The Last of the Vikings: The Sagas of Gustav Adolf and Karl XII

By John Eklund

The Viking Age began like a violent thunderstorm in the year 793 when a band of Norse warriors raided Lindisfarne, a small island off the coast of ancient England. For the next three hundred years, these fearless men dominated life on the European continent.
Contrary to popular belief, the Viking aura was not extinguished at the dawn of the second millennium. In truth, it lasted far longer. In a fascinating saga divided into three parts, John Eklund begins by recounting the exploits of some of the most famous Vikings from 793 to 1066, and then describes the adventures of the two latter day heroes from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Gustav Adolf and Karl XII, who through their incredible courage and fighting skills, proved they were worthy of the same level of praise and admiration as their seafaring warrior ancestors.
The Last of the Vikings is a concise collection of sagas that shines a spotlight on the hero warriors of the Viking Age that include the greatest of the Norsemen and the king who lost an empire but saved a nation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781663217080

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Copyright © 2021 John Eklund.

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Certain characters in this work are historical figures, and certain events portrayed did take place. However, this

is a work of fiction. All the other characters, names, and events as well as all places, incidents, organizations, and

dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-1707-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-1709-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-1708-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021901273

iUniverse rev. date: 01/29/2021

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CONTENTS

Preface

Time Line

BOOK I

The Viking Age

Lindisfarne

The Viking Tour

Ragnar Lothbrok

The Great Heathen Army

Björn Ironside

Rollo, the Normans, and William the Conqueror

The Varangians, the Rus’, and Rurik

Leif Erikson and the New World

The Twilight of the Gods

The Battle of Stamford Bridge

Birger Jarl and the Northern Crusades

BOOK II

The Saga of Gustav Adolf

The Greatest of the Norsemen

Johann Tserclaes, the Count of Tilly

The Brahe Prophecy

King of the Swedes, Goths, and Vandals

War with Denmark

War with Russia

War with Poland

The Snow King

The Winged Hussars

The Polish Hetman

Victory over the Poles

The Thirty Years’ War

Magdeburg

The Battle of Breitenfeld

The Death of the Monk in Armor

The Battle of Lutzen

The King of the Goths

A Hero of Every Nation

Lennart Torstensson

The Swedish Empire

BOOK III

The Saga of Karl XII

The King Who Lost an Empire but Saved a Nation

The Sainthood of Ulrika Eleonora

Captain Stormcrantz and the Ghostly Angels

The Bear Hunter

Gottorp Fury

Karl and Käthie

The Great Northern War

Attack on Denmark

Narva 1700

The Pinnacle of Viking Greatness

The Crossing of the Duna 1701

Countess Maria Aurora von Königsmarck

Battle of Kliszow 1702

Chasing the Polish King

Battle of Grodno 1706

The Second Battle of Grodno

Battle of Holowczyn 1708

His Majesty’s Favorite Victory

The Great Frost of 1709

Poltava 1709

Peter the Great

Exile in the Ottoman Empire

The Ruckus

General Magnus Stenbock

The Mad Dash across Europe

The Siege of the Akershus Fortress

Siege of Fredrikshald

One Who Came Creeping

The Savior of Stockholm and the Stor Phoenix

The End of the War

Karl XII’s Legacy

Modern Vikings

Glossary

PREFACE

A saga is defined as a prose story or history, typically about a hero or heroic achievement. The Norse people of the Middle Ages wrote the first and most famous sagas. Many of the sagas have been forgotten over the centuries, but some have endured. The Völsunga Saga told the story of the great hero Sigurd (also called Siegfried) who was a legendary dragon slayer with impenetrable skin. The Tale of Ragnar Lothbrok is an Icelandic saga written in the thirteenth century about a famous Viking warrior who had equally famous warrior sons. The Vinland Sagas, also written in the thirteenth century, included two separate texts that told of Leif Erickson’s voyages to North America. In each case, the sagas were a mixture of historical fact and myth, but no one can say for sure which parts were pure history and which parts were pure myth, making them all the more intriguing.

The Last of the Vikings is a continuation of the saga tradition. The first book recounts the exploits of some of the most famous Vikings from the Viking Age (793–1066), and the second and third books tell of the latter-day Norse heroes, Gustav Adolf and Karl XII, who, through their incredible courage and fighting skill, proved that they were worthy of the same level of praise and admiration as their seafaring warrior ancestors.

Time Line

BOOK I

The Viking Age

Lindisfarne

T he Viking Age began like a violent thunderstorm in the year 793, when a band of Norse warriors raided Lindisfarne, a small island off the northeast coast of ancient England. Lindisfarne was the home of Britain’s most cherished monastery, where the remains of the virtuous Saint Cuthbert, England’s preeminent theologian, were laid to rest. The monastery was filled with golden chalices and other valuables, which the Norsemen coveted.

In the weeks leading up to the raid, an uneasiness had set in among the monks of the monastery. There was an ongoing great famine in the land, and there came in succession several destructive storms, with ominous, if not bizarrely mysterious, reports of glowing dragons in the sky.

The heavens tell of a dark omen, said Athelstan, one of the young monks living at the monastery. I fear we have offended God, and he has abandoned us.

On the eighth of June, the infamous nightmare commenced. From far across the North Sea, fierce pagan barbarians came in wooden longboats. The boats had carved dragon heads at the stem and stern and moved rapidly through the water. The barbarian warriors placed their decorated shields at the sides of the boats, and they made their way over the cold, rough waves by rowing long oars and by the use of tall, colorful sails.

What is your purpose here? the head monk of the monastery asked as he saw the rugged heathens approach. He was answered not with words but with a razor-sharp sword.

Run and hide! the monks cried to one another as the Norsemen began their pillage. The devil himself is upon us with a horde of demons.

The terrifying heathens struck down any man who stood in their way. Those they did not kill, they captured and used as slaves. The Norsemen mercilessly took all the gold and treasure from the monastery and destroyed everything else they left behind.

These Vikings, as they were called,¹ were rough men—brave, tall, and handsome but also shrewd and calculating. Their raid was not a random act. They had carefully plotted to attack the poorly defended church of Saint Cuthbert. They also plotted a quick escape. Like lightning, they vanished from the land just as rapidly as they had come.

The Lindisfarne raid struck fear into the hearts of all Europe’s coastal peoples. It would set the tone of the history of the continent until the early stages of the new millennium.

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The Viking Tour

T he Vikings were descendants of great warriors. Their ancestors were the Goths and Vandals, who conquered Rome in the fifth century. Like the Vikings, the Goths and Vandals were fair-skinned Scandinavian adventurers. The Goths hailed from Götaland in southern Sweden, and the Vandals came from an area near present-day Stockholm. The Goth and Vandal victory over the Romans was monumental, for Rome was unquestionably the greatest empire in the ancient world. The formidable Roman military was defeated only because it faced an army of men who were born and bred to fight—a true warrior culture. More than being just daring seamen, the Vikings were, like the Goths and Vandals, defined by their fierce warrior tradition.

Seeking wealth and adventure, the Vikings traveled in their swift longboats to the far corners of the known world, and on at least one occasion, to a world unknown to learned men. The list of the lands they ventured to was extraordinary: