With the exception of Arne Thoreson, his father and mother, the characters from this story are all taken from the Saga of Olaf Trygvason and, as such, are as close to being historically accurate as any other characters of the time. Certainly, it appears to be true that Olaf Trygvason was King of Norway in the years leading up to the first millennium and he did, unquestionably, convert Orkney by force (and by dint of taking the Earl’s son hostage) and go on to convert the whole of Norway in like manner. He was killed, finally in a truly epic sea battle by Eirik Hakonson with the (very limited) aid of the Swedish and Danish fleets. That story in itself deserves re-telling but it is more of an act of extraordinary valour than a crime and this is not it’s place. Instead, I have given Eirik his victory six months early, in time for the millennium so that he can undo the work done by Trygvason and render northern Europe free of the blight of Christianity for the next thousand years (one can always dream).
In the smaller parts, the ship The Crane (Tranen), was Olaf Trygvason’s own flag-ship and was the largest long-ship ever seen in northern waters at that period in history. Eyvind Kelda was a Norse ‘witch’ of Finnish or Lapp decent who was, in fact, tortured to death by Trygvason for failing to accept Christian baptism. I have thus, in my parallel universe, given him a part in the victory. The priest Thangbrand the Saxon was, indeed, sent to Iceland, did kill the skald who lampooned him along with two other men and then returned to Norway. There is no record of him having been to Orkney and so his battle with Arne is my invention.
As minor notes of historical detail, remember that the Norse counted in great-hundreds - one great hundred = 120, thus a half-hundred of men is sixty.
Finally, those of you who take part in battle re-enactment will know that the only way to kill a man properly with an axe is with a back-handed cut to the head.
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