi had targeted Prince Helgi for death to avenge Helgi’s killing of Frodi’s twelve grandsons at the Holmganger on Samso.
3.4 That Prince Helgi ‘Arrow Odd’ killed King Frodi’s son and successor, King Alf ‘Bjalki’, in Kiev because he had refused to pay tithes to King Olmar of Tmutorokan.
3.6 That the Danish Great Heathen Army that attacked England in 867 AD originated out of Kievan Hraes’ (Rus’) and the Dnieper/Danube River Basin and was led by King Frodi ‘the Third’ Fridleifson of Hraes’ (Rus’) and Anglish Jutland in Denmark as stated in a contemporary report of that time:
BOOK FOUR: The Saga of Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ Erikson is based upon Book Six of The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus and upon The History of Leo ‘the Deacon’ by Leo ‘the Deacon’ of Constantinople, a contemporary author. Prince Eyfur (grandson of King Frodi) aka Ivar (Igor) of Kiev (ruled c. 912-945) of the Chronicle, corresponds with King Fridleif of Book Six of Saxo’s History and is also likely King Harde Knute I, who appears in Denmark for a twenty year period that corresponds with a twenty year lacuna in the Chronicle’s history. His descendants form a whole line of Danish kings called the Knotlings. In the book I have hypothesized the following intellectual property discoveries:
4.1 That Prince Ivar (Igor) of Kiev was Ivar ‘the Boneless’ of Scandinavian Sagas. I researched and read The History of Leo ‘the Deacon’ and Leo relates how Emperor John Tzimiskes tells Ivar’s son Svein what had happened to his father: ‘on his campaign against the Germans, he was captured by them, tied to tree trunks, and torn in two.’
4.2 That Prince Ivar (Igor) of Kiev was the son of Princess Eyfura Frodisdottir and may have originally been named Eyfur, the masculine form of Eyfura (meaning Island Fir or Pine). His father may have been Prince Erik ‘Bragi’ Ragnarson with Ivar once again tying the royal lines of ‘the Old Fridleif-Frodi Line of Anglish Danish kings’ with the Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ Sigurdson Line of Norwegian Danish kings. Eyfur was an uncommon name and Ivar and sometimes Ingvar was used with Igor being the Slavic form of the name.
4.3 That Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ Erikson (and Eyfurason) of Kiev returned to Denmark as King Harde Knute I. Solely from a point of ‘Due Diligence’, I checked Danish History to see if a new Danish king had happened to turn up during a twenty year lacuna in the story of Prince Ivar (Igor) of Kiev in the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle between the years 916 and 936 AD and, unexpectedly, an unknown king had shown up! A King Harde Knut I of Denmark reigned from circa 915 AD for about thirty years according to Adam of Bremen, a contemporary historian, so, to about 945 AD, which is the year the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle tells us that Prince Ivar (Igor) of Kiev died! But Prince Igor reappears in the Hraes’ chronicle in 936, so it is possible that he ruled both lands.
The name ‘Harde Knut’ in Danish means ‘Hard Knot’, and I expostulated that it was a hard knot indeed that took the legs of our young prince. Harde Knut ‘the First’ was the start of a long line of Knot Kings or Knytlings, starting with several Canutes, Knuts, Knuds and many more Harde Knuts, all stemming from one of the most famous of Vikings, Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’. There were no Knuts of any kind before him, but many after, and the preponderance of evidence continues to grow. King Harde Knut’s son in Denmark was King Gorm ‘the Old’, Gorm meaning worm or Snake and ‘the Old’ from the ‘Old’ Fridleif-Frodi line of Anglish Danish kings. His son in the east, as Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’, was Prince Svein ‘the Old’, or Sveinald, with Svein meaning Swine and, again, ‘Old’ of the Fridleif-Frodi line. A storm is brewing here, the Swine being a mortal enemy of the Snake, the ‘Snake’-King AElla of York having taken the life of ‘the Old Boar’, King Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’, and Gorm’s byname being ‘ the Englishman’, perhaps signifying his mother was an English princess from York, perhaps Princess Blyia, granddaughter of AElla. In the novel we explore the most famous death of Ragnar ‘Lothbrok’ and the vengeances that were unleashed upon AElla and his line.
