Harald Hardrada

Exile, mercenary, Viking king. Harald Hardrada, 'Thunderbolt of the North', fought his way from Norway to Byzantium, from the streets of Constantinople to the battlefields of Sicily. He married a princess, blinded an emperor, and nearly conquered England. Today, Dr Wayne Bartlett joins us to tell the astonishing story of the last great Viking, a man who shook the medieval world before meeting his end at Stamford Bridge in 1066. Wayne's book is called "Thunderbolt of the North: Harald Hardrada, Viking King". Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore. We need your help! Let us know what you want from Dan Snow's History Hit by filling in our anonymous survey here: https://forms.gle/PvgayWLkWGjYT4St6 Dan Snow's History Hit is now available on YouTube! Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/@DSHHPodcast Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can also email the podcast directly at [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dan Snow?

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• 0:32Speaker 01

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• 1:15Speaker 01

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• 1:30Dan Snow?

  Hundreds, perhaps thousands of bodies lay strewn across a bloody field in England. Carrion birds picked at the corpses, competing with the local people for the riches of the dead. Armbands were prized off, rings pocketed, metal and textiles recycled. Among the fallen, a king fell by an arrow. The fate of a kingdom decided by a single decisive battle. The year was 1066. But this battlefield was not Hastings.

• 2:14Dan Snow?

  And the king who met his end was not a Godwinson. We are in fact in Yorkshire in the aftermath of the Battle of Stamford Bridge. This was very much the end for King Harald Haradra.

• 2:29Dan Snow?

  Hardrada is so much more than just a bit player in one of the most dramatic years of British history, folks. He's sometimes called the last great Viking king. He was a legendary figure whose life reads like an epic drama. He is, without a doubt, one of the greatest and most dramatic characters of European medieval history. Known as the hard ruler, the Thunderbolt of the North, giant in stature, Hardrada had fought his way from exile to empire, from the frozen north to the throne rooms of Byzantium and the arid battlefields of the Middle East. His prowess as a warrior made him both rich and powerful. He claimed the hand of the daughter of the mighty Grand Prince of Kiev.

• 3:14Dan Snow?

  He was a poet, he was a musician. He ruled Norway for two decades before he embarked on his fateful invasion of England in 1066. This is the story of a king who refused to disappear, and a warrior whose almost peerless ambition and martial skill shook the medieval world. Joining the podcast is Dr Wayne Bartlett. He's the author of many history books on subjects as varied as the Titanic, Agincourt, Canute and the Dam Busters. But he's also author of Thunderbolt of the North: Harald Hardrada, Viking King, which makes him the ideal person to talk us through the life of one of the most famous Viking warlords. Enjoy.

• 4:01Dan Snow?

  Wayne, thanks for coming on the podcast.

• 4:03Speaker 02

  Pleasure.

• 4:05Dan Snow?

  Wayne, is Harald Hardrada one of the greatest figures in European medieval history? I think we undersell him here in the UK.

• 4:11Speaker 02

  I think he is very much underestimated in the UK in particular, because our knowledge of Harold is mainly from 1066, from our perspective. The thing about Harold is he was a colossus of his time, and he travelled pretty much all over his known world. His known world being perhaps mainly Europe, Scandinavia obviously, Britain, but also much further east as well, heavily involved in what we now call Russia, right down to Constantinople as it was then, and Byzantium, even into the Middle East and Sicily. So, he was involved in so much.

• 4:50Dan Snow?

  Yeah, truly a sort of global figure, really, just remarkable. Tell me where this story begins. Is he born in Norway?

• 4:56Speaker 02

  He's born in Norway in around 1015 or 1016. Dates tend to be a little bit vague back then. But he was born in Righnarik, which is a kind of mountainous part of Norway. At that time, Norway, and indeed all the Scandinavian countries which we now know, Denmark and Sweden as well, had not quite reached the form they eventually took. But they were fairly well-developed internation states, something which had happened over the past 150 years or so. So, yeah, born into a royal family effectively and connected very much to some of the great names of Norwegian history, particularly Harald Finehair,

• 5:36Speaker 02

  the first Norwegian king, who lived about 100 years or so before him. So, very much connected to important people from day one, but really no one could have predicted quite how extraordinary his life would be.

• 5:51Dan Snow?

  Yeah, he's got sort of royal blood in his veins, but it was definitely not certain that he'd end up ruling over anything, was it? I mean, are there defined kingdoms here? Do they sort of come and go with each strong man's arrival and death? Or is there something a bit more settled?

