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A
man of the Varangians . . . met with a woman of the region in a private
place and tempted her virtue, and when he could not get her to agree
willingly, he tried to rape her, but she got hold of the Foreigner's
sword and struck him through the heart, so that he died at once. When
his deed became known through the neighborhood, the Varangians gathered
together and honored the woman by giving her all the possessions of the
man who had attempted to rape her, and they threw away his body without
burial, according to the law about suicides.
Event of 1034 Chronicled in the Skylitzes Manuscript
Yngvarr stood in the splendor of the Hagia Sophia during the service
rich in ceremony. The patriarch's voice was almost musical as icons and
reliquaries, one worth as much as his entire villages' wealth surrounded
him. Six years had passed since he had arrived in Constantinople from
his cold Norse homeland. He had to bring enough money to buy his place
on the Varangian guard as they were the personal guards to the Emperor
of the Byzantine Empire and were the highest paid men in the army.
Positions didn't come easily. His eyes wandered from the formality
before him as they often did. The splendor of the Emperor and his wife
and their attendants was almost blinding with all encrusted in gold and
gems. He always felt a little out of place in his tunic. Even if it
was of silk, it was a far inferior quality to the attendants even.
Church was the only time he got these attacks of vanity, of course, it
was about the only time he was put in such close quarters with such a
fortune on display. His eyes froze as they surveyed the crowd. He had
noticed the woman many times before, who wouldn't after all. It was
told among the guards that she was one of the entrants to become the
wife of the Emperor's son. She hadn't won the prize of marriage into
the royal family, but she had caught the eye of the Empress enough to
become her personal attendant. If it was true, she was one of the
twenty most beautiful women in the empire, but it wasn't her features
that had stopped his eye on her. The Empress had asked her a question
and in her answering, there was something in her manner that jogged his
memory. He leaned to his friend next to him.
"Halfdan, it's her. The woman Anundr attacked."
"Which one?"
"The one on the Empress' right." Yngvarr hissed under his breath.
Halfdan shot her a look without moving his head. "By God, you're
right." Someone shhhed them and they had to keep their amazement that
they weren't all tossed in prison with the key thrown away.
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