Tag: Holger Danske

The most important battle in world history. So I was told in history class.

The year was 1952. We were studying world history, and our teacher, we called him Kamelen (the Camel) for he was an ambler, mentioned “the most important battle in world history”. My ears popped up, and for once I was listening. The Prophet of Islam Mohammed died in 632 A.D., and in one hundred short years later the warring jihadists had conquered the Middle East, Northern Africa and Spain. They plundered and took slaves wherever they went, and the fairest young maidens were taken back to the Caliph and his ruling class to be wives, concubines, servants, sex slaves, whatever suited their fancy. Males were also taken as slaves, if they refused to submit they were also castrated so as not to cause any further trouble. The Jihadists were promised the only sure way to heaven, a place of immense sexual indulgence, was to die for the cause, so they seemed invincible.

Having conquered Spain the Jihadists crossed the Pyrenees and started conquering France. They went as far north as Tours, but there they met a different type of enemy, a people not afraid to defend themselves against aggressing invaders. The Jihadists, led by Abd-er Rahman, governor of Spain had horses and chariots and swords and shields, the defenders were foot soldiers with bows and arrows swords, shields, axes, javelins, and daggers. The French Army under the leadership of Charles Martel was well trained in their weaponry, but they had also called for help from the feared Norsemen who would have nothing to do with people stealing their best women. It was time to defend to the last man. The battle raged on for days. During the nights the Norsemen used their superior hunting skills and picked off horses, causing great consternation among the Jihadists who was used to people surrendering rather than fighting. There was a Norseman named Holger the Dane, credited with leading the guerilla part of the fight. He later took on mythical proportions and can now be found in the basement of Elsinore Castle in Denmark, temporarily in bronze, but, as “the twelfth Viking” he will come back to life again in the time of Denmark’s greatest need.

Anyhow, the Muslim leader Abd-er Rahman was killed in the battle, and the Muslims, not knowing what to do when their leader was dead retreated back to Spain where they remained until the late 1400’s.

And that’s how the world was saved from the Muslim Hordes in the most important battle in world history. This I learned in seventh grade in World History class.

Now it is considered bigoted if one mentions national pride, but this is a part of history. When I came to the U.S.A in 1968 no-one knew about this battle, but everyone knew that the crusades were bad. Go figure.