• 6:08Speaker 02

  No, it's certainly still quite volatile. Although there were the outlines of what we think of as nation states there, because of the culture, the martial culture of the Viking epoch, it was really very unpredictable how long a king would be king, who would take his place when he died, all of this kind of thing. So he's very much a survivor of the fittest kind of environment. So I think we should think of the basic outlines of a nation state being there, but very, very unpredictable. Every time a king died, or every time a king was killed even, which was far from unknown, everything tended to

• 6:50Speaker 02

  go into the melting pot again. So there was absolutely no guarantee of anything when Harald was born, certainly not that he'd be king of anything. And in fact, the life story which we're explore shows that he wasn't actually a king of anything until much later on in his life. And he had some fairly extraordinary adventures in getting there, but really, really no certainty about any kind of succession on his part whatsoever.

• 7:17Dan Snow?

  So he's a half brother of the King of Norway, it's King Olaf. So he's in the sort of wider royal family, but then their fortunes are upended, aren't they? Because Olaf's killed and Harold is exiled.

• 7:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I think that brings us on to a very interesting point, Dan, in that the greatest medieval Viking king, although Harold is perhaps the best remembered and has the most remarkable storyline, Olaf, his half brother, was certainly the standout figure of the time at that particular period because Olaf was a Christian king at a time when Christianity was just being established in Norway and Scandinavia more generally. He wasn't the first Christian king, but things had gone very much up and down. And Olaf's perhaps greatest achievement really, ironically, was when he was killed.

• 8:12Speaker 02

  Because when Olaf died in battle, basically what happened fairly soon after is Olaf became a Christian saint and he's still patron saint of Norway to this day. So they were half brothers, they shared a mother, but not a father. Both sons of a lady called Asta, but Olaf's father was Harold Brensky. Harold was a guy called Sigurd Seir, Sigurd the Pig, which is a very interesting nickname, to say the least. So they were connected, but they had fairly separate lives for much of the time. Though ironically Harold was there when Olaf was killed.

• 8:54Speaker 02

  There was an age difference, Olaf was probably a good 15 to 20 years older than Harold. So they would have seen each other, they would have spent time in each other's company, but very much their own people as well.

• 9:07Dan Snow?

  And so Harold, really after this battle in which King Olaf is killed, Harold Ardrada, he's off, he's been exiled at that point, is he, where's he off to?

• 9:18Speaker 02

  So during this great battle at Stikkestad, Harold was there alongside Olaf. Harold was only probably about 15 at the time, so pretty young, though not unknown in Viking times for someone in their mid teens to become something of a warrior. Olaf actually suggested to him, according to the sagas at least, that he shouldn't take part in the battle, he was too young and Harold wasn't having that. During the battle, Harold is quite badly wounded and is taken away to safety by a guy called Roakkenvold Brusson to Sweden.

• 10:00Speaker 02

  So a fairly tough journey over the mountains, not an easy trip at the best of times, but particularly when you're already wounded. So Harold manages anyway, fortunately for him, to get across the mountains into Sweden, where he's able to recover. And he spends some time in Sweden, which was often a bolt hole for people making their escape from Norway at the time. There he's able to recuperate a bit before he's now ready to go and set off and have a wider set of adventures beyond there.

• 10:35Dan Snow?

  Those adventures take him to the east and we should say, because people who are perhaps not familiar with the Viking world, this world of Scandinavian seafarers and traders, obviously these Vikings, they head west to England, Scotland, Ireland, the islands of the Atlantic, Iceland, Greenland, but they head east just as certainly as well, don't they? And perhaps is that more associated with the Swedish and the Eastern Baltic Vikings? Their territories to gain wealth and fame are very much to the east, aren't they? And is that whole sort of world sucks in Harold now, does it?

• 11:05Speaker 02

  Very much so. I think it's fair to say that Sweden is particularly associated with these voyages to the east. There are some exceptions. I mean, we know Swedish mercenaries were fighting with Canute in England, for example. But there being this long-established tradition, if you like, of the Vikings from Sweden making their way across the Baltic, down some of the great river systems, the Volga, the Don, the Dnieper, places like this, right down eventually to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. And they're basically establishing bases along some of these great rivers, trading centres, places where they

• 11:49Speaker 02

  could take some kind of refuge as well. They're kind of heavily involved in the formation of very well-known places, particularly, for example, Kiev in modern Ukraine. And they are helping to set up links between Scandinavia and the Middle East, as we would now call it, particularly even Muslim territories as far away as Baghdad. And there's this trading exchange network going on with things like furs and amber and even slaves flowing from the Scandinavian North down into the Middle East, and vast quantities of silver

• 12:31Speaker 02

  in particular, and spices and things like this, making their way back the other way. So I think you could almost think of these territories, which we call the land of the Rus, or Garthuriki, to give it its precise name. You can almost think of this as being like the medieval equivalent of the Wild West in 19th century America. You know, not a lot in terms of centralised control, a lot of opportunism going on, a lot of violence, but also a lot of trading as well. So a place where a young man like Harold could really start to establish his reputation and make his way in the world. So a place for adventurers, and Harold was certainly that.

