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By the year 1028 a new darkness had descended upon the mainland of Northern Europe.

Though the Viking incursions of the previous century were now, for the most part, little more than a bad dream,

the Carolingian heirs of the Great Unifier Charlemagne were all dead. In their place had arisen a dizzying array of

independent principalities and warlords. For the most part owing only nominal

allegiance to the new ruling dynasty in West Francia, descendants of the mayor

of Paris, the Capetians.

Though others, such as the Count of Flanders, themselves claimed descent from a cadet branch

of the Carolingians. Of course, with the prestige that went along with it.

It was during this age as a new unifier reigned triumphant over the former Scandinavian homeland of the Vikings.

This one, a Christian emperor, Knut.

And as the various Frankish magnates began to erect stone castles and to employ knights for the very first time, that a Christian monk, Adamar de Chabinay put the final touches to his three-book

chronicle, covering the entire history of the Franks. From the earliest mythic days before the fall of the Western

Roman Empire, right up until the blood splattered feudal anarchy of his own time. Though the first two

books relate little new information in terms of history, relying heavily on earlier pre-existing texts.

The third part, beginning with the death of Charlemagne in 814 and running all the way up until

the events of Adamar's own lifetime is of particular importance to modern historians.

It is within this work that Adamar relates a series of events that took place far to the south of his homeland,

just a few short years before.

He tells of a vicious conflict unfolding not in France but in the

Iberian Peninsula on its southern flank in modern day Spain. For this was the

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