19.0 THE BURNING OF THE HALL

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CHAPTER NINETEEN

THE BURNING OF THE HALL  (Circa 933 AD)


"When the Derevlians arrived, Olga commanded that a bath should be

made ready, and invited them to appear before her after they had bathed.

The bathhouse was then heated, and the Derevlians entered in to bathe.

Olga's men closed up the bathhouse behind them, and she gave orders to

set it on fire from the doors, so that the Derevlians were all burned to death."

From the Hraes' Primary Chronicle


Princess Helga (Olga) and the Burning of the Bath Hall

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Princess Helga (Olga) and the Burning of the Bath Hall


(933 AD) When King Ivar went to the Hraes' Trading Company treasury and checked the tithes for all the merchant ships and he matched payments collected against the value of goods shipped and he tallied up the sales of the young slaves in Baghdad, he soon came to the same conclusion that Princess Helga had reached. It was the most profitable year ever for the Hraes' Trading Company. He collected up many chests of gold Byzants and many more of silver Kufas, kissed his wife goodbye and set off north with his fleet of thousands of merchant ships. At Chernigov Ivar collected a share of supply profits then paid out a share of tithes and bonus profits to the Swedish station owners there, Princess Helga's parents. He did the same at Smolensk and Surazh and sent men to handle Polotsk. Most of the merchant fleet carried on west along the Dvina River to the Baltic but, once again, Ivar took the northern leg on his way to Sweden and portaged his ships from Surazh to the Lovat River and collected gifts from Vadim the Brave of Staraja Russa and collected profits and paid out tithe shares and bonuses at Hraes' stations in Novgorod and Staraja Ladoga before sailing along the Gulf of Finland and across the Baltic to the Hraes' station in Birka and then to Uppsala in Sweden to visit with King Halfdan.

"I am getting back together with Helga," he told Halfdan.

"I was expecting as much," he replied.

"My father and I are planning to attack Constantinople again. I may need your help."

"I have many young warriors that would love nothing better than to prove themselves worthy in the south," he said.

King Ivar then visited the Hraes' stations in Gotland and Skane before heading to Liere to visit his wife, Queen Blaeja and his son Gorm. He then went on his Danish rounds with Prince Gorm to Hedeby and to Jutland before heading off to Norway to visit his wife, Lagertha, and his many children in Southmore. He took his son Frodi with him to visit Jarl Ane in Northmore and then Jarl Sigurd in Lade and he squared up business and bonuses with the Hraes' stations from Northmore to Hrafnista.

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