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