Stories from the past and about the past.
When King Sweyn Forkbeard suddenly died in early 1014 after becoming the first Danish King of England and first ruler of the North Sea Empire, his son Cnut (994-1035) had to overcome the forces working to dismantle what his father achieved through victory in battle and alliance with the Jomsvikings – a military order based on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.
Sweyn Forkbeard (963-1014) – the ambitious son of King Harald Bluetooth – made an alliance with the Jomsvikings – a mercenary legion of warriors who lived on the southern shore of the Baltic coast. Legend has it the Jomsvikings – often called the Jomsborg Vikings – lived by a strict martial code that forbade capture in battle.
In the centuries prior to Tsarist Russia’s rise to power the two principal centers connecting the Viking and Byzantine worlds were Novgorod and Kiev. Generally referred to as the Kievan Rus’ – the ascendancy of Novgorod within this loosely connected riverine federation stretching between the Dnieper River and Lake Ladoga’s tributaries to the Baltic Sea began during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise (c. 978-1054) – who became Grand Prince of Kiev in 1019 after ruling Novgorod and forming alliances with Scandinavian Vikings (Varangians).
