Back to that Writing Thing

Drawing from ironbog.eastkingdom.org

I have digressed in the last couple of posts, and I hope that is hunky dunky to y'all. I have been working on a (potentially) smaller project than my Derthal stories. I have mentioned before in an earlier post that I was considering a Viking story, and I have been looking into the feasibility of such a tale. It would be set right around 1000AD, a very rich time historically.

• Swen Forkbeard and Ethelred the Unready (another interpretation of the word could be "bad council" suggesting he listened to the wrong people if anyone, but that doesn't sound particularly catchy, does it?) were fighting over England
• Eric the Red had settled Greenland and his son Leif the Lucky had set up a seasonal fishing/hunting/trading/foraging station in Vinland (somewhere on the east coast of N. America)
• Vikings made up the personal bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperor (the Varangian Guard)and used the north/south rivers of Russia to trade in the Mediteranean, the Caspian, and the Black Seas
• The Reconquista was still going strong in Iberia (just like it would for the next 500 years)

See, pretty exciting smack happening. Note that I have completely snubbed the Franks. I say that's what they get for dominating all the Western/World Civ classes. Don't you think? Even if you don't this is my post, so there.

In light of the state of the world, and the fact that the Vikings left almost no written sources of their own gives me a lot of room to work with a story. It is going to be sweet. Elyena and I have been having some exciting discussions about the possibilities. Write on.

R