A review by nate_reads
The Last Viking: The True Story of King Harald Hardrada by Don Hollway

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.