The Serpents of the Nile - The Tales of the Egypto-Norse

[Herbert West]

I hope you wont convert in culture or religion. You must conquer the realm of the fire giants in the name of Odin

 

[Tommy4ever]

Hakon, the Cruel, Eirikrsson af Munsö
Lived: 880-910
King of Egypt: 898-910
Head of House af Munsö: 898-910

​

King Hakon is often regarded as the Viking bogey man of Egypto-Norse history – perhaps unfairly lambasted as the personification of all the worst aspects of Norse culture he was not widely known as, the Cruel, until decades after his death when revisionist narratives of Egypto-Norse history began to take hold. His unrepentant Paganism, personal brutality and lack of diplomatic acumen could simply not be balanced out as was possible with his two predecessors – the founder and the man who made the first steps towards alliance with the native Copts.

Hakon’s rise to the throne at the tender age of 18 was facilitated by the death of his elder brother half-brother, Björn, just two years before his father. As Björn died he was succeeded by his own son Eirikr, actually a year older than Hakon. With the only two viable claimants to the throne at Eirikr I’s death teenagers, only recently come of age, the conflict between the two became one between the two primary rival factions at court – between the Norse traditionalist and the Egyptophiles. The Egyptophiles remained in a small minority within the Norse nobility, although more powerful at court due the presence of native administrators, making Prince Eirikr unacceptable. The nobility therefore rallied behind Hakon’s claim – as a peace offering Fustat was granted to Eirikr, completing his grip over the Jarldoms of Damietta and Cairo (making him Egypt’s single most powerful landowner in the process).

​

Hakon was faced with a major internal threat in a great civil conflict raging from 900-904 between the Norse nobility and native population – primarily the Muslims – which eventually grew to suck in minor Sheikdoms to the West of Egypt. The war had its origins in a popular revolt by the Muslim peasantry of Sinai as anger against Paganism of the Norse elite (which was much larger in relation to the local population in barren Sinai than in any other part of Egypt) finally bubbled over into violence. Within a few months the Jarl of Sinai had lost control of the situation and requested the assistance of Hakon. However the successes of the rebels and the spirit of struggle against the hated Norse elite had already captured the imagination of much of the population – the revolt soon spread. With a focal point deeply Muslim Cyrenaica, the revolt garnered far less support in the religiously mixed Nile Valley where Copts, Muslims and Pagans lived together all in significant numbers and close proximity.

​

Hakon’s response to the rebellion was characteristically blunt, not only were the rebel armies one by one met in battle and crushed, he also employed a campaign of terror against the local populations in areas with heavy rebel activity. On top of this the cities of Benghazi and Syrte were seized from their local rulers – their proximity to the turbulent region of Cyrenaica had made Hakon suspect them of subversion. By the end of the campaign Egypt had emerged more united and scarred than ever before – the prospect of the violent overthrow of the Norse elite by the local population had been crushed. As if to rub salt in the wounds of the vanquished Hakon held a Great Blot in celebration of his triumph – the first time the Norse had held such a festival since Björn Ironside’s conquest.

​

With his house now in order Hakon set sail to bring a terror to the Mediterranean, on a scale not seen for decades. Unlike his father, who had come to an agreement with the Byzantines and preferred not to raid the Abbassid ruled Levantine coast, Hakon directly assaulted his near neighbours – all but destroying the Egypto-Norse Kingdom’s recently built up relations with the two great Empires of the region. Most damaging were the assaults on the Byzantines, who had always maintained a certain affinity with the Kingdom.

​

Undeniably the most infamous act of Hakon rule was the Norse Sack of Rome in 906. Unlike the Saracens in 846, the Vikings managed to breach the city’s walls and plunder the centre of Latin Christendom – it was the first such sacking since the chaos of the barbarian invasions in the 5th and 6th centuries. Following the sack Hakon returned to Egypt with immeasurable treasures, having won himself a glorious reputation amongst his fellow Norsemen – just as his father and grandfather had done before him.

