Could they not have found another Paterson or two, just for the bit?

I feel she inhabits the post in spirit at least.

Not in 1018 I suspect, which was their first encounter I'm aware of. This was some 20 years prior to the attempt by the Byzantine army under Maniakes to take Sicily from the Saracens, with the Varangians at that point commanded by Harald "Hardrada", so I think they were still mainly Norse.

I'm also quietly appreciating Frances and Pensy just being determinedly and quintessentially British about everything swirling around them.
I mean, I've never met anyone called Pensy in my life, but the Upper Class make their own rules as regards naming round these parts. 😆

At one point the Byzantine Emperor dispatched the Varangian Guard as part of his forces to fight the Lombard army the Normans had attached themselves to. I'm not sure if that's irony but its certainly something.

I've just started the first of two books by John Julius Norwich on the Normans in Sicily. Southern Italy was, not unlike the Holy Land, an attractive proposition for martially adept Normans with no prospect of an inheritance to make a name for themselves, and you could say things kind of escalated.

I have a fully grimed up one I’d be happy to share/loan/give away as I have nowhere to keep it!

Mug Gnomes, again.