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...
"He lunged his spear at the Earl's breast, piercing his mail-coat
and trunk so that the point stuck out between the shoulder blades.
Next he lifted the halberd up above his head and plunged the base
of the shaft into the earth, and the Earl died on the spear point
before everyone's eyes,"
Thorolf Kills Earl Hring; Egil's Saga
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Egil Skallagrimson of Egil's Saga
(937 AD) While Prince Ivar was in Baghdad, his Lieutenant Sihtric Ui Imair was settling into Dumbarton Rock with his very pregnant wife Brianna and the Hraes' fleet of York. They were monitoring the Anglish princes that had taken control of York after the Saxon King Athelstan had invaded Scotland unopposed three years earlier. He was not to take action against the Anglish as long as Athelstan did not interfere with Hraes' Trading Company business in Angleland. And King Athelstan was a fan of the Hraes' Khazar Vayar so he allowed the Hraes' stations in Angleland to carry on with business as usual. But trouble would come from a different angle. King Constantine II of Scotland began building up his army, which was against the Anglish Peace Treaty of 927, and he started to establish alliances with Earl Owen of the Strathclyde Britons and his new son-in-law, Jarl Olaf of the Danes of Dub-Lin. Once Constantine had a strong enough force he led his army south into Northumbria and attacked the Anglish Princes of York, Earls Alfgeir and Godrek. On the plains north of York the Scottish forces of King Constantine fought with the Anglish troops of the Earls of York and Earl Godrek fell and Earl Alfgeir fled south with his surviving forces.
Earl Alfgeir met King Athelstan in London and told him how the north had fallen to the Scots. When Athelstan heard of the size of Constantine's invading army, he sent out messengers to raise the fyrds, a system of volunteer forces set up by his grandfather, King Alfred the Great, from thirty three fortified shires throughout southern England. It would take time to raise forces from all the shires, so Athelstan collected up troops from the shires surrounding London augmented by a large Viking force that he had been hiring as a standing army and set off to confront the Scots. The Viking mercenary army was led by Thorolf Skallagrimsson and his younger brother, Egil. Earl Alfgeir led his own forces and King Athelstan appointed his officers to lead the troops of the different shires. Athelstan sent a cavalry force on ahead to challenge the Scottish king to a combat on the Vin Moor between the Vin Forest and the River Trent. The king's message included a request to limit plundering since the winner would rule all England. The battle was to take place in a week's time and whichever party arrived first should wait for up to a week for the other party to arrive. Cavalry officers then marked out the field of battle with hazel poles and set up their encampment on a small rise south of the moor.