​

Yet, in his sacking of Rome, Hakon had clearly taken a step too far. Byzantium had been greatly angered by the resumption of raiding against the coastlines – Hakon’s men even attacking Thrace – whilst the moral outrage across Christendom at the destruction in Rome had further reinforced Constantinople’s view that Hakon had to go. Luckily for the Byzantines, there was a clear and deeply desirable replacement for the despised King. Hakon’s failure to produce an heir, or indeed any children, meant that the next in line, and only viable claimant to the Egyptian throne was Prince Eirikr, Jarl of Damietta and Cairo. Unlike Hakon, Eirikr was an Egyptophile and known Christian sympathiser (it was widely believed in Constantinople that he had even been secretly baptised) – the Romans therefore looked to establish contacts with the Egyptophile faction within Egypt, with the aim of organising the assassination of the country’s King.

​

Following a feast at which he had drank heavily Hakon retired to his chambers alone on January 9th 910, to be found dead by his servants that morning. To this day it is unclear whether Hakon was not indeed murdered by an Egyptophile and Byzantine conspiracy, nor is it known if his successor and nephew Eirikr II had a hand in his death. Nonetheless, after a short and fiery reign the young Viking King had passed away, and with that the throne passed from the Traditionalists to the Egyptophiles.

 

[Tommy4ever]

This AAR has a production budget over 9000! O:

Looking good, man. Can we have more?

Haha thanks! And most certainly!

Nice Mount and Blade picture . Love the AAR, keep up the good work!

Thanks, hope you keep enjoying it.

Great chapter. However… not sure bringing the furry of the Old Gods is the right term. Unless they're throwing wolves or something.

Haha, yeah I corrected that ...

I hope you wont convert in culture or religion. You must conquer the realm of the fire giants in the name of Odin

I'm not sure if I could survive gavelkind forever - and those holy places are so far away ...

 

[robin the red]

I really like the interplay between religions and cultures you are bringing to this aar, and, even though my sympathies lie with the pagans, I wont be overly annoyed if you
decide to convert to some other religion, as I can see that role-play, flavor and realism (well, as realistic as an aar about vikings in Egypt can be) are part of the stile you
have chosen for this aar. And that is a very good thing. Keep up the good work. Do you plan on introducing factions supporting islam and the arabs as well, or will you focus
on the interplay between the Egyptophiles and the Norse traditionalists?

 

[horngeek]

It looks like it's going to be Christian Norse in the heart of Egypt, then?

 

[Lord Durham]

Great update. The mix of religions and cultures were a powderkeg requiring a match, and Hakon provided that in spades. I'm sure his political shortsightedness will give King Eirikr no end of grief as he tries to mend fences with those around him. I assume the traditionalists will not take change lying down, either.

 

[verdas]

I'm liking this AAR a lot. If you're going to convert, go Coptic. You could even RP it as a syncretic Norse-Abrahamic blend.

Edit: Like you said, those Holy places are no where near your territory, and I'd rather see Norse Egypt expand organically and convert rather than you having to conquer up in the Baltic.

 

[Viden]

Suscribed! It reminds me the Norse Tripoli that the AI made in one of my last games.

 

[LordTempest]

This must be one of the silliest AAR ideas ever, but by God I love the premise anyway. Consider me subscribed!

 

[ibot66]

Really, you should mod in a custom culture. I think that's the best option, and egypto-Norse will spice up the cultures a fair bit.

 

[Eber]

I really love this idea for an AAR. Subscribed!

 

[Tommy4ever]

Saint Eirikr II, the Pious, Björnsson af Munsö - Part 1
Lived: 879-946
King of Egypt: 910-946
King of Nubia: 910-946
King of Africa: 930-946
Head of House af Munsö: 910-946

​

Eirikr II became a Saint in the Oriental Orthodox Churches shortly after his death and in the Orthodox Church during the 11th. He remains the most significant figure in the history of the Egypto-Norse, with the obvious exception of Björn Ironside himself – who brought the Swedes to the Nile. Eirikr’s conversion to Christianity and the resulting upheavals that followed almost shattered the Egypto-Norse Kingdom, but in the long run did more to secure the Kingdom than any other Egyptian King.

​

Long before he inherited the crown Eirikr had sympathised with Christianity, and fallen under the influence of the Coptic Pope – Simeon I (a man who was also canonized after his death). Backed by a minority within the Norse warrior aristocracy and by the majority faith of Egypt itself Eirikr was baptised into the Coptic Church just two weeks after his coronation, becoming the first Christian Viking King and the first Christian ruler of Egypt for almost 300 years.