4.4 That Prince Fridleif ‘Hiarnsbane’ Frodeson of Book Six of Saxo’s Danish History was Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ Erikson (and Eyfurason) and 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.
4.5 There is a fragmented Swedish Saga, the ‘Saga of Ingvar the Far Traveller’, that has had Swedish parts appended to the start and finish of the saga, but is primarily of Danish origin about Prince Ivar (Igor) ‘the Boneless’ of Kiev and his son, Prince Sveinald (Sviatoslav) ‘the Brave’ of Kiev. In it there is much information about Ivar’s attempt to extend a trade route through the eastern part of Scythia to the Caspian Sea and on from there to Baghdad.
Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ led a 943 AD expedition up the Kura River and captured Bardha’a, the capital of Arran. The Hraes’ allowed the locals to stay in the city, but according to the Arab chronicler Ibn Miskawaih, the local people broke the peace and Ivar ‘the Boneless’ and his warriors stayed in Bardha’a for several months plundering adjacent areas and garnering much booty.
The city was relieved by an outbreak of dysentery among the Hraes’ and Ibn Miskawaih records that the Hraes’ “indulged excessively in the fruit of which there are numerous sorts there. This produced an epidemic among them . . . and their numbers began thereby to be reduced.” When a Muslim army approached the city the Hraes’ sallied forth, their prince, Ivar ‘the Boneless’ riding out on a donkey, but they lost 700 warriors and retreated back into the Bardha’a fortress, where they were besieged. Finally they fled the fortress under cover of darkness, carrying on their backs all they could of their treasure, gems, and fine raiment, boys and girls as they wanted, and made for the Kura River and their ships and escaped back to Tmutorokan. Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ led the escape, no doubt still riding the donkey, as he had no legs, but the disease took its toll and he died shortly afterward. The Muslim army may have been composed of many Pashtun soldiers, giving rise to the Armenian born Eastern Roman Emperor John Tzimiskes’ belief that it was while on his campaign against these Germans that Prince Ivar (Igor) of Kiev lost his life.
This discovery added February 16th, 2025.
4.6 Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’ of Kiev may have posed as King Hagrold (Gold Harald) of Dacia in order to save the life and rule of a young prince of Normandy, the western holding of the Hraes’ Trading Company. He posed as King Hagrold (Gold Harald) of Dacia instead of Prince Ivar (Igor) of Kiev or King Harde Knute of Denmark so that he could attack the Franks with impunity without putting his Dan’Par trade route at risk.
According to the near contemporary Dudo of St. Quentin, writer of ‘Gesta Normannorum’:
“Chapter 40 The two Bernards enlist the aid of Richard’s relative, King Hagrold of Dacia, against King Louis:”
Following the assassination of the great Duke William, King Louis kidnapped his son Richard, and kept him hostage in Paris. Meanwhile, King Louis tarried in Rouen, setting Norman affairs in order as though he were lord, pretending that he was indeed the king and advocate of the Normans.
“The Norman magnates sent warriors of rather influential nobility and wealth to Hagrold [Gold Harald], King of Dacia, so that he would hasten to assist his relative Richard, son of the great Duke William, because the king of the Frankish nation was claiming for himself the monarchy of all Normandy, taking away by force every honor from the boy Richard, even though the boy had been plucked from Louis’ chains.
“Truly Hagrold, the magnanimous King of Dacia, honorably received the Norman ambassadors, for love of his close relative Richard and, having constructed ships and filled them with victuals and warriors, came as quickly as he could with an incredible multitude of young recruits…”
King Hagrold [Gold Harald] met King Louis in battle and captured him, thereby gaining Duke Richard back his Duchy of Normandy.
This discovery added February 16th, 2025.