• 13:14Dan Snow?

  And so if you look at Kiev, for example, you've got these ports, these fortresses on the river, they're Scandinavian, people of Scandinavian origin, they're speaking languages that Harold can understand, and they're just surrounded on all sides by other sorts of people, by Poles and people of the steppe, and everyone's just fighting and trading and establishing settlements, and Harold will pass from one friendly hearth to another, will he?

• 13:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, for a time, he spent some time at Kiev, where the current ruler was a guy called Jaroslav the Wise. Jaroslav was himself very connected to Scandinavia. He had previously, for example, given refuge to Harold's now-dead half-brother, Olaf. So he has this long-established reputation for being a place of refuge for people like Olaf and now Harold, who are trying to restore their situation after particularly troubling times. And unfortunately, there's not a huge amount in the historical record about what Harold did in Kiev at this time.

• 14:19Speaker 02

  But we do know that he was probably involved in wars against the Poles, as you say, and other people in what we would now call North Eastern Europe. We do know that he was involved in that, probably as some kind of captain in Jaroslav's army. And he does, from the little we know, he does make a bit of a name for himself as a very successful army leader. But it's really when he gets the opportunity to involve himself in the affairs of the Byzantine Empire, based on Constantinople, that we really start to see Harold coming into, when I say the historical record, a little bit of caution is needed, because

• 15:03Speaker 02

  we're talking about sagas here, which may be history, maybe a little bit of legendary stuff thrown in. Someone's described them as historical novels, which is, I think, a good way of looking at it. But it's really at this stage, once he makes his way from Kiev to Constantinople, that we really start to find that Harold becomes a much more rounded figure in the so-called historical record.

• 15:30Dan Snow?

  And there was a pipeline, wasn't there, for these Rus, these Scandinavian hard men from these river systems of what is now Russian Ukraine. It was quite common for the Byzantines to hire them and use them as enforcers and just, you know, to serve in elite military units.

• 15:45Speaker 02

  Very much so. The collective name often given to these people is the Varangians. So the Varangians are, if you like, they're mercenaries of Viking descent, which the Byzantine Emperor of the Day, and this had been going on for 150 years by the time Harold got there, used mercenaries from the Varangians to be, as you say, his enforcers. And that could take a whole range of guises. They could be leaders in the army or even the navy, obviously given the Viking background, pretty useful in that. They could also be a personal bodyguard

• 16:27Speaker 02

  for the emperor himself. One particular group called the Varangian Guard, they become very heavily linked with the Byzantine emperors as his personal bodyguard. Very important position. Obviously, they're in close proximity to the emperor of the day, so that gives them a position of trust, but also a position of power which they could sometimes potentially abuse, and on occasion they probably did that. So yeah, very much prize warriors for hire, which the Byzantines used, though they're not always completely trusting of them for very good reason. So it's a little bit of a strange relationship. They're glad to have

• 17:12Speaker 02

  these people there because of their military martial prowess, but they're also not always completely trusting of them, which made for a very interesting dynamic, to say the least.

• 17:24Dan Snow?

  And so Harold, we hear that he's enormously tall. I mean, you talk about martial press. He's, we know he was fighting in the battle in his teens when his half brother was killed. He's been fighting for Jaroslav the Wise. He obviously was very wise if he gave Harold a commission in his army. And now he's in the Vrangian Guard. Physically, do we have any sense of, he was just tall and strong and good at fighting, was he?

• 17:45Speaker 02

  Well, yeah, there are one or two references to his physical appearance. Very, very striking guy. In fact, famously at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the other end of his life, Harold, the King of England, offered him seven feet of ground, of English ground, as his kind of grave. So there's a very sort of direct reference to how big and striking he was there. All the accounts we have of him, they do major on his physical strikingness. But again, we have to be a little bit cautious here because sagas tended to make, to give a modern equivalent, Hollywood idols of their leading figures. It's quite normal to say

• 18:26Speaker 02

  that Harold, or whoever the subject matter at the time is, is the most handsome man ever, and you know, he's a giant, all of these kinds of things. But very interestingly, there is a 10th century account by a guy called Ibn Fadlan, who was an Islamic ambassador from Baghdad, who saw the Russ firsthand. And he himself mentions how striking they were as physical specimens. Tall, often the stereotypical blonde, blue-eyed kind of thing. Very, very standout figures. Made even more stand out by things like their tattoos

• 19:06Speaker 02

  and their sharpened teeth and things like this. So there is some sort of indirect evidence to say that the Scandinavians generally made a striking impression because of their physical appearance on others who came across them. But there are certainly also accounts which say Harold was just like this stunningly handsome, tall, blonde, striking figure. So very much, as I say, a Hollywood idol of the 11th century.