The conversion caused great anger amongst the overwhelmingly Traditionalist Norse nobility, however with the inheritance of Alexandria and Aswan combining with his already immense holdings in the Upper Nile Eirikr was a more powerful landholder than the rest of the nobility combined. With far greater popular support than the rest of the nobility Eirikr was, temporarily, untouchable. Yet Eirikr, did not stop at mere conversion he continued to rankle the nobility by filling his inner circle with his coreligionists and moving to centralise the power of the Monarchy at their expense.

​

There is a legendary story of Saint Eirikr that he managed to ‘close the Gates of Hell’ themselves. The basis of this story was the King’s reaction to the opening of a fissure in the ground following a major earthquake from which sulphurous gas and smoke was seen to emit. Shortly after an exorcism mandated by the King had been carried out the gases faded and the legend was born. The story goes that decades of Norse Pagan rule had seen Egypt draw closer the evils of hell and make it possible for the devil to rise to earth, however the goodness of the Christian King fought back to forces of darkness and closed to path to earth for the devil – according to this legend and popular folk story Eirikr was not just the saviour of Christianity in Egypt, but of all the world from evil. The emergence of this legend, and its propagation by the Coptic Church, saw the beginnings of a bond being forged between the Egyptian people and the Monarchy they had previously been so hostile towards.

​

As Eirikr settled into his new role as King his confidence in his security began to grow and between 915 and 917 he waged war against the Aghalabids, wrestling control of the wealthy province of Tripolitania away from the Berber Sultan. During the victorious war Eirikr had relied primarily upon troops from his own personal lands, not wishing to agitate the nobility into open rebellion. Whilst this tactic allowed the King to maintain loyalty for much of the war, the nobility finally felt confident enough to stand up the Christian King – sending the country into a brutal Civil War lasting from 917 until 925 during which Norse Paganism, Oriental Orthodox Christianity and Sunni Islam were to clash together in an attempt to establish supremacy over the Kingdom.

​

The Rebels quickly established themselves as genuine contenders of power – their stated aim was the overthrow of Eirikr and the establishment of his sister (still as Norse Pagan) on the throne. Gathering a large army behind their banner Eirikr was forced to fight a war of manoeuvre as he avoided battle until a large enough army – heavily reliant on mercenaries – could be gathered. With an army 2,400 men stronger than the rebels Eirikr met them on the field at Saramsah and suffered a bitter defeat as the mercenary component of his army proved weak and the far larger number of Norsemen fighting with the rebels left him outmatched. Many feared that that dark Christmas of 918 would be the last of the Christian King’s life as Alexandria was abandoned and the Delta overrun.

​

Yet, that summer salvation came at Heliopolis. Had the Pagan rebels pursued the Christian army following their incredible triumph at Saramsah then Eirikr’s reign would surely have come crashing down. But they did not. Instead the loyalists were allowed to regroup and recuperate – returning to the field again the following summer their victory at Heliopolis was followed up. By the winter of 921 Egypt proper had been largely pacified – but the Civil War was far from over.

In Cyrenaica the Pagans still held out, but were more threatened by a large Muslim rebellion that had overrun the countryside – limiting the Pagans to Benghazi. As their allies were slowly crushed in Egypt the Cyrenaican Pagans began to lose hope, in 922 offering their surrender to Eirikr in return for his support. The King’s army did not arrive in time to prevent Benghazi from falling to the Muslims and soon found himself embroiled in another major conflict. Just as he approached victory 923 a Muslim Army from Algeria arrived to support the rebels. It took until 925 for peace to be finally brought down upon Egypt.

​

With the war over and Eirikr sitting triumphant he imposed a devastating settlement upon the vanquished. The Coptic Orthodox Church became inseparably linked to the state and the Monarchy, the entire upper nobility was forcibly baptised into the Church – or faced losing their titles, lands and privileges, whilst Muslims were not to face open persecution (their numbers were simply too large) Pagans were forced underground (although Paganism remained the third largest faith in Egypt, until the 11th century, being practised by many thousands in secret and by some openly) and a new law of succession was introduced in which the eldest male member of the House af Munsö would be the heir to the Kingdom (in this case the King’s own son). At this moment more than any other Egypt needed an extended period of peace badly.

