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srm's review
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
4.25
Enjoyable and readable account of a genuinely fascinating figure. I especially enjoyed learning more about Harald's time in Constantinople.
nate_reads's review against another edition
5.0
Skeggold, Skalmold, Skildir ro Klofnir! Just in time for Vikings Valhalla. This book is excellent if you are a fan of Vikings. I have become a big fan of Viking Sagas and Norse Mythology in the last few years mainly due to Vikings, The Last Kingdom and Civilization VI. In recent years I have been reading articles online of Norse history and essays on the Sagas, so when I saw this book, I was instantly drawn to the cover. I knew some of the story of Harald Hardrada due to Civilization VI and some of the Sagas. This book is a great introduction to one of the most famous Vikings in history. The audiobook for this is read by Mark Meadows and he does a great job of reading the story. This book is compiled from several sources gives a very well-rounded account of the Harald Hardrada. Don Hollway does make some assumptions based on the context of the story to fill in the missing gaps that are not mentioned in source material. This book feels like it has two different tones. The first half of the book is about his time in Constantinople as part of the Varangian Guard in the Byzantine Empire. As I mentioned earlier, I felt like the author makes several assumptions about the characters that there is little to no evidence for. Some of those are that Harald is in prison for a time or that he is having an affair with the empress of the Byzantine Empire. The second half of this book is Hardrada heading back north where he gets married and sets forth on his quest to become king. One of the things I really like in the book is how Don Hollway spends time describing the world and giving extra context to the events going on, it adds a lot to the story. Hollway also spends a lot of time on the dark humor of the Vikings and their obsession with crafting Skaldic poems. There is a directness and brutality to the life of King Harald. Some of the jokes and insults that bantered back and forth are quite funny and I like how Don Hollway narrates this whole story like a modern-day Saga written in modern English. This ends the way it should and for that I am so pleased. I am also happy that I was able to wrap this up because Vikings Valhalla comes back in January and Harald Hardrada is one of the main characters in that. If you are looking for some nonfiction, history, or if you like Vikings then you should pick this up.
fjsteele's review against another edition
4.0
My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reading copy of Don Holloway's book, The Last Viking: The True Story of King Harald Hardrada and the End of the Norsemen.
I think that I come to this book from a perspective that Holloway's book doesn't anticipate: I study the history of the English language, so the military events of 1066 in England hold significant importance for the course of the history of the English language. Holloway doesn't indulge in pointless "what-ifs" regarding the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and I respect and appreciate that. The one question that I wish he would have addressed more explicitly was the issue of communication--what languages, exactly, was Harald Hadrada using as he served in the Varangian guard in Constantiople? Were all the Vikings speaking Old Norse of sufficient mutual intelligibility that they never encountered moments of misunderstanding?
But these are my questions, which are far outside of Holloway's intended purposes. Holloway presents himself as Harald's last biographer, but in the course of narrating Harald's extraordinary biography, which begins in Norway, and extends across the battlefields and royal courts of Scandinavia, what is now the Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Byzantium, the Levant, and finally ends upon a battlefield of northern England, he also tells the story of Harald's principal biographer--Snorri Sturluson, the Icelandic chieftain and political leader who composed a history of the Kings of Norway as well as the best surviving guide to the poetry and mythology of medieval Scandinavia. Holloway treats his sources as respectfully as his subjects and provides a road-map for his readers to engage with sources from Iceland, Norway, England, Sicily, and Byzantium. While this is not an academic history, it is a conscientiously researched and well-written history for popular audiences.
Since King Harald was, before all else, a warrior, Holloway focuses a great deal more time on military engagements than he does on palace intrigue, although he does hint at Harald's desirability to powerful Byzantine women. Social history is comparatively absent, but Holloway does not pretend that he is going to offer it. As long as a reader is looking for political and military history, they will not be disappointed.
Holloway's book also demonstrates how faulty many popular ideas about the Middle Ages are. Holloway offers King Harald as a embodiment of the vast distances many medieval people, especially from Scandinavia, traveled and how engaged people from multiple cultural backgrounds were with one another. In the end, Holloway also explains clearly how, while King Harald failed to establish a transnational Empire, other Norsemen -- the Normans of France -- succeeded in building an empire with an enduring cultural impact.
I think that I come to this book from a perspective that Holloway's book doesn't anticipate: I study the history of the English language, so the military events of 1066 in England hold significant importance for the course of the history of the English language. Holloway doesn't indulge in pointless "what-ifs" regarding the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and I respect and appreciate that. The one question that I wish he would have addressed more explicitly was the issue of communication--what languages, exactly, was Harald Hadrada using as he served in the Varangian guard in Constantiople? Were all the Vikings speaking Old Norse of sufficient mutual intelligibility that they never encountered moments of misunderstanding?
But these are my questions, which are far outside of Holloway's intended purposes. Holloway presents himself as Harald's last biographer, but in the course of narrating Harald's extraordinary biography, which begins in Norway, and extends across the battlefields and royal courts of Scandinavia, what is now the Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Byzantium, the Levant, and finally ends upon a battlefield of northern England, he also tells the story of Harald's principal biographer--Snorri Sturluson, the Icelandic chieftain and political leader who composed a history of the Kings of Norway as well as the best surviving guide to the poetry and mythology of medieval Scandinavia. Holloway treats his sources as respectfully as his subjects and provides a road-map for his readers to engage with sources from Iceland, Norway, England, Sicily, and Byzantium. While this is not an academic history, it is a conscientiously researched and well-written history for popular audiences.
Since King Harald was, before all else, a warrior, Holloway focuses a great deal more time on military engagements than he does on palace intrigue, although he does hint at Harald's desirability to powerful Byzantine women. Social history is comparatively absent, but Holloway does not pretend that he is going to offer it. As long as a reader is looking for political and military history, they will not be disappointed.
Holloway's book also demonstrates how faulty many popular ideas about the Middle Ages are. Holloway offers King Harald as a embodiment of the vast distances many medieval people, especially from Scandinavia, traveled and how engaged people from multiple cultural backgrounds were with one another. In the end, Holloway also explains clearly how, while King Harald failed to establish a transnational Empire, other Norsemen -- the Normans of France -- succeeded in building an empire with an enduring cultural impact.
tahlia__nerds_out's review
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
4.0
When I started this book, it felt a little too much like fiction for my taste, with dialogue and a story-telling style. It grew on me as the book progressed, especially as the author became more clear about the sources he used for each story (Snori, etc). I also really appreciate the follow-up on the life of Snori himself, of whom I’ve never heard much about, in spite of hearing him cited so often as a source. In the beginning, I might have rated this book a 3, but with the enjoyable narration and the follow-up on Snori, it is more like a 3.75 stars for me. I also think that, with all the different names, some of which are shared by multiple people, I might have gotten more out of the book by reading it instead of listening to it. I do feel like I come away from this book feeling like I will remember what I learned. Because I can see myself revisiting this book in the future to experience it by reading it vs listening to it, this book has managed to get a 4 stars rating from me… something I would not have expected when I had started it. If you want to learn about a man who lived an interesting, wild life and interacted with memorable people from many kingdoms, this could well be a book you enjoy.
tannik03's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.0