BOOK FIVE: The Saga of Prince Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson is based upon Book Six of The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus and upon The Hraes’ Primary Chronicle. Prince Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson or Sveinald (Sviatoslav) of Kiev (ruled c. 945-972) of the Chronicle corresponds to King Frodi of Book Six of Saxo’s History. This Svein is Sviatoslav ‘the Brave’ who almost defeated the whole Eastern Roman Empire before getting himself booted out of Rus’ in favour of his three sons, Yaropolk (Ivar), Oleg (Helgi) and Vladimir (Valdamar). Prince Svein returns to Denmark as King Sweyn Forkbeard and culminates his career by conquering England on Christmas Day of 1013 before being poisoned 5 weeks later. The second Hraes’ prince to come from Kiev to take his place as a Danish king was Prince Svein ‘the Old’ Ivarson, or Sveinald, who took the throne from his nephew, King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ Gormson, son of King Gorm ‘the Old’ Knut/Ivarson after his victory at the Battle of Hjorungavagr. In this Book 5 I have hypothesized the following intellectual property discoveries:
5.1 That Prince Svein (Slavic: Sviatoslav) did not die in the 972 AD attack of Pechenegs at the Ford of Vrar as told in the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle, as the tale of his skull being turned into a cup was a Roman fiction lifted from the death of Roman Emperor Nicephorus ‘the First’ a hundred years earlier, who had his skull turned into a cup by Khan Krum of Bulgaria. Prince Sviatoslav’s General Sveinald, who escaped the battle and made his way to Kiev, was actually Prince Sveinald himself and he did make it to Kiev to celebrate the gifted survival of his earlier Battle of Dorostolon against Emperor John Tzimiskes of Rome.
5.2 That Prince Svein left Hraes’ to his three sons, Ivar, Helgi and Valdamar, and went to Denmark and met with Harald ‘Bluetooth’ and then left for Norway with Jarl Haakon Sigurdsson, where he was adopted by the jarl and befriended by his son Eirik.
5.3 That Prince Svein was also known as Gold Harald because he was quite rich when compared against his nephew, King Harald ‘Bluetooth’, who was historically lacking in wealth.
5.4 That Prince Svein was victorious at the famed Battle of Hjorungavagr and that he pursued and drove King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ out of Roskilde and took his court as King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ Ivarson of Denmark.
5.5 That Prince Svein/King Sweyn is also portrayed as King Frodi, the second king in Book Six of Saxo’s Danish History.
BOOK SIX: The Saga of Grand Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ Sveinson is based upon Book Six of The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus and upon The Hraes’ Primary Chronicle. Prince Valdamar (Vladimir) ‘the Great’ of Kiev (ruled c. 980-1015) of the Chronicle, corresponds with King Ingjald of Book Six of Saxo’s History and would, years later, return to the west as King Canute ‘the Great’ of England, Denmark and Norway, (ruled c. 1016-1035) after the death of his father, King Sweyn Forkbeard of England. Coincidentally, just as his great great grandfather King Frodi had married a Khazar princess to gain the title Kagan, so too did Prince Valdamar of Kiev marry the Roman Princess Anna Porphyrogennetos (meaning born of the purple) to gain the title of Czar (Caesar) for all his subsequent offspring in Russia. In this Book 6 I have hypothesized the following intellectual property discoveries:
6.1 That Grand Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ of Kiev corresponds with the third royal, King Ingild of Book Six of Saxo’s Danish History and would, years later, return to the west as King Canute ‘the Great’ of England, Denmark and Norway. The wanton profligacy of both characters matches unmistakably.
6.2 That when young Prince Valdamar fled to the Varangians to escape the wrath of his older brother Ivar, who had just killed their middle brother Helgi, he sought sanctuary with Jarl Haakon of Lade in Norway and with Prince Svein, his father, who was living there. They returned to Hraes’ with a Norwegian army and the two Varangians who killed Prince Ivar for his fratricide were none other than Prince Svein and Jarl Eirik Haakonsson (Blud).