​

In the early 10th century the troubles that had afflicted the Abbassid Caliphate during the latter 9th century and seen its power fall back from North Africa and Eastern Persia seemed to have been resolved. With the Caliphate once again unified it looked outward – conquering the Christian Kingdom of Abyssinia (a Kingdom whose Church was in communion with Egypt’s Coptic Church) as the Civil War raged in Egypt, at the same time the Caliph had felt confident enough to face down the Byzantine Empire to take Edessa. Undeniably the greatest disaster for Islam since the Islamic Conquest had been the rise of the Egypto-Norse – which had robbed Islam of one of its greatest economic and cultural centres. The Caliph hoped to correct this as in 926 he declared war on Egypt and began to advance into the Sinai.

To be continued …​

 

[Tommy4ever]

Really pleased with the response to the last update! Passed 1,000 views as well. Seems like people really are enjoying the Egypto-Norse.

I really like the interplay between religions and cultures you are bringing to this aar, and, even though my sympathies lie with the pagans, I wont be overly annoyed if you
decide to convert to some other religion, as I can see that role-play, flavor and realism (well, as realistic as an aar about vikings in Egypt can be) are part of the stile you
have chosen for this aar. And that is a very good thing. Keep up the good work. Do you plan on introducing factions supporting islam and the arabs as well, or will you focus
on the interplay between the Egyptophiles and the Norse traditionalists?

Yeah, I know a lot of people were keen on me staying Norse, but going Miaphysite seemed the most sensible decision to me (although Sunni could also have been interesting I thought it would be less unique). Also helps that the Coptic Pope is based in Alexandria and the Holy Sites are a hell of a lot closer than Scandinavia.

It looks like it's going to be Christian Norse in the heart of Egypt, then?

Aye

Great update. The mix of religions and cultures were a powderkeg requiring a match, and Hakon provided that in spades. I'm sure his political shortsightedness will give King Eirikr no end of grief as he tries to mend fences with those around him. I assume the traditionalists will not take change lying down, either.

You were certainly right they wouldnt take it lying down - I dont think I quite conveyed just how close those rebels came to overthrowing my Christian King and sending us back to Paganism.

I'm liking this AAR a lot. If you're going to convert, go Coptic. You could even RP it as a syncretic Norse-Abrahamic blend.

Edit: Like you said, those Holy places are no where near your territory, and I'd rather see Norse Egypt expand organically and convert rather than you having to conquer up in the Baltic.

Yeah, Coptic definitely felt like the best choice - more Egyptian than Arab, and without being tied to the Christian mainstream.

My thoughts on expansion were the same as yours - the Miaphysite Holy sites are Alexandria, one in Nubia, one in Ethiopia along with Jerusalem and Antioch. All nice and close.

Suscribed! It reminds me the Norse Tripoli that the AI made in one of my last games.

The other Vikings in my games haven't seemed to be nearly as adventurous , the furthest they get is Northern Spain.

This must be one of the silliest AAR ideas ever, but by God I love the premise anyway. Consider me subscribed!

Whats not to love about Vikings next to the Pyramids and Sphinx?

Really, you should mod in a custom culture. I think that's the best option, and egypto-Norse will spice up the cultures a fair bit.

I'm too far into the game to mod the culture now. For now I'd say that any provinces that go Norse should be considered to have become an Egypto-Norse blend rather than everyone talking Swedish and boasting massive blonde beards.

I really love this idea for an AAR. Subscribed!

 

[Valiant_Hogers]

Nice.
I am currently having a playthrough with a republic in Norfolk, Anglo-Saxon and I have Egypt as well as new homeland.

 

[dodedo]

good luck in the abbasid war!

 

[BanterCaliph]

This is a great read so far, a really unique and interesting tale! well done!

 

[robin the red]

A moment of silence for the fallen gods...

Long live the true Christianity! Death to the heretics, who do not understand the true single nature of God and Christ! (in a more sane note, does you conquering all the Coptic holy sites
change
anything in the religion or does it just make it more powerful?)

 

[Mkoll13]

Good luck to you in the war against the Abbasids! Defend the faith against those opportunistic heathens! With the fury of Norse arms and the strong hearts of the Egyptian people you shall show them the foolishness of this invasion

Also, what an ambitious premise for an AAR!

