Perhaps the most famous figure of the Viking Age, Harald Hardrada led an eventful life that took him across much of the eleventh-century world. This book recounts his remarkable story while offering insights into the many lands and states through which he travelled.
Excerpt:
In a political landscape littered with emerging monolithic features, authority and power were increasingly dependent upon and defined by the connections and claims of individual families who were more than happy to pursue their rights and acquisitions across regional and cultural boundaries. The examination of Harald’s life, career and travels cannot help but highlight the great mobility of this period and the breadth of personal and commercial networks that its inhabitants were able to maintain across multiple polities and cultures. The life and journeys of Harald, the adventurer and mercenary turned king, is a perfect and hopefully entertaining lens through which to study Europe and its evolving ties to the greater Mediterranean basin at a pivotal time in their conjoined history. This work then is part biography, part eleventh-century travelogue, exploring not just Harald’s own activities but the history and contemporary challenges of the many peoples and polities he interacted with over the course of a truly remarkable life.
Who is this book for?
This book holds a special place for us at Medievalists.net. Its chapters grew out of a series of articles the author began writing for us in 2021, so we are naturally delighted to see them brought together in this volume. The book follows Harald as he navigates the worlds of Rus, the Byzantine Empire, southern Italy and Norway, meeting challenges that he overcame with remarkable success. His story ends with one final obstacle: his unsuccessful attempt to conquer England.
The book’s primary audience will be readers interested in Harald’s life and exploits. However, it will also appeal to those seeking to understand the connections between the different lands of eleventh-century Europe and how one Norse warrior found his place within them.
“For sophisticated travelers, this is Harald Hardrada: The Making of Europe’s central gift: it makes the medieval map feel navigable. Rivers and ports, imperial cities and windy outposts, courts and barracks—Turner treats them not as exotic backdrops but as places that shaped decisions, alliances, and ambitions. The result reads like part biography, part travelogue, and part primer on how power actually worked in the North Sea and Mediterranean worlds that—on a modern itinerary—can still be stitched together in a single season.” ~ review by Jennifer Eremeeva
The Author
James Turner, who did his PhD at Durham University, is a columnist at Medievalists.net – you can read his articles here. This one of three books he has published so far, the other two being The Royal Bastards of Twelfth Century England and The Scottish Rebellion against Robert the Bruce: Exiles and Traitors. You can follow James on X/Twitter @HistorySchmstry
Harald Hardrada: The Making of Europe
By James Turner
Pen & Sword History
ISBN: 978 1 03613 729 8
Perhaps the most famous figure of the Viking Age, Harald Hardrada led an eventful life that took him across much of the eleventh-century world. This book recounts his remarkable story while offering insights into the many lands and states through which he travelled.
Excerpt:
In a political landscape littered with emerging monolithic features, authority and power were increasingly dependent upon and defined by the connections and claims of individual families who were more than happy to pursue their rights and acquisitions across regional and cultural boundaries. The examination of Harald’s life, career and travels cannot help but highlight the great mobility of this period and the breadth of personal and commercial networks that its inhabitants were able to maintain across multiple polities and cultures. The life and journeys of Harald, the adventurer and mercenary turned king, is a perfect and hopefully entertaining lens through which to study Europe and its evolving ties to the greater Mediterranean basin at a pivotal time in their conjoined history. This work then is part biography, part eleventh-century travelogue, exploring not just Harald’s own activities but the history and contemporary challenges of the many peoples and polities he interacted with over the course of a truly remarkable life.
Who is this book for?
This book holds a special place for us at Medievalists.net. Its chapters grew out of a series of articles the author began writing for us in 2021, so we are naturally delighted to see them brought together in this volume. The book follows Harald as he navigates the worlds of Rus, the Byzantine Empire, southern Italy and Norway, meeting challenges that he overcame with remarkable success. His story ends with one final obstacle: his unsuccessful attempt to conquer England.
The book’s primary audience will be readers interested in Harald’s life and exploits. However, it will also appeal to those seeking to understand the connections between the different lands of eleventh-century Europe and how one Norse warrior found his place within them.
“For sophisticated travelers, this is Harald Hardrada: The Making of Europe’s central gift: it makes the medieval map feel navigable. Rivers and ports, imperial cities and windy outposts, courts and barracks—Turner treats them not as exotic backdrops but as places that shaped decisions, alliances, and ambitions. The result reads like part biography, part travelogue, and part primer on how power actually worked in the North Sea and Mediterranean worlds that—on a modern itinerary—can still be stitched together in a single season.” ~ review by Jennifer Eremeeva
The Author
James Turner, who did his PhD at Durham University, is a columnist at Medievalists.net – you can read his articles here. This one of three books he has published so far, the other two being The Royal Bastards of Twelfth Century England and The Scottish Rebellion against Robert the Bruce: Exiles and Traitors. You can follow James on X/Twitter @HistorySchmstry
You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website.
You can buy this book on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
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