6.3 That Prince Valdamar (Slavic: Vladimir) did not die of disease in 1015 AD as told in the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle, as the tale of his body being rolled up in a carpet and lowered down a floor was a Roman fiction lifted from the death of Roman Emperor Nicephorus ‘the Second’ a few decades earlier, when he was murdered by John Tzimiskes in his palace in Constantinople. This same Roman tale is carried on into the deaths of Princes Boris and Gleb and their manservant who was beheaded after death, as was Emperor Nicephorus.
BOOK SEVEN: The Saga of King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ Ivarson is based upon The Saga of the Jomsvikings and upon The Anglo Saxon Chronicle. In this Book 7 I have hypothesized the following intellectual property discoveries:
7.1 That King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ waged a decades long series of raids against England for both wealth and slaves to feed his Hraes’ trade routes through Scythia to Constantinople and Baghdad.
7.2 That King Sweyn’s slave trading business was partially responsible for the enslavement of Prince Olaf Tryggvason and led to the later Christianization of Olaf in England and the resulting conflicts between the two royals when Olaf became the Christian King of Norway, likely with English support.
7.3 That King Athelred ‘the Unready’ of England ordered the Saint Brice’s Day massacre of Danes in 1002 AD in retribution against King Sweyn for his slaying of King Olaf at the Battle of the Svold in 1000 AD.
7.4 That the massacre led to an outright war between the Danes of Denmark, Hraes’ and Normandy and the Saxons of England. King Sweyn was helped in this decade long war by his son, Grand Prince Valdamar (Vladimir) ‘the Great’ of Kiev, which may help account for the paucity of events in the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle on the rule of Prince Vladimir in this period. King Sweyn forced King Athelred out of England and took his throne Christmas Day of 1013 AD, but was dead, likely poisoned, by February of 1014 AD. His son, Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ was elected King of England after his father’s death, but King Athelred returned from exile in Normandy and the English rose up in revolt and drove Prince Valdamar out of England.
7.5 That Prince Valdamar fled with his fleet, but stopped on the Isle of Sandwich on his way south east and maimed 200 hostages that his father had taken over the years and left them on the sands of Sandwich. By royal rights he could have slain them all there but he did not, because even in Kiev, after becoming a Christian, he would no longer execute capital criminals for fear of God’s retribution in the afterlife. Also, Prince Valdamar’s maimings were selectively deliberate, as the Hraes’ had always retrained their own maimed warriors for other military tasks and Valdy had future plans for his maimed hostages when he returned from Hraes’ to retake England.
7.6 That during this period of decades long strife with the English, King Sweyn financed his wars with profits from fur and slave trading through the riverways of Hraes’ and that this terrible trade had always fully financed ‘The Great Viking Manifestation of the Middle Ages’.
7.7 That the Hraes’ Danes of Denmark had begun direct sailings to the Newfoundland and had extended their vast trading network up the Kanata (Canada) River (St. Laurence) and into the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River which was soon to become the Valley of the Mound Builders.
“One morning Karlsefni’s people beheld as it were a glittering speak above the open space in front of them, and they shouted at it. It stirred itself, and it was a being of the race of men that have only one foot, and he came down quickly to where they lay. Thorvald, son of Eirik the Red, sat at the tiller, and the One-footer shot him with an arrow in the lower abdomen.”
“Then they journeyed away back again northwards, and saw, as they thought, the land of the One-footers. They wished, however, no longer to risk their company.”
“Now, when they sailed from Vinland, they had a southern wind, and reached Markland, and found five Skrœlingar; one was a bearded man, two were women, two children. Karlsefni’s people caught the children, but the others escaped and sunk down into the earth. And they took the children with them, and taught them their speech, and they were baptized. The children called their mother Vœtilldi, and their father Uvœgi. They said that kings ruled over the land of the Skrœlingar, one of whom was called Avalldamon, and the other Valldidida. They said also that there were no houses, and the people lived in caves or holes. They said, moreover, that there was a land on the other side over against their land, and the people there were dressed in white garments, uttered loud cries, bore long poles, and wore fringes. This was supposed to be Hvitramannaland (whiteman’s land). Then came they to Greenland, and remained with Eirik the Red during the winter.”
