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...
"Yet it is you, the 'Chernigov Twenty', who put our prince in this Roman execution device called, what is it? Death by Sprung Trees," he said, looking down at his notes scratched upon a birchbark pad. "It is you who bent the birch trees and tied the slip knots and placed our prince into this device. I have checked and found that none of you have training in executions of any form, not a simple beheading or hanging or even an archery squad, but you decided to put our prince in an execution device that should only be set by experts in execution. By doing so, you placed our prince in grave danger of the device failing, therefore the slipped knot cannot be considered to have been a hard knot, an accident at all, but a direct result of your folly."
Testimony at the Judicial Althing in Kiev against the 'Chernigov Twenty'
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King Harde Knute of Denmark
(918 AD) Soon after King Ivar 'Harde Knute' Eyfurason was crowned ruler of Denmark, the Danes encouraged their lord to look for a suitable wife, in order to extend his illustrious line. But Ivar claimed that an unmarried life was best, citing his grandfather, King Frode, as an example, whereby his first wife's wantonness led to a war with the Huns in Gardar over which Ivar also lorded. Still, his subjects clamored for an heir and finally, yielding to the persistent entreaties of all, Ivar sent out ambassadors to ask for the daughter of Amund, King of Norway. He sent emissaries to Northumbria as well, in search of a suitable princess with whom he might lord over the Anglish.
One of these ambassadors, named Frok, was swallowed by the waves in mid-voyage, and showed a strange portent at his death. For when the closing flood of billows encompassed him, blood arose in the midst of the eddy, and the whole face of the sea was steeped with an alien redness, so that the ocean, which a moment before was foaming and white with tempest, was presently swollen with crimson waves, and was seen to wear a colour foreign to its nature. King Amund implacably declined to consent to the wishes of Ivar, and treated the legates shamefully, declaring that he spurned the embassy because the tyranny of King Frode of old had been borne so heavily by Norway. And the northern land still bore the scars of the Great Army that Frode had unleashed upon it. Fields still lay fallow from the terrible loss of life inflicted.
But Amund's daughter, Lagertha, not only looking to the birth of Ivar, but also honouring the glory of his deeds, began to upbraid her father, because he scorned a son-in-law whose nobility was perfect, being both sufficient in valour and flawless in birth. She added that the portentous aspect of the sea, when the waves were suddenly turned into blood, simply and solely signified the defeat of Norway, and was a plain presage of the victory of Denmark. But when Fridleif sent a further embassy to ask for her, wishing to vanquish the refusal by persistency, Amund was indignant that a petition he had already denied should be further pressed, and he had the envoys harried to death, seeking to place a brutal check on the zeal of this brazen wooer. When King Ivar heard news of this egregious outrage, he summoned King Halfdan's aid, and they sailed for Norway. King Amund called up his army and equipped his fleet and sallied forth to meet him. The firth into which both fleets had mustered was called Frokasund. The next day there was a great bloody battle fought partly by sea and partly on land and the outcome presaged by Lagertha came to be. But when King Ivar established his rule over Norway, the princess saw that her suitor had no legs and refused to marry her new lord.