• 19:36Dan Snow?

  But he wasn't just acting. He was actually doing the business, wasn't he? I mean, you mentioned that he's serving as far as Sicily. There's some accounts here in Mesopotamia. Do we have any kind of reliable information about where he was fighting?

• 19:46Speaker 02

  Well, the accounts of the fighting in Sicily are particularly interesting. So he was there along with another prominent leader, a guy called Georgios Moniakas, who was a Greek, or a Byzantine, we should say, the Byzantines being generally called Greeks at the time. And they had a very much of a love hate relationship. They were always trying to get one up on each other and show who the top dog was. So the saga accounts describe Harold as being there and being heavily involved in the capture of four major towns on Sicily. Unfortunately, we don't have a detailed description of where those towns were.

• 20:31Speaker 02

  But if you look at the descriptions, one of the sieges he was involved in, I think it was probably Syracuse, which is down on the southern part of Sicily. So he's heavily involved in the fighting there as a leader, heavily involved in this ongoing game of one upmanship with Georgios, which would continue for a number of years. But where Harold really comes to the fore here is not just for his martial prowess, though that's undoubtedly there, but also, if you like, his native cunning and his eye for a trick to try and capture places which are being stubborn to capture by assault. So the saga writers really bring out this thing about Harold as being a really clever,

• 21:17Speaker 02

  crafty kind of figure. And I think that's an important thing to emphasise because, yes, a Viking leader was certainly expected to be a great warrior, and Harold was absolutely that. But he was also expected to be something more than that too. As I say, somebody who had a kind of native cunning, which would enable him to capture things by subterfuge when fighting would not on its own do the trick. So this is very much part of Harold's all round character. He exhibits a number of these qualities as well.

• 21:53Speaker 02

  And then from Sicily, he was subsequently involved in what was described as a military expedition, but I would kind of more describe it as like escort duty to leading members of the Byzantine royal family to Jerusalem, which at that time was obviously a very, very holy place to Christians, as indeed it still remains. But after some time of being controlled by Byzantines, it's now under Islamic control. So Harold is also escorting members of the royal family to Jerusalem on pilgrimage. So he's ranging his activities from Sicily to Jerusalem, as well as closer to home to Constantinople itself.

• 22:38Speaker 02

  So very much his reputation is on the rise. He proved very successful in Sicily especially, which is a real important battleground for the Byzantines. So his reputation is very much established and increasing almost by the year at this stage.

• 22:57Dan Snow?

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• 23:40Dan Snow?

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• 24:18Dan Snow?

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• 25:01Speaker 01

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• 26:39Dan Snow?

  A lot of people know the expression Byzantine. You get a sense of intrigue in royal corridors of power. And that's pretty unfair, because I think that's true of all empires. But anyway, in this case, it is certainly true that Harold Argerado appears to sort of fall on the wrong side of some sort of palace political manoeuvres. And he leaves Constantinople in a bit of a hurry, does he? About eight years after he gets there?

• 27:00Speaker 02

  Oh, it's an extraordinary story in that it really all kicked off at Easter in 1042, which obviously is a very important time to Christians, and particularly so in Constantinople. Now, there's all sorts of subplots going on here. One of which is that he's offered the chance to be in a relationship with the Empress Zoe, their Byzantine Empress, which allegedly he refuses to take up that offer. So he's associated with that. And then in 1042, there's been a bit of a kind of power struggle going on for a year or so

• 27:39Speaker 02

  as a new emperor in place, Michael V, who is the adopted son of Zoe, the Empress. But as soon as he becomes emperor, he turns on her, imprisons her, that kind of thing. So Michael proves to be a very unpopular and short-lived emperor. And in 1042, at Easter, there was this coup. Harold, at the time, was supposedly locked up for various misdemeanors, possibly associated with his non-consummation of the relationship with Zoe, all kinds of other shenanigans. He's locked up in prison.

• 28:20Speaker 02

  And then during the riots that break out at Easter 1042, he escapes in the chaos, perhaps deliberately freed. But what then happens really is part of the Harold story, which is really striking, because the Emperor Michael V is deposed, along with his main lieutenant, Constantine.

• 28:44Speaker 02

  And Michael and Constantine are captured and they're hauled out into the streets where they're both richly blinded. And in the sagas, the suggestion is that it's actually Harold who does the blinding. So, you know, he's right in the middle of these events. But the chaos is still ongoing. There's like power struggles then to see who should be the next emperor. And during this particular chaos, Harold manages to escape from Constantinople on a ship and make his way back to Kiev. So, very dramatic set of events where Harold is really right at the middle of things.

• 29:29Dan Snow?

  And is the hold of his ship full of the booty that he'd acquired over years and years of serving the emperor?

