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By the summer of 859, a new dark age had descended upon much of Western Europe.

From the south, Arab pirates crossed over the Mediterranean seaways to raid and pillage.

From the east, Magyar Horse riders made near annual raiding expeditions far and wide throughout the peninsula.

And of course, fleets of ambitious Scandinavians permeated the seas and river systems from the boine to the Volga.

Others made new lives for themselves along those rivers and seas

and in the remote islands of the windswept Atlantic.

A few, no doubt, greedily gazed out at the rich and fragile Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Perhaps awaiting the next great conquest,

along with the inevitable land and glory that came with it.

In modern-day Spain, however, the situation was different. Just like in the rest of the continent,

small groups of Norsemen, known as Madhu or fire worshippers by the Andalusians, making no exception between them and Persian Zoroastrians in the contemporary literature,

had made a few occasional forays into the peninsula,

perhaps scouting out the land for larger expeditions to come.

Though for the most part, these attacks seem to have been few and far between, with easier pickings existing

much closer to home. Unlike any other land that Vikings launched raids upon, barring a few

exceptions such as the great city of Constantinople, the Iberian Peninsula was ready for war.

Unlike the Carolingian rulers of Francia to the north of the Pyrenees,

and the various rulers of Britain and Ireland beyond, the Emirate of Cordoba, ruled over by the exiled remnants of a dynasty

that had once held sway over an empire, stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean,

had a professional standing army at their disposal.

...