Product Description

This compelling Icelandic history describes the life of King Harald Hardradi, from his battles across Europe and Russia to his final assault on England in 1066, less than three weeks before the invasion of William the Conqueror. It was a battle that led to his death and marked the end of an era in which Europe had been dominated by the threat of Scandinavian forces. Despite England's triumph, it also played a crucial part in fatally weakening the English army immediately prior to the Norman Conquest, changing the course of history. Taken from the Heimskringla Snorri Sturluson's complete account of Norway from prehistoric times to 1177 this is a brilliantly human depiction of the turbulent life and savage death of the last great Norse warrior-king.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #277037 in Books
• Published on: 1976-10-28
• Original language: Norwegian
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

An Exciting, if Spare, Tale of a Ruthless King
With all the adventure and action it presents, it's hard to fully grasp that this is no made-up tale (though it may contain some made-up elements), but rather a fairly down-to-earth recounting of the adventures of one of the last (some say THE last) true viking kings. Harald Hardrada (translated variously as "hard counsel" or "the ruthless") was certainly a pirate king par excellence.

This saga is actually lifted out of the larger HEIMSKRINGLA (the Norse book of kings by Snorri Sturlasson). It records the flight and adventures of Harald Sigurdsson, brother of the deposed and slain King Olaf Haraldsson (known in Norwegian history as Olaf the Saint for his Christianizing ways but to his contemporaries as Olaf the Stout). Harald, a youth of 15 stands by his elder brother at Stiklstad, with a sword tied into his hands so he will not lose it in battle, but Olaf is finally brought down and Harald must flee with other survivors. Off they go across the Baltic to the country of the Slavs in what will some day be Russia and Harald makes his way down the sinuous river route from the viking stronghold of Holmgarth (which the Russians called Novgorod) to Kiev and then on to Constantinople where he wins a place in the Byzantine Emperor's Varangian Guard. (For unknown eytemological reasons, the Byzantines and nascent Russians called the people, whom we know as vikings in the west, Varangians.)

In the land of the Byzantines Harald rises to prominence, being a man of great size (said to stand seven feet tall or thereabouts) and military accomplishments. He soon achieves captaincy of the Guard and the trust of the Byzantines, leading expedition after expedition against the Byzantines' enemies in the Mediterannean. He never loses a battle we are told and he spends a great deal of time besting the jealous Byzantine generals and officials. In the end he learns that his brother's son, Magnus, has been returned to his father's throne and Harald, after gaining much wealth for himself, quits Byzantium and passes again through the Russian lands to go home to Norway. There Harald persuades the young Magnus to share the throne with him and they become co-kings.

But Magnus doesn't live long and dies from sickness (?) only a couple of years after Harald's return, leaving Harald the lone king of the restored Norway. Harald thereupon enters into a lengthy feud with the viking king of Denmark, Swein Ulfsson, who also believes he has a claim on Norway through his ancestor Cnut the Great, the son of the Danish King Swein Forkbeard. Cnut had forged a North Sea empire uniting the Danes, the Norse and the Saxon English but his empire did not outlast him. Now both Harald and Swein Ulfsson have fantasies of restoring it with themselves at its head.

But while Harald invariably wins every sea battle with the hapless Swein, he is unable to take Denmark because the population remains loyal to Swein. In the end, the call (and wealth) of England proves greater for Harald than Swein's wind-buffeted island kingdom of Denmark and he embarks on his final expedition to seize the English throne in the tradition of Swein Forkbeard and Cnut. This expedition is generally held by scholars to have been the final gasp of the viking world as it was the last full-scale viking expedition launched from the North that history records. But history had already moved on and Harald, supreme viking marauder that he was, is plainly relegated to the margins as Duke William Bastard of Normandy (another descendant of vikings, by the way), has his own dibs in.

To see how this all played out, it's worth reading King Harald's Saga or, if you've a mind to go a little farther, a marvelous historical novel based on this three-way tug of war by the Canadian author Hope Muntz. It's called THE GOLDEN WARRIOR and there are few historical novels which have been done better. I'd also recommend the HEIMSKRINGLA itself, if you've an interest in the Northern thing. It contains many great sagas like this one of King Harald.

By the way, there are a whole slew of good books out there for those into vikings and historical adventure, including a brand new one by Jeff Janoda called SAGA: A NOVEL OF MEDIEVAL ICELAND which details the events surrounding one of the most intriguing episodes in Eyrbyggja Saga (one of the most renowned of the original Norse sagas). It tells the story of a great feud between two chieftains over a little piece of forested land in an Iceland in which wood was as precious as gold. Other good ones include Cecelia Holland's very modern and psychological TWO RAVENS, a glimpse into the hot-house environment of an Icelandic farm, and Jane Smiley's THE GREENLANDERS which tells of the final days of the the Norse settlement in Greenland as the cold and Eskimos close in around the settlers. And if you still have any patience and want more, perhaps you'd want to try my own small effort, THE KING OF VINLAND'S SAGA, which I wrote to be the saga I'd always wished had been written and preserved about the Norse excursions to North America.

All, I believe, are available in some form or another on-line. Mine I know is.

SWMThe King of Vinland's Saga

Perfect introduction to the Sagas
On a long car trip, my very cool 16-year-old son finally gave in to my urgings and started grudgingly to read this book (the only one in the car). After grumbling his way through the first page or so, he became completely caught up in it and started to exclaim aloud: "Whoa! Listen to this! Harald has just put out the Byzantine emperor's eyes!" "He just threw all the prisoners overboard so that the pursuing fleet would have to stop and rescue them!" "He just told the enemy earl to 'kiss my thin-lipped axe'!"

The saga starts with the fifteen-year-old Harald fleeing for his life through the Norwegian forest after the battle that killed his older brother, King Olaf (Saint Olaf). Harald is a historical figure, and if one-tenth of the stories about him are true, he was a towering leader and villain.

The translation is wonderful, the language is vivid, and the emotions and intelligence of these eleventh-century figures are as modern as those of any story of our own times. I can't think of a better introduction to the world of the sagas.

After this, read Njals Saga and Egils Saga!

From Wandering Mercenary to King: A True Life "Conan"
When his half-brother, King Olaf the Saint, was killed in battle, Harald Sigurdssen fled Norway at the age of 15. Harald traveled throughout Russia and Europe, became a mercenary soldier of the Varangian Guard in Byzantium, and eventually returned to Norway to claim the throne. Over the next twenty years he became known as Harald Hadradi (Harald the Ruthless). He ruled Norway with an iron hand, made constant war on Denmark, and won renown as the most feared warrior in Europe. At age 51 Harald undertook his most daring endeavor--the invasion of England. In 1066 he landed an army in Northern England, and did battle with the Saxons at Stamford Bridge. My highschool history books told much about 1066, the the Battle of Hastings, and the Norman Conquest, but nothing of Harald Hadradi. I had quite a surprise when I read this book as a college student. What might have been had the Battle of Stamford Bridge gone differently? Nineteen days later at Hastings William the Conqueror would have faced Vikings under Harald Hadradi, not Saxons under Harold Godwinson. What might have been had Harald not invaded? At Hastings the Saxon army would have been neither fatigued by forced marches nor battered from the desperate Battle of Stamford Bridge. Although we cannot be certain of the hypothetical outcome of the Norman invasion under such changed circumstances, we can be certain of this: The story of Harald is intriguing and action-packed. Harald may not cut a very sympathetic figure, but his prowess and his deeds command a begrudging admiration.