• 29:34Speaker 02

  Well, apparently, from what we can make out, Harold had been very, very good at sending back wealth that he'd acquired already during his nearly ten years of service with the emperor. So, he's, if you like, been taking out an insurance policy here. He's been sending as much wealth as he can get out back to Kiev. With the result, the time he does get back there, he's already a very rich man. In all probability, because of the chaotic events in which he left Constantinople, I don't think he would have taken a lot with him, because the primary consideration was to get people, his supporters and obviously

• 30:17Speaker 02

  himself, away. I'm sure there might have been some portable wealth going with them, but the main focus was, hey, let's just get out of here as quickly as we can. And in fact, there were two ships that left Constantinople at the same time. And Constantinople at the time was protected by this huge chain which stretched across the waters of the Golden Horn, stopping people from coming in and out. And Harold comes up with this trick, very much in keeping with his overall persona. But he gets all his people on one of the ships. And when they reach the chain, he gets them all to run to the front of the ship.

• 30:58Speaker 02

  When the ship is resting on the chain with the extent, if you like, it almost topples over onto the other side of the chain. So they're able to make good their escape that way. The other ship with him unfortunately tried the same thing, but it didn't work. And the ship capsized and I think pretty much everybody on it was lost. So it's a fairly chaotic evacuation from Constantinople. Though allegedly he did take with him a young princess called Maria, who allegedly there was a relationship or a possible relationship with her. But he dropped her off soon after because he already had other romantic considerations back in Kiev.

• 31:42Speaker 02

  She would have complicated matters enormously if she'd have gone with him. So all a bit chaotic, I think. Very much again in keeping with the story of Harold and his life more generally.

• 31:53Dan Snow?

  Gosh, I hope they didn't snap their rudder off. They must have had their steering oar withdrawn when they went over that chain. Nasty. As a sailor in me does not like that story. It makes me feel very nervous. Right. So he makes his way back up these rivers. It's a maritime story, speaking of boats. Without getting off that boat, pretty much you can make your way all the way up to Kiev, right? Through the Black Sea, up the rivers of what is now Ukraine and back to Kiev.

• 32:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, interestingly, along these river systems, there were various narrows which they had to negotiate. And quite often they would have to literally take their boats out of the water and carry them around because the water was not deep enough or it was too rocky to actually sail them across. So this is one of the more extraordinary things, I think, of the Viking story. Though actually you do see it in, for example, in Celtic stories in Scotland as well. But from time to time, where there's a piece of land which is blocking the passage for whatever reason, the Vikings would literally lift their boats out of the water.

• 32:58Speaker 02

  Carry them for a mile or so and then plonk them back in on a piece of water on the other side. So they're kind of like these narrows that they have to negotiate. And that's part of the extraordinary story of the Rus. They did have these ships which were amazing, fairly shallow seaboard, so that made them fairly useful in river systems. As you say, they they had steering oars which they could actually take off when they needed to. But from time to time, they would literally carry the ships around obstacles before depositing them back in the water again.

• 33:35Dan Snow?

  And he gets back to Kiev and then, well, tell me about his romantic entanglements there that you alluded to earlier.

• 33:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, so part of the story is that when he first reached Kiev, all those years before he went to Constantinople, he became attracted to the daughter of Jaroslav Wise, a young lady called Elisev or Elizabeth, as we might anglicise it. And it's a bit like an ancient Greek legend, really. When he asks for the hand of Elisev, Jaroslav says, well, young man, you don't really have a lot to offer me at the moment. Go out and prove yourself, undertake all these adventures, make me rich, that kind of thing. And if you achieve all of that and you come back, then yes, you can marry my daughter. So this

• 34:25Speaker 02

  is kind of what happens now. Harold comes back. He's been very good, as I said, in sending back wealth to Kiev, of which he would have, I'm sure generously contributed directly to Jaroslav some of it. He certainly proved himself. He's shown himself now to be a really outstanding military leader, somebody that Jaroslav would very much want as a prominent general in his armies. So having a bit like the ancient Greek hero proved himself, Harold is now worthy to marry Elisev, which he duly does. Having kept his side of the bargain, Jaroslav now responds in kind.

• 35:05Dan Snow?

  Interesting. So he gets his girl after years of planning. That's amazing. But he doesn't want to spend any more time in Kiev, does he? He's keen to get home.

• 35:13Speaker 02

  The thing is that there is this underlying plotline, if you like, in the sagas about Harold, that he always wants to be king. It's his destiny to be king. And he wants to go home. He wants to become king in his own country. So by now, he's probably about thirty-ish, thirty years old. That's pretty much in the prime of life back then, when life expectancy was generally a bit shorter than it is now. So he now feels that it's his moment of destiny. And it's now time to go back home and become king of Norway. The only problem with that is there's already a king of Norway

• 35:56Speaker 02

  in the shape of his nephew Magnus, the illegitimate son of Harold's half-brother Olaf. So there is no kingdom to inherit. But there are other Scandinavian territories which are also attractive outside of Norway, in particular Denmark. Denmark and Norway have always had a fairly complicated history. And at various times, Denmark's owned large parts of Norway and vice versa. So he's kind of thinking, as a good opportunist, well, ideally, I'd like to be king of Norway. But hey, that may not be immediately possible. But there might be something else for me here.

