Chapter 1
Europe January 1 814
The death of Charlemagne.
The rise of the Frankish Empire under Charlemagne had resulted in the unification of a large part of the former roman territories, the lands of the western roman empire now under a people it once considered foreign and beneath it, pagans and Christian under one king, a catholic king.
As it was to be expected the empire of Charlemagne would not persevere as under the succession laws in place at the time after the second king's death, the kingdom was split by his three sons, in wake of the splitting of the empire three new kingdoms would persevere and end up dominating the former Carling territories, those were the kingdoms of: East Frankia, West Frankia and Lothringia.
However as much as the central European powers were shifting they would never have expected that their greatest threat would come not from the east and the Slavs or the west with its Muslim dynasties pressuring the Christian borders but from the north and the strange people of Scandinavia, because in the home of the Norse people a shift in power was happening and though not permanent it would serve to push the Nordic people on the European stage, this change would come not from the combined efforts of many men or that of a long reigning dynasty at least not yet but because of one man and his son, Sigurdr Ring and his son Ragnar Lothbrok, these two men would bring the established Christian nations to their knees not just by war or trade but one single simple event, the reformation of the Germanic faith, through this act all of the Germanic pagans who were constantly persecuted by the Christians now had something to rally to, the defense of their faith though the pagans of the former lands of Germania and those of Scandinavia had often distanced themselves in many ways including declaring their faiths separate from each other, in this time of strife those cultural walls would come down and lead to a combined pagan effort against the Christians rulers of Europe unseen before.
However, our story does not start there as the exploits of the king of Sweden are a permanent part of the Norse sagas, no our story starts in the year 816 in northern a village in northern Uppland where inside the deep forests which not only days ago had sheltered large armies on the march to Finland, where almost no light can penetrate through the dense trees, here on this cold winter night when a raging blizzard threatens to tear down everything in sight, the wailings of a child tear through the raging winds.
-Keep pushing dear you're almost there I can see the head. *Encouraged Thorgrimr, his wife had gone into labor unexpectedly so he had no doctor or even godi to help him deliver the child, and so he was now all alone with an incredibly angry wife and a snowstorm about to blow his house in, he should have payed attention to the omens, when the thunderer had brought down a storm in the early hours of the morn to bring down his entire crop and when Odin had sent a wolf to stalk him while he was going returning to his home, all these had been signs but his neighbor's said that he was getting overzealous in his old age. All of his neighbors had now converted to the reformed faith, he had spat at them when he saw them parading about with a smug air of superiority and promised to the gods that he and his own had and will stay faithful to the old gods until death takes the last of them no matter the difficulties it would caused them. His wife's suddenly ailing must have surely been Hel's work but Thorgrimr Baldricson was not one to let misfortune get the best of him or a difficult trial diminish his faith, and so he took his wives delivery upon his own hands, he kept encouraging his wife while giving her any instructions he remembered the local godi had advised him to remember, like telling her to breathe deeply even should she try to strangle him, a few hours later at the first light of dawn when the snowstorm had stopped and left behind a thick sheet of snow covering everything in sight and the soft crackling of thunder could be heard passing over the horizon, Thorgrimr looked down on his arms to see that his wife's labor had born fruit, a healthy boy with little blue eyes as deep as the sea and a pair of lungs as loud as the crackling of thunder.
-A boy Ysilla! The gods have blessed us with a boy! Ah and a mighty loud one at that! A worthy gift from the thunderer, he shall be called Siegfried like my father before him, may the gods give his life glory befitting of his lineage.
-Yes husband quite so, now quiet while I rest, this has been more taxing on me than you might believe.
-Aye you're right, rest my dear we have a lot of work ahead of us. *Thorgrimr looked at his wife and smiled, he had been more than blessed to have found a woman like her, caring, duteous and above all else kind, he thanked the gods for the umpteenth time this night, thanking Frigg most of all for his wife's health, as her sudden worsening had caught him quite off guard and he had constantly been worrying that her first birth would be the end of her.
Ten years passed uneventfully, Thorgrimr and Ysilla spent their days laboring away in the field replanting all the grain that had gotten blown over as well as rebuilding all that had been destroyed during the snowstorm and their nights teaching their son about the glory of the old gods, how Odin made Midgard out of a giants body, of how he and his brothers gave men the gifts of life and knowledge, the young Sieg as his parents had taken to calling him had lapped it all up, idolizing the deeds of the gods to an overzealous degree, he admired those of Odin and Tyr most of all as he had often regarded them as the bravest of the gods, he had also shown to be a curious little brat, any time he had a question he wanted answered, he would go to any lengths to get it answered he would ask anyone and everyone he could until he was satisfied, be it the smith, the baker or in one occasion the local thegn himself, but out of all the gifts the gods had given him his inhuman strength was most fearsome of all, something which he had shown when he had gotten into a scuffle with one of the local town pickpockets who had tried to steal his little sack of money filled with but a few gold coins, but the little Sieg had proven to be quite capable of combat himself as he had grabbed the man and whacked his jaw with his toy club him so hard that he shattered a most of his teeth leaving him knocked out in a tiny pool of blood and slobber. The gods however had also made him as willful as an ass and fussy about all things to a tormenting degree, anything he did not like or wanted, he simply got rid of or took for himself, going to extreme lengths to do so at times there had been a case when he had agreed to swap toys with one of the children in the neighboring villages, when the other child had forgotten to bring his toy to swap, little Sieg had not made a fuss strangely enough but simply told him he would come get it on the morrow, however a blizzard had struck in this time of inconvenience making almost all travel between villages impossible, the child determined as he was had simply shrugged, taken a thicker coat and sneaked off in the late hours of the night, on the first light of morning, Thorgrimr had opened the door to find a bright faced Sieg trying to smile through his frozen cheeks and chattering teeth, and although Thorgrimr had been livid, he let the child off with only a scolding, much to the dismay of his mother.
From a young age Sieg had shown to be quite capable in many things, as he understood things more quickly than other people and worked hard to gain the best possible understanding of those things, he had no qualms about seeking knowledge even in the most peculiar ways but although his thirst for knowledge was great his thirst for power was unequaled, he was hardworking and ambitious, dreaming of riches and power instead of a quiet life on the farm with a large family as his father had wanted him to, but Thorgrimr did not mind his eldest child's ambition being that his wife had in the coming years birthed him two more healthy sons son's and a beautiful daughter making his eldest sons dreams of leaving the farmstead a close reality, as he only needed a reason to, and a reason would be just what he got in the form of warships bearing an important message