The real story of Ragnar 'Lothbrok' right out of the Danish Histories! He sails halfway round the known world to slay a fire breathing dragon for the hand of Princess Aslaug. The Saga of Ragnar 'Lothbrok' Sigurdson is about King Ragnar Lothbrok of...
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Northern Thule (Norway) w Hrafnista (Red Dot) & Varanger Fjord (Yellow Dot) & White Sea (Orange Dot) GMap1
(Circa 810 AD)King Ragnar renamed Jarl Arthor's 'Way' Fjord the 'Varanger Fjord', meaning the Fjord of the Way Wanderers and he declared that only those who made the great stormy Northern Sea crossing from Europe into Asia could call themselves Varangians, Way Wanderers of Hraes'. And he called his company, the Hraes' Trading Company, and he had all his men and shield-maidens and all the traders swear oaths of fealty to him and his new trading firm. Then the weather turned and the great storm approached and they all went out to their ships, lashed down the awnings and sailed east into the Barents Sea. For two days they were battered by the dark brooding storm and could barely tell if it was day or night and then suddenly the storm passed and they were deposited in the calm of the White Sea.
Ragnar and Ladgerda pulled open the sheepskin awnings of their stout new Nor'Way ship and when his men saw the evergreens on shore, they seemed to be the greenest trees they had ever seen and the water was the bluest of blues and the sunshine was so golden it hurt their eyes. It was Ragnar's second crossing, but for many of his men it was their first, and it invariably left a deep impression upon them as they realised that they were now Varangians.
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Varanger Fjorden in Northern Thule (Norway) GMaps3
They sailed south across the White Sea to the estuary of the Northern Dvina River and they rowed up the river and traded with the local Biarmians and Permians as they sailed south and east and rowed past Giantland. The Biarmians traded rich fine furs for iron goods, knives and kettles and the Permians traded their swords of silver and gold for the Varangians' swords of steel. King Ragnar named Arthor's portage Hawknista, for it had as many hawks about it as Hrafnista had ravens, and he left two dozen men there to build a longhall and storage sheds and the rest of them floated their ships down the source of the Kama River and when it got wide enough they rowed and sailed south to the Volga River, trading with the Permians as they went, and some of the Permians spoke Bulgar and some of the freed rowers in Ragnar's company of men spoke their tongue because the Romans had been fighting and trading with Balkan Bulgars for over a century, and the rowers told him that news had been traversing Scythia about a pirate group who had destroyed an invincible Roman fireship and had kidnapped a Kievan Slav princess, the daughter of King Olmar of Kiev, and both the Romans and the Slavs were scouring the northern lands looking for the pirates.