• 36:38Speaker 02

  So he then makes his way back north, originally to Sweden. Again, you know, a nice bolt hole, sort of on the sidelines a bit, where he could make his plans closer to home, before he then introduces himself to affairs in Denmark. So.

• 36:55Speaker 02

  He now finds himself caught up in a three-way fight, basically, involving himself, his nephew Magnus, and the current claimer to the King of Denmark, a guy called Sven. For a few years now, there's this ongoing kind of menage a trois in a military sense, where Harold is quite cleverly, or deviously, depending which way you want to put it, taking size in this dispute and changing sides from side to side at any given moment, depending on what's to his immediate best advantage. So this is what he does. He goes back, he's on the lookout for an opportunity,

• 37:36Speaker 02

  and it's really Denmark initially, which is the battleground by which he starts to stake his claims to be a Scandinavian king.

• 37:45Dan Snow?

  So he's got lots of cash, he's got followers, so he can be a military presence straight away. I'm sure because of success, you attract more followers.

• 37:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's very much the case. And I think he's also seeing himself as the guy who holds the balance of power in Scandinavia. Because Sven, for example, the guy who wants to be king, who is king by some measures in Denmark, he's an amazingly persistent character. He keeps getting beaten in battle, down but not out, I think is the best way of putting it. He's never quite eliminated from the struggle completely. He goes away to lick his wounds, again quite often this week, in which has this nice kind of neutral position, recovers his strength, goes back, attacks Denmark again. Magnus, in the meantime, is quite often being successful in Denmark,

• 38:37Speaker 02

  but again, he's not knocking Sven out of the fight. So Harold sees his role, I think, as being someone who holds the balance of power, but he also sees that as a means to an end. By deploying that balance of power in a particular way, he can strengthen his own position and gain his own personal advantage from that. And he does that really quite astutely by, as I say, occasionally changing sides when he thinks the moment is right. So someone you'd certainly respect for his power, his wealth, the number of men he brings with him, but someone I'm sure that you would never actually trust.

• 39:19Dan Snow?

  Exactly.

• 39:21Dan Snow?

  Um. In the end, he ends up ruling, doesn't he? How's he come to take charge?

• 39:26Speaker 02

  Yes, very interesting story here because Magnus, as I said, is his nephew, so they're kind of blood relatives. And even then, there was a little bit of a kind of mark of shame, if you like, by trying to get one over on your own family. Didn't stop it happening quite a lot, but at least superficially, you're supposed to be supportive of your own family. So the compromise which is reached is that Magnus and Harold will be joint kings. That kind of sounds a pretty strange idea, I guess, to modern ears, but it wasn't unheard of in Viking society for two brothers

• 40:09Speaker 02

  or cousins or whatever, to actually agree to share out power to some extent. And Magnus and Harold are bringing two quite different things to this equation. Magnus is bringing legitimacy. He seems to have been a fairly popular king. His father Olaf, as I said, was made a saint, so he's a hugely symbolically important figure. So Magnus brings this air of legitimacy to the arrangement, but he's not particularly rich. Whereas Harold, of course, is very rich, so he's bringing wealth and he's bringing international prestige as well. Harold by now is like an international figure, you know, well known across much of Europe.

• 40:54Speaker 02

  So he brings that cachet to the agreement. This agreement was made, they became joint kings, but that arrangement didn't actually last too long because maybe after a year, no more than two years, Magnus is taken ill and suddenly dies. Still a fairly young man. Harold then, by default, becomes the king of Norway and indeed Denmark without any kind of sharing with Magnus. You might think there's a little bit of funny business going on with Magnus dying so conveniently, if that's the right way of putting at it and leaving the throne clear

• 41:35Speaker 02

  of any rivals. There's no actual real evidence to say that happened, but of course, one always has to be a little bit suspicious, as a modern policeman would be when someone has a motive. You're always like to be a bit of a suspect in those circumstances.

• 41:53Dan Snow?

  You're listening to That's Our History. Talk about Harald Hardrada, more after this, don't go away.

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• 42:55Speaker 03

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• 43:42Dan Snow?

  Was he important king in Norway's history? Does he help to forge Norway itself?