The above caves or holes are apt descriptions of the longhalls reconstructed at L’Anse Aux Meadows, the Viking settlement in Newfoundland. The men in white garments bearing long poles and wearing fringes are knights. The above descriptions have been in Erik ‘the Red’s Saga for over a thousand years and people still don’t get it? Learn your history or you are doomed to repeat it!
7.9 That Chapter 13 of Erik ‘the Red’s Saga, in describing the Land of the One Footers, may have been using a derogatory term for the Hraes’ traders of the Newfoundland who had caught the STD Syphilis, which may have been prevalent in the local Indigenous population which had become essentially immune. Once contracted by the newcomers, Syphilis presented rather benign first and second stages, but the third unavoidable stage appeared between one to thirty years later and killed the victims, usually by attacking the shins and lower limbs, and with the Hraes’ traders, perhaps one foot in particular, giving them the byname ‘One Footers’. This discovery added October 19th, 2023.
BOOK EIGHT: The Saga of King Canute ‘the Great’ Sweynson is based upon Book Ten of The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus and upon The Anglo Saxon Chronicle. In this Book 8 I have hypothesized the following intellectual property discoveries:
8.1 That King Sweyn ‘Forkbeard’ Ivarson of Denmark was helped in his decade long war against the Saxons of England by his son, Grand Prince Valdamar (Vladimir) ‘the Great’ Sveinson of Kiev, which may help account for the paucity of events in the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle on the rule of Prince Vladimir in this period. King Sweyn forced King Athelred out of England and took his throne Christmas Day of 1013 AD, but was dead, likely poisoned, by February of 1014 AD. His son, Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ was elected King of England after his father’s death, but King Athelred returned from exile in Normandy and the English rose up in revolt and drove Prince Valdamar out of England and back to Kievan Hraes’, which he had already given over to his many sons to rule.
8.2 That Prince Valdamar planned to continue his father’s war against the Saxons of England, financing his war with profits from fur and slave trading through the riverways of Hraes’ and with gold that was being obtained through trade the Hraes’ Danes of Denmark and Kiev had begun earning through direct sailings for trade in the Newfoundland, extending their vast trading network up the Kanata (Canada) River (St. Laurence) and into the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River and the Valley of the Mound Builders.
8.3 That Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’ changed his title and name to King Canute ‘the Great’ to facilitate his acceptance as king by the English as a new Latin Christian convert versus his former Orthodox Christian faith because the Great Schism between Latin and Orthodox Christianity was growing exponentially.
8.4 That in late 1014 AD Prince Valdamar returned to Hraes’ to raise an army to facilitate his reconquest of England and in January of 1016 AD he led this army south through Hraes’ where his Black Sea fleet was augmented by Roman bireme ships loaned him by his brother-in-law, Emperor Basil of Constantinople, and that, for this favour, Prince Valdamar trained his army by attacking Khazars in Scythia for the Romans. Valdy needed these large ships to defeat the new English ships (Cogs) that had been built to defeat Viking longships quite effectively.
8.5 That Prince Valdamar’s eldest son, Prince Svein (Slavic: Boarus), left Kiev in the hands of his brother, Prince Sviatopolk, and helped his father raise said army and then led them south, not against Pechenegs as described in the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle, but against said Khazars and that he was assisted in this by his adopted brother, Prince Godwin of Sussex (Slavic: Gleb), who had come with Prince Valdamar in his retreat from England. Saints Boris and Gleb of Kievan Rus’ are likely Prince Sveinald of Kiev, grandson of King Sweyn, and Prince Godwin, son of Wolfnoth Cild of Sussex:
From Wiki: Gleb (Ukrainian: Гліб) is a Slavic male given name derived from the Old Norse name Guðleifr, which means “heir of god.” It is popular in Ukraine due to an early martyr, Saint Gleb, who is venerated by Eastern Orthodox churches and is the Ukrainian form of the Old Norse name Guðleifr, which was derived from the elements guð “god” and leif “inheritance, legacy”.
