Prince Ivar 'the Boneless' Erikson of Kiev falls in love with and marries Princess Helga (Olga) of Chernigov. While taxing her people to finance a war against Denmark, the Chernigov 20 ambush and capture the prince and his retinue and threaten to e...
13.0 THE FIRST BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH (Circa 921 AD)
Messengers were sent to King Ivar 'the Boneless' from the Anglo
Saxon princes challenging him to a pitched battle with Vin Moor
near Vin Forest as the battlefield. It was customary that once a
field of battle had been declared for a king, he could not pillage
until the battle had been fought.
From Chapter 52, Egil's Saga
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Cataphract (Knight w/ Armored Horse) versus Heavy Cavalry
(921 AD) In Denmark, King Ivar was preparing his rented Roman cataphracts for battle. There had been reports from Northumbria of military preparations being made in East Anglia against Ivar. The Danish king had planned to overwinter in Liere, but now he planned to return to York and meet up with Jarl Biorn and his foot soldiers and take his cataphracts south to Lincoln for an engagement with the Angles and Saxons. He was surprised when the elder Princess Blaeja asked if she could return to York with him. He thought she must be homesick but she had other plans. Blaeja had seen bruises on her granddaughter and she knew that Ivar had again been testing boundaries with young Blaeja. She became convinced that Ivar was enacting some form of retribution regarding Ragnar Lothbrok's final curse and on the trip back to Angleland she selected her plan. Back in Castle York, she had her staff put Ivar's baggage in a third floor chamber next to hers. "The second floor is for guests," she told him. "You are family now."
The night before King Ivar was to lead his cataphracts to Lincoln, he went to bed early and waited for Princess Blaeja to return to her room. She had been drinking wine in the dining hall and was in good spirits as she came up the staircase. Ivar thought she seemed much younger somehow and she had a spring in her step. He gave her some time to get undressed and into bed, then he had his men carry him into her room and his men brought tapers with them. He could see her in bed and he had his men place his shield upon the sheets and he undressed and crawled into bed beside her. He felt her breasts and she almost woke and mumbled in her sleep, then he felt more of her and she mumbled more and when he'd gotten her moist he rolled himself on top of her and he entered her. She woke and she struggled but he was too strong for her. She was not strong like Hervor and she made no sound, as if too embarrassed to scream, and she struggled against him but that just made him plough harder and, when the furrow was seeded, he rolled off of her and pulled her sobbing body next to his. "Now, that is rape," he whispered to her and he held her close as she cried on his chest.
