Hardrada’s Tale

Shieldwall comrade Deuce Richardson scouted out this magnificent short film celebrating Harald Hardrada, the last great Viking king.

I am deeply stirred.

Giles Kristian wrote this and it is fine Norse poetry, deliciously replete with the kennings that give cadence and form to that most manly of genres.

The tale of Harald Hardrada is the stuff of legend — almost of fantasy — for he led a Conanesque life of strife and freebooting adventure before falling in battle at Stamford Bridge in that great watershed moment of 1066. The film depicts it all so well.. trekking east to live and raid among the Kievan Rus; Varangian Guard service to the emperors of Byzantium.

Here’s a swig from a bloody chalice:

…in spite of his local renown, Harald Hardrada grew restless with his limited prospects in Kievan Rus. So, by the time he turned 20, he took a brilliant gamble, and selected a group of around 500 followers. This rag-tag band made its way to the regal city of the Constantinople, which was already known as the fabled Miklagard to the Vikings. The long-shot venture paid off, with Harald managing to get himself (and probably his followers) employed as the famed Varangian Guard, the elite bodyguard corp of the Eastern Roman emperor. And, as was his nature, the ‘Viking’ steadily rose up the ranks by taking part in far-flung campaigns. According to his skald Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, these conflicts took the still young Harald to Asia Minor and Iraq, where he had successfully fought off Arab pirates. After reportedly capturing around eighty Arab strongholds, the Scandinavian even made his way to Jerusalem, to probably oversee a peace agreement made between the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire and the Fatimid Caliphate in 1036 AD.

By 1038 AD, Harald was appointed as one of the (probably nominal) leaders of the expeditionary Roman force that would invade the Emirate of Sicily, which was still under Muslim control. The now-experienced Varangian Guard fought alongside Norman mercenaries such as William Iron Arm. Their strategies and military acumen allowed the conquering of over four crucial Sicilian towns from Muslim hands. However, the success was short-lived with a combined Norman-Lombard uprising taking place in southern Italy. The rebels quickly defeated the Eastern Roman forces (on whose side Harald must have played his supporting role) in successive battles, thus wresting control of Sicily from the Romans. So, by 1041 AD, the Varangian Guards were unceremoniously called back to Constantinople. In that very same year, Harald Hardrada played his important (and vicious) role in putting down a Bulgarian uprising led by Peter Delyan – which supposedly gained Harald the nickname of “Devastator of the Bulgarians” (Bolgara brennir).

However, by the end of 1041, Byzantine politics caught up with the rambunctious Viking, especially after the death of his patron emperor Michael IV. In the ensuing struggle between the new emperor Michael V and the powerful empress Zoe, the young Norseman was imprisoned due to charges that vary according to different sources. These implicating charges range from ‘defrauding the emperor’, ‘defiling a noble woman’ to ‘murder’. In any case, Harald once again managed to escape from his prison, and joined the rebel Varangian Guards against the new emperor. And once again, fortune shined upon him, with Michael V being ultimately defeated and then blinded (a brutal task supposedly achieved by Harald himself)…

He would eventually leave the East and return home to become King of Norway and an invader of Saxon England. One of history’s greatest badasses.

I tell you this: If Kristian’s Norse historical fiction is all like the script for this film, I’m diving in RIGHT NOW. I will venture into the deepening autumn nights on the Whale Road.