I will be following your work closely

 

[Tommy4ever]

Saint Eirikr II, the Pious, Björnsson af Munsö - Part 2
Lived: 879-946
King of Egypt: 910-946
King of Nubia: 910-946
King of Africa: 930-946
Head of House af Munsö: 910-946​

​

As fear gripped the Nile following the Caliph’s declaration of war, Eirikr hurriedly called up every man who could hold a spear in Egypt in desperate hope that the Caliph could be stopped. Battle was avoided for as long as possible, but as the Abbasids threatened to enter Egypt Eirikr was forced into action – facing the Arabs at Fatama (far West of Sinai), where his outnumbered army was promptly brushed aside. From there the Arabs advanced into the Nile Delta and began to besiege the bastions of the Upper Nile, Eirikr again going on a recruiting drive so that he might muster enough men to drive the Arabs out of Egypt, just as his great grandfather had 50 years before.

Yet Egypt’s salvation came not from its people, nor from its King, but from the outbreak of war on the Eastern frontier of the Abbasid Caliphate – the Persians were invading. Faced with the prospect of a Persian army advancing through the West of Iran and into Mesopotamia, where Baghdad itself would be under threat, the Caliph panicked. Without the troops committed to Egypt the Persians could cause real devastation in the East of his realm, but any significant reduction could tip the balance of the conflict in favour of the Norse. The Arabs chose to settle and came to Eirikr with terms he had no choice but to accept – the price for peace was the Sinai Peninsula. Being amongst the poorest parts of the Kingdom, and one in which the Miaphysite presence was by far weakest, its loss did not unduly weaken the Kingdom. However, the value of the Sinai was much more obvious in its strategic dimension – it offered the owner a buffer zone between his holdings (for the Abbasids Palestine, for Egypt, the Nile Valley) and his enemy, the Arab triumph now left Egypt’s greatest foe perched only a short distance from its core lands.

With Egypt at its lowest ebb under Eirikr II the great Pope Simeon passed away, being succeeded by the first Coptic Pope of Norse heritage in Athansios III. The loss of Simeon was a personal one for the King and Egypt’s Christian community at the same time – for Eirikr he had been his most trusted advisors, upon whose ideas the entire course of the Kingdom’s history had been changed, and for the Coptic Christians he was their spiritual saviour who conquered the Paganism of the Norse through spiritual power alone.

​

Still mourning the death of Simeon, Eirikr decided to look to his cultural roots for an antidote for loss looked overseas in search of conquest. Invading the remnants of the Aghalabid Sultanate around Tunis in 929, he set sail from Alexandria, meeting up with an army raised in Tripolitania just south of the African capital, destroying the Muslim army, before swiftly capturing Tunis itself. The Aghalabids were soon forced into submission and Eirikr had himself crowned King of Africa in the recently captured city of Tunis – which soon rose to become Egypt’s second city after Alexandria. The Egyptians would later take advantage of instability on their Western border to complete the conquest of the Jarldom of Tunis with the captures of Medjerda (933) and Bizerta (937). It is interesting to note that whilst elsewhere the Norse had always looked to supplant the local Muslim nobility with a Norse (and since Eirikr’s ascension, Christian) one – at Medjerda the local Sheik accepted Egyptian authority, thus keeping his lands and his faith.

​

The first half of the 940s marks one of the great turning points in history. In 940 itself the Abbasids reached the pinnacle of their 10th century power with the conquest of Eastern Persia – giving them control over all Arabia, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine and firmly establishing themselves as the single greatest power on earth. Then in 941 a major rebellion broke out in Abyssinia and the following year the Abbasids invaded Armenia.

This great conflict to further the Abbasid revival was to draw in Egypt, and establish a dynamic in the Middle East that would last for nearly a century. The reasons for Egypt’s entrance into the war and subsequent alliance with the Byzantines against the Arabs were both religious and geopolitical. The two main theatres of the war – Abyssinia and Armenia were the two places outside of Egypt with Churches in communion with the Coptic Church, making up the rest of Oriental Orthodoxy. On top of this the Byzantines themselves were obviously Christian brethren, who could not hope to stand up against the assault of the Arab Muslims without Egyptian aid. Beyond this the Abbasids were a very real and genuine threat to Egypt – encircling them from the South, East (and with their fellow Muslims lying to the West) whilst Byzantium simply was not. Moreover, defeat of Byzantium now risked tipping the balance of power permanently in the favour of the Arabs. Egypt had to act, and Eirikr was not one to shirk the greatest of stages.

