Submission 4


 * Submission 4
 * by Anthony Mayer
 * 18 October 2001


 * "All of you!
 * There will be a flood,
 * and there will be fire."


 * - The Prophet (CJ Bolland), samples from The Last Temptation of Christ

House of Submission (political history)...

...once Ragnar the Prophet realised he was dying he set about preparing for his succession, and the final conversion of the Swedes. He knew that much of his success depended upon unity, so he appointed a Successor, Hakon. Hakon could not, obviously succeed Ragnar as prophet, or even religious leader. Hence Ragnar explicitly described in Epistle to the Swedes how matters of religious interpretation must be decided by a Holy Thing of scholars and pious Submissives. It was for them to decide how the law was to be interpreted, and to judge the deeds of men in this world. The Successor would be above any King, and all must obey his word. Clearly the Successor would act piously and in accordance with the Thing. It seems not to have occurred to Ragnar that one day the Successor would not agree with the Thing's decisions -- or would be an impious man. While Ragnar's Successor was named, no method of choosing future Successors was specified...

...following Ragnar's death a number of Norse returned to pagan practices, and in the only partially converted areas of Uppland, Swedes rose up against the Submissives. Hakon lead the campaign against them skillfully, and Scandinavia was re-united under the Succession after some 3 years of bloody fighting. These Wars of Apostasy had distracted the attention of many Submissives from the problem of succession, but Hakon's assassination in 30 SE [802 CE] brought the question to the surface once more. There was really only one choice: Gorm, a senior Danish chieftain who had fought alongside Ragnar from the days in exile. Yet he chose to submit his claim to the Thing, setting a precedent. While the Thing was delighted to be granted this power, and approved his succession wholeheartedly, a number of Submissives were unhappy with the centralisation of power in the Danish families which followed. They claimed the Thing had betrayed Ragnar and Hakon and announced that as true Submissives they would establish their own holy Things, whose members were truly pious. These groups became known as Outsiders, and many left the Scandinavian heartland of Submission...

...as reports arrived of the rich pickings many of the Outsiders had found beyond the original House of Submission, it became clear to Erik I, Gorm's son and Successor, that here was a way to galvanize his flagging support and to legitimise his reign as a pious Successor, and potentially remove some his opponents within the Thing. He called a grand meeting of the Holy Thing and announced that the work of Submission was not over -- there must be continuous conversion, not just of the Norse, but of all the peoples of the world. The House of Submission had not triumphed until it was synonymous with the world. It is entirely unclear whether Ragnar had envisaged Submission as a religion for peoples other than the Norse -- while he may have thought in such abstract terms as mankind, in practice he dealt only with the conversion of Norse peoples. With the knowledge of wealth and riches to be won, the Thing acclaimed the piety of Erik's Succession, and the Viking Age began...

The viking conquest occurred in 5 major zones, with multiple phases within each zone, though again while such distinctions are useful they are extremely blurred.

There is a great deal of overlap between zones and phases.


 * 1. The Highlands and Islands were settled predominantly by Outsiders, but later exiles from the civil wars of the early second century arrived to boost the population of these remote settlements. Tied together by the need for pilgrimage, and the belief that they were the only true, non decadent Submissives, the communities on these islands (all the way to Iceland) were predominantly under the authority of their own local religious Things. As this was one of the earliest phases of the Viking Age, many of the Irish monks who were already in place on these islands fled, usually back to Ireland, and the monasteries looted and destroyed (though many Halls of Submission would later be built on similar sites).


 * 2. Saxony's settlement, conquest and conversion was extremely bloody in comparison. The Saxon people remained steadfastly pagan, and for them the choice was conversion or death. The uprooting of the sacred oak tree marks the final defeat of the Saxons and their submission in 64 SE [836 CE].


 * 3. During the Wars of Apostasy there were already Submissive Norse communities along the Baltic seaboard, with many penetrating upriver to trade and raid for slaves. During the early Viking Age these communities spread deep into northern Russia. Many of these communities became deeply entwined with the Baltic trading networks and remained in close contact with Scandinavia and Submission's homeland. However many of the settler communities travelled far beyond the range of easy communication with Scandinavia, and it was in faraway Kiev that the Spectral heresy began...


 * 4. In Britain and Ireland there were two major phases, separated by Erik III's calling of the Holy Thing which lead to the so called "tolerance schism." Initial attacks by Submissives at the beginning of the Viking Age were carried out with no regard to the Christian church or the kingdoms of Britain and Ireland. Monasteries and churches were looted and destroyed, local political power was not acknowledged, and local peoples were forcibly converted, enslaved, killed or driven out. The shock of this assault on Christendom gave Submission a large swathe of northern Britain, and territories in Ireland. Nevertheless by the late 60s the progress of Submission had ground to a halt. The crucial change began with succession of Erik III, who had fought for many years in Britain, and realised better than many of the Scandinavians what the local problems were. Summoning the Thing in 72 SE [844 CE] he made a major proposal, in a similar fashion to his grandfather, calling for the tolerance of Christians under Submission, as long as they swore fealty, obeyed certain restrictions, and didn't proselytize. The debate lasted for months, and split the Thing. In the end it was realised that Outsiders and many Submissive Kings in Ireland were already negotiating with and living alongside Christians, and it was only right that such interaction be moderated in order to preserve piety of the Submissives.


 * The majority of the Thing finally sided with Erik. Many stormed out, and the King of Saxony, Ulf I, rose up in rebellion, proclaiming himself to be High King (though not successor). In Saxony there was no idea of tolerance towards Christians, as there were no Christians there. The Norse who had settled down the Elbe could not see the need for tolerance that those in the west could. Though the Holy Thing finally supported Erik, they would not condemn Ulf's stand, and the Saxons remained within the House of Submission. It was an unstable situation, which would lead to war later....


 * In the west, the theological backing for the existing practices of tolerance led to a second phase in Submission's expansion. Christian Kings who previously fought against Erik sided with him, correctly perceiving him as a lesser evil than the Outsiders who rejected the Edict of Toleration, and by well-timed strokes of treachery, diplomacy and war all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Britain were absorbed into Submission. The previously Celtic areas of Wales and Cornwall fell into the orbit of the Irish Submissives... (see Ireland, history of). Erik made his capital at York; he would have preferred a more southerly capital, but needed to be close to the trade routes to Trondheim. On his death, his nephew Hakon II was approved as Successor, but he remained in Trondheim, appointing a Deputy in York.


 * 5. In Francia the two phases of conquest were similar to that of Britain and Ireland. The Frankish Carolingian Kings were struggling in bitter civil war with their nobles and the Byzantine Emperor. The initial settlements were not as widespread as in the British Isles to the north, but by 50 SE [822 CE] had permanently gained control of the mouth of the Seine, establishing a settlement called Normandy. Following the "tolerance schism" and Erik's victory over the Anglo-Saxons, there was an ever-increasing momentum to Submission's advance, increasing at faster pace once the young Hakon II was persuaded to allow the Great Army to be moved from Wessex to aid in the conquest of the low country. This move may well have aided Submission in Francia, but deprived the Deputy of England (then Bjorn I) the opportunity of conquering Wales, which would later fall to the Kingdom of Dublin.


 * By 80 SE [852 CE] all of Francia north of the central volcanic area had fallen to the victorious Submissives, and the Duke of Aquitaine had declared himself independent from the Carolingians, elevating himself to King, setting up the Bishop of Bordeaux as Pope of Aquitaine, and opening negotiations with Trondheim....

Forward to The Hero with a Thousand Hands by Sydney Webb.

Forward to Submission 5 by Anthony Mayer.

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