• 43:46Speaker 02

  Well, I think that's a very interesting question because I would say he has a degree of significance, but he would certainly not be the most significant king in terms of shaping the country. At the time, for example, Olaf, his half-brother, his dead half-brother, would probably have been a much more significant influence because he kind of reinforced Christianity in the country and he became a figurehead. Ironically, he was much more effective when he was dead than when he was alive, which sometimes unfortunately for some is the case.

• 44:26Speaker 02

  So I think Harold was kind of more like a typical if extreme example of a Scandinavian king of the time. He was pretty ruthless, very much primarily interested in his own personal ambitions and wellbeing. So I'd say he maybe strengthened things which had already started, but I wouldn't have said in terms of his place in Norwegian history and of the Norwegian crown, he was by any means the decisive figure. There were others, I think, who were more important in forging Norway than he was.

• 45:06Dan Snow?

  He attempted to recreate that Canute empire, didn't he? Because he invades Denmark a few times.

• 45:11Speaker 02

  It's almost like the Scandinavian version, even if a lot shorter, of the Hundred Years War, in that it just keeps flaring up and then calming down for a little while and then flaring up again. And in the end, it never reaches a resolution, really. This is a war that's ongoing in Harold's time for a decade and more. And as I said about Sven, he's this really irritating person, the dog who will not lie down, if you like. Harold keeps winning battles against him, but he's actually unable to win the war because as soon as he leaves Denmark to go back to Norway, Sven, who's escaped, will be back again and he'll have another go.

• 45:56Speaker 02

  So what this war is doing is just sucking resources and energy out of both, obviously, Sven, but even Harold to a great extent as well. Unless you can actually catch Sven and completely eliminate him, this is a guy who's not going to go away. So eventually, I think the war comes to a kind of rather uneventful halt because basically people are running out of energy and momentum and they just don't seem to be getting anywhere with it. So at the end of it all, Sven is kind of like the last man standing. Sven,

• 46:39Speaker 02

  despite losing so many battles, stays as the king of Denmark and Harold focuses more on his core kingdom, if you like, in Norway, until obviously at some stage the possibility of other pickings, particularly in England, come along as well to distract him. So it's just exhaustion, I think, which leads to a halt to this war in Denmark.

• 47:05Dan Snow?

  Well, let's come on to those events at the end of his career and life. Harold Hardrada is sitting there one day and a message comes to him saying, but the confessor King of England died without children and Harold spots an opportunity.

• 47:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, and one of the most significant figures here is Harold Godwinson, Harold, now King of England. His brother Tostig, he's like in exile, he's fallen out with Harold Godwinson. He was the Earl of Northumbria and he very much wants to restore his position in England and he senses a mutual opportunity in collaboration with Harald Hardrada. So he'd also been in discussions, of course, with William Normandy as well. But anyway, he sends the message to Harald Hardrada, saying, hey, there's this really wealthy kingdom,

• 47:59Speaker 02

  which a Scandinavian king, Canute, already had control of half a century before.

• 48:06Speaker 02

  There was a very tentative claim as a kind of successor of Canute through various machinations that Harald Hardrada could say, well, you know what, I'm the rightful king of England. So he'd not really shown much evidence previously of pushing that claim home. But he suddenly thinks to himself, I think, hey, there's a great opportunity. There is this wealthy kingdom. It's all a bit of a mess. There's lots of turmoil going on, you know, the Normans might get involved. What a great opportunity to really make a name for myself. So for someone of Harald Hardrada's personality, this is kind of just too good a chance to miss.

• 48:48Speaker 02

  So eventually he thinks, okay, let's go for it. Let's see if I can become the next king of England.

• 48:56Dan Snow?

  And so he heads over to the North Sea. He meets up with Tostig and they land on the northeast coast of England. They push into what is now Yorkshire. And there's a crushing victory, another great military success for Harald Hardrada just outside York.

• 49:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, so there's this great battle at a place called Fulford, which is literally just a couple of miles from York. And actually still a very interesting place to visit. You can still kind of trace bits of the battleground there. So he has this battle against Edwin and Morcar of Mercia, who basically are there to try and resist this initial invasion led by Harald Hardrada along with Tostig. And there's this battle just outside York in which eventually Harald Hardrada's army wins this crushing victory, creating huge amounts of carnage in the process. They win this fight.

• 49:54Speaker 02

  York, which is a hugely important place at the time, was the Viking Yorvic, had been the capital of the Viking kingdom before Northumbria had become assimilated into England. So York is now open. He forces the city to surrender on terms which are very favorable to him. He thinks, oh, this This is great. I've got this victory. You know, I'm just gonna go and rest up for a few days and then I'll carry on, presumably head further south than become King of England. So everything is going really, really well. One, this crushing triumph, everything in the garden is rosy and Harold now seems to be

• 50:34Speaker 02

  certainly could well be, you know, in a fairly short space of time, the next King of England. So Forth is a stunning victory, a crushing victory, and that Harold thinks is that for the time being.

