Weeks before William the Conqueror landed in 1066, another invasion struck England, led by a towering Viking king who had already blinded a Byzantine emperor and amassed an international fortune. Harald Sigurdsson, known as Hardrada, lived a life of exile, vengeance, and ruthless state-building that ended the Viking Age.

This narrative biography traces Harald from a wounded fifteen-year-old fleeing the Battle of Stiklestad, through his years commanding the Varangian Guard and shipping gold home along the Dnieper, to his brutal centralization of Norway. It culminates at Stamford Bridge, where a single complacent decision to leave his armor behind cost him everything and reshaped English history.

• Escaping Stiklestad and rising through the court of Yaroslav the Wise
• Fighting Arab pirates and earning the name "Bulgar-burner" ...