My 2017 theme is “The History of Kanata”, the parallel world that is the setting for “Eagle Passage, and the theme reveal is here. I also wrote about this world in my blog post ‘This could be Kanata.

G is for Göta älv: In 1036, Harthacnut delays returning from Denmark to England to claim his late father, Cnut the Great’s throne as his rightful heir. Denmark is under threat from Norway, once part of Cnut’s North Sea Empire, comprising Denmark, England, Norway, and parts of Sweden. However, in early 1035 the Danes had been driven out of Norway with Swedish help and Magnus I was crowned King.

An armed delegation of Kanatians, many of Norwegian descent, persuade their Norse brethren to negotiate a treaty at Göta älv in Götland, on the Norwegian-Danish border. Harthacnut and Magnus agree that if either die without an heir, his kingdom would go to the other. The warrior leader of the Kanata delegation, Vefrid Migisi captivates Harthacnut and he proposes to her, asking that her Mjölnir Militia helps him reclaim his English throne. She accepts but Magnus requests that she first persuade the infamous Jomsvikings mercenaries into her army. Two years later, she gives Harthacnut an heir and ensures that a Norse-Anglo-Saxon dynasty will rule Albion.

Imaginative picture of the meeting between Magnus and Harthacnut – (illustration by Halfdan Egedius).

In our timeline: a treaty was agreed at Göta älv in Götland before Harthacnut claimed his English throne. He remained unmarried and had no known children when he died in 1042. His successor was his half-brother Edward the Confessor, which eventually led to various claims to the throne when Edward died – but that is another crucial date in English history, 1066.

Although Magnus I threatened to invade England because of his settlement with Harthacnut. In 1043, Magnus put an end to the Jomsviking threat. He sacked Jomsborg and destroyed the fortress. Magnus was not married but had a daughter out of wedlock, Ragnhild, who married Haakon Ivarsson, a Norwegian nobleman. Her great-grandson would become King Eric III of Denmark.

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