If published as a novel, the life of Harald Hardrada (c.?1015-1066) could quite easily be dismissed as highly improbable, yet, as one critic wrote many years ago in Amra, a publication devoted to ...

Harald’s mother tongue, Old Norse, is close to the language still spoken today in Iceland. The epithet “Hardrada” variously translated as “hard ruler” or “stern counsel” became attached to his name ...