Update Thread 39: The Newer Beginning

[Mamorien]

The Normans are an ethnic group originating in the District of Normandy, originally one of the northern duchies of the Kingdom of Francia.  Emerging initially from contact between the native Franks, Gallo-Romans and Norse Viking settlers in the 800s AD, the Normans gained political recognition and legitimacy under the Viking Rollo, by treaty with the King Charles III of Francia in AD 911, where Rollo was granted the lands settled by the Normans and recognition as a noble lord in exchange for protection against other Viking raiders… 
In the centuries after their establishment, the Normans traveled and conquered widely, either as mercenaries in the employ of others or as their own feudal magnates, with conquered territories at the Straits of Jabal Ṭāriq, the Islas Canarias, the Islas Baleares, Cyprus, Southern Anatolia, Sicily, and the Maghreb…
…while the militaristic nature of the Norman culture is without question, they were also great patrons of the arts during the feudal era, and continue to have noted artistic contributions since.   In addition, two common themes in Norman-controlled regions were a degree of meritocratic egalitarianism, regardless of ethnic or religious origin, and the integration of local arts, architecture and society.  This emphasis on integration/syncretism created Norman-Arab, Norman-Byzantine, Norman-Moor, and other hybrid societies where they conquered and settled… 

Yep, new A Thing of Vikings. Will edit after lunch to include my usual too-cute-for-the-room summary, but In Rouen, Viggo Grimborn hears of last chapter's cliffhanger being (at least temporarily) resolved off-camera; Heather translates for Hiccup; Viggo sees Hiccup and William take off on the promised flight, then sees Astrid and Heather ride out the gates of the ducal keep; and Heather asks FitzOsbern some very good questions and gets some downright sickening answers. In the catepanate of Italia, Sigurd and Hookfang, and the rest of the dragon Varangians, arrive to form the tip of the spear. Back in Rouen, Hiccup and the others get Heather's report; Viggo meets with the arch-episcopal Father Confessor; and the synagogue of Rabbi Dovid ben Eliezer has an unexpected visitor. On Berk, Stoick and Bertha talk about alliances and their potential benefits. And we close, again, and still unsurprisingly, in Rouen, where Viggo interviews ex-king "Adalwin" and "Lady Brighid" and sees at least partway through them. Now here are the links:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089...s/37717052
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12639117/63...Of-Vikings