circa 965/66AD by Sviatoslav of Kiev.
JORSALIR – Jerusalem – in the 10th century, it was the city of the People of the Book – Jews, Muslims and Christians – and, despite warfare outside it, maintained a religious peace inside. The baptised Norse, newest and most-travelled pilgrims, made a point of visiting it.
JORVIK – The pre-eminent city of Norse Britain from 866AD, better known as York.
KHAZAR KHANATE – The Khazar empire extended (8th–10th centuries) from the northern shores of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea to the Urals and as far westward as Kiev. In the 8th century this essentially Turkic people adopted Judaism.
KONUGARD – Kiev – ‘city of the king’. Eventual capital of the Rus/Slav kingdoms which became modern Russia, the city was established by Turkic tribes and ‘liberated’ by Swedish Vikings Askold and Dir, traditionally in the year 860AD.
LANGABARDALAND – Norse name for Italy, which was gradually transmuted into ‘Lombardy’.
MIKLAGARD – Constantinople, also known as ‘the great city’. The place to be in the 9th and 10th centuries, the Big Apple of its age and capital of the Byzantine Empire.
NORVASUND – The Straits of Gibraltar.
SARKEL – Byzantine-engineered fortress of the Khazars on the Don river, which controlled the trade routes to the east so successfully that the Rus of Kiev eventually decided that it had to be captured.
SERKLAND – Baghdad. Also the generic name for the Middle East (so called because, it seemed to the Norse, the people there only ever wore underwear - a ‘serk’ or white undershirt).
SKIRRINGSAAL – Once a Norse Baltic seasonal trade fair, called ‘Kaupang’ by foreigners - a Viking joke, since that’s what they told them it was called when asked. Kaupang simply means ‘a market’.
Top of the list of people who made this book a reality are the Oathsworn – all the crew of Glasgow Vikings (www.glasgowvikings.co.uk) who, wittingly and unwittingly, have ended up sailing on the Fjord Elk through these pages. Thanks a lot Colin, Aeneus, Jill, Eric the Tight, Gail, Helen, Presto and others too numerous to mention – and a huge shout to Boj, Einar the Black himself and the best swordsmith around (www.armourclass.co.uk).
There are even more Norse around than that and much of what has been uncovered, discovered and recovered in this book is down to The Vikings re-enactment group (www.vikingsonline.org.uk) who are unstinting in their efforts to bring the authentic flavour of Viking, Saxon, Norman and Celtic life back to the 21st century, including drinking entire communities dry.
None of which would matter if James Gill, my agent at PFD, had not spotted the potential in this – full marks to him and to Susan Watt, my editor at HarperCollins, who took the unruly band of Oathsworn, trimmed their hair, blew their noses and pointed them in the right direction of a proper saga. She and the rest of the HarperCollins team are brilliant.
A big thanks, too, to all those on the Khazaria Fiction group who gave of their time and expertise to make sure I got that part right, especially Kevin Brook, author of The Jews Of Khazaria. Also to Norm Finkelshteyn, whose own website on The Red Kaganate is a wealth of treasured info on the steppe tribe (www.geocities.com/kaganate).
Lastly – thanks to Largs, my home town and the place where the Vikings were finally kicked out of the UK by the Scots in 1263. So surprised were the Largonians at this victory that they have been waiting for them to return ever since and are so apologetic they have created an entire tourist industry round them, just to say sorry. I know – for ten days every year, I am part of it, at the annual Viking Festival and that is what inspired my interest.
The Wolf Sea
ROBERT LOW
To Lewis and Harris, two islands in a sea of troubles. I hope, one day, they enjoy what their grandfather has made for them.
CONTENTS
Only the hunting hungry
Set sail on the wolf sea
Old Norse proverb
MIKLAGARD,