The real Game of Thrones; truth is more exciting than fiction

[Diogenes]

Game Of Thrones was fiction; this is history.

Following the death of the legendary Frankish King Clovis, his son Clothar I divided the mighty realm his father had hacked out from the warring warlords of Europe between his four sons.

But peace was not to reign…the most ambitious of his brood - Chilperic - seized Paris, his brother’s domain, following his death.

Drawn to his power, a seemingly humble yet beautiful slave girl, Fredegund, rose from obscurity to become Chilperic’s mistress.

Little did he know what a ruthless force of nature he had invited into his bed.

Before long, she had persuaded him to cast aside his wife, Audovera.

His second wife, Galswintha, was not so lucky. Soon after their marriage she was found strangled to death, and Fredegund was crowned queen in her place.

Meanwhile, Galswintha’s equally merciless sister, Queen Brunhilda of Austrasia was plotting the gruesome downfall of her sister’s killer, hungry for revenge.

But that's not all ... you'll need to watch and listen to learn the rest, and it's all true.

The terrible and enduring feud between these two women had begun…drenched in blood, violence, vengeance, scheming, and witchcraft.

The outcome of their civil war would reshape the face of the West.

 

[Diogenes]

More history that you probably didn't know:

Peter Freuchen was an explorer in the 20th century. He explored Greenland, lived with Inuits, fought Nazis, and once escaped death by digging out of snow with a dagger made from his own feces.

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Peter Freuchen was born in Denmark in February, 1886. He attended the University of Copenhagen to study medicine but his heart was in exploration.

In 1906, Freuchen volunteered to shovel coal on a steamer bound for Greenland. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather who had participated in revolutions in Paraguay and an uncle who had struck gold in Australia.

Despite the frigid conditions of Greenland, Freuchen grew to love the Inuit way of life. He participated in hunting expeditions with Inuit men. Freuchen also became well regarded among his fellow explorers.

Freuchen lived with Inuits for several years, marrying an Inuit woman named Mekupaluk, with whom he had two children. Upon his wife’s death from the "Spanish" Flu, the church refused her burial in the cemetery because she was not baptized. Angry about the decision, the resolute Freuchen buried his wife in the cemetery himself.

After returning from this first expedition, Freuchen became a correspondent the largest newspaper in Denmark.

Greenland called again, however, and Freuchen embarked on another expedition with Knud Rasmussen in 1910. The men established a trading base in Cape York, Greenland which would be the home base for seven major expeditions.

During their first major expedition in 1912, Freuchen and his friends embarked on a 620 mile journey using dogs to traverse the ice.

Freuchen was nearly killed when he awoke under his sled one morning buried in snow. With his beard frozen to the sled, he made a dagger out of his own frozen feces in order to hack his way through the snow and make a hole to breathe through.

He returned to Denmark and married heiress Magdalene Vang Lauridsen. Her family made him editor in chief of a weekly magazine but the marriage failed. Freuchen then launched another career as an author, writing the novel “The Great Hunter” in 1927.

In addition to writing, Freuchen advised US airlines that wanted to build airports in Greenland. He also briefly returned to Greenland to take part in an expedition sponsored by MGM studios. MGM had purchased the rights to his novel and filmed it as a movie entitled, “Eskimo”. Freuchen would continue to gain employment in Hollywood as a film consultant and a scriptwriter.

In 1938, Freuchen founded The Adventurer’s Club, which still exists today. Freuchen actively fought against Nazi influence in Europe. He encouraged Danish athletes to boycott the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and purposely insulted Nazi officials during an official trip to Germany.

During WWII, Freuchen was active in the Danish Resistance against the Nazis. With his imposing 6’7” frame, Freuchen would openly claim to be Jewish whenever he saw an act of anti-semitism by the Nazis. He hid British commandos and supplies for the resistance on his farm, and was arrested by the Gestapo. Although sentenced to death, a friend pulled strings to get him released.

Escaping death at the hands of the Nazis, Freuchen fled to Sweden where he married his third wife, fashion designer Dagmar Cohn. They lived in New York City and Connecticut. While in America, Freuchen won the TV game show, “The $64,000 Question”, with the topic being the seven seas. This popularity bolstered sales of his memoir, “Vagrant Viking”.

His last book was “Book of the Seven Seas” in 1957. He died of a heart attack at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska.

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