From Wiki: Godwin was born c. 1001, likely in Sussex. Godwin’s father was probably Wulfnoth Cild, who was a thegn of Sussex. His origin is unknown but ‘Child’ (also written Cild) is cognate with ‘the Younger’ or ‘Junior’ and is today associated with some form of inheritance. In 1009 Wulfnoth was accused of unknown crimes at a muster of Æthelred the Unready’s fleet and fled with twenty ships [the new larger and taller ships]; the ships sent to pursue him were destroyed in a storm.
From The Rus’ Primary Chronicle 1953: 119, 250 n103 and Franklin and Shepard 1996: 200):
“The Byzantine historian John Skylitzes tells of a certain Sphengos, prince of the Rus, who cooperated with a Byzantine naval expedition against ‘Khazaria’ in [January of] 1016. ‘Sphengos’ is probably a Greek enunciation of a Scandinavian name such as Svein or Sveinki. At around the same time Mstislav himself is reported to have subjugated the Kasogians (the Adyge of the Kuban region and northern Caucasus)”.
8.6 That Prince Sveinald ‘Boarus’ Valdamarson returned to Hraes’ from helping his father in his war on England and was slain by his brother, Sviatopolk, who did not want to give up his throne in Kiev. Prince Godwin ‘Gleb’ Wulfnothson of Sussex seems to have returned with him and is said to have also been slain, but this is likely false, as Godwin survived. The writers of the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle continue killing off every prince that leaves Rus’. Even the evil Prince Sviatopolk is killed off as he is driven out of Rus’ by Prince Yaroslav. His bones supposedly grow soft as he rides to Hungary and sanctuary, but the disease kills him of course. Perhaps he was struck down by the same disease that set upon Prince Ivar ‘the Boneless’.
8.7 That Prince Valdamar ‘the Great’, having returned to England as King Canute ‘the Great’, defeated King Edmund Athelredson at the Battle of Assandun on October 18, 1016 AD, and though agreeing to share the kingdom, Canute captured Edmund five weeks later in a siege (that included the war crime of crossbow slaying of defecating soldiers) and sent Edmund and 800 of his retainers, including at least two of his sons, as prisoners back to Kievan Hraes’.
8.8 That in 1018 AD King Boleslaw of Poland, with German assistance, attacked Kiev, possibly in an effort to free King Edmund, and that Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg described the Kievan Hraes’ populace of that time as being ‘Swift Danes’ and their ‘Runaway Slaves’ (meaning Slavs) and that this description is meant to be an insult to the Danish rulers of Kiev by the historian in that it refers to the Roman reference to the Hraes’ two centuries earlier as Dromitai, ‘those who run fast’, as in ‘run from battle’. Prince Ivaraslav (Yaroslav) Valdamarson and his Danes fled Kiev before the attack for the safety of Novgorod according to the Hraes’ Primary Chronicle. The ‘Swift Danes’ insult is carried forward to Valdamar’s son, King Harald ‘Harefoot’ Canuteson, of England, the Harefoot meaning ‘one who flees fast’ and not the ‘fleet of foot’ as it is often interpreted. King Edmund and his retainers had already been sent on to serve in the Varangian Guard of Emperor Basil in Constantinople, but King Boleslaw did seem to have saved two of Edmund’s sons, Edmund Junior and Edward ‘the Exile’, as they were rescued and sent to safety in the Hungarian royal court that Prince Sviatopolk later fled to.
BOOK NINE: The Saga of King William ‘the Conqueror’ Robertson is based upon TBA.
SeiberTeck: 'The Varangians Series' 