The Greatest Viking: The Life of Olav Haraldsson (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781780277950)

Raider. Conqueror. King. Saint.

This is the story of Olav Haraldsson, the greatest Viking who ever lived.

A ruthless Viking warrior who named his most prized battle weapon after the Norse goddess of death, Olav Haraldsson and his mercenaries wrought terror and destruction from the Baltic to Galicia in the early eleventh century. Thousands were put to the sword, enslaved or ransomed. In England, Canterbury was sacked, its archbishop murdered and London Bridge pulled down. The loot amassed from years of plunder helped Olav win the throne of Norway, and a century after his death he was proclaimed 'Eternal King' and has been a national hero there ever since.

Despite his bloodthirsty beginnings, Olav converted to Christianity and, in a personal vendetta against the old Norse gods, made Norway Christian too, thereby changing irrevocably the Viking world he was born into. Told with reference to Norse sagas, early chronicles and the work of modern scholars, Desmond Seward paints an intensely vivid and colourful portrait of the life and times of arguably the greatest Viking of them all.

Author: Desmond Seward
ISBN-10: 1780277954
ISBN-13: 9781780277950
Publisher: Birlinn
Language: English
Published: 01/03/2023
Pages: 272
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.29h x 5.98w x 1.10d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 11/11/2022 pg. 1