Harald Hardrada - James Turner

A wounded and teenaged Harald Hardrada fled Norway in 1030 following the death of his half-brother King Olaf II at the Battle of Stiklestad. He would return home decades later as a battle-hardened mercenary commander, weighted down with plunder acquired from wars fought across the Mediterranean. Harald’s transition from exiled semi-royal to a famed adventurer and warrior saw him weave a circuitous route from the steppes and trading post of Kievan Rus to the shining palaces of Constantinople and the ancient war-torn cities of Sicily. As a commander of the Byzantine Empires legendary Varangian Guard Harald travelled extensively before leveraging his hard-won wealth, experience and political connections in a ruthless play for the throne of Norway. The world of eleventh-century Europe was neither self-contained nor compartmentalized, benefiting as it did from long-established routes of commerce and communication. Hardrada’s journeys and his interactions with the many overlapping cultures and political entities that he encountered further illuminate this essential interconnectivity. The eleventh century was a particularly formative one in the history of Europe that saw the emergence of a crop of pugnacious new kingdoms and setting of the foundations upon which the Europe to come would be built atop. As eleventh-century Europe roiled and struggled to find a new equilibrium in response to the cultural, political and demographic changes being wrought upon it, incredib
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