The Last Viking: The True Story of King Harald Hardrada (Osprey Publishing)

Harald Sigurdsson emerged into history as a teenager after escaping a Viking battle with his life and a desire for vengeance. He rose from these beginnings to become one of Norway's most legendary kings. This narrative account follows King Harald Hardrada's life as he traveled across the medieval world—from the frozen North to Byzantine cities and the Holy Land—until his death in battle in England. Don Hollway draws on Norse sagas, Byzantine accounts, Anglo-Saxon chronicles, and King Harald's own verse and prose to construct a single narrative. The account depicts the violence and spectacle of the late Viking era and explores the dramatic events that ended nearly three centuries of Norse conquest and expansion.