Sigurd Styrbjornson was the Norwegian Jarl of Fornburg during the late 9th century AD. The son of King Styrbjorn of the petty kingdom of Rogaland, and the older brother of Eivor, Sigurd was a well-travelled Viking explorer and warrior whose voyages took him as far as Russia, Constantinople, Italy, Africa, and England from 870 to 872 AD. In 873, alienated from his father due to King Styrbjorn's acceptance of King Harald Fairhair's Unification of Norway, Sigurd and Eivor led the Raven Clan in an exodus to England to found a new kingdom, settling at Ravensthorpe in Cambridgeshire.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Sigurd as a boy, 856 AD
Sigurd Styrbjornson was born in Fornburg, Rogaland, Norway, the son of King Styrbjorn of Rogaland from the Raven Clan. He was his father's only son and heir, and he befriended the young Eivor Varinsson and saved his life when King Kjotve the Cruel of Agder led a raiding party to attack a banquet hosted by King Styrbjorn in Fornburg in 856 AD. Eivor was then adopted by King Styrbjorn, becoming Sigurd's brother. Sigurd grew to have an adventurous and bellicose spirit, seeking adventure and glory and joining Eivor in seeing their father as timid, of poor judgement, and cowardly during the generations-long struggle against Kjotve. Sigurd went on to marry the noblewoman Randvi in 869 AD, but he only lived with her in Fornburg for a year before going on an exploratory and raiding voyage around the Norse world. He spent a summer in Mercia during the Great Heathen Army's invasion of England (during which time he became acquainted with the sons of Ragnarr Lodbrok), sailed up the Volga River and into Russia to raid the Kievan Rus and the Khazars, visited Constantinople (where he befriended and took aboard the Hidden Ones Basim ibn Ishaq and Hytham, having initially planned to sack the Hagia Sophia cathedral instead), travelled to Rome and Africa, and then returned to Norway in the winter of 872 AD.
Unification of Norway[]
Sigurd in 872 AD
Sigurd returned just in time for the re-escalation of the rivalry between Rogaland and Agder, and he joined Eivor in dissenting with King Styrbjorn and pushing for retaliation against Agder. They burned Kjotve's base at Nottfall before joining forces with King Harald Fairhair of Viken at the Battle of Hafrsfjord; there, Sigurd slew Kjotve in a duel. Sigurd and Eivor were then invited to join their father and the other lords of Norway at King Harald's althing (assembly) at Alrekstad, where Sigurd and Eivor got into a row with Kjotve's son Gorm Kjotvesson. At the althing, Sigurd was infuriated when his father voluntarily submitted to Harald in the interests of peace, and Sigurd openly insulted his father for giving away his birthright and stormed out of the room. Eivor later followed Sigurd back to Fornburg, where Sigurd rallied other disaffected townspeople and made plans to leave for England to found a new kingdom. Styrbjorn arrived shortly after and attempted to dissuade his son, telling him not to seek "false victories" and that his place was in Norway, but Sigurd resolved to win his own crown, and he left with Eivor, Randvi, and several other longships full of Raven Clan members who shared his discontent with the Unification of Norway.
Settlement in England[]
Eivor, Randvi, and Sigurd meeting around the table at Ravensthorpe
The Norwegian settlers arrived off the coast of East Anglia in 873 AD, and they sailed up the River Nene and into the heart of the embattled kingdom of Mercia. After a few skirmishes with the Mercian fyrd and Anglo-Saxon brigands, they navigated their way upriver towards the former campsite of the Great Heathen Army, which they converted into the settlement of "Ravensthorpe" ("village of ravens") after clearing it of brigands and using gathered supplies to fund the creation of a central base in England. While there, Sigurd became more involved with the Hidden Ones, with he and Eivor building a Hidden Ones bureau in Ravensthorpe, and Sigurd joining Basim in covert missions as Eivor raided the surrounding countryside and forged ties to local powerbrokers. Sigurd later decided to ride to Northern England to meet with the sons of Ragnarr at Repton in Leicestershire, leaving Eivor in charge of Ravensthorpe.
Sigurd and Ubbe Ragnarrsson at Repton
Sigurd went on to join the sons of Ragnarr as they prepared to dethrone King Burghred of Mercia and replace him with the thegn Ceolwulf of Mercia, who would become their puppet king and reign justly over both Anglo-Saxons and Danes. Sigurd was eventually joined by Eivor, and they together set out to capture Burghred's last stronghold of Tamworth. Afterwards, Sigurd and Eivor helped to track down the fugitive King Burgred with the help of the turncoat mercenary Tonna, capturing Burgred's wife Aethelswith of Mercia at Templeborough (with Eivor using information from her interrogation to track down and capture Burgred) and later defending Repton against the Mercian thegn Leofrith's counterattack. After this victory, Eivor returned to Ravensthorpe to continue aiding Randvi in the day-to-day administration, while Sigurd continued to support the Great Heathen Army and the Hidden Ones in the field.
Eivor and Sigurd meeting in Buckingham, 874
Sigurd and Eivor began to fall out during their travels in Oxfordshire, where Sigurd grew more obsessed with discovering his alleged godly ancestry, became closer to the mysterious Basim, and sought out the heretic Fulke. Eivor wanted to focus on fulfilling their promise to make the minor thegn Geadric the shire's new ealdorman, and did not trust Fulke or her artifact, but this led to intense arguments in which Basim poisoned Sigurd's mind against Eivor. Following Eivor's instigation of a fight at the Evinghou Tower against Sigurd's wishes, the tensions became violent when Eivor punched Basim in the face for telling Eivor to "know his place", and, when Sigurd told Eivor that he, Styrbjorn, and Eivor's father Varin knew that Eivor had poor judgment, an infuriated Eivor also punched Sigurd. This led to a deterioration in relations between them, but they worked together to aid Geadric at the Siege of Cyne Belle Castle.
Following the battle, Sigurd rashly decided to hold a parley with King Alfred the Great of Wessex once his army arrived to support his ousted ally, Lady Eadwyn of Oxfordshire. At the parley, Sigurd promised Alfred that the Danes would withdraw north of the River Great Ouse in exchange for Alfred's recognition of Danish sovereignty over Mercia, and Basim convinced him to offer a hostage as a guarantee of peace. Alfred agreed, and Basim volunteered himself. However, Fulke rushed in and revealed herself to be an advisor to Alfred, and she identified Sigurd as the son of a king and suggested that he would be a more lucrative target. Alfred agreed, and Sigurd acquiesced, being taken away to serve as a hostage in Fulke's care. Fulke subjected Sigurd to experimentations and intense torture while trying to find out if he truly was a descendant of the old gods, and Basim tried to track Fulke down in order to rescue Sigurd.