The initial moves of the Egyptians were aggressive. With 2,500 sent South in aid of the Abyssinian Christian rebellion, the troops drawn from the Nile were sent to overrun the Sinai and then move on to besiege the coastal bastions of Palestine, at the same time troops from the West of Egypt were brought by ship towards the Levantine front. With minimal Arab resistance, all seemed to be going well for the Egyptians, that was until a large Abbasid army, 20,000 strong and battle hardened from the war in Armenia, began to make its way down the Palestinian coast.

​

The Egyptians withdrew back to Egypt itself, grouping all available troops together Eirikr rode out to meet the Arabs, having allowed them to wear themselves down whilst crossing the Sinai Deseret, not far from where he had been defeated a decade before. The Battle of Seyan was the most decisive of the war, and amongst the most celebrated in the history of the Egypto-Norse. As almost 20,000 men lay dead on the field at the battle’s end the remnants of the Arab army were chased into the desert and utterly annihilated. With the Egyptians once more advancing into Palestine, the rebellion in Abyssinia continuing to grow in strength and losses being suffered in Armenia the Arabs came to the negotiating table in the summer of 945.

​

The Peace of 945 saw the defeat of 927 corrected as the Sinai was returned to Egypt, meanwhile the Arabs agreed to surrender their claim to Armenia, but the Egyptians were also forced to agree to a withdrawal from Abyssinia that left the local rebellion to its fate (the Arabs spending 3 further years before finally defeating them). It is also notable that whilst the eyes of the world focussed Eastwardly in the tussle between the Muslims and Christians in the Middle East and Africa, the tiny Sheikdom of Medjerda had gone out to conquer the Emirate of Kabilya in Algeria, creating a large, Muslim, Jarldom on Egypt’s Western border. With that the core lands of the Egypto-Norse realm were now firmly under control – future expansions of the Kingdom would assume a character closer to appendages rather than becoming integral parts of the Kingdom in the same way that the African territories did.

​

At the height of his power in 946 Saint Eirikr II, the Pious, passed away at the grand old age of 66. He left behind a Christian Kingdom and one of four Great Powers in the Mediterranean world – along with the Abbasids of the Middle East, Byzantines and Umayyads of Al Andalus - although admittedly the weakest of the four. Although making the transition towards becoming a sedentary Empire, Egypt still maintained the Norse warrior spirit and thirst for conquest of old, the Traditionalist faction having transformed itself from a religious grouping into a sort of militarist lobby of the nobility. This faction would face a new great enemy as an effeminate, deeply Christian, King rose to power – Birger, the Monk.

 

[Tommy4ever]

Nice.
I am currently having a playthrough with a republic in Norfolk, Anglo-Saxon and I have Egypt as well as new homeland.

Abandon your lands in the North and come play on the Nile! Its way more fun .

good luck in the abbasid war!

Thanks, I really played that war badly - but being outnumbered 2-1, mabye more, doesn't help . I made up for it in the next war though .

This is a great read so far, a really unique and interesting tale! well done!

Hope you stay reading.

A moment of silence for the fallen gods...

Long live the true Christianity! Death to the heretics, who do not understand the true single nature of God and Christ! (in a more sane note, does you conquering all the Coptic holy sites
change
anything in the religion or does it just make it more powerful?)

The more holy sites you own the higher your moral authority - which makes other religions convert faster and heresy less likely. Since Miaphysites only have one heresy it can actually become quite strong if you don't watch - as every province that goes heretical can only go one way.

Good luck to you in the war against the Abbasids! Defend the faith against those opportunistic heathens! With the fury of Norse arms and the strong hearts of the Egyptian people you shall show them the foolishness of this invasion

Also, what an ambitious premise for an AAR!

I will be following your work closely

Thanks! The Egypto-Norse Kingdom seems to be an idea that has caught quite a few people's imaginations .