At the dawn of the second millennium, the Iberian Peninsula is a seething cauldron where the native peoples are losing their battle for survival against ruthless and all-conquering Arabic and Berber invaders. A few small, weak Christian kingdoms hold on in the cooler, damp mountains of the north. For hundreds of years the majority of the country has been occupied by domineering Emirates and Caliphates.
Fresh from crushing a huge pagan Viking Army at Clontarf in Ireland, Wolf the Quarrelsome and his small band of Celts and Christian Norse sail into the Iberian maelstrom and spark the unstoppable fire that will kindle the eventual re-conquest of the oppressed Hispanian homeland.
Sailing south from Ireland after the victorious but costly battle against the Vikings in which the beloved High King, Brian Boru, is slain, Wolf's three snekkja Norse longboats encounter a small fleet of strange galleys - slave ships. Incensed and true to the fighting character of the allied men and women aboard the three sleek ships, Wolf immediately orders an attack. The Norse lead the way and the allies slaughter the Moorish slavers so quickly that most of the hostages are saved.
Wolf's Chief of Intelligence, Aoife, takes charge of comforting the captives and learning their stories. All are Christians from various nations. With the intelligence they have collected, Aoife briefs the leaders that Leon's young king, Alfonso, is a popular and dynamic regent who will cherish the return of the captives. Only twenty years old, Alfonso has begun the arduous task of reorganizing and uniting the Christian kingdoms, modernizing and energizing their peoples and armies.
This sentiment immediately ignites the ardor of the fiery Irish leader who has his own history with defending oppressed peoples from "bloody little heathens." His decision is an easy one - give the small threatened kingdoms the motivation and means to throw the invaders back over the Pillars of Hercules.
Alfonso welcomes Wolf, his warriors and the liberated captives. The Leonese leaders and their new allies make plans for striking back. Soon, devastating raids by the outlandish northern visitors, including strange "Spartans" and "Magyars," Vikings and rejuvenated Christian Hispanian warriors probe deeply into the Caliphate of Cordoba. The raids are met by devious Moorish assassination attempts and both sides conduct intricate deception and espionage operations.
Two fortuitous events occur almost at the same time. Longboats bristling with Celtic veterans of Clontarf arrive in Leon. The global networks of Irish clergy have delivered tidings of Wolf's adventures across northern Europe. In Leon, local Galicians, recognizing a hereditary kinship with the Celtic visitors, are yearning to join the legendary Irish hero in battles against the enemy.
Then a party of three Cluniac monks arrives at the Leonese court from France. In a time when the Papacy is in constant flux, local church hierarchies often corrupt and the highest levels of the Church weak, the monks from Cluny provide invigorating spiritual guidance and hope for Christians across southern Europe. The combination of the Cluniacs' spirit and Wolf and his avengers' fighting example fires up all of Christian Iberia. Battles and seaborne raids shake the erstwhile conquerors, who once again are set on sacking the holy city of Santiago de Compostela.
