Historical fantasy novel
HISTORICAL SETTING OF A NOVEL
843 A.D. - An internal war lasting three long years among the Frankish kings has worn down the forces of the Carolingian Empire, paving the way for raids that, for over half a century, have been launched by the formidable warriors from the North, commonly known as the Vikings.
The three brothers who hold the fate of the Carolingian Empire have fought fiercely and ruthlessly.
Louis the German and Charles the Bald defeated Lothair I and, with the Treaty of Verdun, reached an agreement that permanently divided the Empire that their grandfather, Charlemagne, brought to a large extent and splendor.
Louis the German took the Kingdom of the East Franks, including much of present-day Germany, northern Switzerland, and territories up to Carinthia.
Lothair I reigned over Lotharingia, which from Flanders includes lands that extend to Provence, Western Switzerland, and the Kingdom of Italy.
Charles the Bald, on the other hand, gained sovereignty over the Kingdom of the West Franks, which consisted of the territories of present-day France, starting from the valleys of the Moselle and the Rhone westward.
But in this situation of division and uncertainty, the very foundations of Europe were shaken by events that led to terror and dismay, from North to South, from East to West, not only caused by the most violent fratricidal battles of the Early Middle Ages, fought among the armies of the three brothers, grandchildren of Charlemagne.
A Saxon rebellion, which supported Lothair I, known in history as the Revolt of the Stellinga, was crushed in blood by Louis the German.
The breach opened by the weakness of the Carolingian kingdoms facilitated the seizure of Nantes, where three thousand Vikings carried out the "Massacre of Nantes," in which they practically exterminated the entire population of the city during the festivities of Saint John.
The same Rome barely escaped the siege of the Saracens, who had ascended the Tiber River and were also conquering Sicily and taking possession of Messina.
In the backdrop of this terrible year of the Early Middle Ages, characters such as Arnar, a young foreigner raised among the Norsemen of Gotland, Alberic, a Benedictine monk of the Franks, and Astrid, a Saxon "witch," as well as those of their antagonists, are coming to life in the search for and the solution to the mystery of the Ulfberht sword steel, that are the main pillars on which the novel "The Arcane Secret of Ulfberht's Legacy" is based.