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...
"Erik came to me in a dream and he said,'Ivar the Boneless
is Prince Igor of Kiev', so I researched Ivar 'the Boneless'. It was said in
the Sagas that he had no bones in his legs.
Brian Howard Seibert
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(940-941 AD) Over the winter a message came to Prince Ivar in Kiev that the Rioni-Kura Rivers portage had been completed. In the spring Prince Ivar sent messengers to Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Angleland and Ireland that warships and warriors were to accompany the merchant fleets on their way to the east, to the Dan'Way. There would be trading, followed by raiding. The merchant fleet left Kiev and only Christian merchants took their furs and slaves to Constantinople. The Romans could no longer be trusted to follow the conditions of their treaty with the Hraes'. Only the Christian Hraes' felt comfortable trading with the Romans and only because they were Orthodox Christians. The Anglish and Irish Christians were Latin Christians and there was a schism developing between the two Christian groups so, they only went because the high demand due to fewer traders made it worth the risk. The vast majority of the fleet, all the Heathen merchants, sailed to the new eastern portage route for Baghdad, Cathay and now India.
Prince Erik and the Tmutorokan merchant fleet were almost through the Rioni-Kura portage when Prince Ivar met up with his father. "Are you coming to Baghdad?" Ivar asked.
"I wish," Erik answered. "I haven't done the Silk Road in a few years so I was thinking perhaps I should do it instead of Constantinople."
"Do Baghdad with me," Ivar pleaded. "I'm meeting Prince Rajan there again. I want you to meet him."
"I'll meet him when he comes north," Erik said. "General Wu has a trading list of war gear he wants to surprise the Romans with. He's coming with me. He has the connections we need to get this stuff out of the Chinese Alchemists' Guild and I'm using all my Guild connections as well. The Romans are pissed and we're going to need some Cathayan siege weapons."
"It's going to be a short trading season in Constantinople," Ivar exclaimed.
"A fast turnaround in Ilium," Erik agreed and they both laughed. When Prince Erik had been held prisoner in Constantinople, the Emperor Theophilos had visited him in his cell and had read him ancient volumes by Homer and Virgil and many others on the Trojan War. The Romans believed they were descendants of Aenuis, a Trojan who led survivors from Troy to Italy and founded the city of Rome. Much later, the Emperor Constantine founded Nova Roma, New Rome, on the ruins of Byzantium, believing the city the Greek King Byzas had founded was built on the ruins of ancient Troy. After the Emperor's death, the city was renamed Constantinople in his honour. All this and much more Prince Erik learned, sitting in the dungeons of the Emperor's palace while his wife, Princess Gunwar, was being slain by her nephew, Prince Hlod, outside the walls of Gardariki.