• 50:48Dan Snow?

  But it's not, because in another, one of the great stunning battles of English military history, King Harald of England marches north, a lightning march north, surprises Harald Hardrada's troops just outside Stamford Bridge in East Yorkshire, and there is a battle at which Harald Hardrada is killed. Astonishing. He knew the minute he saw the dust rising from the approaching English army, he was in trouble.

• 51:15Speaker 02

  He did, and I think you can kind of put yourself quite easily in Harold's shoes here because he's expecting to go into York later in the day, take the formal surrender of the city. And the initial impression, so the saga suggests, is when he sees this big cloud of dust initially, he thinks it's all the officials from York coming out to greet him, saying, you know, okay, you're the boss now, come on in. His army is there, apart from a part of it left back to guard the ships, which are a few miles away. They seem to be having a pretty good time, presumably knocking back the mead a bit, if you like. According to the accounts, they don't even have lots of their armour with them.

• 51:57Speaker 02

  So they are totally unprepared for what is about to hit them, which is, as you say, this amazing march by Harold Godwoodson. Couple of hundred miles in the space of a few days, which, to be honest, I think can easily be underestimated as a military feat in its own right. Wasn't he credible? Quick, rapid march. And in the fight that follows, Harold is caught off guard, his men are caught off guard, and Essentially, they are overwhelmed and at the height of the battle, Harold is allegedly hit by an arrow in his throat, which basically knocks him out and effectively the battle is over though.

• 52:40Speaker 02

  The killing seems to have gone on for some time after that point. So a very dramatic day in English history, certainly.

• 52:49Dan Snow?

  Well, what an extraordinary, extraordinary career that stretches from the Middle East to Northern England comes to an end in that field in Yorkshire. And in some ways, it's the end of the Viking Age as well, isn't it? The Scandinavians do, they are around in the reign of William the First, but in terms of large scale raids and incursions into England, to Scotland, that's the end of not just Harald Hardrada's life, but the Viking Age.

• 53:13Speaker 02

  It's a very good question and it's really hard to give a definitive answer to because, for example, there were several major raids against England, which largely disappeared from memory, if you like, by Danes actually in the reign of William the First. And there is the odd wannabe leader subsequent to Harold, he still makes a bit of a name for himself, this extraordinary guy called Magnus Barelegs in the north of Scotland. And you even have a battle between the Norwegian king and the Scottish king at Largs in the 13th century, where Scotland is still a bit of a battleground between Scandinavians and Scots. But I think the Viking Age was already ending when Harold was there.

• 53:59Speaker 02

  And I think what you see with these ages, if you like, these labels that we give things, they're often not decisive one-off events. They're like more gradual transitions to a different age. And I think Harald Hardrada is definitely part of this transition period where the great warlords of former centuries are now becoming proper established medieval style kings. And Harold has a very important part in that process. And he was certainly one of the last raiders. To have all this extensive international raiding going on.

• 54:40Speaker 02

  So I think if we want to give the labour of the end of the Viking Age to anybody, it probably belongs more to Harald Hardrada than most other people. So Norway is now very much becoming an established European country, as is Denmark, as ultimately will be Sweden. Sweden, for whatever reason, seems to be a bit later with these things. But yeah, very much the end of one period of medieval history in Scandinavia and a transition to a quite different one which follows on from it.

• 55:16Dan Snow?

  Very true, very true. And also important to remind me that there's a lot of Scandinavian activity going on in Scotland in the centuries to come. But yes, it feels somehow, feels somehow a bit different from the Viking Age. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. That was great. What a life. Wayne Newwetton, Thunderbolt of the North, Harald Hardrada, Viking King. So I urge everyone to go and check that out. Thank you very much for coming on the podcast.

• 55:39Speaker 02

  Absolute pleasure, Dan. Great to catch up.

• 55:45Dan Snow?

  And so, folks, Harald Hardrada's extraordinary life came to an end. Not in the blazing triumph he'd spent decades chasing, but in defeat and death in Yorkshire. It's probably fair to say that he'd travelled further, he'd fought harder and he'd seen more of the known world than almost any other man of his age. He'd been a Viking prince, a mercenary in Byzantium, a king in Norway, and finally, a claimant to the English throne. His death really did mark the end of one world and the opening of another. It helped to set the stage, of course, for William of Normandy, successful invasion only days later. In England, the age of the Vikings had passed and medieval England would be remade in the image of another invader.

• 56:30Dan Snow?

  Thank you for listening as ever, folks. If you've enjoyed this episode, then make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. If you want to tell us what you would like to hear and see on Dan Snow's History, please look for the link for our listener survey in the show notes below. See you next time.

• 56:52Speaker 01

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• 57:43Dan Snow?

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